NCRI – In report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression has highlighted instances of crimes against humanity committed by Iraqi forces in Camp Ashraf in July 2009, specifically the hostage taking of 36 residents.
Camp Ashraf, Iraq, is home to about 3,400 unarmed Iranian political activists, members of the main Iranian opposition, People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The Iranian regime has since 2003 pressured the Iraqi government to extradite the residents to Iran, where they could face torture and execution for campaigning for democracy.
Among other things, the UN Special Rapporteur notes in his report to the UN Human Rights Council that fears were expressed concerning the possibility of “forcible return of these Iranian nationals to Iran in circumstances where they would be at risk of serious human rights violations, including execution and torture.”
Baghdad has, at the behest of the Iranian regime, continued to exert inhumane pressures on the residents and carried out a deadly raid in July 2009. During the violent incursion, 36 of the residents were taken hostage by Iraqi security forces.
The UN Special Rapporteur’s official document, dated May 26, 2010, and circulated at the fourteenth session of the Human Rights Council, dedicates 10 articles to the case of Ashraf, recalling protests to the ill-treatment of the 36 hostages, who were denied access to proper medical care despite being injured. It also points to the continued detention of the residents by Baghdad despite judicial orders for their release.
The hostages were held for 72 days. Hunger strikes by the detainees themselves and hundreds of Iranian exiles in various cities around the world bolstered an international campaign which finally forced Baghdad to release the hostages.
The report notes that one of two urgent appeals was sent regarding the 36 hostages by the Special Rapporteur, Frank La Rue, on August 7, 2009, together with the Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel and the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
The August 7th appeal recalled that after being detained at Ashraf, the hostages were taken to a police station in the city of al-Khalis, “where they were allegedly beaten by the police with wooden truncheons and metal cables on their chests, heads and hands, which resulted in seven persons being seriously injured (broken arms, hands and fingers; fractures of back and head bones).”
They were later taken to the Iraqi army battalion compound just outside Camp Ashraf, “where they were put in a cell of 12 sq m.”
At least seven of the hostages “were found to be in need of hospitalization by medical doctors, but they remained without adequate medical treatment,” according to the Special Rapporteur’s report.
He also recalled voicing concerns for the 36 hostages “given the allegations of ill-treatment at the initial stage after arrest and the alleged denial of adequate medical treatment.”
The UN special rapporteurs sent another urgent appeal to the Iraqi government on October 1, 2009, where they noted that the 36 continued to be held “in spite of a release order issued by the investigative judge of the criminal court of Diyala Province.”
“The investigative judge confirmed, on 16 September 2009, his previous ruling of 24 August 2009 ordering the release of these persons on the grounds that they had no charges to answer,” the report adds.
While the public prosecutor could not object to the release without charge, the Iraqi forces refused to release the 36 detainees “for unknown reasons,” the report goes on to say. “It was further said that most of these persons [are] in a poor state of health and have been denied adequate medical treatment, and thus concern was expressed for their physical and mental integrity.”
On July 28 and 29, 2009, at the behest of the clerical regime in Iran, Iraqi forces carried out a violent raid against the unarmed residents of Ashraf, murdering 11 and injuring more than 500 people. The inhumane action sparked outrage among Iranians, European and American parliamentarians, and prominent rights groups such as Amnesty International. A judicial case was also launched at Spain’s national court in 2009 to investigate the Iraqi actions as crimes against humanity.
