Letter from the brother of the child victim of terrorism to UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres
Association for Defending Victims of Terrorism Public Relations – Mohammad Ali Goodarzi, the brother of the child victim of terrorism, sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General.
The content of the letter is as follows:
Dear Mr. Antonio Guterres
Honorable Secretary-General of the United Nations
Your Excellency,
10 January is a reminder of a terrible crime against the children of my country. 34 years ago, on such a day, surface-to-surface missiles of the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein hit the students of Shahid Fayyaz Bakhsh and Imam Hassan Mojtaba (PBUH) primary schools in Borujerd, Iran. More than 68 elementary school children were killed and dozens more were injured. On the anniversary of this crime against humanity, I want to share with you the unpleasant memory that I have had in my mind since then.
In 1987, I was a student at high school. Our house was in the north of Borujerd, and the high school where I was studying was in the southern part of the city. I walked or rode on this route every day. On January 10, 1987, when I returned from school on the Safa Street, I suddenly heard a terrible explosion and I was terribly scared. Everyone was saying something. I finally reached the front of Imam Hassan Mojtaba Elementary School. The destruction caused by the missile explosion was so great that the school area was not really recognizable from the street. I did not know what to do. Only the corpses of children filled with dirt and blood could be seen with their bags, shoes, books and clothes. Every family was looking for their student while crying. I saw my mother for a moment, who impatiently wanted to hear something from my brother Kayhan. We looked for him a lot but we did not find him. I did not understand who told us that my brother had been martyred.
The grief was very devastating. So many years have passed and now that I am a father. I just understand how the parents of these children have suffered. Everyone who has seen that heartbreaking scene of the bodies of innocent children has tolerated a pain. It was a heavy grief which cannot be healed with any medicine.
Your Excellency,
At that time, no one condemned the heinous massacre of the students that made a city and nation mourn, as if the rights of the child did not apply to these students in this part of the earth. Now my question and that of hundreds of families of these children is that who supported Saddam Hussein and supplied advanced weapons and long-range missiles to him. Certainly, unless his accomplices and sponsors are brought to justice, we witness catastrophes such as the killing of children in Yemen, Palestine, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Africa.
Accordingly, it is time to realize the humanity experience of human rights and to hold accountable and reprimand Saddam’s accomplices for this crime after 34 years.
Mohammad Ali Goudarzi
Brother of Martyred Student, Kayhan Goudarzi
Borujerd, Iran
