Camp Ashraf military occupation- No. 50
Call on the US delegation to publish its findings in Ashraf and transfer the injured to Balad Hospital
At a time when widespread international condemnation of the April 8th bloody crackdown on Ashraf has exposed the nature of the dictator of the New Iraq and has drawn the ire and hatred of this country’s people and freedom-lovers the world over, Nuri Maliki tries in vain to set up pathetic displays and spread misinformation to cover up his horrific crimes. Especially after the visit by US forces to Ashraf on April 10th, where they saw those killed and injured, the Iraqi government’s deception campaign, which has been established in Tehran and Qom, has begun to churn out new untruths:
The day after the attack, Ali Gheidan, head of Maliki’s ground forces and the murderer of members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) in Ashraf, said: “Only due to the protests by the residents and their clashes with Iraqi forces, three people accidently died and 24 others were injured, most of whom will be discharged from hospital today, and 10 of them may have to remain hospitalized”. (Alhurra Television, April 9, 2011)
After Gheidan was globally discredited, on April 12th Mohammad Askari, the spokesperson for Iraq’s Defense Ministry, followed in the footsteps of Khomeini who used to claim that the PMOI torture themselves and blame the state, and he said: The officials in Ashraf “report a higher number of deaths and victims than the number announced by the Defense Ministry (3 persons) … We have information and reports that some camp residents had been trying for a long time to leave the camp and leave Iraq but were prevented from doing so by camp leaders. It is possible that they misused the change of military divisions on April 8 to kill these people”. (Al-Iraqiya Television, April 12, 2011)
On the same day, in order to counter international pressure, the Iraqi government announced it had set up a committee to investigate the number of people killed in the events of April 8th.
Simultaneously, Ali al-Dabbagh, Maliki’s personal spokesperson, in an inept manner told the Maliki-controlled television Al-Iraqiya: “We really don’t want to harm them … We don’t want bloodshed on each occasion … Thus we want to deal with them in accordance with humane standards and we don’t want to harm them. … We will treat them in a kind manner based on humanitarian laws and we will forget everything which has happened but we will investigate this issue. We will essentially investigate this incident”. However, his true colors were shown when the question of allowing access to independent fact-finding delegations came up. “There were also international representatives who wanted to visit there but we told them this is not an appropriate time”, he said. It would appear that an appropriate time for him would be when all the signs of the inhumane crime of Maliki and his cohorts have been destroyed.
But US forces who managed to visit Ashraf three days after the attack despite the initial strong opposition by the Iraqi government are aware of the extent of the lies that this government both mentions publicly and in private meetings.
On the afternoon of Sunday, April 10th, a US delegation consisting of senior officers, representatives of the US embassy and a medical team visited Ashraf.
This delegation of officers, embassy representatives and the medical team saw up close the corpses of 28 martyrs in Ashraf and took photographs and video recordings of all of them and further saw the bullet entry points and the cause of death of all of them up close. They had also seen the corpses of two others martyrs at Baquba hospital up close. Currently the corpses of six martyrs exist in the hospitals in Baghdad and Baquba, and Iraqi forces refuse to hand them over to their relatives and to the residents of Ashraf. The delegation spoke in person with some of the injured persons and those whose relatives had been killed in this attack.
The medical team which consisted of two physicians, one assistant physician and six nurses tended to 40 injured persons in Ashraf – 27 male PMOI members and 13 female PMOI members – and gave them some basic medical care such as changing their bandages with the very little resources they had available with them. Of these persons, 25 had gunshot wounds and 10 others suffered shrapnel wounds from grenade explosions.
The team said the actions of the Baquba hospital for the injured was very insufficient and unprofessional and declared seven of the injured, who had been sent back from Baquba hospital the same day, to be in serious condition and that the operations and treatment given to them had been insufficient, and transferred them to the US forces’ Balad hospital.
The medical visit which began in the evening of Sunday continued until 3am on Monday. But after this time the medical team said it would not see to any further injured persons. They left Ashraf at 5am.
Unfortunately despite the US Defense Secretary reiterating the need to see to the injured, of the 318 persons injured on April 8th, most of whom suffered direct gunshot wound, only seven were transferred to the Balad hospital and many of the other injured persons remain in a serious condition.
Unfortunately, following the visit the US military said in a statement: “we will only provide the results of that visit to Iraqi officials” (AFP, April 11, 2011). The Iraqi government should not be the final recipient of the report; rather the Iraqi government must be taken to task over this crime and its perpetrators prosecuted and brought to justice. Failure to make the report public violates the human right of all of the injured and the relatives of those killed as well as all other victims of this criminal attack and further violates the universal principle of right to information.
In order for all realities to be made clear, the Iranian Resistance reiterates the April 11th call by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi for the creation of an international fact-finding delegation to investigate the April 8th attack. It further reiterates the April 12th call by the United Nations on the need for an investigation by independent observers to record the facts surrounding the attack, and it calls for the immediate publication of the report of the US delegation’s April 10th visit to Ashraf.
The Iranian Resistance further reiterates that drops of aid and display gestures of assistance to resolve the situation of the 318 injured are insufficient. In order for more lives not to be lost and for more persons not to have to face long-term and fatal injuries, the Iranian Resistance calls on the US President, Secretary of State, and Defense Secretary to transfer all the injured and in particular those who are hospitalized in Baquba to Balad hospital for treatment until a resolution.
Not only does Baquba hospital not have the space and resources or expertise to treat the injured, but the injured also do not have any security there. The US medical team witnessed up close that on Sunday a large number of the injured were returned to Ashraf without the minimum medical treatment or the slightest improvement in their state of health and while in a serious condition. Yesterday a further 13 of the injured were in a similar fashion forcibly removed from their hospital beds and returned to Ashraf.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
April 13, 2011
