NCRI – On Saturday, February 11, coinciding with the 33rd anniversary of the anti-Monarchial Revolution in Iran, in a great gathering in Paris, thousands of Iranians, while being supported by a number of prominent European and American dignitaries, reminded that a major development is on the way in Iran and a democratic change, as a solution to avoid an unprecedented regional and international crisis, is at hand.
Nontombi TUTU, human rights activist and daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu: Good afternoon. It is truly an honor for me to be here with you, President-Elect Madame Rajavi, and this amazing panel here, and with all of you. It is a day that I would have hoped that we would be celebrating in Tehran, 33 years after your revolution. So, it is with some mixed emotion. [French] So I ask for your toleration as I continue in English.
I am here as one who has experienced through my life the fact that human rights are indivisible. That if we are silent in the face of oppression of some of our sisters and brothers then we are simply opening the door to our own oppression. I come as one who experienced the support of the world community when our people were oppressed. And therefore it is especially important for me to stand here today with the people of Iran, and particularly the residents of Camp Ashraf.
We know that this move to Camp Liberty is not a move that is beneficial to the people of Camp Ashraf. We know that even the choice of that name, Liberty, is indeed an insult to that community of Ashraf that has built a city in the desert and is now being asked to move not to a refugee camp, but to a prison camp. I know how words are used and misused. In South Africa during apartheid when the South African government demolished black communities in Capetown they called the new place that they forcibly removed them to (caya licha), new home, knowing full well it was no home but a place that allowed our military to keep track of all of its people. When they demolished the vibrant mixed community of (Safayatown) they renamed the suburb that they placed there Triumphe, triumph, a triumph of oppression over freedom. And so today when we hear that the Iraqi government has named this new prison camp, Camp Liberty, we understand that it is really in naming it trying only to add salt to the wounds of the people of Camp Ashraf.
We ask those who now say the representatives of the United Nations, who say that that camp is habitable and is right for the residents, we ask them, would you place your daughters or sons in that camp? [applause] We ask them, would you be willing to live in that camp? When we hear of those facilities I know that I would not be willing. And we say to the UN representatives, if you are not willing to live there, why should you ask the residents of Ashraf to do so?
I stand here, I stand here as a citizen of two countries, two countries that in different ways have important role to play in what is going on in Iran and Ashraf. I stand here as a citizen of South Africa, and one of my compatriots, Madame Pillay is the chair of the UNHCR. And therefore I call on her, as a fellow citizen who knows the experience of oppression, to make it clear that the UNHCR will not step aside and will insist that it be able to carry out its work among the refugees of Ashraf to allow them to be designated properly refugees and therefore able to be moved to different countries. I stand here too as a citizen of the United States, a country that signed an agreement with every single resident of Ashraf, an agreement that ensured them that they would be protected by the United States. So I stand and I ask my government, do not go back on your word. That would be a shame for us as Americans, and it would be a disaster for the people of Ashraf.
We cannot stand by and wait for the next massacre. We cannot stand by and allow the people of Ashraf to be herded into a prison camp called Liberty. We cannot allow the forced removal of the residents of Ashraf, because that is not only against every international law, it is also against every moral law. We here stand with you, the true Iranian opposition, we stand with you, the strong and brave of Camp Ashraf, in vowing that we will not rest until you are free, protected, and safe. [applause] Because we know that all of our rights are indivisible, that we cannot be silent when one is deprived of his or her rights, when a group is deprived of their rights because the human rights of Camp Ashraf residents are our human rights. Thank you. [applause]
