NCRI – In unlawful remarks, Iraqi National Security Advisor, Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie said that Iraq plans to move members of Iran's main opposition group from Camp Ashraf north of Baghdad to "remote areas" elsewhere in the country as it steps up efforts to rid itself of a major source of tension with Tehran, according to wire services on Friday.
"The residents should understand … that their days in Iraq are numbered and we are literally counting down," al-Rubaie told reporters at a news conference. "We will not use force … unless the residents use force against the Iraqi security forces. This whole process will be pain-free if they cooperate."
Al-Rubaie said that the group's removal was an important step in Iraq's efforts to improve relations with Iran.
"We want to create a network of interest between Iraq and Iran," he said.
The official said that Camp Ashraf has 3,418 residents, including 900 women, on 30 square miles (50 square kilometers) of territory, and also alleged they have been "brainwashed" and need to be "deprogrammed."
Following is the official reply by the Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Paris:
Remarks by Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie regarding the transfer of Ashraf residents to another location in Iraq are absolutely illegal. It is setting the stage for a human catastrophe. Residents of Ashraf will never leave their home in which they have resided for the past 23 years.
Contrary to al-Rubaie’s comments Ashraf residents stay in Iraq is absolutely in accordance with the law. They are protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention and their forcible expulsion from Iraq or their forcible displacement within Iraq is a violation of principles and well established international regulations and conventions including the International Humanitarian Law and constitutes a crime against humanity. According to Article 7 of statute of the International Criminal Court forcible displacement of a population is a clear case of crime against humanity.
Remarks of Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie in the past recent months against the PMOI and the Ashraf residents are entirely dictated by the religious fascism ruling Iran.
On February 28, 2009, in his meeting with the President of the Republic of Iraq, using a condescending tone, Ali Khamenei said, “…It is expected that you and the Iraqi Prime Minister Mr. al-Maliki seriously pursue the bilateral agreements and understandings … The bilateral agreement on the expulsion of the PMOI from Iraq must be implemented and we are awaiting this".
Subsequent to Khamenei's remarks, Hashemi Rafsanjani, head of the regime’s Expediency Council and a former president, went to Iraq for a week long visit to discuss the way to expel the PMOI from Iraq. Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie's remarks today coincides with visit of Ali Larijani, the speaker of the clerical regime's Majlis (Parliament) to Iraq and is solely uttered to please mullahs.
Al-Rubaie’s remarks describing the PMOI as a terrorist organization is particularly irrelevant. The PMOI has never been on the United Nations terrorist list and courts in Britain and the European Union annulled unjust terrorist designation of PMOI in seven different rulings. Britain and the European Union finally removed the PMOI from their terrorist lists. The United States government which has not yet removed the PMOI from its blacklist announced in 2004 that following 16 months of screening of every single one of the residents of Ashraf, the U.S. government acknowledged their status as protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Al-Rubaie ridiculously wants to eliminate the influence of 15 to 20 of the commanders of Camp Ashraf. We suggest that instead of reproducing the allegations made by the mullahs’ regime of a small group of the Camp’s residents over the rest of them, he should give free access to 3,400 Ashraf residents to the outside world. Al-Rubaie should provide free access to parliamentarians, political figures and members of media to visit the Camp.
Since 20 days ago, at the order of al-Rubaie a building belonging to hundreds of Ashraf residents including women has come under siege by the Iraqi forces. These forces have prevented parliamentary delegations, human rights organizations, reporters and lawyers from entering Ashraf. Logistical support and Iraqi workers have not been allowed into the Camp.
