NCRI – Lord Corbett of Castle Vale, Chairman of the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom, condemned the terrorist attack on a bus carrying Iraqi workers to Ashraf City of the PMOI in Iraq. His concern over the incident was raised in a letter to the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan sent today. The letter is as follows:
"I wish to convey my sincere condolences to the families of those Iraqis killed and to those injured in a terrorist attack on their bus on the way to Ashraf City, the home of PMOI members, who are part of the Iranian Resistance Coalition on 29th May.
"It is safe to assume those who carried this out were acting on behalf of the Iranian regime.
"Thirteen were killed and 15 wounded in the attack in Khalis, north-east of Baghdad. Those killed and injured had been employed for several years and as you may know, agents of the Iranian regime have carried out similar attacks over the years. In 1999 a bus on the same route was destroyed by a remote-controlled bomb, killing 6 and wounding 21. Next day Ashraf City was attacked by Iranian Scud missiles.
"This latest attack happened two days after a visit to Iraq by the Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. Our view is that Tehran is sending a message to the Iraqi people not to lend their support to the PMOI or they will find themselves targets of terror.
"The PMOI has protected persons status under the Fourth Geneva Convention, acknowledged by coalition forces. We request the Iraqi government to grant its members at Ashraf political asylum. It is the plain duty of coalition forces to provide effective protection for these people in compliance with their present status.
We similarly ask H.E. Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General, to request the Iraqi government and coalition forces to uphold the protected persons status of these PMOI members."
Copies of his letter was sent to the Iraqi President Jalal Talebani, office of the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, US Defense Secretary, US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, Dr. Nouri Al-Maliki, Iraqi Prime Minister and, Hoshyar Zebari, Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs.
