Press release
17 February 2010
Call to stop cruel suppression of residents of Camp Ashraf in Iraq
The Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup in the European Parliament calls for the urgent intervention of the international community to stop the cruel suppression of residents of Camp Ashraf in Iraq, home to 3400 Iranian dissidents. As long-standing supporters of freedom and democracy in Iran and vigorous opponents of the Fascist mullah regime in Tehran, they have become frontline targets for aggression by the Iranians and through them, by their willing cronies in Iraq.
Since Monday, a group of people pretending to be members of the families of Ashraf residents, have assembled outside the Camp (North East of Baghdad), acting under the direct orders of Iraqi intelligence services who, in turn, are taking their instructions from Tehran. In a pre-arranged media circus they are claiming to be close relatives of Ashraf residents and say they are being denied access to their loved-ones by the Camp’s leaders. In fact they have no connection with anyone in the camp and are hired propaganda tools of the Iraqi security forces.
This crude attempt to apply psychological pressure to the camp residents is aimed at setting the stage for a further violent effort to close the camp and deport its occupants, who have become a key strategic target of the Iranian Fascist regime and their Iraqi puppets.
The issue became more critical as the Iraqi Government on Tuesday took a group of journalists, mainly from news media affiliated with the Iranian regime, to meet with the individuals gathered outside Ashraf and held a staged-press conference during which the whole deception unfolded. They told the journalists that the camp residents were unwilling even to allow their own family members to visit the camp.
In fact, the real situation is precisely the reverse. For the past 14 months, Iraqi forces have prevented real family members from entering Camp Ashraf and have not permitted any journalists to enter the Camp to speak to residents except during high-profile, stage-managed media shows organised by the Iraqi security forces.
The European Parliament in a resolution adopted on April 24, 2009, called on the Iraqi Government to respect the rights of Ashraf residents as protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention and demanded that the siege of the camp should stop.
The Friends of a Free Iran intergroup in the European Parliament, which includes many Euro MPs from different political groups and different Member States, calls on the US Government, the President of the European Council, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the United Nations Secretary General, immediately to intervene to prevent any further violent attack on Camp Ashraf and to demand an immediate end to the on-going siege which has denied access to the camp of medicines, doctors, food, fuel and family members, for the past 14 months.
Friends of a Free Iran
European Parliament
Brussels