December 23, 2024

Iraqi forces preparing for a deadly assault and massacre of Ashraf residents

NCRI – Despite extensive international efforts in search of a peaceful solution for Ashraf and opposite to the display of increasing abhorrence by the Iraqi people and politicians regarding the suppressive plans against Ashraf, the Government of Iraq, as the no-question-asked executor of policies dictated by the religious fascism ruling Iran, continues to prepare itself for a fresh deadly assault on Ashraf. Some of these measures are:

Iraqi forces have started new military engineering work around Ashraf. Since Tuesday midnight, 29 November 2011

1- In preparation for an assault on the defenseless residents of Ashraf, Iraqi forces have started new military engineering work around Ashraf. Since Tuesday midnight, 29 November 2011, Engineering Battalion of Iraqi Army 5th Division are busy constructing berms 3 meters in height in the eastern and southern flanks of Ashraf. This engineering work is ongoing. The Iraqi Army 5th Division played the major role in the crime against humanity of 8 April against Ashraf residents with its various battalions taking part in that assault. 

One of these berms is 15 meters far from the protecting fence of Camp Ashraf and is close to the location where elements of the Iranian Intelligence Ministry are stationed. In the last 654 days, using earsplitting loudspeakers, these elements were psychologically torturing Ashraf residents by threatening them to death, torture, extradition and setting Ashraf on fire.

2- According to information received from within the clerical regime, the Iranian embassy in Baghdad has tasked mullah Jabar Mamouri, a Qods Force agent in Iraq, to infiltrate Ashraf with elements of the Qods Force concurrent with the measures that the Iraqi Army 5th Division is implementing. At 2:30 am on December 1st, together with a number of Iranian regime hirelings, Jabar Mamouri attempted to tear the protecting fence of Ashraf’s western flank for the Qods Force elements to get inside the camp. His plot was foiled with awareness on part of the residents and their vehement protests.
 
Jabar Mamouri played a key role during the January 7, 2011 attack against Ashraf which led to injury of 175 residents. He outright threatened the residents with hanging and cutting off their heads. He had also resorted to tearing the protective fence of Ashraf in the past to get Qods Force agents inside the camp.

3- On Friday, December 2nd, Jabar Mamouri and his hirelings are again moving around Ashraf’s perimeter conducting reconnaissance. They attempted to tear Ashraf’s fence at another section, but were faced with protests from residents and were forced to flee the scene.
 
Iranian Resistance calls on the United Nations Security Council and Secretary-General, Special Representative of Secretary-General for Iraq, and also the U.S. government not to remain silent in face of these attempts by the Government of Iraq that is paving the political and military grounds for the massacre of residents. They should undertake necessary steps to provide protection for Ashraf residents by UN blue helmets or U.S. forces until transfer of all residents to third countries.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
December 2, 2011

 

WILL U.S. BREAK PROMISE?

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Two Republican senators are pressing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to guarantee the safety of thousands of Iranian dissidents in Iraq, where the government is planning to evict them from a former military camp by the end of the year and possibly deport them to Iran, where they would be killed as terrorists. 

Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina asked Mrs. Clinton in a recent letter how the United States can keep its promise to protect the 3,400 unarmed residents of Camp Ashraf after all U.S. forces withdraw from Iraq by Dec. 31. 

“These individuals seek protection from the oppressive government in Iran and fear, with good reason, that a forced return to Iran would be tantamount to a death sentence for them,” said Mr. McCain and Mr. Graham, both members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. 

“Once U.S. troops have fully withdrawn from Iraq, it is hard to see how the United States will be able to honor our pledge to protect the lives and basic human rights of the civilian population of Camp Ashraf.” 

Although the United States transferred control of the camp to Iraq in 2009, the continued presence of U.S. troops has prevented Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki from evicting the dissidents. 

However, Iraqi troops repeatedly have raided the camp, killing dozens and wounding hundreds. They also have cut off supplies to the residents. 

Critics accuse Mr. Maliki of trying to win favor with Iran’s theocratic dictatorship. 

The letter from Mr. McCain and Mr. Graham accompanied one from about a dozen bipartisan members of the House who also called on Mrs. Clinton to stop the Iraqis from evicting the Iranian dissidents. 

The congressional support comes as the Iranian dissidents are gaining support from former U.S. officials, members of the European Parliament and about 2,500 tribal leaders inside Iraq who gathered about a million signatures on petitions opposing the eviction at Camp Ashraf. 

“We believe the Iranian dissidents have a valid status, and we consider them our guests, and we call on the government and all peace-loving people around the globe to find a solution for them,” Sheik Youssef al-Aziz, chief of the al-Baeeg clan, told the Agence France-Presse in Baghdad. 

Sheik Matlab al-Taei, head of the Iraqi Tribal Council, said that “jurists, physicians and clerics” were among “approximately a million Iraqi citizens” who signed the petitions. 

Some of the strongest support for the Iranian dissidents is coming from the European Parliament, where Struan Stevenson, a Conservative Party member from Scotland, is leading the effort to prevent their eviction.

“The government of Iraq is continuously working on its plan to attack Ashraf and massacre the residents,” he said at a news conference in Brussels on Wednesday. 

He accused Iraq of working with agents from Iran’s intelligence agency to prepare for the expulsion of the residents. Mr. Stevenson said Iraqi forces plan to separate the men from the women and transfer them “to various locations around Iraq.” The 120 leaders in the camp will be arrested and deported to Iran. 

Mr. Stevenson, chairman of the European Parliament’s committee for relations with Iraq, said the United Nations is working to register the camp residents as refugees and have them transferred to other countries, but U.N. officials cannot complete their work before the end of the year. 

He called on EU foreign ministers to “show they have some spine” and pressure Iraq into cooperating with the United Nations. 

Alejo Vidal-Quadras, vice president of the European Parliament, last week said, “There is no doubt that any relocation inside Iraq is tantamount to sending the residents to their deaths. 

“We in the European Parliament do not trust the Iraqi government and its assurances.” 

The dissidents are members of the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, a formerly armed resistance that sought to overthrow the Iranian government. U.S. troops disarmed them in 2003 after toppling Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who had allowed the dissidents to operate in Iraq against his regional rival Iran. 

The United States put the Iranian resistance on its list of terrorist groups in 1997, when former President Bill Clinton was trying to open talks with Iran and meet a key demand for negotiations. However, a U.S. federal court has ordered the State Department to justify keeping the group on the blacklist. 

The European Union removed the group from its terrorist list in 2009 after a top European court found no evidence that the Mujahedeen is a terrorist organization.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/1/embassy-row-699350423/

Iran resistance leaders urge EU to prevent massacre

NEW EUROPE

The National Council of Resistance of Iran along with MEPs are urging the EU foreign ministers to take action against Iraq’s attempts to close an Iranian camp, home to more than 3,000 dissidents.

The EU foreign ministers are scheduled to meet Thursday in Brussels and the scheduled 31 December closing of Camp Ashraf is on the agenda for members to discuss. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has ordered the relocation of the camps residents.

Camp Ashraf is home to over 3,000 Iranians who fled to Iraq. The camp’s residents are opposed to the current Iranian regime and are working to overthrow the current government. The Iran resistance council has said the closure of the camp is a front for al-Maliki to “massacre” the Iranian dissidents.

President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran Maryam Rajavi urged the foreign ministers to condemn al-Maliki’s actions and call on the United Nations to declare the camp’s residents as refugees.

“I would like to tell the leaders of the European Union that you have the power and the means to avert a definite humanitarian catastrophe,” Rajavi said.

Although the Iraqi government has promised the camp residents would not be harmed, Rajavi cited an 8 April raid on Camp Ashraf that resulted in the death of 36 people as a reason not to trust the Iraqi officials.

“Experience shows that Iraq’s governments’ promises cannot be trusted,” she said.

European Parliament Delegation for Relations with Iraq President Struan Stevenson pointed to intelligence showing the Iraqi army beginning to plan an attack on the camp. Stevenson said that al-Maliki is closing the camp on orders from Iran.

“Iraq’s coalition government is a product of Tehran…al-Maliki owes his job to Tehran,” Stevenson said.

European Parliament Vice President Alejo Vidal-Quadras urged the United Nations to declare all residents of Camp Ashraf as refugees immediately. Normally, the UN conducts interviews individually with each refugees before they are given that classification.

According to Ravjani, the Iraqi government has insisted the interviews be conducted away from the camp and while members have agreed to these terms, they will only leave if the UN provides security to and from their home.

Ravjani has advocated the deadline for close the camp be “put-aside”, that the UN provide security forces to Camp Ashraf and for the international community to accept the residents as refugees.

With the deadline of 31 December fast approaching there is not a lot of time to conduct the interviews required for refugee status and transfer to other nations. Vidal-Quadras urged the UN to act quickly and grant the refugee status to the camp’s residents.

“If this is not an emergency than I don’t know what one is,” he said.

Former Irish Prime Minister and EU Ambassador to the United States John Bruton said the 2003 Iraq war was to blame for the condition of Camp Arshaf. He said that those responsible for the war have a special responsibility to speak up for the residents.

“If leaders are willing to take credit for the good that came out of the invasion than they should also accept responsibility for its consequences,” Bruton said.

Rajavi added that neither the US or the UN have given assurances and instead rely on “empty promises from the Iraq government.”

Rajavi hopes the EU foreign ministers will take a stand on the issue during their meeting Thursday in Brussels.

 http://www.neurope.eu/article/iran-resistance-leaders-urge-eu-prevent-massacre

Push to drop Khalq terror designation in US

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

WASHINGTON — A group of prominent Americans is lobbying President Barack Obama to lift designation of Iranian opposition group Mujahedeen Khalq as a terrorist group, The New York Times reported.

Former CIA directors James Woolsey and Porter Goss and former FBI director Louis Freeh are among those seeking the change, the paper reported.

Others include former attorney general Michael Mukasey, ex-homeland security secretary Tom Ridge, former national security adviser General James Jones and former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

The advocates insist their motive is humanitarian: to protect and resettle about 3,400 members of Mujahedeen Khalq, or People?s Mujahedeen, who are now confined in a camp in Iraq, the report said.

Mujahedeen Khalq, a former ally of ex-Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, has been designated as a terrorist organization under US law.

But its supporters say the terrorist label, which dates back to 1997, reflecting decades of violence that included the killing of some Americans in the 1970s, is now outdated, unjustified and dangerous, The Times said.

The Iraqi government has said it plans to close Camp Ashraf, where the member of Mujahedeen Khalq are currently staying, by December 31 and move the people elsewhere in Iraq, the paper noted.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iRl-m-9A3bp8T0kLgIOH0EIVDRhg

Obama Administration Urged to Compel Iraq to Lift the Deadline to Close Down Camp Ashraf

PRNewswire

WASHINGTON, Nov. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — “Lives in Peril, Honor on the Line: America’s Promise to Protect Camp Ashraf,” was the title of a symposium in which several former senior U.S. officials as well as prominent human rights advocates urged the Obama Administration to prevent an impending humanitarian catastrophe at Camp Ashraf, Iraq, home to thousands of members of Iran’s main opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK).  

The panelists also rejected the call made jointly by the Iranian regime and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that the residents of Ashraf must give in to relocation inside Iraq without any reliable protection for their safety and security. The fact that the United States and the United Nations have not yet publically and unequivocally dismissed this ominous plan was equally criticized.

The panel included Alan Dershowitz, Professor of Law at Harvard University; Governor Howard Dean, Secretary Tom Ridge, former Rep. Patrick Kennedy; Richard Ben-Veniste, former Member of the 9/11 Commission; Robert Joseph, former Under Secretary Of State For Arms Control & International Security; Gen. John “Jack” Keane, former Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army; and Christian Whiton, former Special Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs.

Prof. Dershowitz said that “the potential war criminals who run the Iranian regime are so anxious to see Camp Ashraf shut down [because] they are planning the mass killing of the largest concentration of witnesses to their crimes in the world today, those who are living in Camp Ashraf in Iraq.”

“If the president of the US does not demand a change in the Iraqi government’s commitment to close the camp, his silence will be taken as acquiescence, and that is so dangerous, silent acquiescence,” he added.

“It does look like we [the United States and the Iraqi government] are in collusion and as long as we continue to designate the MEK as a terrorist organization, the Iraqi government can send these documents around the world just to provide rationalization for the murder of innocent unarmed people on two occasion in Camp Ashraf,” emphasized Secretary Ridge, adding, “Even today Martin Kobler was told by the Iraqi government, you must move men and women to another location in Iraq.. Why we are letting this government, for whom we’ve sacrificed thousands of lives, tell us what to do which is inconsistent with our broader moral obligation to support humanitarian human rights and to keep our promise, which we gave individually to every member of Camp Ashraf, when we also guaranteed them protections under the Geneva Convention.”

“The person who is representing the United Nations [in Iraq], made the ridiculous suggestion that the people from Ashraf be redistributed inside Iraq, and that somehow, without any guarantee of protection, either from the United States or the United Nations, they would be fine… Explain to me Martin Kobler, what rationale you give for what you have done which is essentially to sign the execution order for 3500 unarmed civilians,” Governor Dean said.

He added, “Mr. President, we do have a responsibility. We gave our word [to Ashraf residents] and we gave it in writing.  We have a responsibility. It is a legal responsibility. I do not want my country to be complicit in the carrying out of war crimes, as the Dutch found out in Srebrenica.”

Congressman Kennedy stressed that “before Maliki can come to this country, we must make clear that the deadline for Camp Ashraf should be rejected and the UN should be allowed to do their job; that he make sure that not only those residents are treated with dignity and respect, but honored the international law that applies to them… This is a moment for the US to set clear for the rest of the world where it stands…”

SOURCE: Iranian American Community of Northern California

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/obama-administration-urged-to-compel-iraq-to-lift-the-deadline-to-close-down-camp-ashraf-in-advance-of-iraqi-prime-ministers-visit-to-the-white-house-according-to-iranian-american-community-of-northern-california-134465558.html

 

EU to urge members to accept Iranian dissidents

REUTERS

BRUSSELS, Nov 24 (Reuters) – EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will urge EU states next week to accept as many residents as they can of a camp of Iranian dissidents in Iraq that Baghdad plans to close by the end of the year, EU officials said on Thursday.

Ashton will make the call as part of efforts to resolve the issue of Camp Ashraf, a base of the People's Mujahideen Organisation of Iran, which mounted attacks on Iran before the U.S.-led removal of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been trying to arrange to interview the more than 3,000 residents to determine who among them qualifies for refugee status and thus resettlement, but Iraq has yet to allow this.

A senior EU official said the United Nations and Iraq were working to resolve “a logistical problem” caused by Iraq's refusal to allow the interviews to take place at the camp.

He said Iraq had proposed that the interviews take place at a Baghdad hotel. Talks were also under way on the possibility of housing those not immediately relocated to third countries at a former U.S. base near Baghdad for up to six months.

The official said the United Nations had estimated in the past that about 800-900 of the residents had sufficient links to third countries to allow their resettlement, while another 1,000 were thought to want to return to Iran.

Another EU official said Ashton would call on EU states at a meeting of EU foreign ministers next week to take responsibility for those entitled to resettle in their countries.

“We have a deadline coming up,” he said. “We are doing all we can to make sure member states take their responsibility.”

The senior EU official was unable to estimate how many residents might be entitled to resettlement in EU countries. He said many claimed links to France and Germany but both countries showed a reluctance to accept them.

The EU removed the PMOI from its terrorism list in 2009, but it is still considered a terrorist organistion by other countries, including the United States.

The senior EU official said Iraq had issued arrest warrants for up to 120 of the residents, some of whom had helped Saddam in his campaigns against Iran and Iraq's Kurdish minority.

“I guess the Iraqis will want to put them on trial,” he said, adding that he did not think any EU country would want to give this group asylum.

The official said that while some EU countries were willing to take in limited numbers, the best hope for the others was for resettlement in countries such as Australia and Canada.

“The International community will do its best to relocate them, but it won't be easy because many people consider them (the PMOI) terrorists.”

The future of Ashraf's residents became uncertain in 2009 after the United States turned the camp over to the Iraqi government, which considers its residents a threat to security.

Amnesty International says they are subject to harassment by the government and denied access to basic medicine. More than 30 were killed in a clash with Iraqi security forces in April.

On Tuesday, members of the European Parliament called on Ashton to step up pressure on Iraq to extend the deadline for closing the camp. British MEP Struan Stevenson said residents would face “certain torture and execution” if sent back to Iran. (Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Jon Hemming)

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/eu-to-urge-members-to-accept-iranian-dissidents

EU to urge member states to accept Iranian exiles in refugee camp Iraq plans to close

ASSOCIATED PRESS

BRUSSELS — An official says the EU’s foreign policy chief will urge the member countries to accept some of the Iranians living in a refugee settlement in Iraq.

Iraq’s government has said it will close Camp Ashraf, where more than 3,000 Iranian exiles are living, by the end of the year. The U.N. says at least 34 people were killed when Iraqi security forces raided the camp in April.

The refugees, many of whom seek to overthrow Iran’s clerical rulers, were taken in at the camp by Saddam Hussein’s regime decades ago.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will appeal to all 27 members of the bloc next week, asking countries to take in Ashraf residents with ties to them, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Thursday.

Others may return to Iran.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/eu-to-urge-member-states-to-accept-iranian-exiles-in-refugee-camp-iraq-plans-to-close/2011/11/24/gIQAY4sNsN_story.html

Call by 1,050,000 Iraqi citizens: Urge the UN Security Council to dispatch a UN contingent force and UN monitors to protect Camp Ashraf

Secretariat of the National Council of Iraqi Tribes – Press release

In the closing months of 2011, and with unbridled meddling of the Iranian regime in Iraq and its efforts to dominate our country’s affairs, our society is in a state of great concern and anxiety about the future and the fate of our country. The national partnership has not been materialized yet and the political agreements upon which the government was formed have been violated. Patriotic figures like Dr. Allawi, the leader of victorious bloc in the parliamentary elections, have been eliminated from the political stage; with democracy on the demise and dictatorship fortifying its grip on power. It was for this very reason that Dr. Allawi’s refusal to head the National Council for Strategic Policies is a nationalistic reaction and the desire of the Iraqi people who widely welcomed it. Clearly such a big rift undermines political legitimacy and popularity of the government which from the outset was to be a national partnership, underscoring the need, as indicated by many patriotic leaders, for the current situation to be rectified either through early elections or by the ‘Spring of Iraq’.

It was in such crucial circumstances that the National Council for Tribes of Iraq embarked on a nationwide campaign for dialogue with Iraqis in all provinces. It is a known fact that here in Iraq, the manner in which one treats opponents of the Iranian regime, is a significant criterion for independence and adherence to democracy. Unfortunately, during the past three years – since responsibility for camp Ashraf’s security was transferred to the Iraqi government, the residents of which are protected persons and have political asylum – rather than being respected, their rights have been violated excessively. An inhumane and tyrannical siege has been imposed on the camp, and its residents are deprived of the most basic needs. During numerous aggressions against the camp, a total of 47 residents were killed and more than 1000 wounded. Instead of heeding calls by the international community and Iraqi political factions – for an independent and international investigation – the Iraqi government has made an illegal announcement to close the camp and expel its residents by the end of 2011. No doubt, notification of this cruel and illegal decision for relocation of the residents to international parties and insisting on it is only a prelude to another massacre and is an Iranian demand. This decision was strongly condemned by the international community and Iraqi political factions including 94 Iraqi nationalist leaders and members of the parliament. It was on this basis that Iraqis throughout the country, from all walks of life, including 2,317 tribal sheikhs, 7,056 lawyers and jurists, 5,069 physicians, 10,297 engineers, 1,125 university professors, 2,091 writers and journalists, 516 clergymen, 45 human rights and social organizations, 119 provincial level officials condemned gross violation of the residents’ human rights, especially the illegal deadline to close the camp by year’s end, demanding that it be canceled by the government. The statement, signed till this moment by 1,050,000 Iraqis from across the country, including 375,195 noble Iraqi women, underscores the following points:
 
1- As the international community and the U.N. have announced repeatedly, we urge the Iraqi government to treat the Camp Ashraf residents in accordance with the international law, and  refrain from closing the camp and forcibly relocating or expelling its residents.

2- While stressing the need for MEK to remain in Iraq, as our special quests and until democracy is established in Iran, we insist that any attempt to relocate them within Iraq, as well as the 2011-end deadline, are merely excuses to pave the path for their slaughter as desired by the Iranian regime. We reject and condemn, with the strongest words, such efforts and urge the UN Secretary General, the UNHCR, the UNHCHR, the EU, the European Parliament, the speaker of the Iraqi parliament and Iraqi political leaders to take urgent actions to prevent another massacre.

3-We urge the UN Security Council to dispatch a UN contingent force and UN monitors to protect Camp Ashraf residents, who are protected persons under the 4th Geneva Convention, and prevent another aggression and slaughter which promises to be much larger, in scale, than previous instances.
 
4-We demand that the inhumane and illegal siege, especially the medical siege, imposed since early 2009 against the residents, be lifted and the psychological torture of the residents with 300 loudspeakers be stopped. These measures are in stark contrast with the Islamic teachings, Arab traditions and the international law and are enforced only at the request of the antihuman and anti-Islam rulers of Iran.
 
5-The Spain’s National Court’s ruling, carrying out investigation over the April 8 atrocities, and prosecution of its culprits serves our national interests which we welcome and underscore  because it exposes the Iranian regime’s meddling within the Iraqi government and its military and security organs and has been the source of many atrocities in Iraq. 
 
 Secretariat of the National Council of Iraqi Tribes
November 23, 2011

 http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/ashraf/11469-call-by-1050000-iraqi-citizens-the-deadline-for-closure-of-camp-ashraf-and-compulsory-relocation-of-its-residents-inside-iraq-sets-the-stage-for-another-bloodbath

Washington Post: Bipartisan Letter to President Obama

Click on image for PDF

Time Is Running Out, Keep America’s Promise, Prevent an Impending Massacre at Camp Ashraf, Iraq.

Dear President Obama,
As you are undoubtedly aware, the undersigned strongly believe that the continued designation of the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) as a terrorist organization is unjustified and unlawful. The designation has been lifted by our European allies and was characterized by a British review panel as “perverse”. Over fifteen months ago, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that our State Department had violated the Constitutional rights of the MEK by failing to adequately identify the sources upon which it relied to continue the terrorist designation for this organization. To date there has been no response to the court by State.

Tragically, however, the Iraqi government has used the listing to justify two attacks on the defenseless residents of Camp Ashraf which the United States previously promised, in writing, to protect, which has resulted in 47 deaths and over a thousand wounded. The humanitarian tragedy is more appalling since it was initiated by troops trained, vehicles provided and weapons supplied by the United States of America.

You should also know, Mr. President, that these murderous assaults have been encouraged and applauded by the Iranian government that has killed thousands of MEK supporters at home. We would encourage you to view the video of the most recent assault of April 2011 in which kneeling snipers shoot unarmed civilians and American Humvees are driven over them. If another bloodbath occurs, the United States would most certainly be held accountable by the world community, and perhaps more importantly, by our own conscience.

Mr. President, the same leadership you showed in preventing genocide in Benghazi is needed now. Immediate intervention is critical to avoid a pending humanitarian catastrophe inflicted on thousands of men and women our country promised to protect in 2004. We can withdraw our troops but we cannot relinquish our responsibilities. Only America, acting decisively, can prevent the potential genocide at Camp Ashraf.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has recognized the residents of Camp Ashraf as “asylum seekers” who are entitled to international protection as well. Unfortunately, the Iraqi government, which has been supported by the blood and treasure of our country, is impeding the work of the UN agency and has declared a deadline to close Ashraf by the end of this year.

We believe we are in a dramatic countdown to a looming genocide. Time is running out for our country to keep its written commitment to protect these men and women.

The December deadline is a pretext for a forcible displacement of the surviving residents of Ashraf throughout Iraq where their disappearance and death will go unnoticed. There was a Persian spring that the world, including the United States, ignored. Although the mullahs have killed thousands of men, women, and children in Iran who raise their voices for freedom and democracy, their pleas have been ignored by the countries who have heard similar cries from within Syria, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere.

We promised to protect the residents of Camp Ashraf. The honor, commitment and credibility of the United States are at issue as well.

The pending attack on the camp and the future closure and displacement of the residents must be prevented and the US, working with the UN, has the moral and legal responsibility to do so immediately.

This country did not sacrifice over four thousand lives to install and protect a government whose cowardly assault on defenseless members of the MEK dishonors and disgraces the memories of our fallen heroes.

These bravemen and women did not give their lives to support a brutal regime that bends to the will of Iran by harassing, wounding and killing innocent people our military previously assured would be protected.

Mr. President, time is running out! To prevent a monstrous and unspeakable tragedy, we urge you to lead an international effort and take the following actions:

First. Delist the MEK. The law is clear and must be applied regardless of political or diplomatic considerations.

Second. Publicly denounce the Iraqi deadline and use whatever means necessary to convince the Maliki government to cancel it. The UNHCR needs substantially more time to relocate the residents.

Third. We encourage you to lead the initiative within the Security Council to station a full time, UN led monitoring team with sufficient “blue helmet” troop protection to ensure the safety of the residents and the staff of the UNHCR until the residents are resettled in third countries.

Mr. President, we urge you to respond immediately to our appeal for your leadership and for immediate and decisive action. Time is running out and the fate of 3,400men and women is exclusively in the hands of the United States of America.

Signatories in alphabetical order:

  • Ambassador John Bolton
  • Secretary Andrew Card
  • General James Conway
  • Ambassador Dell Dailey
  • Governor Howard Dean
  • Director Louis Freeh
  • Mayor Rudy Giuliani
  • Admiral James A. Lyons, Jr
  • Congressman Patrick Kennedy
  • Judge Michael Mukasey
  • Governor Ed Rendell
  • Ambassador Mitchell Reiss
  • Secretary Tom Ridge
  • General Hugh Shelton
  • Senator Robert Torricelli
  • General Chuck Wald

EU urges Iraq to allow more time for Ashraf solution

REUTERS

BRUSSELS, Nov 22 (Reuters) – The European Union urged Iraq on Tuesday to allow time for the United Nations to determine the status of residents of a camp of Iranian dissidents that Baghdad has threatened to deport by the year-end.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been trying to arrange to interview the 3,400 residents of Camp Ashraf to see which of them qualifies for refugee status to permit their resettlement, but Iraq has not allowed this.

Members of the European Parliament called on EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to step up pressure on Iraq to extend the year-end deadline it has set for the closure of the camp to allow the interview process to take place.
 
“The moment of truth is coming in this very difficult problem,” said Jean De Ruyt, a senior Belgian diplomat appointed by Ashton to work with the United Nations, Iraq and others to resolve the issue.
 
“Obviously the closure of the camp without a process of UNHCR to identify and organise the refugee status determination would bring a deadlock,” he said. “I hope that the Iraqi government will soon accept that this (process) takes place.”

De Ruyt said that if Iraq would not allow the interview process to take place at Ashraf itself, it was important that the residents were not “put in isolation or in jail”.
 
“To be sure that this process is organised in an orderly way the U.N. has to give some monitoring, has to reinforce its presence close to them,” he said.
 
De Ruyt told Reuters the European Union had “insisted very much” to Baghdad that the deadline for closure of Ashraf should be extended, but added, “Probably this will remain a red line for the Iraqis”.
 
Ashraf, some 65 km (40 miles) from Baghdad, is the base of the People's Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), which mounted attacks on Iran before the U.S.-led removal of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in 2003.
 
The future of its residents became uncertain in 2009 after the United States, which lists the PMOI as a terrorist organisation, turned the camp over to the Iraqi government, which considers its residents a threat to security.
 
Rights group Amnesty International says they are subject to harassment by the Iraqi government and denied access to basic medicine. More than 30 residents were killed in a clash with Iraqi security forces in April.
 
Iraqi embassy counsellor Jwan Khioka told the European Parliament meeting that Iraq would stick to its plans to evacuate the camp, “and will transfer its residents to other camps in Iraq in preparation to deport them out of Iraq”.
 
Struan Stevenson, head of the European Parliament's Iraq delegation, said that the only place the residents could be deported to was Iran and added: “There is no question they would then face certain torture and execution.”
 
Esther de Lange, a Dutch member of the European Parliament and vice president of its delegation on Iraq relations, said it was time for the European Union, which removed the PMOI from its terrorism list in 2009, to put pressure on Iraq.
 
She said the EU could exert considerable leverage as Iraq's biggest development aid donor and a major trading partner.

“Please let us be a bit pro-active,” she told De Ruyt. “We should at least be working to extend this deadline.”
 
An adviser to the Iraqi government said this month Baghdad may extend the deadline — if a quick solution is found to resolve the issue of where the Ashraf residents should go.

De Ruyt said there had to be a U.N. process to determine the status of the residents first.
 
“For the moment nobody will welcome them because they are considered as a group which some countries consider as a terrorist group,” he said. “Only individual identification can bring a solution for the relocation of these people.”

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom)

 http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/eu-urges-iraq-to-allow-more-time-for-ashraf-solution