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| Iran |
| Iran rejects British offer to receive 200 bodies of soldiers |
| 2003-04-09 |
| Iran has rejected a British offer to dispatch an envoy to Basra to receive remains of some 200 bodies that it says are those of Iranian soldiers killed in the 1980-88 war with Iraq. The Persian-language newspaper `Javan' on Wednesday quoted a ranking army commander as saying that accepting the offer could be interpreted as Iran's recognizing the occupation of Iraq by the invading US-British troops. `Javan' quoted Brigadier-General Mirfeisal Baqerzadeh, the head of the search and recovery committee for those missing in action, as saying that Iran's Foreign Ministry is currently following certain procedures to receive the remains through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Baqerzadeh had said that the remains were those of Iranian soldiers discovered over the recent months in joint recovery operations, and that they were to be repatriated to Iran before the war started. Uh huh, funny how they all died from head wounds. The daily further quoted the army commander as saying that Iran will take delivery of the remains from the ICRC, once it announces readiness to do so, in the Shalamcheh border point with Iraq. Whenever, they ain't going nowhere. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #5 Brits just have yet to locate an Iranian "decision maker" who will sign for the delivery... "Uh, no, I will have to ask my boss"... Accepting them through the Red Cresent will be easier in the long run. |
| Posted by: Capsu78 2003-04-09 12:11:47 |
| #4 Phil B., the Brits found records at the site detailing who the bodies were and how they died. Some just gave the name and said "Executed". Iran gets the bodies, we keep the records for the war crimes trial. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-04-09 10:18:29 |
| #3 There is something not right here. Original reports said there were many photographs of people shot in the head at the site. FWIIW I think the Iraqis were shipping bodies of Iraqis killed by the regime to Iran. We will probably never know the truth. |
| Posted by: Phil B 2003-04-09 09:52:39 |
| #2 This is absurd and absolutely disgusting! Using the bodies of your own servicemen as propaganda tools while their families are forced to wait for God-knows-how-long to get their loved ones back. All so the (@)#&$ mullahs can make political points. How much lower can they go? |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-04-09 09:04:20 |
| #1 How will this news be received in Iran? Their MIA and KIA were withheld (or unexcavated or not bothered with) for 15+ years. Then the British come and offer them over immediately. The clerics try to spin it by going through the ICRC. But what about all the veterans in Iran? What about the military? What about the generation of people who lived through that war? The mullahs must look supremely petty at this point (more than usual). I've got a good feeling about Iran's future (unlike Pakistan's). The mullahs won't last. The democratic reformers will have democratic partners next door to the west. |
| Posted by: Tokyo Taro 2003-04-09 08:55:45 |