Camp Ashraf military occupation- No. 108
Call for international action to lift medical siege
NCRI – Kazem Nematollahi, 51, who was an Ashraf resident with 22 years of struggle against the Iranian regime, passed away early this morning (May 29, 2011) in Baquba hospital after 9 months of suffering from his disease. His death was due to inhumane medical siege on Ashraf and continued obstructions imposed by the Ashraf Suppression Committee and Omar Khaled, manager of the torture center named as “New Iraq hospital”.
Based on specialist physicians’ prescription on 27 September 2010, Kazem should have undergone dialysis immediately; but it was postponed under various pretexts. The first dialysis was carried out four and a half months later on February 7. According to the doctor’s prescription, Kazem should have gone to Baquba hospital for dialysis twice a week. However, on many occasions he was prevented from being sent to the hospital by the New Iraq hospital whose only function is to torture the patients and wounded in Ashraf. Such delays and hindrances caused his both kidneys stop functioning. The specialist physician in Baquba was severely outraged by the hindrances made by the New Iraq torture center and protested its manager.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, warned on March 8 that Kazem Nematollahi’s kidneys were on the verge of dysfunction due to lack of treatment since a year ago. She reiterated that he needed urgent treatment by specialist physicians but the Iraqi committee tasked with suppression of Ashraf residents refused him.
On May 9th, Kazem’s condition became critical, yet he was denied being sent to Baquba hospital. Two days later when his condition was extremely critical, he was transferred to the CCU in the Baquba hospital. On May 19th, when the patient went to the New Iraq hospital to be sent to Baquba for the second time, Omar Khaled rejected his request while insulting him. After three days on May 22nd, being in extremely critical condition, he was transferred to CCU in the Baquba hospital. A big number of Ashraf residents volunteered to donate one of their kidneys to save Kazem; fifteen residents went to the New Iraq hospital to be transferred to the Baquba hospital to donate their kidneys, but Omar Khalid rejected them and told them to come later.
In his letter of February 1st to the representatives of the United Nations, Kazem warned: “ I am worried that they might continue these limitations and delays to the point when my both kidneys stop functioning…The lives of patients in Ashraf are of no importance to Omar Khaled, manager of New Iraq hospital that is under the command of illegal Committee affiliated to the Prime Ministry. Not only he does not provide any facilities for treating the patients, but on the contrary, every day he takes further measures to impose pressures on the patients and to molest them by obstructing their treatment.”
Earlier, Mehdi Fathi and Mohammad Reza Heydarian, two residents of Ashraf, had passed away in last December and January, after long period of suffering from their illnesses, because they had been denied free access to medical services due to hindrances caused by the Ashraf Suppression Committee.
While emphasizing that the Ashraf Suppression Committee and Nouri al-Maliki, under whose direct orders the repressive measures and Ashraf siege are imposed, are directly responsible for the death of Kazem Nematollahi, Mehdi Fathi and Mohammad Reza Heydarian, the Iranian Resistance asks for immediate international action to stop medical siege and to provide free access of Ashraf residents to medical services in order to save the lives of the wounded and patients in Ashraf.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
May 29, 2011
