Iranian opposition’s Camp Ashraf attacked – Statement 60
Nouri al-Maliki, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces is responsible for the crimes committed against the defenseless residents of Camp Ashraf in recent days
NCRI – Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, in a speech at the Italian Parliament on July 29, described the attack by Iraqi forces against the defenseless residents of Camp Ashraf and the killing of 12 people, the wounding of more than 450 others and refusing access to medical doctors as a clear example of “a crime against humanity.”
Mrs. Rajavi reiterated that the Iranian Resistance, the wounded and the families of those killed will file a complaint before international tribunals against the Iraqi government and Prime Minister who carried out the orders of Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the Iranian regime, and directly commanded the attack.
The Iraqi forces, comprised of Iraqi Police, Army and Special Guard, attacked Camp Ashraf, where members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) reside in Diyala Province of Iraq, on July 28, 29 and 30, 2009, following a decision and direct order by the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Mailki. During the attack, the Iraqi forces used various weapons including fire arms, and so far 12 Ashraf residents have been killed, some 500 wounded and 40 abducted or disappeared and there is no information on their fate. Nine of those killed are identified and their corpses are in the camp. The rest are among the wounded abducted by the Iraqi forces.
Some of the other actions carried out in this period by the Iraqi forces include:
– Refusing entry of medical doctors and surgeons to Camp Ashraf to treat the wounded in critical conditions which has already led to the death of some of those injured;
– Deployment of various weapons to kill or inflict heavy injuries including BKC machine guns, hand guns, truncheons with nails and electric batons;
– Preventing reporters and journalists from entering the camp for impartial reporting;
– Widespread destruction of installations, vehicles, buildings, knocking down trees, and destroying and damaging more than 100 vehicles;
– Looting a large portion of belongings of camp residents and stealing dozens of vehicles.
PMOI members residing in Camp Ashraf were fully disarmed in May 2003, and there has not been a single weapon in the camp since then. Systematic inspections by the MNF-I which had official responsibility for protecting the camp until January 1, 2009 and the comprehensive inspection by Iraqi officials which took place in April 2009 have confirmed this reality.
The MNF-I on July 2, 2004 officially recognized PMOI members residing in Camp Ashraf as “protected persons” under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Each and every PMOI member after disarmament signed an agreement with the MNF-I command whereby the MNF-I undertook to protect the people in the camp.
Simultaneous with the transfer of security from the MNF-I to Iraqi forces and the signing of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the two governments of US and Iraq, various legal authorities in the US, the American embassy in Iraq, the White House, and the US State Department announced that the Iraqi government had committed to respect the legal rights of Ashraf residents and to treat them in accordance with international norms and standards. The US embassy in Baghdad, in an official statement on December 28, 2008, said, “U.S. forces will maintain a presence at Camp Ashraf and will continue to assist the Government of Iraq in carrying out its assurances of humane treatment of the residents of Camp Ashraf.” It added: “The Government of Iraq has provided the US Government written assurances of humane treatment of the Camp Ashraf residents in accordance with Iraq's Constitution, laws, and international obligations.”
Additionally, over the past six years since the fall of the former Iraqi government, the PMOI has had amicable relations with an extensive portion of the Iraqi people, with the exception of those forces tied to the Iranian regime. Some 5.2 million Iraqis in June 2006 and 3 million Iraqi Shiites in June 2008 announced their support for the presence of the PMOI in Iraq. Furthermore, half of the population of Diyala Province (450,000 people) and 1,300 tribal Sheikhs and 12,000 Iraqi lawyers and jurists have also reiterated their support for the PMOI. Democratic Iraqi groups and personalities, such as Dr. Saleh Mutlaq, leader of the Iraqi National Dialogue Front, Sheikh Khalaf al-Alyan, leader of the Iraqi Council for National Dialogue, Adnan al-Dulaimi leader of the Iraqi Accord Front, Ayad Jamalledin, vice-Chair of the Iraqi Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, former Iraqi Prime Minister, Dr. Nadim Jaberi of the Iraqi Fazilat Party, Iraqi Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi, former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zubaie, and Harith al-Dhari who heads the Association of Muslim Scholars, have reiterated that presence of the people of Ashraf falls within the framework of the Fourth Geneva Convention and international covenants.
Against this backdrop, the events of July 28-30 and the crimes committed by Iraq’s armed forces against the disarmed and defenseless residents of the camp amount to obvious acts of crime against humanity under various clauses of Article 7 ( Part II) of the Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Clause 1 of this Article states:
“For the purpose of this Statute, "crime against humanity" means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:
(a) Murder;
…
(h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law…
(i) Enforced disappearance of persons; …
(k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.”
It is therefore clear that the crimes committed in Ashraf during July 28-30 constitute examples of crimes against humanity in the framework of Article 7 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court.
With regards to paragraph (a) of the above clause (“Murder”), there is no doubt that Iraq’s armed forces deliberately and knowingly targeted and shot a number of Ashraf residents in sensitive parts of their body, such as their heart. Additionally, attacking residents of Ashraf with armored vehicles has no other connotation than a deliberate act of murder.
With regards to paragraph (h) of the above clause, there is no doubt that the inhumane attack took place because Ashraf residents had as their political beliefs chosen opposition to the Iranian regime. If they were not opponents of the Iranian regime, they would not have been placed under any restrictions.
With regards to paragraph (i) of the above clause, Iraqi forces have kidnapped some 40 of Ashraf residents. There has been no specific reason to justify kidnapping of these people, and the only reason for this was because they were simply accessible.
With regards to paragraph (k) of the above clause, it suffices to say that anyone who has seen just a portion of the footage of these attacks on the residents of Ashraf will have no doubt that the general expression “inhumane acts” clearly has as one of its main examples the widespread beating and murder of the residents of Ashraf, which has caused “great suffering or serious injury” to the “body or health” of more than 500 of the camp’s residents and has caused great suffering to the mental health of all the camp residents.
These actions have taken place by Iraqi armed forces personnel. Under that country’s chain of command as per Article 75 of the Iraqi Constitution, the Prime Minister is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and thus the entire responsibility for these actions rests with him. Apart from this principle which is recognized under international law, Iraqi officials have confirmed for a fact that this operation took place under the direct supervision of Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Mr. Hassan Salman, who heads the board of directors of Iraq’s press network, acting as the Iraqi government’s spokesman in an interview with Aljazeera television’s “Beyond News” program on July 29, said, “The Prime Minister is in charge of the operation and is overseeing it, and this is a source of pride for him since he is commander-in-chief of Iraq’s armed forces.” Furthermore, on the first day of the attack on Ashraf, the French news agency AFP reported, “An Iraqi army spokesman in Diyala said two battalions of 400 soldiers each plus 200 riot police took part in Tuesday's operation, which was ordered by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office.”
Furthermore, under Article 64 of Iraq’s Constitution, the President is the head of state of Iraq. Therefore, the Vienna Convention that gives the head of state judicial immunity does not apply to Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Therefore, there is no doubt that Nouri al-Maliki must be held accountable for all the crimes committed against the defenseless residents of Ashraf. This fact does not deny the responsibility of the commanders on the scene who implemented Nouri al-Maliki’s orders or those who personally or directly opened fire or fatally beat the innocent people. Specifically, in this chain of command, two people can be identified: Diyala provincial police chief, General Abdul Hussein al-Shamari, also known as Damouk, who was the field commander of the operation to suppress the residents of Ashraf, and Hassan al-Ameri, commander of the Badr forces, who was responsible for all the necessary preparations for this operation.
In light of what came above, the Iranian Resistance views it as its obligation to employ all legal experiences and expertise and refer to competent international courts to urgently pursue the prosecution of the above-mentioned individuals, in particular Nouri al-Maliki.
Judicial Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
August 1, 2009
