NCRI – Simultaneous with the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki’s trip to Tehran to meet khamenei and expand mutual relations, the mullahs’ regime announced that exchanges between the two countries has risen by 50% during the last Iranian year 1390 (March 21, 2011- March 21, 2012 ) compared to previous year thus reaching 9.7 billion dollars, and it will further reach 12 billion dollars in the current year. The GoI has provided best assistance to the Iranian regime to get round the UN sanctions and according to the regime’s media and officials, Syria, Bahrain and the issue of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) will be discussed in Maliki’s meeting with Khamenei.
Whilst the GoI is putting maximum pressure on Ashraf residents to continue relocation to Camp Liberty, and whilst the residents in Liberty are prevented from having their basic humanitarian requirements, it is neutralizing one after the other the drafts and proposals that the Special representative of the UN Secretary General for Iraq (SRSG) has made the residents’ representatives accept during long discussions and through several correspondence. The GoI has also rendered them void of substance thus what is finally left of the seven consecutive drafts in the period of March 25 until April 21 i.e. less than a month, is only some generalities making the just demands and requirements of the residents contingent upon the “agreement of the GoI”.
Everything has become dependent on the inconceivable agreement by the GoI including transfer of water and black water tanks, number of generators and kitchen equipment which can be transferred from Ashraf, as well as building sunshades for the shelter less trailers and cement pavements for the sick and handicapped residents, planting a tree and also using forklift and crane in Liberty and even spraying insecticide in hot season when snakes and harmful bugs come out.
The GoI’s commitment to supply water and electricity to Liberty through the city’s water and power network has no guarantee in practice and no concrete timeline while technically it is an extremely simple issue to supply water and it can be done within few days. Over the past two months, repeated requests of the residents from the GoI representative in presence of the UNAMI monitors have reached nowhere and Liberty is now facing a water crisis.
Ashraf patients and injured particularly those paralyzed in legs who cannot walk are not allowed to take to Liberty their special vehicles, facilities and trailers which they use in their daily lives and they have to endure constant torture and gradual death.
previous commitments and agreements which had been signed in letters of the SRSG after weeks of discussions including the removal of the police from inside the camp, preventing the presence of the agents of the Iranian regime at Liberty, transfer of the generators from the electricity station in Ashraf and the right to transfer10 vehicles for every 400 residents are being violated one after the other. Instead, the police posts are increased and the unit of armoured vehicle is deployed. Every sign indicates that the Iranian regime and the GoI oppose to the peaceful solution and create all kinds of obstructions and excuses to stop it.
During the transfer of the third group to Camp Liberty, one of Ashraf resident lost his life at the eve of the Iranian New Year due to pressures imposed on them. On the day marking the anniversary of the April 8 massacre, twenty nine residents were beaten and injured in an attack by Iraqi forces. Residents’ human rights and their rights under the international humanitarian law and refugee law are being trampled upon while the United Nation does not compel the GoI to abide by law and its international commitments and refuses to even take an official and public position in this regard.
For this reason, as stipulated in the statement of the Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran on April 18 ,2012, Mrs. Rajavi, the President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, while expressing her strongest protest against increasing pressures on Ashraf and Liberty residents and their eviction and forcible relocation, calls on the US President and the UN Secretary General to prevent a humanitarian tragedy particularly regarding female residents.
Mrs. Rajavi pointed out that the US government which has signed an agreement with every one of Ashraf residents to protect them until their final disposition and has given all of them “protected person” cards , will be held responsible for any harm inflicted on them and should guarantee a humane treatment with them by the GoI.
The residents of Ashraf and Liberty, in a letter that was sent by their representatives to the Special Advisor of the U.S. Secretary of State on Ashraf and the SRSG on April 21, declared the following
items as the minimum necessary requirements for transfer of next groups from Ashraf to Liberty.
1. Moving the armored vehicles out of Liberty;
2. Implementation of the provisions of the March 16 letter of the SRSG on the location and patrolling of the police and his February 15 letter on the prevention of the presence of foreign agents in Liberty;
3. A specific date should be set for connection of water system to city water supply and electricity to national grid. Until that deadline is met, four generators should accompany each convoy of 400 residents;
4. Transfer of special vehicles for the disabled and their facilities and special trailers from Ashraf with 10 passenger vehicles and the necessary utility vehicles for each convoy of 400 residents as it was agreed upon in the February 15 letter of the SRSG;
5. The possibility of using cranes in Liberty for installing water tanks and sanitary facilities and transfer of a number of forklifts for each convey of 400 residents for transfer and relocation of heavy loads;
6. As it was agreed by the SRSG, sufficient number of Ashraf residents would remain there to protect and maintain the goods and belongings until the final settlement of this issue.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
April 22, 2012