inhumane medical siege on Camp Ashraf
NCRI – The Health Minister of Iraq has issued an utterly false report in a bid to present the ‘New Iraq Hospital’, which is exactly like a torture center, as one of the best clinics in the world. The report is published aimed at confronting the growing international abhorrence of the merciless attack of the Iraqi forces on Ashraf and their brutal behavior with the injured.
The letter written by the said Minister addressed to Iraq’s President, Prime Minister and the Parliament Speaker reads: “ Many official and non-official bodies and international organizations have addressed our ministry asking us to save the situation of Ashraf residents. They claim that the government does not provide medical services to them and the specialist doctors mistreat the patients… the goal is to mislead.”
Earlier, the Health Directorate in Diyala province had published a similar report titled, “ Annual work report of the New Iraq Hospital- year 2010”.
In response to the lies of Diyala Health Directorate, a group of Ashraf’s physicians and specialists have published a detailed report titled, “Medical torture of Ashraf residents- Hippocratic Oath Betrayed”. This report which is published as a book in Persian, English and Arabic languages has been posted on the Iranian Resistance’s websites. Only some points are pointed out below:
In his report, the Iraqi Health Minister has pretended the measures accomplished by Ashraf’s medical team, such as sending some patients to Irbil with immense expense, as his own efforts! It is worth mentioning that the usurped building, equipment and facilities of the “New Iraq Hospital” had been build, purchased and provided by the Ashraf residents.
As a stage-setting to prepare his report, the said Minister dispatched to apparently investigative delegations to Ashraf on January 3 and March 9, 2011. These delegations only recorded the remarks made by security forces and Omar Khalid, the director of New Iraq Hospital, without entering Ashraf and having any dialogue with the residents or the patients. Afterwards, a group of physicians and legal advisors of Ashraf residents, in a letter to the Health Minister, apprised him of the details of the medical torture against the Ashraf residents.
The copies of the letter were sent to the UN authorities and the Iraqi Parliament officials. Further, Iraqi jurists and doctors in their several talks with the Minister and providing documents and evidences to him, showed him clearly that what is being imposed in Ashraf by the New Iraq Hospital is nothing but the continuation of Iranian regime’s torture and suppression to subdue the residents of Ashraf.
Depriving a civilian community from medical services and supplies is a flagrant example of violation of Geneva conventions, the Medical Law, and many other international covenants. On the basis of the Spanish court ruling and the statute of the International Criminal Court, these violations are considered to be war crime and crime against the international community, and its perpetrators are prosecutable.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
April 23, 2011