Formation of the International Committee of Lawyers in support of 1,000 Women in Ashraf was announced Thursday in a press conference in Paris. The conference warned against imminent threats to Camp Ashraf residents, particularly plans for their displacement as a prelude to massacre them. They reiterated that in any forcible displacement, the prime victims will be women.
Press release
Thursday, October 8, 2009
ICLW warns against mullahs’ plots to displace and massacre Ashraf residents, calls for international intervention
Formation of the International Committee of Lawyers in support of 1,000 Women in Ashraf was announced Thursday in a press conference in Paris. The conference warned against imminent threats to Camp Ashraf residents, particularly plans for their displacement as a prelude to massacre them. They reiterated that in any forcible displacement, the prime victims will be women.
The lawyers call for immediate intervention of the European Union, the United States and the United Nations to guarantee the rights of Ashraf residents, particularly women, in accordance with Geneva conventions and to prevent their displacement as a ploy to pave the way for a humanitarian catastrophe.
Members of the committee comprised of distinguished women lawyers from France, Britain, Italy and Scandinavian countries strongly condemn the Iraqi Government for preventing them from meeting their clients, the 1,000 women residing in Ashraf, and establish contacts with them for the past few months.
They stress that their fundamental rights under the Fourth Geneva Convention, as stipulated in the European Parliament resolution on April 24, 2009, to be acknowledged and a U.N. monitoring team to be deployed in Ashraf to prevent the repeat of attack and violence against the residents or their forcible displacement. The committee reiterates that if the rights of its clients are violated, they will pursue their case through competent international courts.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, in a message to the conference said that the attack on Camp Ashraf was planned and coordinated by the clerical regime in Iran. Nationwide uprisings in the past three months have deeply shaken and destabilized the regime, thus, it desperately needs to suppress its opposition. The assailant forces are still inside the camp and they have the motive to repeat the attack.
She warned that the forces in their attacks on the residents of Ashraf repeatedly threatened women with rape. The fate of 36 Ashraf residents taken hostage by force is extremely alarming. The attackers abducted them in Ashraf by force and tortured them. This happened to them while they were recognized as Protected Persons. Although they were released on Wednesday after 72 days of hunger strike, but recurrence of this kind of criminal forcible displacement must not be allowed, Mrs. Rajavi stressed.
Camp Ashraf is home of 3500 members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), an opposition movement to the current regime. On 27 and 28th of July Ashraf was the target of a violent attack by Iraqis forces, in which 11 residents were killed and 500 injured. In this attack, the female residents were threatened with sexual assault and rape. This makes it more imperative for the lawyers to contact and meet with the clients in order to defend them.
