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

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

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

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

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–

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