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Imminent Human Catastrophee in Camp Ashraf

Shahriar Kia - 11/21/2011

On the 200th day of the Ashraf residents’ family members and supports’ sit-in in Geneva, in a press conference held in the city’s press club, prominent international jurists, human rights advocates and Swiss political and parliamentary figures strongly condemned the Iraqi Government’s illegal ultimatum to close down Camp Ashraf, home to 3400 Iranian dissidents by the end of the year. They warned that at the behest of the Iranian regime, the Iraqi Government is resorting to various hindrances to prevent the UNHCR’s work at camp Ashraf in order to set the stage for the massacre of Ashraf residents who are members of MeK the Iranian main opposition group.

Speakers at the press conference included: Geoffrey Robertson (QC), the British prominent jurist; and former Judge in the UN War Crimes Court in Sierra Leone emphasized the Iraqi government’s actual objective – which Tehran has enforced upon – is to kill time during the remaining less than 50 days by resorting to various tactics including the issue of the location of UNHCR interviews, or Ashraf residents not having the right to return to the camp after they leave Ashraf for interviews with the UNHCR. At the end of the year the Iraqi government is seeking to announce that the procedures have not progressed and the only solution is to close down the camp at all costs. This will mean the massacre of the defenseless Ashraf residents, a completely avertable humanitarian catastrophe.

In its recent general statement, Amnesty International also stressed that: Camp residents, for their part, contend that these interviews should be held at or close to the camp because they fear that their security and safety otherwise might not be guaranteed.

Amnesty International is also urging the Iraqi government to allow adequate time for the asylum applications of Camp Ashraf residents to be properly scrutinized by the UNHCR.

The U.S. Congress Foreign Affairs Committee adopted an amendment on November 1, 2011 to the bill of Iran sanctions and the need for the postponement of this deadline and held the U.S. government responsible for the lives of Ashraf residents.

The prominent dignitaries present at the conference called for the extension of the illegal deadline to closedown Ashraf; the UNHCR, UN, US and EU to immediately set aside the barriers for the UNHCR to initiate its process regarding Ashraf residents as soon as possible and reconfirm their refugee status; and UN monitors to station in Ashraf for the rights of the residents to be respected until their transfer to third countries.

Had the Iraqi government been looking for a peaceful solution, it should have accepted this request until the completion of the work by the UNHCR and the transfer of all individual residents of the camp to third countries. However, this refusal is exactly the policy of the Iranian regime to obliterate its opposition through the government of Iraq.