Call on High Commissioners for Human Rights and Refugees to ensure protection of Ashraf residents
NCRI – Monday afternoon, August 8, in the one 110th day of sit-in by Iranians in defense of Ashraf in front of the United Nation’s European Headquarters in Geneva, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, joined the participants. In her remarks Mrs. Rajavi said: “The real quarrel is over Ashraf; but this, in fact, is the focal point of Iranian people’s fight for freedom and their right to bring down the regime of Velayat-e faqih. The henchmen ruling Iran are bent on obliterating and destroying Ashraf and you, with outmost honor, work for the obliteration and destruction of Velayat-e faqih regime. Surely, it is you who will be victorious because your cause is just, and you have risen up for a genuine ideal, and you are ready to pay and have been paying the price for your struggle.”
Mrs. Rajavi added: “Your demands are international protection for Ashraf residents, confirmation of their collective refugee status, stationing of a UN monitoring team in Ashraf, and conducting an independent investigation into the April 8 massacre. We shall follow up these demands which are the demands of all Iranian people with all our might using every resource and every political and diplomatic avenue.”
Mrs. Rajavi reminded the U.S. government and UN agencies of their responsibilities towards the security of Ashraf residents and reiterated the residents’ status as Political Refugees and Protected Persons under the 4th Geneva Convention. She called on the Swiss government to fulfill its responsibility for the implementation of the Geneva Convention for the safe keeping of Camp Ashraf residents.
Hundreds of Iranians, in their fourth month of sit-in are demanding that the United Nations and its bodies, in particular the High Commissioner for Human Rights Ms. Navi Pillay, arrange for a UN monitoring team to get stationed in Ashraf to ensure the protection of its residents. They emphasize that any delay by UN and its bodies to interfere to guarantee protection of Ashraf residents shall lead to a great humanitarian catastrophe.
Representatives of the Swiss Parliament and political figures from Geneva, including Messrs. Jean-Charles Rielle , Eric Voruz, Jacques Neirynck, Marc Falquet, Nils de Dardel and ladies Ali ce Glauser-Zufferey and Christine Pergo, Denise Kessler-Nicolet, accompanied Mrs. Rajavi in this visit.
Swiss dignitaries, while calling on pertinent UN bodies for urgent action to ensure protection of Ashraf residents, urged the Swiss government to declare its support for the European Parliament plan for transfer of Ashraf residents to third countries. They also urged their government to undertake necessary measures to assist those injured in the April 8 attack on Ashraf and to guarantee the rights of Ashraf residents as refugees.
Those participating in the sit-in had decorated the whole Nation Square in front of the UN Headquarters with large flags of Iran and emblems of Ashraf. This program which went on for a few hours was accompanied with varied street shows and photo exhibitions of the attack on Ashraf.
Camp Ashraf is the residence of 3,400 members of the PMOI in Iraq, all Protected Persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Subsequent to the massacre of Ashraf residents on April 8 by the Iraqi Army which led to the death of 36 residents and injury of 350, the Iraqi government, at the behest of the Iranian regime, declared that it would close down the camp by the end of 2011, thereby paving the way for the massacre of its residents.
Demands by delegations from the U.S. Congress and the European Parliament to visit Camp Ashraf have been rejected by Iraq’s prime minister. In July, the Spanish National Court accepted to investigate the massacre of Ashraf residents summoning the Commander of Iraqi Army and two other officers to the court. Nuri al-Maliki would also be summoned to the court immediately after leaving his post that ends his judicial immunity.
Secretariat of National Council of Resistance of Iran
August 8, 2011
