Iranian-Canadians Seeking Answers, Spurning Spurious Compensation
"The Islamic Republic of Iran ruthlessly murdered our loved ones. Our precious children, spouses, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, nieces and nephews, our friends and our compatriots. The Islamic Republic of Iran killed 176 innocent passengers on board of Flight PS752 nearly a year ago, and ever since then, they have done everything to deny their crime while trying to hijack our grief in pretence.""They dictated terms of ceremonies, bury where they wanted to bury, and portray what they wanted to portray.""A murderer may not be the grieving party."The Association of Families of Flight PS752
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| Members of the Iranian-Canadian community attend a Toronto vigil for the crash victims of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 that was shot down after takeoff in Iran on Jan. 8, 2020. Canada's special adviser on the crash is rejecting offers from Tehran to pay $150,000 to families of victims one year later. (Evan Mitsui/CBC) |
"The most important question for me is who is the man responsible for deciding to shoot the missiles at the plane. We can guess who it is, but we're not sure. They have to tell us who was responsible.""The other important question is why they shot the missiles. I don't think they gained anything from it. The fighting between the U.S. and the Iranian government wasn't really critical fighting. The U.S. had killed Soleimani and the Iranian government needed to show they got revenge. But it was just a show.""So why did they decide to down an airplane? It's an important question for me. Why did they shoot the missiles at the airplane? It wasn't a weapon, it wasn't from the U.S. It was taking off from the Iranian airport after checking any security items from the passengers.""It was cleared to fly and on course. So why did they shoot it?"Mohsen Ahmadipour, Iranian emigre to Canada
"[Iran] has not conducted its investigations [safety, criminal or otherwise] in a truly independent, objective and transparent manner, and answers to critical questions have not been forthcoming.""[Iran] has committed an international wrongful act [and is obligated to produce full reparations, including] a full and candid account of what exactly happened, assurances that it won't happen again ... and a formal apology.""This state of affairs raises obvious concerns about credibility, conflicts of interest, and a lack of transparency and accountability, especially in light of Iran's admission that its own military-- specifically the IRGC -- fired the missiles that downed this innocent commercial airliners, which had been fully cleared for takoff by Iran's military and civilian authorities.""The party responsible for the situation is investigating itself, largely in secret. That does not inspire confidence or trust."Report, Ralph Goodale, special adviser on the Iranian military's downing of passenger jet
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| Iranintil.com |
This is the first anniversary of a tragic event representing Canada's largest air disaster loss since the downing of Air India Flight 152 carrying Indo-Canadians flying from Montreal to London and Delhi which crashed in 1985, the result of an onboard bomb explosion set by radical members of a Canadian Sikh faction that acted on behalf of promoting a Sikh homeland, Khalistan, causing the death of all 329 people aboard. A year ago, on 8 January 2020, Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 took off from Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran en route to Kyev.
This was a regular flight, nothing unusual about it. What was unusual was that a week earlier Qassem Soleimeni, commander of the Quds division of the Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran had been targeted and killed by a U.S. missile, while visiting Iraq. A tense week followed of recriminations, threats and counter-firing of missiles into Iraq at U.S. targets. Three minutes into its flight, the Ukrainian passenger jet was hit by a surface-to-air missile fired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp. officer on duty. A second missile was fired and struck the plane twenty-three seconds after the first.
All 167 passengers and nine crew aboard the plane were killed when the plane crashed into a large field. Among the victims were 55 Canadian citizens, 30 permanent residents of Canada, and 53 others who were travelling to Canada to study or to visit. The remaining 29 other dead were citizens of Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Afghanistan and Germany. The Iranian public vented its outrage in protests soon put down by the Islamic Republic of Iran; such public displays faulting the government were not to be tolerated.
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On December 27, 2019 militias backed by Iran fired rockets at American positions near Kirkuk, Iraq where an American translator was killed. In retaliation the U.S. attacked five suspected militia positions two days later. A pro-Iran demonstration took place in Baghdad on New Year's Eve, with an assault on the American embassy. Three days later a drone attack near the airport in Baghdad killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. Iran retaliated on January 8 when it fired two hours of missiles at two air bases in Iraq stationing U.S. troops.
It was two hours following that latest exchange that Flight PS752 was shot down, although it had been cleared for takeoff and was following its scheduled flight path.
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The report produced by Canada's special investigator on the shoot-down sketches how it was that Iran denied and obfuscated for months after the crash. It took an initial three days before it could no longer deny the obvious in the face of witness descriptions and a short video of the missile strikes and the plane's fiery descent before Tehran finally admitted it was responsible for the plane having been shot down. Despite which, at the arrival of Transportation Safety Board of Canada officials who had awaited permission from Tehran to enter the country, it was discovered that the crash site had been bulldozed.
Iran announced its recovery of the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, yet failed to respond to the International Civil Aviation Organization's requirement to download and analyze the recorders "without delay". Choosing rather to let six months elapse before it fulfilled that obligation. The recorder indicated that passengers had but a few seconds to ingest the reality that the plane they were travelling in had been hit and they were in mortal danger, before the second missile destroyed their future.
The report outlined that despite that six Iranians are claimed by Tehran to have been charged with offences with respect to the shooting down of the passenger plane, their identities have not been divulged, nor have any other details; all remain unknown outside of Tehran's own investigative unit. Finally, on December 30, 2020, the government of Iran made an announcement that it had unilaterally decided to compensate families of each victim individually with $150,000. An offer rejected by all concerned on the basis that there had been on consultation with any of the principals involved.
"I don't want to get paid. I want answers. It doesn't make sense not to answer the questions and just offer money. It just makes me angry. That money doesn't give my life back. I've just lost my everything and you're offering me money? What does that mean? It doesn't mean anything to me.""I want to know, why did I lose my life, why did I lose my everything? I can't do anything normal in my life. What should I do with that money? I wish this disaster on no one, so it helps us to seek the truth."Maral Gorginpour, Iranian Canadian
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Labels: Islamic Republic of Iran, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752
posted by Pieface | 9:16 PM
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