by Glyn Strong
“We’ve got to do all we can to raise awareness of this so that people will know what is going on – but more importantly, so that the Iraqi Government knows that the world is watching and that if what they did in July is repeated there’s going to be, again, a huge question mark about why British troops, men and women, gave their lives to give a new chance for Iraq to build a society that’s free and democratic.” – Lord Corbett of Castle Vale, 10 December 2009
Ten days before Christmas more than 3,000 people face eviction from their home of 20 years in what Labour peer and civil liberties champion Lord Robin Corbett has described as ‘a pact with the devil’.
The men, women and children facing forcible displacement are Iranian refugees, members of the People’s Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), a pro-democracy group granted safe haven under the Geneva Convention. They live in Ashraf, an isolated desert encampment 60km north of Baghdad, dependent on deliveries by road for its survival. Their forced removal comes with the endorsement of Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki whose website publicised a 15th December ‘deadline’ for the evacuation.
While the Iraqi Government now claims that ‘agreement’ has been reached with Ashraf residents the message from those inside is that this is untrue and they are under siege. For days deliveries of meat, vegetables, medicine, fuel and hygiene products have been blocked. Food rots outside the gates. Doctors and journalists are denied access.
To some Iraq’s fixation with a refugee camp in the middle of nowhere is perplexing and dismissed as a domestic issue. But as Iran’s nuclear capability comes under increasing scrutiny and Iraq’s internal stability is shaken by bomb attacks on the capital a bigger picture becomes clearer.
During Iran’s sham elections Ayatollah Khamenei officially demanded that the Iraqi President and Prime Minister agree to expel the PMOI from their country as soon as possible.
President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, in a message to British supporters, explained “Ashraf is the frontline bastion in defending democracy and human rights in Iran. If the regime is defeated in its bid to destroy Ashraf, it cannot contain the people’s uprising.”
Ashraf has achieved iconic status among freedom-loving Iranians, exerting an influence well beyond its geographical boundaries. Paradoxically, this was enhanced by the Iraqi assault on its inhabitants in July.
Mrs. Rajavi told British peers and MPs “The UN High Commission for Refugees, the International Committee of the Red Cross and UN Assistance Mission Iraq has warned repeatedly against forced displacement of Ashraf residents in violation of international human rights law.
“The mullahs are horrified at the rising protests. They insist on distancing Ashraf as far from the (Iranian) border as possible in order to eliminate the dedicated women and men who act as inspiration to the Iranian people’s struggle for freedom. The inhuman siege on Ashraf is the prelude to this plot.”
Speaking only hours ahead of the publicised eviction deadline Lord Corbett asked why the Iraqi president was so exercised about removal of refugees when the country’s capital, Baghdad, was being wrecked by explosions.
“Is this all President Al-Maliki has on his mind? The young, struggling democracy that people are trying to build in his country is still under threat from extremists and one finger we know is in that pie, determined to make life difficult for the new Iraq, belongs to those across the border (in Iran) who, in this pact with the devil, have demanded that whatever force is needed will be used against Camp Ashraf.”
Addressing a cross party assembly of MPs, peers and guests Lord Corbett expressed his disgust at the British Government’s inertia and lambasted Ivan Lewis, Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, who still regards the refugees as members of a terrorist organisation.
(In fact the “terror-tag” was formerly lifted from the PMOI last year by the POAC (Proscribed Organisation Appeal Commission). The then Home Secretary Jacqui Smith’s appeal against the POAC decision was not only thrown out but branded by the Appeal Court as “capricious and speculative”).
Lord Corbett said “I wrote to Ivan Lewis at the end of last month (November), to make sure he knew about the threat to Camp Ashraf made on the 29th of October. He treated with contempt the decision of the POAC and the Court of Appeal and the Council of Ministers of the European Union . . . . The FCO hangs on to stale allegations about the PMOI that have no current relevance. And in many cases the source of the allegations cannot be confirmed.
“When Ivan Lewis wrote back to me, on December 2nd, his letter didn’t even mention the threat to use force against Ashraf in 120 hours time. I find this shaming and I have written to tell him so.”
“I said please do not waste time repeating the many undertakings Iraq has given about its responsibility in ensuring the safety and security of Iranian dissident refugees in Ashraf. Its government violently breached those in a brutal attack on defenceless residents on the 28th of July; residents who offered only passive resistance against thugs in security uniforms who attacked with chains, axes, poles and live ammunition, killing 11 and wounding 500.”
To suggestions that there was no evidence Lord Corbett said “He has had – as have others in the FCO – a DVD of those events. And the Embassy in Baghdad has had copies of the DVD because I gave it to someone in the FCO who said his colleague was going out there the next day.”
Quoting from his latest letter to Ivan Lewis at the FCO he read “We will not support Iraq dancing to Iran’s tune. The UK is part of the coalition still in Iraq and silence on the issue of proper respect for human rights and international law is no adequate response. Your silence at this looming outrage will shame our Government.”
Frustration about FCO inaction and seeming lack of interest by the British media has baffled many people including Lord Corbett. His response to FCO appeals to ‘trust Iraqi undertakings’ is scathing: “They are not worth the paper they are written on. While the (Iraqi) Minister for Human Rights is giving these assurances to our Embassy Staff, the Prime Minister is making it clear that come December 15th, whatever force is needed to remove people from Ashraf and to raze it to the ground, they are prepared to use.”
And the consequence of further non-intervention is something he is clear about.
“If this attack takes place there will be murder in the desert. The only real way to stop this massacre happening – and that’s what it’s going to be – we really must see a UN force of some kind stationed at Ashraf.
“We’ve got to do all we can to raise awareness of this so that people will know what is going on – but more importantly, so that the Iraqi Government knows that the world is watching and that if what they did in July is repeated, there’s going to be, once again, a huge question mark about why British troops, men and women, gave their lives to give a new chance for Iraq to build a society that’s free and democratic.”
The PMOI opposed both the Shah and the equally undemocratic fundamentalist clerical regime that replaced him. In the 1980s they were accused of orchestrating a bombing campaign against new Islamist leadership in which many senior officials were killed. As exiles the PMOI were welcomed by former Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, who was at war with Iran at the time. He funded and armed the PMOI’s military wing, the National Liberation Army of Iran, which fought alongside Iraqi troops.
But in 2003, following the invasion of Iraq, the PMOI disarmed and, following an investigation by the UN in which every resident was individually interrogated, the people of Ashraf were duly accorded “protected person” status under Article 4 of Geneva Convention.
A US force was tasked with overseeing this, but its protection was withdrawn in January 2009 and six months later 36 Ashraf residents were detained by the Iraqi authorities after a violent assault on the camp. The attack was captured on video that showed Iraqi police and soldiers shooting and beating camp residents with clubs and chains. The film, shot by residents using mobile phones, recorded the violence that resulted in 11 deaths and many injuries. It also showed US troops looking on passively before driving away in their humvees.
The July assault provoked a worldwide protest and, in the UK, a 72-day hunger strike outside the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury and multi faith leaders from across London.
Although it resulted in release of the Ashraf hostages the victory was short-lived. Pressure to isolate the residents continued.
Members of the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom see the threatened transfer of the refugees to Murat al-Salman, near the Saudi border, as appeasement of the Iranian regime, the prelude to slaughter and the first step in exile or destruction of the group seen as a beacon of hope to dissenters in Teheran.
Former Home Secretary Baron David Waddington QC, a former Conservative MP, said “The Iranian regime continues to defy United Nations and world opinion as, hand-in-hand with the expression of dissent in the country . . . it carries on with its programme of uranium enrichment. How much longer can our government afford to tolerate this defiance which, if allowed to continue, will allow Iran and the mullah’s to become a nuclear power with weapons threatening the peace of the Middle East and far beyond?
“As to Ashraf; Britain and America have a special responsibility here and it is to restrain the Iraqi authorities from illegal action against the residents. There is no doubt that the people of Ashraf are entitled to protection under international law, as has recently been recognised by the National Court of Spain. What is clear is that if America and Britain do not act to bring home to Iraq its responsibilities under international law, they themselves risk having to accept responsibility in the court of public opinion for what may well turn out to be a terrible tragedy.”
“Already the people of Ashraf are being denied medical supplies and assistance – assistance even to those who suffered under the attack in July. Already there have been further cuts in the supplies of fuel, with tanker drivers attempting to get in being arrested and put in jail.”
Laila Jazayeri, spokeswoman for the National Council of Resistance, later issued a statement: “While the international community has been enraged by plans to forcibly displace Ashraf residents and Amnesty International has strongly denounced such an act, some international media have told the Iranian Resistance that the spokesman of the Iraqi government had told their correspondents based in Baghdad that the government had reached an agreement with the residents of Ashraf on their displacement, planned for December 15, and had obtained their consent. This claim is totally unfounded and untrue.
“It is only intended to deceive the public opinion.”
(Glyn Strong contributed this earlier article bringing attention to this tragedy and the Ashraf hunger strikers outside the US Embassy in London. -Ed.)
I can haz machine pistol please?
Excellent article by Glyn Strong.
The most basic indicator of a civilized society is its respect for the rule of law and the fundamental rights of all who inhabit it. Our government should maks this absolutely clear for this Iraqi government that they should put an end to this brutal treatment of Iranian dissidents in Camp Ashraf and recognise their rights based on International Law and Geneva Conventions. The residents of Camp Ashraf are all “protected persons” under the Fourth Geneva Conventions. We all know that Amnesty International, International Federation of Human Rights, World Organization Against Torture, and the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmund Tutu, have condemned the brutal attack by the Iraqi police at the end of July which resulted in the death and injury of a large number of innocent people. There is no doubt that the Iraqi government is doing the bidding of Iran since Tehran has made support for Nouri Al-Maliki in the Iraqi parliamentary elections scheduled for early March conditional on his suppressing of Ashraf residents. The Amnesty International blasted the Iraqi government in a very powerful statement on December 11 and said that Iraq “must not forcibly relocate” the residents from Camp Ashraf, where they have lived for 25 years. It added, “Amnesty International fears that forced removals of the residents of Camp Ashraf would put them at risk of arbitrary arrest, torture or other forms of ill-treatment, and unlawful killing”. I think Lord Corbett and Lord Waddington and their colleagues are doing an absolutely great work in defending the rights of members of the main Iranian opposition movement in Camp Ashraf and it is time that our government stands on the side of victims and not their oppressors and immediately intervenes to stop this humanitarian tragedy and puts pressure on the Iraqi government to respect the rule of law and recognise the rights of the brave men and women of Ashraf as protected persons under the fourth Geneva Convension.
Thank you Glyn for this thorough report. Lord Corbett of Castle Vale is trying very hard to stop this Genocide and your report makes it a public record. Disrespecting the international law and Displacing Ashraf residents will eventually choke the Iranian and the Iraqi governments. One truth told as it is in your report is able to erase a ton of lies as told by Maliki.
May God Bless you for telling the truth.
It is very encouraging to see good journalists like Glyn Strong focusing on such an important issue. I think that these defenceless civilians in Iraq must be protected and that Iraq stops carrying out orders of the most bural regime of the contemporary history who has no mercy even on children and women and who is suppressing young men and women of Iran. Well done Glyn Strong and well done Lord Corbett and other Parliamentarians who support this cause.
Very worrying!! I hope that everyone’s voice will be heard! Thank you Glyn for being the voice of the supressed!
Thank you all MPs and Peers for your help in the struggle for Freedom!
Thanks to Glyn and all others that trying to be voice of the people whom fight for freedom in Iran.
I hope your voice would be heard by the people whom are responsible in UK.
Thanks again Glyn and wish you succeed.
Thank you Ms. Strong for very excelent article, this issue is very important for all Iranian and freedom lover. Ashraf residents have right to stay in their camp, this is very clear, Maleki should must stop kissing mullahs hand.
many thanks
Excellent article by Glyn Strong,
I spoke to numbers of students of university of Tehran in Iran. They told me that Camp Ashraf is our hope for regime change. We need everybody support Ashraf because it is real support for uprising in Iran. Voice of Ashraf is voice of inside Iran.
They send warm regards for Mrs.Glyn Strong and her excellent article.
Hello-me freinds in the Iran they told me i tannks for yoy and your friends and your try for ASHRAF.
thank you very mutch for yor try and ze are victory.
Very important article.I salute the courage of Glyn strong. I hope the world will hear this warning and will react.
these articles are very important to reveal the threats of the mullahs regime which is facing uprisings and others crisis in Iran so they what to suppress their main opposition and accelerate their project of fabricating nuclear bomb.
SO WE MUST DO SOMETHING IF NOT IT WILL BE TOO LATE AND NO ONE WILL FORGIVE US.
Thanks a lot Glyn Strong for a great report.
Nevertheless the residents of Ashraf are protected person and their rights are protected by international laws. It is a well-known fact that the Iranian regime never has and will never respect humanitarian and international laws. The Iraqi government should distance itself from the clerical regime and deny its demands if they desire to achieve a democracy.
I am not sure how many people died or lost their lives in Iraq, regardless their nationality or ethnicity. My question to Mr. Obama or Mr. Brown is, so many people sacrificed their lives to have same inhuman regime such as in Iran. Do US and England leave Iraq to Iranian regime? Every one knows that the price has to pay by Mojahedin. The case is known to almost every one. If any things happens for Ashraf residences US is responsible for that. And thank you Glyn for your report.
I like to advise you that I am very pleased of your article. In fact that shows the consciousness of intellectual people in the world in one side, show the condition of innocent people in this unjust world in the other side. Surely this affect on Iraqi government and also Mullah Regime in Iran that there are many people in the world who are in the side of justice, Surely Iran will change very soon and people of Iran will praise you one day, Surely people of Ashraf feel safer more as they see people protect them like you which would be valuable for them.
God bless you, God Bless all.
Excellent Article
First I like to thank you for this article and UK progressive for Having such journalists . we need more Journalist like you in the word . we are all worried about them . This regime does not have mercy for the woman and children in Iran .As all world saw this regime killed peace full demonstrator like Neda. Imagine what they would do to the people who are fighting against this regime As your article said they massacre all of them if we be silent
Very important article.Thanks a lot Glyn Strong for a great report.
Many thanks to Glyn Strong for her detailed report, thanks to your website for publishing such a worrying story and even more thanks to Lord Corbett for fighting for the rights of people living in Camp Ashraf.
The world should know what price Iranians are paying everyday for their freedom and they are determined to get rid of the dictatorship in Iran and they deserve international solidarity with their struggle.
Best of luck to people of Ashraf and to your kind work in their defence.
Thank toy very much Glyn for your very strong report.
Thank you Glyn Strong for your article. It is very impotant that the Iraqi government have respect for humanrights after all that money we have spent on the Gulf War. The people of Ashraf should stay in their Camp Ashraf.
Hello ,and good day
I enjoyed many of your posts. Of that great human always see support for human rights, I feel very good. Thank you.
Thank you so much Glyn Strong and Lord Corbett for this great article and soppourt fromthis brave and intelegent freedom fighter for my beatiful country Iran.We need more poeple like you to be voice of this innecent poeple which the pay price of the freedom.We whant all our love ones to be safe at the camp ashraf.
thank you
Thank you for informing us on this important issue
Dear Glyn
At last!! A journalist with guts. Thank you Glyn. Your report is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Why is there a defening silence by the main stream Brithish media?
Thank god for people like Lord Corbett. The British people are well known for their honesty and integrity, and here we are a witness to this by the tireless work that Lord Corbett and maney others are doing for The freedom loving people in Ashraf.
We shall overcome.
My best wishes to you Glyn.
Thanks to Glyn Strong for an excellent report. The international community has an obligation to protect Ashraf for two reasons: (1) It is an excellent opportunity to show respect for the rule of law and the Geneva conventions, and (2) to stop or at least minimize the spread of fundamentalism and terrorism. The Iranian regime has been and continues to be the most active state sponsor of terrorism. It is trying to achieve its dream of conquering Iraq via which it could more easily and actively spread terrorism and fundamentalism. The presence of Ashraf in Iraq is a major road block for them. Thus supporting Ashraf means stopping or minimizing the Iranian regime influence in Iraq.
Thank toy very much Glyn for your very strong report.
My best wishes to you Glyn.
Great jog Glyn,
I still remember the lyrics of that beautiful song which said : honesty is such a lonly word every body is so untrue!and I am happy to see honest journalists like you are proving that honesty is not a lonly word any more and not every one is so untrue.Ashraf is that lost eutopia which is very real and very bright I am positive that in near future this will proved to the whole word.
may God bless you keep up the excellent job.
Ashraf residents are the only one to stand against fundamentalism,
Ashraf residents is the only hope of the people of Iran
Viva Ashraf
Dear Glyn
thanks for everthing
Dear Lord Korbet and dear Glyn Strong
Thank you very much for excellent report
I am an Iranian woman
The clerical regime has executed my father my brother and my husband and I am a political refugee in France
Thank you again
Thank you very much
Dear Mr. Secretary-General:
As chairman of a coalition of religious leaders from throughout the United States, it is my duty to inform you of our grave concern for the physical welfare of the residents of Camp Ashraf, Diyala Province, Iraq. Specifically, this past week, the 3500 residents of Ashraf—political refugees from Iran residing in Iraq for over two decades—have been threatened with refoulment—forced displacement—within Iraq by the government of Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki, in direct violation of their Fourth Geneva Convention rights to non-refoulment. Mr. al-Maliki’s government threatens to forcibly relocate all the residents of Ashraf to the southern Iraqi desert location of Samawa on 15 December of this year. We therefore plead with you to immediately use all the powers of your good office to convince Mr. al-Maliki and his cabinet to reverse their decision and rescind any plans to relocate the residents of Ashraf.
The tragic events of 28 and 29 July 2009, when heavily armed Iraqi police and military units attacked Ashraf, slaying 11 and wounding over 450 of the unarmed residents, causes us to take the Iraqi government’s threats of forcible displacement and relocation most seriously. We are well aware of the close alignment of Mr. al-Maliki and his party with the Tehran regime, and Tehran’s overwhelming desire to eradicate its political opponents in Ashraf. It is well within the realm of possibility that Tehran intends to use this illegal forced displacement to Samawa in order to see a repeat of the infamous massacres that Saddam Hussein carried out at the notorious desert prison Nigret al Salman and the surrounding desert in March 1991. Your aid is needed to prevent another possible Srebrenica massacre.
Dear Glyn,
I’d like only thank you for your remarkable article of Ashraf residance and the main Iranian opposition group of NCRI. And I realy glad that people like you are on side of those who their voice cannot be heard for ” many reasons”.
I also wish a happy New Year and Mary Christmas.
Hello my freids in ASHRAF camping,
I belive that ASHraf is symbole of iranien resistance against molla’s regime
Dear Mrs. Strong
I will appreciate your good effort and Lord Corbett on behalf of million Iranian youngs who bravely have revolted in many cities in Iran. I wish you visit our beautiful and great country in near future while the Democracy and Freedom is reached there.
Dear Glyn
Thanks a lot for an excellent article. I am baffled and confued too. Where is the UN? Where are the US and British forces who were supposed to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq? So many young American and British soldiers sacrificed their lives. They did that for a better future for the Iraqi people not for Iran to take over Iraq.
Mr. Al-Maliki has spent 8 years in Iran. He has travelled to Iran perhps more than to any other neighboring country. Why does the US or UK allow that? And now, why do they allow Mr. Al-Maliki carry out Iran’s orders in Iraq? Isn’t it strange that just months to the election Mr. Al-Maliki has nothing to do butto fulfil “mutual agreements” and promises made to Iran? why is Mr. Larijani in Iraq every other week?
I expect the UN, the US and the UK to clearly stand by their own principles and cut Iran’s hand from Iraq. This is not what the Iraqis were promised. A takeove by Iran was not the goal when invading Iraq. This should be clear to Mr. Al-Maliki. If he can’t stay away from Iran, he should resign!
God Bless you Glyn and Lord Corbet for bringing this important humanintarian matter to people’s attention.
Dear Lord Korbet and dear Glyn Strong
Thanks a lot Glyn Strong for a great report.
Very important article.
Thank toy very much Glyn for your very strong report
I wish you visit our beautiful and great country in near future while the Democracy and Freedom is reached there.
many thanks
Dear Lord Korbet and dear Glyn Strong
I Apreciate your best to defend those how are under pressure of Mollahs Rgim and the Agents of his in Irak.
For this you are the definders of truth and Human Rights.
Thanks for your eforts.
your sincfrfly
kamyab
Dear Glyn thank you very much for an excellent and very courages article regarding Camp Ashraf residents lets hope the power of humanity over come the evil,
Yours Sincerely
A. Nekooi
Thank you very much Glyn for this article which speaks its truth clearly and simply from the head and from the heart. I know that millions of Iraqis have pledged their support for Ashraf and see it as a beacon of hope for democracy, not only in Iran, but also for their own country, and are completely opposed to the current Iraqi government’s agreements to destroy it. We must all do all we can to keep Ashraf safe and, vitally important, to ensure that the coming elections in Iraq are truly democratic and that Iraq achieves a government that is properly representative of its people. If any harm comes to Ashraf, or the alignment of the Iraqi government with the Iranian regime continues post the elections, then it will be to the undying shame of the US and British governments and all those who claim to have”liberated” Iraq. God bless all those who are striving to bring peace to this world despite the worlds governments!!
Dear Glyn and Lord Korbet,
Thank you both very much for your courageous and definitely historical article published in UK regarding the situation in Camp Ashraf that certainly threatens its innocent residents’lives. Although they live in Iraq, however they are members of the Iranian society as a whole. Any support to save them from any harm will certainly be remembered for ever. It takes guts to break the media silence and supporting Ashraf residents, and you gentlemen did it. Congratulations.
Respectfully,
Reza M.
I must thankyou Glyn very much for this significant article. People must be made aware of this situation. These people are the hope for a free iran!!
God bless you Mrs. Glyn Strong, for your honest report. It is very encouraging to see that there are still a few bold and honest reporters who support true human rights issues and not human lies. In this struggle you will find people like yourself, Lord Corbet, and MEK in one side and Iranian Regime, Noori Al-Maleki inside Iraqi Government, and their direct or indirect supporters on the other side. Mrs. Strong I would like to congratulate you for choosing to be on the right side.
Dear Mrs Glyn Strong and Lord Korbet.
Thank you very much for this article and honest report which speaks its truth simply and clearly.
Thank you for standing by people of Iran and their main opposition group
to the most barberic government in the world in the history of man kind.
Dear Glyn
Many thanks from you and Lord Corbett for this excellent and important article
I and many of my friends and families are very glad to see that there are still grate personality who defends from justice and truth.
Best Regards