End the Camp Ashraf Nightmare
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A massacre of Iranian refugees occurred at Camp Ashraf in Iraq, and it could happen again. The world must not look the other way.
Photo by nukeit1 available under a Creative Commons License
Email to a friendOn July 28, Iraqi security forces attacked unarmed refugees at Camp Ashraf. Using guns, axes, clubs, and American-made Humvee armoured vehicles, they killed nine people and injured 500. Thirty-six refugees were taken hostage. American soldiers were present, but did nothing more than film what was happening. The Iraqis are still in Ashraf with nothing to stop them from committing further crimes.
The camp, located 100 km northeast of Baghdad, is home to 3,400 members of the main Iranian opposition, the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), including about 1,100 women. The residents surrendered their weapons to U.S. forces in 2003 after signing an agreement that stipulated in part that the Americans accepted the responsibility to protect them until the determination of their final status.
In February 2009, Ashraf's protection was transferred to Iraqi forces, despite the warning by parliamentarians, jurists, and human rights organizations that strongly opposed the transfer. Ashraf residents pleaded with American forces in August 2008 that they would have no security if their protection was transferred to Iraq. These warnings were not heeded.
Journalists are now barred from entering Ashraf. Lawyers who want to visit clients are not being given visas to go to Iraq. Two weeks after the attack, Iraqi officials will not allow residents to bury those who were killed. This is inhuman given the extremely hot weather.
Amnesty International voiced its concerns in an August 11 statement, which highlighted the killings and said that the 36 Iranian residents of Ashraf that are being detained by Iraqi forces risk being forcibly returned to Iran where they could face torture or execution. The detainees were reportedly told to sign documents written in Arabic, but refused to do so. They have sought access to lawyers, so far unsuccessfully.
American soldiers present filmed the events but did nothing else. They did not object during the attack or after, nor did they make a public statement about what they had witnessed. Their footage has not been released.
At a press conference on August 11 at the Press Club de France in Paris, David Matas, one of Canada's best-known lawyers and my colleague on the International Commission of Jurists in Defence of Ashraf, said that ''The United States, elsewhere in the world, condemns violations of human rights. It should do no less in Iraq when the violations occur in front of its own armed forces.”
Matas further said that ''I expect and hope that the U.S. would take note of and censure grave violations of the human rights of the residents of Camp Ashraf. But now that is not happening. We have to find others in the international community who are able and willing to do what the United States is not doing.
"Because the Iraqi police have attacked the residents of Camp Ashraf with impunity, an international presence is necessary to put a brake on their cruelty. An international presence, which can report publicly and objectively on what is happening in the Camp, will, I believe, serve to restrain the behaviour of the Iraqi police.''
The attack on the residents of Ashraf, who are all “protected persons” under the Fourth Geneva Convention, was clearly carried out at the request of Iran's Supreme Leader.
Matas has voiced what any fair-minded Iraqi, Canadian or resident of any country that respects the rule of law would have to say about the nightmare continuing at Ashraf.
A number of steps should be taken. The first needs to be the immediate withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Ashraf and the resumption of U.S. protection for residents. Lawyers, international human rights organizations, and journalists need to be given access to the camp and a UN Security Council or Secretary General representative should be there. Those who ordered or perpetrated the brutal attack must be prosecuted by an international tribunal for crimes against humanity.
The time to bring the rule of law, representative democracy, and human dignity to Iranians everywhere is now.
Re:Marks
“ In the statement72 of the NCRI’s secretariat on attack against Ashraf released on August6, it was announced that: “The experience of the past year has proven that the current Iraqi government does not have the capacity and qualification to be responsible for the protection of Ashraf residents. In reality, unfortunately, the Iraqi government implements the wishes of the dictatorship ruling Iran to suppress the Iranian opposition in Iraq according to [a] ‘mutual agreement.’ As Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, wrote to the US President on August2, the solution is the following: The US forces be in charge of protecting Ashraf temporarily until an international force under the supervision of the UN replaces them.”
“ A group of independent United Nations human rights experts voiced serious concern today over accusations of torture and rough interrogation tactics in connection with trials of protesters of Iran’s disputed presidential elections. The victims include lawyers, journalists and other human rights defenders, as well as members of the opposition who took to the streets to demonstrate over the results of the 12 June polls, according to the UN experts. “No judicial system can consider as valid a confession obtained as a result of harsh interrogations or under torture,” stressed Manfred Nowak, the Special Rapporteur on Torture. “These confessions for alleged crimes such as threats against national security and treason must not, under any circumstances, be admitted as evidence by the Revolutionary Court,” added El Hadji Malick Sow, the Vice-Chairperson of the Working Group on arbitrary detention. Foreign media have been banned from covering the judicial proceedings and it is unclear whether the defendants have adequate legal counsel, noted the experts, which also include the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya. The experts added that many detainees are kept without any communication with the outside world, without knowing the charges they face, medical treatment, legal assistance or family visits. The group said they continue to receive reports of people dying in custody, and whose families are given false or contradictory information regarding the cause of death.
“ Neither the criminal attack against Camp Ashraf and the cruel killing of freedom fighters, nor the brutal suppression of the Iranian people by the IRGC, the paramilitary Bassij, plainclothes agents and the State Security Forces (SSF) on the streets, nor the shameful and shocking physical and psychological torture of people in hundreds of prisons and torture chambers in various parts of the country, nor the calls of the IRGC and malevolent and corrupt Friday Prayer leaders of the regime for the arrest and trial of Karoubi, Mir Hossein Moussavi and other individuals of the defeated faction, will suffice to resolve the troubles of Khamenei and his regime which is on the brink of collapse. On the contrary, these will only invigorate the fury and hatred of women, youth and the general public in Iran against the regime and will strengthen their resolve to continue the uprisings against it. Addressing the international community and especially the UN, the EU and the US, Mrs. Rajavi said that they should refrain from further tying their policies vis-à-vis Iran and the region to this faltering regime. The continuation of appeasement, negotiations and concessions with this regime and any investments on it would have no legitimacy and is tantamount to participating in the suppression of the Iranian people. Such a policy will get nowhere and is doomed to fail.
Majid saatchi