Home >> Middle East >> Iran  Email  Print Protection of Camp Ashraf residents Nasser Razy - 11/3/2008 We are extremely alarmed by reports that the U.S.-led Coalition is contemplating transferring to Iraqi forces the protection of nearly 4,000 Iranian political refugees residing in Camp Ashraf, which include 1,000 women, who are "protected persons" under international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (2 October 2008, written declaration no. 415), Amnesty International (28 August 2008 public statement), the European Parliament (4 September 2008 resolution), the International Federation of Human Rights (8 September 2008 statement), and the Jubilee Campaign (4 September 2008 statement) have warned that such a transfer would jeopardise the lives of the residents of Ashraf.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the UNHCR, and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), as well as U.S. officials who have been protecting Ashraf since 2003, have over the past 18 months declared that Ashraf residents fall within the framework of the "principle of non-refoulement" and protections enshrined under International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and international law.
Some 5.2 million Iraqi citizens and 3 million Shiite Iraqis have declared their support for the PMOI's lawful presence in Iraq , which they recognise as the principle bulwark to Tehran 's fundamentalist expansion in their country.
Some Iraqi officials and state media allied to the mullahs have threatened Ashraf residents with prosecution, extradition and even execution. At the behest of Tehran , the food, fuel, and medicine provisions to the residents of Ashraf have been suspended since 2005.
Under pressure from Iran , the Iraqi government released a directive on 17 June 2008 demanding that U.S. forces hand over protection of Camp Ashraf . It also ordered the expulsion of Ashraf residents, who are members of the main democratic Iranian opposition group PMOI (People's Mojahedin), from Iraq .
We strongly condemn this explicit call which violates the "principle of non-refoulement" and IHL. We note that international law prohibits the handover of "protected persons" to an authority which would seek to violate their rights.
Handing over Ashraf’s protection to Iraqi forces will result in further pressure on the Iraqi government by the Iranian regime to crack down on or extradite Ashraf residents, and it will give Tehran a free hand to increase its terrorist and military attacks on Camp Ashraf .
Residents of Ashraf, many of whom spent many years in the Iranian regime’s prisons, are sought by the regime and would face torture and execution if returned to Iran .
Transferring protection of Ashraf residents under the present circumstances violates the principle of non-refoulement, the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Refugee Convention, the Convention Against Torture and more generally International Humanitarian Law and international law and paves the way for a humanitarian catastrophe. We strongly urge U.S. forces for as long as they remain in Iraq to continue to protect Ashraf residents and uphold their judicial protection in the framework of international law. We also demand that the Iraqi government immediately lifts the "unlawful" restrictions imposed on them.
The British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom
14 October 2008
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Extracts of quotes from some speakers at press conference:
Lord Corbett of Castle Vale (Chairman, British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom):
There are two main issues that we are here to discuss this morning. One is the threat to the safety and protection of the residents of Camp Ashraf because of the negotiations going on between the United States and the Iraqi government about the status of forces there. The Iraqi government do not want a renewal of the UN mandate, but it not impossible that that will be done. And the second point of course is the continuing campaign to get the proscription lifted off the Iranian Resistance by the European Union. It only in the cookoo land of the European Union that Agricultural Ministers – yes, that's right, Agricultural Ministers can be persuaded to take a decision to endorse the renewal of the illegal ban on the PMOI by the EU. It is a complete travesty. It is a misuse of those ministers and I am ashamed that any of them from whichever country allowed themselves to be misused in that way. For God's sake, is there no one in there that has the backbone to say this is nothing to do with us, send it back to the Foreign Ministers. The Ashraf situation is menacing. Whatever the status of US forces is, it does not relieve the US of its duties under the Fourth Geneva Convention from agreeing to the Iraqi request that this be handed over and made their responsibility. The move within the Iraqi government to get Ashraf's protection handed over was because of Iranian pressure on that government, and there are a lot of people in and around positions of authority in Iraq who dance to the Tehran tune. And this is where the threat comes from. I don’t doubt the good intentions of many or most of those in the Iraqi government in that sense, but they are not in a position to give the absolute guarantees that are necessary; because it is not impossible to envisage a situation where Tehran picks a row with the fledgling Iraqi government – just remember there are elections coming up there due next year – they pick a row, throw their weight about, lean on the Iraqi government, and then as part of the process of backing down and doing something less they said oh by the way if you want us to do that, there is something you can do for us and that is to hand over at least the leadership of the people living in Ashraf City. It is perfectly feasible to envisage that situation happening, and before the world has realised what is happening, the leaders of the PMOI in Ashraf would be marched over the border with bonnets in their backs to the tender mercies of the mullahs.
There exist international legal opinions that say whatever the situation of the coalition leaving Iraq ; it does not relieve the Americans of their responsibilities. There is a real and menacing threat to the people of Ashraf should the coalition leave. If the agreement to transfer security leads to bloodbath, it will be a disaster for our government and for the US in that region.
There is nothing secret or new about why the PMOI should be on the EU list. The fact is that the courts had looked at all the evidence, including the classified material, and the result was that no one from the government side had looked at all the evidence.
The judgement about the Resistance belongs to the people of Iran . So take off the handcuffs from the PMOI, since the ban on the PMOI has had the most riveting effect.
Rt. Hon. Lord Waddington QC (Former UK Home Secretary):
The PMOI in Ashraf are entitled to protection under the Fourth Geneva Convention. The US forces are trying to hand over that protection to the Iraqi side.
However if the handover of protection takes place to the Iraqi forces, the Coalition will be in breach of international law. The Iraqi government cannot be trusted to give them the protection that they are to be afforded under the convention. They have ordered the expulsion of the group. What clearer indication is there of their complete disregard for international law and human rights than the denial of food and water since 2005.
I believe that the Coalition must immediately confirm so long as their forces are in Iraq , they must continue to protection Ashraf.
The PMOI in Ashraf are entitled to protection under the fourth Geneva Convention.
The EU is showing its contempt for the law in following continued proscription.
Rt. Hon. Lord Archer of Sandwell QC (Former UK Solicitor General):
The PMOI are spearheading the fight against terrorism.
The Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission declared the labelling of the PMOI as terrorist as unlawful not because of procedural issues but because of substance. The Court of Appeal gave a ringing endorsement of the POAC ruling. The European Court of First Instance in its ruling annulling the EU ban on the PMOI was quite clear. It said that the evidence does not justify what the EU was doing in banning the PMOI. More remains to be done. The EU Council has behaved unjustly. Demonstrations are taking place on a daily basis inside Iran .
The people who declared to the world that the mullahs were building a nuclear bomb were the PMOI.
We have to ensure that Ashraf residents are not thrown to the wolves. They have been found as "protected persons" by the American authorities. It would be against international law to return them to a place where they could be threatened.
Lord Wedderburn QC:
It took many decades and centuries for freedom and liberty to reach us.
My admiration is for those who are supporting the PMOI.
I congratulate the PMOI in their struggle for freedom.
Lord Clarke of Hamsptead:
Our government must take the lead in the EU to de-proscribe the PMOI. Ahmadinejad says he wants to destroy another state, Israel . Imagine nuclear weapons in his hand, it would be a disaster. The blacklisting of the PMOI was a goodwill gesture to Tehran .
Brian Binley MP:
The top Coalition commander in Iraq , Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, on Monday confirmed that Iran had stepped up its meddling activities in Iraq . The mullahs' elite Revolutionary Guards Quds Force continues to train Shi'ite militias to kill Iraqis and Coalition troops.
As Iranian-sponsored violence continues, there remains a powerful force in Iraq with far greater local knowledge than the U.S. military and anti-fundamentalist Islamic roots that has thus far acted as the principal bulwark to complete Iranian domination of Iraq 's political landscape.
The People's Mujaheedin of Iran (PMOI), based in Camp Ashraf in Iraq 's Diyala Province for more than two decades, is the main democratic opposition movement to the ayatollahs' regime in Tehran .
Following the U.S.-led war in Iraq in 2003, the group voluntarily disarmed and its members confined themselves to Camp Ashraf . From there, they rallied Iraqis of all ethnic and religious backgrounds to take a firm stance against Tehran 's expansionist policies in Iraq .
The group has been instrumental in providing intelligence to the West on Iranian meddling and arms transfers fueling the insurgency.
In what British and EU officials admitted at the time was an incentive to the government of then-Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, Britain and Brussels blacklisted the PMOI in the first half of the decade. But the UK 's Court of Appeal and the European Court of Justice annulled both designations, describing them as "perverse" and "unlawful." Sadly, the British government was shamed into lifting the ban after 35 of us parliamentarians took it to court and won at every appeal stage. The EU on the other hand has chosen thus far to completely disregard the rule of law. And the "perverse" ban on the PMOI still remains in force in an appalling fashion.
Last month an EU-wide committee was established at the European Parliament encompassing Europe 's greatest legal minds – people such as the noble and learned lord, Lord Slynn of Hadley – as well as parliamentarians from across the continent. The committee "In Search of Justice - European Committee for De-Listing the PMOI" is fast gaining membership, and putting legal and political pressure on the EU to lift the unlawful ban on the PMOI. This ban is being misused by the government of Iraq to crack down on the PMOI members at Camp Ashraf in Iraq .
In Iraq , the PMOI has won significant support, with some 3 million Shi'ites announcing in June that they were backing the group on the grounds that it acts as the strategic counterbalance to Iranian aggression and sponsorship of sectarian strife. Even though the PMOI is a Shi'ite movement, the group is very popular among Iraqi Sunnis who fear their country is facing a second "secret occupation" by Tehran .
Prominent Sunni lawmakers including Saleh Mutlaq and Adnan al-Dulaimi who heads the largest Sunni bloc in Parliament openly support the group's presence in Iraq , noting that the U.S. has designated all PMOI personnel in Ashraf as "protected persons" under international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention, meaning they cannot be extradited or involuntarily displaced within Iraq .
Despite this support, the al-Maliki administration, widely suspected of being infiltrated greatly by allies of the Tehran regime, said in June that it wants to expel the group from Iraq . This declaration is in breach of international law and the Principle of Non-Refoulement.
Regrettably, Tehran 's proxies in the Iraqi government have now stepped up pressure on U.S. forces to end their protection of Ashraf and hand over its control to Iraqi forces. Given the Iraqi government's public calls for the group's expulsion, such a scenario would be in violation of the Geneva Conventions and International Humanitarian Law, as it would undoubtedly lead to the massacre of the brave men and women of Ashraf. In the absence of U.S. protection, Ashraf would be left vulnerable to Iranian-sponsored terrorism.
Any hostile action toward the Mujaheedin in Ashraf may convince many Sunni leaders that the United States is impotent to prevent Iranian domination of Iraq , leading to a breakdown of their growing alliance.
A handover of Ashraf's protection would also tip the balance of power in Iraq mightily in favour of the regime, resulting in extensive repercussions for Coalition troops and our overall strategy in this fledgling democracy.
The Bush administration and any serious contender to fill the presidency should continue to guard Ashraf City against the mullahs' ominous desires, and by doing so guarantee this bastion of freedom and barrier against Iranian aggression and fundamentalism in Iraq and beyond.
Baroness Turner of Camden :
I would like to focus for a moment on the dire state of suffering the Iranian people are enduring. The regime earlier this week hanged another four people. More than 300 people were executed and thousands of students arrested since the start of the year. But despite the atmosphere of heightened repression, Iranian youths are ready for change. Millions like them demand the freedoms offered by Iran 's parliament-in-exile, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, and its courageous President-elect Mrs. Maryam Rajavi.
In June 2008, over 3,000 university students in the northwestern city of Zanjan held a very vocal protest against the regime. More than 2,000 students in the University of Tehran staged a protest on campus on July 8 which marked the 9th anniversary of the start of a student-led uprising across Iran . On the same day, separate protests broke out in Tehran ’s Daneshjoo and Laleh parks as well as on several other university campuses across Tehran , including in Polytechnic University - also known as Amir Kabir University – which has been a hotbed of anti-government demonstrations for over a year. More recently merchants across Iran have gone on strike over the government's abysmal economic mismanagement which is costing ordinary Iranians dearly. The regime is diverting burgeoning oil revenue that it should be spending on providing functioning hospitals and schools and a sound economic infrastructure to atomic weapons production and funding terrorists in Iraq .
In Iraq , the mullahs are providing insurgents with rockets and armour-piercing rocket-propelled grenades with which to attack British and Coalition troops to force them out of the country. The regime seeks to establish a dominion over Iraq; but, it has thus far been unsuccessful mainly because the Iranian Resistance, PMOI, which is based in Ashraf City in the Iraqi province of Diyala, has rallied Iraqis, both Sunni and Shiite, in their millions to stand firmly against Iranian intrusion.
It is very unfortunate and worrying that the Iraqi government under pressure from the mullahs' regime is cracking down on the Resistance members in Camp Ashraf , near the Iranian border. The PMOI in Ashraf have been the primary victims of the mullahs, but they are brave people who have sacrificed everything they have for freedom and democracy for the Iranian people. As had been said by the other speakers, I believe that the U.S. forces in Iraq have a duty under international law to continue to protect the residents of Ashraf, since they are the only force with the necessary capability to guarantee them safety from Iranian sponsored terrorism.
Lord Avebury:
The human rights situation in Iran is a disaster. There is a need for the maintenance of an opposition in exile represented by the PMOI. If Camp Ashraf is closed and its inhabitants sent across the border, then the inhabitants would be murdered. It is no good only appealing to the Americans.
Britain cannot disclaim responsibility for security of Ashraf because we went into the war in Iraq with the Americans.
Baroness Verma:
I worry about the plight of women which is why I became involved in this campaign. I have fought to maintain human rights. We must muster up all support across the world. I firmly support Mrs. Maryam Rajavi and the PMOI. She is the most charismatic leader that I have met. I know that she inspires women to stand up and fight against the regime. We cannot allow the policy of appeasement to continue vis-a-vis the Iranian regime. How can we appease tyranny after the lessons of World War II.
I will always be a supporter of the PMOI both because it is led by women and because I believe that Mrs. Rajavi will bring so much good to the world if she is allowed to play her right role.
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