NCRI – Concerned with the latest terrorist operation by the clerical regime in Iraq where dozens of local laborers working for the People’s Mojahedin in Ashraf City were killed or wounded on May 29, the President of the International Sacharov Committee, Hans Kristian Neerskov, wrote to the UN Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan, to urge him to ensure that PMOI members’ status in Iraq is respected by the Iraqi government. The following are excerpts from his letter:
"Since the PMOI is the major obstacle to the Iranian regime’s export of fundamentalism and terrorism, they have embarked on an extensive campaign to force extradition or expulsion of PMOI members in Iraq.
"In late April 2006, in an official memo by their ambassador in Baghdad to Iraq’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tehran regime voiced protest over the extensive support by Iraqi personalities, parties, tribes and citizens for the Mojahedin and demanded that the PMOI be deprived of their rights to free speech.
"I also joined numerous personalities and political circles in Iraq as well as personalities and parliamentarians in Europe and the United States to condemn this action and underscored the rights of the PMOI personnel in Ashraf City as protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
"Now that all these schemes have proven futile, they seem to have launched on a new scale of crimes, i.e. terrorizing the Iraqi citizens who have lent their support to the PMOI.
"This new terror campaign requires our immediate attention. Therefore I am writing to call on the General Secretary of the United Nations to ensure that PMOI members in Iraq be granted political asylum by the Iraqi government.
"This will be an essential element in achieving calm and security in Iraq, and in preventing Tehran regime from committing further crimes in that country."
