Iraqi citizens protesting at the repressive policies of prime minister Nouri al-Maliki’s expressed their support on Friday for the Camp Liberty hunger strikers and demanded the seven hostages taken captive during the Camp Ashraf massacre.
Demonstrators held banners reading: ‘Enough of silence and inaction!’ ’90 days since the start of the hunger strike in Camp Liberty, they have reached a point of no return’.
Others said, ‘Those arrested in Iraq and the camp hostages were taken with the same goal. We demand their freedom’.
(see photo)
Iraqi forces under al-Maliki’s control attacked Camp Ashraf on September 1 and executed 52 members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). Many were killed while handcuffed.
In Falujah, protesters carried banners calling on international organizations to act immediately to release the hostages now being held in al-Maliki’s prison in Baghdad.
They urged international action to prevent the Iraqi government from transferring them to Iran to face torture and execution. The millions of antimalarial protesters also condemned the Iranian regime’s meddling in Iraq.
Prior to demonstration on Friday the 29th of November, dozens of Iraqi councils and organizations have called for the urgent release of the seven hostages taken captive during the September 1 massacre at Camp Ashraf.
The statements were issued by the Baghdad Council of Tribal Sheiks, Assembly of Iraqi Tribes, the Diyala province cultural center, the Society for Peace of Iraqi Women, the Center for Intellectual Iraqi Women, the Ashrin National Revolution, the Assembly of Fallujah Youth, the Club for Freelance Journalists.
They blamed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for the Ashraf atrocity and called on the US government and UN to first, exert pressure on the Iraqi government to ensure the health and safety of the hostages before their imminent release.
Second, send a UN monitoring team and a unit of UN Blue Helmet troops to Liberty.
Third, for the UN Secretary-General and High Commissioner for Human Rights to carry out an independent investigation into the massacre and bring the perpetrators to justice.
The statements said: “It is very clear to us after transferring the security protection in 2009 to the Iraqi forces that not even one person beside government forces is now able to enter Camp Ashraf. It is clear Maliki and Faleh Fayyaz’s denials are nothing but an attempt to escape punishment by the international court of law tribunals for this atrocity.”
