NCRI – Inspection of belongings of the fifth group of Ashraf residents that began on April 27 upon the requests and agreements with the United Nations lasted for seven days until May 3 due to deliberate delays, obstructions by the Iraqi forces. The inspection of individuals that began in the afternoon of May 3, continued until Friday May 4.
1. In the group again, a number of patients including those who are paralyzed from leg or waist and require special treatment, refrained from going to Liberty due to lack of minimum required facilities at Liberty and the prevention of the Government of Iraq from transferring their vehicles and special trailers. This was despite the fact that in several letters and emails, the UN had committed to do its utmost to meet the humanitarian needs of the patients, but apparently the Iranian Regime has prevented Nouri-al-Maliki and his security advisor from carrying out their commitments to the U.N. during their recent trip to Tehran.
2. During the inspection of the fifth group, the Iraqi forces with insistence used recording cameras to take close up photos of the faces of the residents. This obvious espionage, that would result in arresting of more family members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran inside the country, was strongly protested by Ashraf residents. In November 2011, the Iranian Resistance provided the UN and the US authorities with a list of 177 Ashraf residents whose family members were arrested in Iran to.
3. According to the reports that representatives of Ashraf residents have sent to the UN, on Thursday, May 3, while the fifth group were ready for inspection at 8 AM, Capitan Ahmad, an Iraqi officer who is an agent of the Iranian regime, brought 40 agents of the mullahs’ Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) to the vicinity of the inspection site so they would identify and insult the residents and to throw stones at them. The MOIS agents were also present on the route of the residents to Ashraf’s cemetery. It is obvious that information regarding the timing of the inspection and move of the residents was already provided to the mullahs’ Gestapo by the GoI.
4. The transfer of scores of items and facilities that are needed by the residents in Liberty were not permitted. These items include Iranian flag, sleeping bag, wheelchair, plank, wooden board, paint, receiver, CD player, tape recorder, printer, copy machine, headphone, TV antenna, copier toner, wick, bicycle, shoes, and sports racket. They were thrown out of the containers before the eyes of the UN monitors.
5. During the inspection, the Iraqi forces stole many of the residents’ belongings, including home appliances, electric devices, mobile phones, and computer equipments. Many of the boxes that the goods were placed in them were torn apart due to hasty theft or due to being thrown on the ground. The UNAMI monitors took pictures of the half-emptied or totally emptied boxes or bags. The Iraqi forces tried to put the blame on innocent Iraqi drivers who were kilometres away.
6. All the reports of Iraqi forces, similar to their promises all totally false. For instance, in the beginning they asserted that there are complete and fully equipped trailers at Liberty and there is no need for the transfer of the patient’s trailers. Even the UN party wrote that the Iraqi party would designate a completely equipped trailer for each of the patients at Liberty. But this was devoid of any truth. Subsequently, the Iraqi commander dispatched a number of individuals to Liberty to take photos of the fictitious trailers and bring them to Ashraf to be compared with Ashraf trailers and equipments. On the next step, he claimed that the PMOI did not let his photographer and cameraman into Liberty; something that was totally a lie.
7- In practice, Statements and outright agreements reached with the UNSG Special Representative for Iraq and even the MoU signed by the Iraqi Government and the UN, has no value for the Iraqi side . The UN monitors who find the behavior of the Iraqi side irritating, cannot prevent them. The direct presence of mullah’s regime and their agents and spies in this project is becoming more obvious than ever. Such involvement is a red line for the residents of Ashraf and Liberty and all members and supporters of the Iranian resistance therefore they will never succumb to it.
8- The Iranian regime’s state-run news agencies, Fars and Mehr news agencies, by using their infamous agents in Iraq claim that all the movable and immovable properties of the residents in Ashraf belongs to the GoI. Fars quoted Adnan Shahmani, a notorious agents of Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp ( IRGC), as saying that the GoI should not adhere to the demands of the PMOI, specially because they have demanded that all their movable and immovable properties in Ashraf with their value reaching to 500 million dollars should be compensated by GoI.
9- Meanwhile Salim al-Jabouri, the head of Human Rights Committee in the Iraqi parliament announced that “there is no law or executive order that would allow the properties of the Ashraf residents be confiscated and such calls are not approved by the Iraqi Parliament or any other relevant bodies”. He also added that such moves, especially regarding the properties of Ashraf residents violates the rights of people and therefore it is not allowed. He said that any effort for confiscating their properties is in violation of UN conventions as well as human rights and Fourth Geneva Convention, because they are refugees in Iraq and hence we should adhere to these laws. Al-Jabouri called on GoI not to give in to the pressures by the Iranian regime in dealing with the Iranian refugees in Ashraf and Liberty as this issue relates to the internal affairs of Iraq.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
May4, 2012