NCRI- Euro MPs have demanded that Camp Liberty residents be immediately returned to the safety of Ashraf in the wake of the deadly bombing which left six people dead and 100 injured.
The EU parliament’s Friends of Free Iran group (FOFI) – supported by more than 200 MEPs – called an emergency press conference today following the February 9 shelling of Liberty with 40 missiles.
Parliament president and FOFI chairman Struan Stevenson said: “There is strong intelligence that this vicious attack against these defenceless refugees was carried out by the terrorist Quds force of the Iranian regime with the help and coordination of the Iraqi government.
“Camp Liberty is situated in a military zone and one has to go through 7 check points to get there. This was a well organised assault which required Iraqi assistance to succeed.
“Iraq has officially announced that it cannot guarantee their security and cannot prevent further rocket attacks on Liberty. This is a clear indication of their ominous intentions to coordinate further attacks.”
The FOFI group said there were four urgent steps which must now be taken to ensure the safety of the 3,100 refugees living in Liberty.
The first step was to return the refugees to Ashraf, which is 80 times bigger than the half-kilometre square Liberty, before they are all transferred on to safe third countries.
This step was part of a Euro parliament plan of 2011 which was never implemented because Martin Kobler, the UN’s representative in Iraq in agreement with Iraq and in line with demands from Tehran, forced the residents to move to Liberty, the MEPs said.
Secondly, after a proposal by High Commissioner Antonio Guterres to Struan Stevenson in August 2011, all Ashraf residents submitted their individual asylum applications to UNHCR with the aim of having them declared refugees.
This has still not happened, and must be implemented immediately, FOFI insisted.
Thirdly, the EU High Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Baroness Ashton must end her silence and publicly condemn the regimes of Iran and Iraq for crimes against humanity in Camp Liberty, and she must intervene to mobilise the EU and the EEAS for the immediate return of the residents to Ashraf, and to assure them of their refugee status and their rapid resettlement.
Lastly, FOFI noted that the Iranian regime is in crisis and as the presidential election gets nearer and desperately needs to attack its main opposition. Time is therefore running out and as the threat of new attacks against Liberty residents grows, their transfer to Ashraf and their rapid re-settlement to countries of safety must be concluded without delay.
