UN rights chief says US must probe Iran school strike ‘very quickly’
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Coffins being transported before a funeral procession for the victims of a strike on a girls' school in the city of Minab, Iran, on March 3. Iran has placed the death toll at more than 150.
PHOTO: EPA
GENEVA - The United Nations rights chief stressed on March 6 the need for “impartial investigations” into a strike on a school in Iran, urging the US to move “very quickly” with its announced probe.
Iran has blamed Israel and the United States for the strike on the school in the Iranian city of Minab on the first day of the war on Feb 28, placing the death toll at more than 150.
Neither the US nor Israel has said it was behind the strike, although US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on March 4 acknowledged the US military was investigating the incident.
AFP news agency has been unable to independently verify the death toll or visit the site.
UN rights chief Volker Turk condemned “this absolutely tragic incident”.
“What we have asked for is obviously prompt, transparent and impartial investigations, which we understand have been announced by the United States,” he told reporters in Geneva.
“We need this to happen very quickly and we need to also make sure that there is accountability as well as redress for the victims,” he insisted.
Dr Turk, who said he hoped to go to Washington later in March, said there were “significant concerns about the respect for international humanitarian law, especially the conduct of hostilities... (and what) measures of precaution, of distinction, of proportionality are taken”.
When it comes to a school, he said, that was “clearly a civilian institution that should never be attacked”.
“Then there are questions around the type of weapons that were used, as well as the timing,” he said, pointing out that the attack “happened in the morning”, at a time when children were likely to be in school.
“These factors need to be taken into account,” he said.
There is “a horrible, tragic lesson to be learnt when girls are killed in this way”, the rights chief said.
He added that he hoped “there will be not only guarantees of non-recurrence, but (also) a review of all the standard operating procedures when it comes to this type of issues”.
Dr Turk said his office so far had few details, since it did not have a presence inside Iran, with the ongoing internet shutdown making it even harder to get information.
“The onus is now really on those who conducted these strikes to conduct this type of investigation,” he said.
“We expect accountability to be served.” AFP
