Simultaneous with the nationwide uprising during the past few days that people have been chanting “Down with Khamenei” and “Down with the principle of velayat-e faqih (absolute rule of clergy)” that has sounded the death knell of the regime;
While the international community has condemned suppression of uprising in the strongest terms and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stressed that "The suppression of protests is escalating, it is much more serious," and has been “calling for respect for the right to protest that is also a fundamental freedom," and Amnesty International described “Human rights violations in Iran are now as bad as at any time in the past 20 years”;
Following the Spanish court’s acceptance of a complaint by families of Ashraf residents against Iraqi authorities for their crimes against humanity and its ruling that the residents are Protected Persons under the Fourth Geneva Conventions;
And after the Iranian Resistance revealed in its statement on December 8 that the source of criminal and terrorist bombings in Baghdad was the regime in Iran;
Tehran has once again issued the order for displacement of Ashraf residents and attack on them.
Accordingly, the Prime Minister’s remarks that were first published on his website said that: “The decision is to expel them (PMOI members) from Iraq. We would not let these people to remain in Iraq and when there is no alternative and no opportunity, we will implement the necessary measures and moving them to Nuqrat al-Salman is a step towards expelling them (from Iraq). Their presence at Ashraf is a major risk because of the historical ties with some groups and political powers in that area, especially the remains of the former regime and al-Qaeda… therefore the decision on their displacement is a stage and there is no need for a decision by Muthanna’s provincial council because the province is a part of Iraq and all the provinces must assume a responsibility towards any challenges.”
His remarks demonstrate that the Iranian regime has pressured the Iraqi Government to create another humanitarian catastrophe in Ashraf. The Iranian regime which is worried about the possible change of political balance against its interest due to the upcoming parliamentary elections in Iraq has made the suppression of Ashraf residents a precondition to its support for Maliki.
Mr. Maliki’s repeated fallacious claims against the residents of Asharaf, are merely a justification for further criminal actions against them. The ridiculous false allegation that the PMOI is associating with Al-Qaeda is yet another version of absurd claims originating from mullahs’ intelligence apparatus. Claims such as that Neda Aqa-Sultan, the martyr of the uprising of Iranian people, was killed by the PMOI and elements of the United States and Britain and also claims that the orchestrator of the killing of pilgrims in Mecca in 1987 and the bombing of Imam Reza shrine in 1994 and also the killing of Christian leaders in Iran was the PMOI.
The International Committee of Jurists in Defense of Ashraf has repeatedly called on the Iraqi government to bring its claims against the PMOI to an international court or authority for investigations to no avail. In February 2008, the late Lord Slynn of Hadley, a judge at the European Court of Justice and also Britain’s High Court, presented an extensive dossier of claims and actions by the Iraqi government against Ashraf residents to the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission and called for its intervention.
In view of the disastrous results of displacement of Ashraf residents which are not hidden to anyone; And noting the concern expressed by the Assistant Secretary of State for Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, in a hearing at the congress on October 28 stating, “We’re concerned about Iraqi desire to move Camp Ashraf to someplace else inside Iraq… they would try to forcibly move them to a different location in Iraq, and that could lead to bloodshed”, the Iranian Resistance calls on the U.S government and its forces present in Iraq as well as the Secretary General of the United Nations, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Special Envoy of the Secretary General for Iraq and all relevant international organizations to oppose any forcible displacement of Ashraf residents and prevent another humanitarian catastrophe from taking place against the unarmed and defenseless people.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
December 10, 2009