Euro MPs calls on the UN to have a permanent representation inside Camp Ashraf

Source: Friends of a Free Iran in the European Parliament (FOFI)
To prevent more atrocities by the Iraqi government, the Friends of a Free Iran intergroup in the European Parliament, consisting of many MEPs from different political tendencies, calls on the United Nations to set up a permanent representation inside Camp Ashraf in Iraq, home to 3500 Iranian refugees from the democratic opposition movement of the PMOI (MEK).
On 28 and 29 July 2009, the Iraqi police and army brutally attacked defenceless residents of Ashraf Camp in Iraq who were protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention. 9 PMOI members were killed whose bodies have not yet been allowed by the Iraqis to be buried. Around 500 were wounded including women and 36 others were taken hostage by Iraqi forces.
These atrocities were carried out at the behest of the Iranian regime and its supreme leader Ali Khamenei by the direct orders of the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, who must be held responsible for crimes against humanity.
Residents of Camp Ashraf are on day 15 of a hunger strike. In addition to Ashraf residents, supporters of the PMOI have gone on hunger strike in Washington DC outside the White House and opposite US embassies in London, Berlin and Ottawa. Many of the hunger-strikers, in particular the women, are in a poor state of health and some have been hospitalized.
As far as the Iranian regime-sponsored government of Iraq is concerned, attacking Ashraf means that this Iraqi government has tied its political fate to that of a regime which in the midst of the Iranian people’s uprising has no future.
In the months before transferring the protection of Ashraf we in the European Parliament repeatedly warned senior American officials about the consequences of such a transfer. This matter became so urgent that the European Parliament adopted a resolution on Ashraf on 24 April 2009 which should be the basis to solve the humanitarian case of Ashraf residents.
Ashraf residents, their families and hundreds of Iranians who are on hunger strike in different countries have called on the United Nations Secretary General to set up a permanent mission in Ashraf. Hoisting the flag of the United Nations in Ashraf is the only recognized international scheme to protect its residents under the international law.
Struan Stevenson MEP
Chair, Friends of a Free Iran in the European Parliament
August 13, 2009
Friends of a Free Iran intergroup in the European Parliament (FoFI)
Chair: Struan Stevenson (ECR)
Vice Chairs: Steven Hughes (PSE Vice-President); Soren Sondergaard (GUE); Jan Zahradil (ECR); Tunne Kelam (EPP);