In the fourth month of siege of Ashraf, Iraqi police fully blocked entry of workers and basic needs to Ashraf
International call to remove police from Ashraf and end inhuman blockade
NCRI – On Monday, June 8, 2009, Iraqi police prevented workers from entering Camp Ashraf for the fourth consecutive day. They were threatened and sent back. In the past five months about one third of workers in Ashraf who were about 750 at the end of 2008 were able to enter Ashraf after passing through various controls and obstacles but in recent days not even one worker could get in. Blocking the entry of basic necessities such as soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, glasses, ice cooler to store ice in 50oC and even sandals and socks is still continuing.
In the fourth month of siege of Ashraf, Iraqi police fully blocked entry of workers and basic needs to Ashraf
International call to remove police from Ashraf and end inhuman blockade
NCRI – On Monday, June 8, 2009, Iraqi police prevented workers from entering Camp Ashraf for the fourth consecutive day. They were threatened and sent back. In the past five months about one third of workers in Ashraf who were about 750 at the end of 2008 were able to enter Ashraf after passing through various controls and obstacles but in recent days not even one worker could get in. Blocking the entry of basic necessities such as soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, glasses, ice cooler to store ice in 50oC and even sandals and socks is still continuing.
Ashraf residents in their letters to international organizations and American officials have highlighted that the entry of the police to Ashraf while Iraqi military as well as American forces acting as observers are present, can only serve the suppressive aims dictated by the Iranian regime. This is while there has never been a security problem inside Ashraf since its inception 23 years ago. Last April a special police unit from the Interior Ministry searched the Camp inch by inch with their trained dogs.
Moreover, in April, all residents of Ashraf were fingerprinted and interviewed privately by the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights outside Ashraf one by one. They all stressed on their legal rights. Thus, in these circumstances, the entry of police to the Camp is totally unjustified, specially where some 1000 women members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) stay in there.
Fourteen parliamentary committees in Europe and North America as well as the International Committee of Jurists in Defense of Ashraf (ICJDA) and the International Committee in Search of Justice (ISJ) comprised of 8,500 jurists and 2,000 Parliamentarians respectively from various countries, have reiterated that the Iranian regime's goal is to cause a humanitarian catastrophe in Ashraf.
Last April, Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie, former Iraqi National Security Advisor, described the roadmap to this catastrophe in a televised interview with Al-Forat TV station and said: "Gradually security forces will enter the Camp and set up control posts, patrol the area, carry out inspections and attack …" Therefore, the Iraqi government is only leaving the Ashraf residents with two choices; death or kneel down before the religious fascism ruling Iran. But, as the PMOI demonstrated in 1988 when the regime massacred thousands of its members, Ashraf residents will never kneel down before the religious dictatorship ruling Iran.
Parliamentarians and jurists have stressed in their letters to President Obama that due to the pressures by the Iranian regime on the Iraqi government to suppress Ashraf residents (remarks by Khamenei on February 28, Ahmadinejad on May 19 and Jalili, the regime's Supreme National Security Council secretary on May 21, 2009), the only solution in present circumstances is for the American forces to assume protection of Ashraf.
The jurists have advised their clients in Ashraf that in the absence of their lawyers and while they are under siege and attacked by the police, not to sign any document or engage in any negotiations until the Iraqi government declares its compliance with the European Parliament resolution of April 24 on the humanitarian situation of Ashraf residents.
Families and the exiled Iranian communities, who enjoy widespread support among political personalities and various groups from Australia to Arab and European countries, and to Canada and USA, are passing their fourth month of rallies and protests in front of Iraqi embassies in eight countries. They demand the Iraqi government to comply with the European Parliament resolution, remove the police force and end the inhuman and suppressive siege of Ashraf.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
June 9, 2009
