After the gesture of goodwill by Iranian resistance to send the 6th convoy of 400 residents from Ashraf to Liberty next week, it is now time for the USA to follow Europe and delist PMOI
We had urged the Ashraf resident not to send any more people to Liberty because of its prison-like and terrible living conditions.
We have been critical of the repressive policies of the Iraqi government towards these Iranian dissidents in Iraq and for violating the Memorandum of Understanding it had signed with the UN envoy in Iraq. The 2000 Iranian refugees, who have already moved to Liberty, have to tolerate the notorious Iraqi colonel Sadeq who commands the camp. Sadeq has been responsible for two massacres in Ashraf in 2009 and 2011 and is indicted by the Spanish National Court for crimes against humanity. Under his command, these refugees been repressed and denied of their minimum humanitarian needs. As an example, even basic shelters to protect the residents from the blistering 50-55 degrees sun have been refused.
However we are extremely moved by the gesture of goodwill by Iranian resistance to send the 6th convoy of 400 residents from Ashraf to Liberty on 23 August as announced by Mrs Maryam Rajavi, Iranian resistance leader.
We therefore call on the US government to follow Europe and remove the main Iranian opposition, PMOI, from its list of Foreign Terrorist organizations. The Washington Court of Appeals has also urged the State Department to make a decision by end of September. Any delay in delisting PMOI will be taken as a green light by the Iran-Iraq regimes to continue the repression and killings of these defenceless refugees. As soon PMOI is delisted, the process of resettlement in third countries can go ahead. Delisting will also contribute towards the safety and security of the residents since Iraq has used the terror tag as an excuse to violate their rights.
Iraqi government must fulfil the 8 points minimum humanitarian needs of the residents as soon as possible. The European Union has been on the side-lines during the past year. We urge Baroness Ashton and our own government to call on Iraq to stop the inhuman actions against the residents. As a first step, Colonel Sadeq must be removed from his post in Liberty and should be prosecuted for his crimes.
We call on EU foreign ministers and Baroness Ashton to open the doors to Iranian refugees in Ashraf and Liberty to end this immense humanitarian issue.
Dirk Claes
Senator/Mayor
Leader of Flemish Christian Democratic Group in Belgian Senate
President of Belgian Committee of Parliamentarians for a Democratic Iran
Dirk Claes Burgemeester – Senator
Paleis der Natie Natieplein 1 1009 Brussel Beninksstraat 35 3111 Rotselaar
[email protected] www.dirkclaes.be
Background:
For the past 26 years, Camp Ashraf, north east of Baghdad, has been home to 3400 Iranian dissidents dedicated to overthrow the tyrannical rulers in their country.
Following the US-led invention of Iraq in 2003, residents of Camp Ashraf accepted – in signed agreement with US – voluntarily and full disarmament in return for US protection. But the US abandoned its agreement when it withdraw from Iraq in 2009 and handed over the residents to the pro-Tehran Iraqi Prime minister Al-Maliki who launched a repressive campaign against the dissidents. Ashraf was put under an inhumane siege and the defenceless residents were twice attacked by Maliki’s heavily armed forces which cost the lives of 50 innocent people and left hundreds wounded and many disabled.
Under UN’s insistence, and in order to avoid further bloodshed, Ashraf residents accepted to abandon their homes and move to Camp Liberty near Baghdad airport. There, the UN was meant to interview and find new host countries for them.
Five convoys of 400 people moved successively from Ashraf to Liberty but Iraq imposed increasingly repressive conditions on Liberty and turned it into a prison-like facility. When the last convoy moved from Ashraf to Liberty on 4 May, six trucks full of essential daily needs of the residents that had been thoroughly inspected and approved at Ashraf by the Iraqi government to move with the convoy to Liberty, was returned mid-way and never arrived to Liberty.
According to a recently published report by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the residents were subjected to humiliating searches when they transferred from their former home in Camp Ashraf and were denied personal belongings such as wheelchairs and medicines. They are now being held in appalling conditions with inadequate water, sewage facilities or electricity generation. They are denied the right to leave Liberty. Lawyers and politicians have been denied access to Liberty.
