“So far 70 bodies have been found,” the office said in a statement.

Authorities began exhuming a mass grave at a Panama City cemetery in January following the reopening of 14 inconclusive investigations into civilian deaths during the invasion, the New Straits Times reported.

The aim is to identify the remains and the causes of their deaths.

Work was suspended due to government measures taken to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus but restarted this week.

Sixteen exhumed bodies were taken to Panama’s forensic science institute for analysis.

“The digging is continuing while respecting the biosecurity protocols for this type of work,” the statement added.

In December 1989, 27,000 US soldiers invaded Panama to depose Noriega, a former Washington ally who was wanted by a Miami court to face accusations of drug trafficking.

Officially 500 people died but some rights organizations claim the true figure was in the thousands.

In 2016, under then-president Juan Carlos Varela, Panama created a commission to count and identify those who died during the invasion.

Noriega, who ruled from 1983 to 1989, surrendered in January 1990 and was jailed for drug-trafficking and the disappearance of opponents in the United States, France, and Panama.

After prison stints abroad he died in Panama in 2017.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2018 found the United States guilty of “human rights violations” and ordered it to “provide full reparation.”

Victims have demanded that the US, which committed to cooperating with the investigations, recognizes the invasion, compensates the country, and provides information about mass graves.

President Laurentino Cortizo said last year that Panama would look into asking Washington for reparations while recognizing that the two countries have a “fluid” relationship.

The United States is Panama’s main trade and diplomatic partner.

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IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

Panama has recently announced that Iranian vessels are not allowed to use Panama flags on their vessels and the decision has been made under the U.S. pressure and for pleasing UK. This propaganda announcement even has forced Panamanian lawyers to protest over the illegal decision of the government. After the U.S. government re-imposed sanctions on Iran in 2018, the Panamanian government removed 59 Iranian-linked ships from its registry.

A couple of days ago the Gibraltar government seized supertanker Grace 1 which was passing with Panama flag on its dock. This happened while Panama’s Maritime Authority (PMA) said on Thursday July 4th that Iranian tanker Grace 1 (IMO 9116412) ceased to be listed in Panama’s international boat registry as of May 29th.

According to the international maritime laws, any ship which plies in the sea should be under registration by a country. Panama has the largest shipping fleet in the world with almost 7,100 vessels registered in Panama. That Panama decides to remove 59 oil tankers from its registry just because of an empty claim and by accusing them of violating the international maritime laws is not acceptable legally, and that one can delist a ship from registry without the court ruling is like the jungle law.

According to the Russian news agency Sputnik, Panama’s Maritime Authority in a statement recently condemned strongly using vessels with Panama flags in the illegal activities which threaten lives of people. The statement further said that “those who clearly violate the laws, conventions and international agreements will be sanctioned and will run the risk that the ship is canceled from the Registry.”

Panamanian Ship Registry officially started withdrawing the registration of MT Riah after an investigation determined the tanker had “deliberately violated international regulations,” the AMP said.

In its statement, it claimed that those vessels which disrespect laws, conventions and the international agreements would be punished.

According to the public relations of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), its forces detained the oil tanker MT Riah when it was smuggling one million liters of Iranian fuel in the northern part of the Strait of Hormuz and in south of Larak Island. The IRGC in its statement reiterated that the vessel was seized because of violating the international laws.

That Panamanian government, without the court ruling and just for the U.S. and UK pressures, breaches explicitly international laws and ignores ownership rights of companies which pay taxes, needs a legal battle and Iran’s legal structures should urgently take Panama to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, in order to prove them that world is not administered on the Jungle Law.

By: Hamid Reza Naghashian

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