TEHRAN -- Iranian cineastes paid homage to the victims of the USS Vincennes attack on an Iranian airliner on July 3, 1988, during a ceremony in Tehran on Sunday.

The ceremony, which was organized by the House of Cinema, commenced with the screening of “Living Wave”, a documentary about a similar ceremony that was held by Iranian cineastes in the Persian Gulf in 2008.
Iran Air Flight 655 (IR655) was shot down by the Vincennes on the Bandar Abbas-Dubai route, resulting in the loss of 290 lives of innocent civilians from six nations including 66 children. There were 38 non-Iranians aboard.
“Today marks a great catastrophe… people of Bandar Abbas caught no fish from the Persian Gulf for a year after the incident,” actor Parviz Parastuii said in his short speech at the ceremony.
He expressed his thanks to Reza Mirkarimi, the Iranian filmmaker who organized the commemoration ceremony in the Persian Gulf in 2008.
“Some people say that it is not cineastes’ business to hold a commemoration ceremony for these victims, but in any case, we are all human and have feelings,” said Habib Ahmadzadeh, an author known for his novels on 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
“Many antiwar American activists have become aware of this event over the past three years and annually hold commemoration ceremonies for the victims of this tragic event,” he added.
“We want to prevent similar catastrophes,” author of “Chess with the Doomsday Machine” and “A City under Siege” noted.
A number Iranian officials and family members of those who killed in that attack attended the ceremony.
The highest medal of honor from the House of Cinema was awarded to the family of Mohsen Rezaian, the captain of the Iranian airliner who was killed in the event.
Photo: Filmmaker Reza Mirkarimi (L) presents the highest medal of the House of Cinema to the mother of Captain Mohsen Rezaian, who was killed in the USS Vincennes’ attack Iran Air Flight 655 in 1988, at a commemoration ceremony held for the victims of the attack in Tehran on July 3, 2011. (Mehr/Ali Mehrabi)