Camp Ashraf military occupation- No. 36
NCRI – While international anger and dismay resulting from heinous crimes of Nouri al-Maliki and his forces perpetrated against Ashraf residents at the behest of Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is ever increasing, al-Maliki attempted to cover-up those crimes through smokescreen and a preposterous show.
At the order of al- Maliki –called by Iraqi people “Kazzab”, the liar– General Ali Gheidan who was present at Camp Ashraf since April 8th and personally commanded the attack on Ashraf residents, spoke from the occupied camp on Saturday April 9th and said: “We had two goals. One was to return the northeastern part of Ashraf to its owners…and the other issue…was to reduce the number of protecting units. Instead of being spread over 50 kilometers, I will control only 30 kilometers.”
In this regard, Reuter’s reporter wrote: heavily armed Iraqi forces “held the residents back from the media and pushed them behind a metal gate. Journalists were not allowed to speak to them… Reporters could only view the main camp from a distance… Little was visible apart from a mosque, whose minarets rose above the camp…” Reuters added: “The Defense Ministry took the visiting journalists on a tour of the camp perimeter, but only in the area taken back by the military which was largely a wasteland.”
During this preposterous show for cover-up, the perpetrators attributed burning of the camps and pre-build houses of the residents by the attacking forces to the residents themselves.
Such fabrications are made when according to the New York Times on April 9, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq said on Saturday that “the Iraqi government continues to block U.S. humanitarian medical assistance to the Iranian exiles of Camp Ashraf”; it also wrote that “anyone who attempts to take a picture of the clashes is being systematically attacked (by the Iraqi forces.)”
Using such ludicrous nonsense, Gheidan attempts to not only reduce al-Maliki’s guilt, but also to avoid the consequences of his own atrocities against Camp Ashraf residents which are considered war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against international community. Having already had a long record in killing of Iraqi people, Gheidan must be tried and bring to justice for attacking Camp Ashraf.
Such fabrications and lies by al-Maliki and Gheidan are exact duplicates of the lies by clerical regime in Iran and are reminiscent of Hitler’s and Goebbels’ lies. It is well known that Camp Ashraf is approximately 36 square kilometers and the surrounding land has nothing to do with Camp Ashraf.
The fabricated scenario of the land and the farmers is a big lie that the Iranian regime and its mercenaries have been working on from months ago to set the stage for the April 8th attack. On January 12th of this year, in a letter to the special representative of the UN Secretary General in Iraq and U.S. and Iraqi officials, the International Committee of Jurists in Defense of Ashraf exposed this plot. As stated in that letter, the regional residents were under extensive pressure by al-Maliki forces to claim that their farmland was part of Ashraf. The majority of residents in the region vehemently resisted such pressures.
According to available documents, since long before Camp Ashraf has been under control of The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), it was a military zone and there had been no claims on that land. The farmers who had part of their land in that area had been given equivalent land elsewhere.
It is notable that the al-Iraqia TV channel which belongs to al-Maliki and his group, after showing Gheidan’s smokescreen show of cover-up, broadcasted statements of an unknown individual who said: “This land was taken from us in 1947”, that is 74 years, i.e., during the royal Iraqi era and 21 years prior to coming to power of the former Iraqi government.
On numerous occasions, including on Wednesday April 6th, two days before the April 8th attack, Camp Ashraf representatives had told the UN and U.S. representatives that whoever had a claim on Camp Ashraf, the residents were prepared to review such claims at the presence of UN and U.S. representatives and were willing to accept arbitration of these two entities for solving the problem, and were even prepared to pay any damages or rent, or purchase it and register it as a UN property. This offer was highly welcomed by the UN and U.S. representatives as a practical and realistic solution. But it is obvious that the only thing the criminals were not, and are not concerned with is the fate of farmers and residents, as it is quite obvious that the way to solve issues related to land is via the court system and not through military armament, gunfire and massacre.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
April 10, 2011
