NCRI – Iraq must release the seven hostages taken captive during the Camp Ashraf massacre and be held to account for the 52 Iranian dissidents murdered during the atrocity, The EveryOne Group human rights body has demanded.
Pressure must be put on Iraq by the international community to free the seven before they are transferred to Iran where they face torture and execution, the group said.
On September 1, Iraqi forces attacked residents in Camp Ashraf, place of residence of Iranian refugees in Iraq who are protected persons according to Geneva Conventions, massacring 52 members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and taking seven residents, including six women, hostage.
In a letter to UN Secretary general Ban-ki Moon, the Italy-based organisation wrote: “We remain deeply concerned about the horrific attack on the residents of Camp Ashraf on September 1st. The perpetrators of this cowardly attack need to be brought to justice.
“The fate of the seven Camp Ashraf residents missing since the attack is also of great concern. Catherine Ashton, the European Commission’s High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security, alleged that there was reason to believe that these individuals were being detained near Baghdad and were at risk of being transferred to Iran.
“The Iraqi government intends to extradite them to Iran, where they’ll be further tortured and executed.”
The US, EU and UN are directly responsible for the hostages and must put pressure on Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki to free them them, the letter said.
It added: “The government of Iraq must be held to account for the assassination the massacre of 52 unarmed innocent residents at Camp Ashraf.
“Only with the immediate deployment of UN peacekeepers and a US monitoring team at Camp Liberty, can we be assured of the safety of the surviving camp residents.
“We believe silence at this point will only be depicted as a green light for further bloodshed against the defenseless residents of camp Liberty.”
The recipients of the letter also include Baroness Ashton, US Secretary of State John Kerry, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres and the UN’s Iraqi envoy Nikolay Mladenov.
