USCCAR Condemns Forcible Displacement of 36 Ashraf Residents, Urges President Obama to Secure Their Release

PRNewswire-USNewswire ,Washington, Oct. 2 — The U.S. Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents urges President Obama to intervene immediately to save the lives and to regain the freedom of the 36 residents of Ashraf abducted in late July during a deadly attack on the Camp by Iraqi forces.
It is past time for the United States to uphold the pledges it has made to residents of Camp Ashraf and hold the Iraqi government accountable for breach of its commitments to treat Ashraf residents humanely.
On Thursday, October 1, 2009, in defiance of three court rulings and a definitive opinion from the Chief Prosecutor, Iraqi forces raided the prison in Al-Khalis to take the 36 Iranians – on hunger strike for 65 days – to an unknown location in Baghdad. There is hardly any doubt that the September 14 remarks by a U.S. embassy spokesman in Baghdad that Iraq had the right to relocate the residents of Ashraf served as a green light for this move, which is a blatant violation of international law, and a mockery of Iraq’s judiciary. It confirms that the Al-Maliki’s government prefers doing Tehran’s bidding to honoring its obligations to the laws and judiciary of Iraq itself.
The transfer puts the lives of the 36 in serious jeopardy. They are already in poor health after a hunger strike of 66 days, and they will be at greater risk now that they are refusing to take liquids. The Iraqi Government may be planning to repatriate them to Iran, in further violation of international norms.
USCCAR deplores the fact that neither the White House nor the Department of State has taken any position regarding these blatant breaches of international humanitarian law, the law of human rights, and Iraq’s written assurances to the United States.
In 2004, U.S. forces signed an agreement with everyone in Ashraf including the 36 abductees, recognizing them as ’protected persons’ under the Fourth Geneva Convention. The agreement states that, until ’viable disposition options’ become available and final decisions are made, each person shall remain under U.S. protection.
The Obama administration should take action and fulfill these promises. Under international law, the hand-over of ’sovereignty’ to the Iraqi Government did not end the responsibility of the United States for the protection of Ashraf residents. Article 45 of the Fourth Convention provides that if the transferee state fails to honor its obligations, the transferring party — here the United States — must ’take effective measures to correct the situation, or shall request the return of the protected persons.’
The State Department’s milquetoast assurances that the Iraqis will do the right thing have done little to allay the profound concerns of families of Ashraf residents, on hunger strike outside the White House for the past 66 days.
Iraq must honor its solemn and enforceable commitments to the U.S. that Ashraf residents would be treated humanely and release the 36 hostages.

SOURCE U.S. Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents