NCRI – Lord Slynn of Hadley sent a video message to the gathering of over 10,000 Iraqis in Ashraf City on Saturday reinstating his support to the People’s Mojahedin and its bid to overthrow the religious dictatorship in Iran. His message reads as follows:
"I wanted today, to send my warm greetings to those of you at this meeting, who actually live in Ashraf city, those whom I met and talked to and the many more that I saw and heard. I am so greatly impressed by what I saw and what I was told, by your courage, by your creativity, by your determination and your wish to peacefully under the leadership of Mrs Rajavi, to achieve democracy in Iran. I have expressed my admiration for what I saw to the friends and relatives of many of you, recently in Washington, in London and in Auvers-sur-Oise.
"But there is another side to this meeting and there are many at this meeting who want to protest on the 3rd anniversary of what appears clearly to have been an unwarranted raid on the headquarters of the NCRI in Auvers and those of you who remember, were hurt by to protest against the terrorist attack on a bus which resulted in death and injury to dozens of your fellow citizens in Iraq.
"With this in mind, it is good that you should have gathered to express your support for Mrs Rajavi, that you should meet today to pay homage to the tens of thousands who have fallen to the cause of freedom in Iran and that you should protest about the policy of appeasement, which as you see lead to that raid on the 17th June 2003, 3 years ago today.
"Under the leadership of the most admirable and courageous lady and her colleagues, you offer hope for the millions in Iran who have suffered and who are suffering from the rule of the present government, from the death, from the torture and the legal restraints.
"At the same time it is good that those of you in Iraq and in the neighbouring areas should protest about the perpetration of countless atrocities in southern Iraq, in the fermenting of sectarian violence and in objecting to the meddling in a neighbouring government in your country. The vigilance and the awareness of so many who live in neighbouring areas of Iraq to Ashraf, to the threat posed by the government of Iran to security and the democratic process in Iraq, is to be admired. You have not only supported, but you have shown solidarity with the PMOI to establish democracy in Iran. I share your view that the government of Iraq should as under international law, I believe it should to confirm the right of the People’s Mojahedin for political asylum while they are in Iraq, a right that they have had since they started living there in 1986.
"Today we all in different ways pray for peace, stability and prosperity of both the Iraqi and Iranian people. I wish you a very successful and very peaceful meeting."
