The press conference was organized by the “Committee of Jurists in Defense of Ashraf Residents,” which is comprised of more than 8,500 lawyers in Europe and the United States.
The press conference was organized by the “Committee of Jurists in Defense of Ashraf Residents,” which is comprised of more than 8,500 lawyers in Europe and the United States.
The participants condemned the crimes committed by the government of Iraq and the person of Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, against Camp Ashraf as crimes against humanity. They declared that legal measures at an international level to bring the culprits of the crimes to trial have been initiated.
The lawyers said that it has been proven that the government of Iraq not only lacks the capability and competency to be left with the responsibility to protect Ashraf residents, but that sadly it has also decided to do the bidding of the dictatorship ruling Iran to suppress the Iranian opposition in Iraq. Therefore, they added, the solution to protecting Ashraf residents, all of whom are classified as protected persons under the Geneva Conventions, would be for the American forces to temporarily assume Ashraf’s protection until such time that they would be replaced by an international force monitored by the UN.
In the final days of July, the Iraqi government violently attacked the camp using deadly weapons and armored vehicles, which led to the killing of 9 people and wounding of 480, dozens of whom are in critical condition. The 3,400 unarmed residents of Ashraf are still threatened by criminals’ attacks and hundreds of them are on a hunger strike.
The President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, who attended the press conference as an honorary guest, stressed in her remarks that the Iranian regime’s leader, Ali Khamenei, desperately tried to compensate for his defeat in the face of the uprising of millions of Iranians and the unprecedented crisis engulfing the clerical regime by attacking Ashraf. The Iraqi government implemented those wishes. However, the plot was neutralized after Ashraf residents stood up to the attack. She said that the solution to this crisis would be the immediate release of the hostages, the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Ashraf, and the assumption of the camp’s protection by American forces until an international protection force has been formed under the UN watch.
François Serres, who spoke on behalf of the international committee of jurists, exposed the evidence of the Iraqi government’s crimes during the attacks on Camp Ashraf, as well as the violations of international law, including the fact that the majority of the victims were killed by the Iraqi forces using deadly weapons. He provided reporters with the agreements signed between Ashraf residents and the American government, in which the US accepted protection of the residents. He stressed that the US government has specific responsibilities when it comes to the residents but has ignored its obligations thus far.
Other speakers included Belgian Senator Anne-Marie Lizin, former Speaker of the Belgian Senate, Eric David, President of the Center of International Law at Brussels Free University, Yves Bonnet, former Member of Parliament and Director of the French Counterintelligence Agency, Mario Stasi, former President of the Paris Bar, and Gilles Paruelle, former President of the Val d’Oise Bar in France.
The speakers emphasized the imperative of the presence of an international force for protecting Ashraf and expressed worry about the fate of 36 residents who have been taken hostage by the Iraqi government while the Iranian regime is attempting through its proxies to get its hands on them.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
August 11, 2009