Amnesty International has demanded this Friday that the United States Department of Defense make public as soon as possible its internal investigation into the U.S. airstrike against the Shajare Tayebé primary school in southern Iran, which ended the lives of nearly 150 people, mostly girls, at the beginning of the war against the Islamic Republic, last February.
The organization launched this request after Bloomberg published that several senior officials at the Pentagon intend to postpone the release of the report until after the November legislative elections in the United States, due to the possible electoral impact for Republicans and for President Donald Trump.
The national director of Government Relations for Amnesty International USA, Amanda Klasing, has warned that any "new delay is absolutely unacceptable" and has demanded that the Department of Defense "immediately publish its complete investigation into the airstrike."
"Killing more than 100 schoolchildren and then trying to evade responsibility by playing politics and keeping this investigation secret is illegal and lacks scruples," emphasizes Klasing. The NGO sees it as particularly alarming that "the Department of Defense may be delaying the disclosure to mitigate adverse political outcomes in the elections."
Amnesty also demands that, if sufficient evidence is gathered, the competent authorities bring to justice "any suspect with criminal responsibility" and reminds that survivors and the families of the victims "have the right to truth, justice, and reparations."
"Anything else would be covering up one of the most atrocious incidents of civilian harm committed by the U.S. military in recent memory," concludes the organization.