Cordoning of a building in Camp Ashraf by Iraqi forces tightened
NCRI – Two weeks after remarks by Ali Khamenei, the clerical regime’s Supreme Leader, emphasizing the expulsion of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) from Iraq and implementation of a bilateral agreement between the Iranian regime and the government of Iraq, and pursuant to the attack on a building in Camp Ashraf and its cordoning which started on Friday, an Iraqi officer at 09:00 this morning started threatening the PMOI members at the entry gate of Camp Ashraf, beating and abusing two of them by the names of Abdulali Haj Mohammadi and Nouredin Navid. The officer used electric baton and handcuffed them but the American forces intervened and stopped him.
The Iraqi forces also refused to allow 150 Iraqi workers to enter Ashraf this morning. At 11:00 AM, the number of Iraqi forces surrounding the building was increased and the cordoning of the building which started two days ago was tightened. For the fourth day running, the Iraqi forces prevented trucks carrying logistics, commodities and also fuel from entering Ashraf. This is seriously threatening the water supply plant and the medical systems in Ashraf.
The measures adopted over the past four days such as cutting off supplies, banning visits and entry of workers to Ashraf, surrounding a building, handcuffing Ashraf residents and beating them with electric batons and various threats against the residents are in blatant violation of the Geneva Conventions, International Humanitarian Law, and international law, and are obvious examples of war crimes against ‘protected persons’.
The Iranian Resistance calls for urgent intervention by the U.S. government and competent international bodies to neutralize plots by the clerical regime and prevent a human catastrophe in Camp Ashraf. Those who order or perpetrate such criminal acts, in particular the Iraqi government’s National Security Advisor who is clearly implementing the dictates of Khamenei, must be prosecuted by international authorities.
Recalling the statement by the U.S. embassy of December 28, 2008, the Iranian Resistance reiterates the need to guarantee the implementation of international conventions and Ashraf residents’ protection by the U.S. forces in compliance with the U.S. government’s international obligations and its agreement with Ashraf residents. In order to neutralize the orders of the regime’s Supreme Leader, the Resistance also calls for a return to the situation pre-January 2009, i.e., the U.S. forces be tasked with the protection of Ashraf.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
March 15, 2009
