Letter to the Chairman from the National
Council of Resistance of Iran
We are aware that the Foreign Affairs Committee
has since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq kept an eye on the developments
in Camp Ashraf where some 3,500 members of the main Iranian opposition
group, the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI), are
based.
The FAC report of 21 June 2006 quite rightly
said: "350. Within Iraq's borders there are Iranian exiles
based at Ashraf city. They have protected persons status under
the fourth Geneva Convention. At a time of increasing dialogue
with the regime in Tehran it is important for governments of the
coalition in Iraq, and the Iraqi government, to reiterate their
recognition of these exiles' protected persons status".
Following the implementation of the Status of
Forces Agreement between the US and Iraq and the transfer of protection
of the residents of Ashraf to the Iraqi government, the Iranian
regime has stepped up its plots to have the members of the PMOI
expelled or extradited from Iraq.
Under pressure from Tehran, senior Iraqi officials
including the National Security Advisor announced in January that
Camp Ashraf will be closed down soon and its residents extradited
to Iran or to a third country. These announcements are in violation
of the rights of Ashraf residents as "protected persons"
under the Fourth Geneva Convention. They also violate the Principle
of Non-Refoulement, International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and international
law in general.
Iraqi forces stationed at the front gates of
Ashraf are refusing entry to relatives of its residents.
Dozens of relatives of Ashraf residents hoping
to visit their loved ones in Iraq were arrested at the airport
in Tehran on 16 January 2009, and on 19 February 2009 the regime
carried out a widespread swoop on the homes of relatives of Ashraf
residents in Tehran, making many arrests.
Enclosed you will find a report on the latest
developments with regards to Ashraf.
Given the imminent threats facing the residents
of Ashraf and Britain's international obligations and taking into
account the responsibilities of the British government, as a member
of the Multi-National Force, with respect to Ashraf, I urge the
Foreign Affairs Committee to urgently take up this matter.
I, further, urge the Foreign Affairs Committee
to:
— request that the Iraqi government recognises
the rights of Ashraf residents as "protected persons"
under the Fourth Geneva Convention in the framework of International
Humanitarian Law and international law and upholds their judicial
protection;
— call on the British government to live
up to its obligations as a member of the Coalition forces and
Permanent Member of the UN Security Council; and
— urge the US government to guarantee the
physical and judicial protection of the residents of Ashraf.
24 February 2009
Brief on Ashraf City, Iraq
The People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran
(PMOI) relocated from France to Iraq in 1986 after the French
government struck a deal with the Iranian regime over the release
of French hostages held in Lebanon. The PMOI's presence in Iraq
was conditional upon its complete political, economic, and military
independence from the authorities there and no meddling by either
side in the other's internal affairs. Both sides upheld this commitment
until 2003.
Prior to the start of the Iraq war in 2003,
the PMOI wrote to the US Secretary of State, the British Foreign
Secretary and United Nations officials, announcing its neutrality
in the possible conflict and that its presence in Iraq is only
to stand against the religious fascism ruling Iran. The PMOI provided
the exact coordinates of all its bases to the UN via UNMOVIC as
well as to the US and UK governments via Congress and Parliament
respectively.
However in the negotiations that took place
between the regime and the UK/US, the Coalition forces accepted
to bomb PMOI bases in return for no Iranian meddling in Iraqi
affairs in the ensuing conflict. Thus, US and British warplanes
heavily bombed PMOI bases repeatedly. Some 50 PMOI members, including
several women died as a result of the bombings and many more sustained
serious injuries. However, in accordance with the Order they had
received from Mr. Massoud Rajavi, they resisted from firing back
even in self defence. The PMOI did not fire a single bullet in
the course of the war.
US forces subsequently signed a ceasefire agreement
with the PMOI on 15 April 2003. On 10 May 2003, the PMOI voluntarily
handed over all its weapons, including heavy-weapons, medium-weapons
and personal weapons, to US forces and consolidated all its personnel
in Camp Ashraf, some 100 kilometres north of Baghdad. Subsequently,
US forces undertook the protection of members of the PMOI residing
in Ashraf. General Raymond Odierno and Ms. Mojgan Parsai (then
PMOI Secretary General) led the negotiating teams for the US and
PMOI sides respectively. (Enclosure 1: Remarks by General Odierno
to the French news agency AFP[108])
Simultaneously, various US agencies began conducting
a thorough investigation into the residents of Ashraf. Each and
every PMOI member there signed an agreement with Coalition forces—or
the Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I)—denouncing violence
and terrorism. (Enclosure 2: Text of agreement) Senior US officials
subsequently announced that a 16-month review by the United States
had found no basis to charge any PMOI member. (Enclosure 3: Article
in the New York Times on July 27, 2004) MNF-I and US forces formally
announced that PMOI members are "protected persons"
under the Fourth Geneva Convention. (Enclosure 4: Statement by
the MNF-I commander on the status of PMOI members[109])
Thus, US forces, which since 2003 were obligated
to protect Ashraf residents because of their bilateral agreement,
were from this point onwards further obligated to provide this
protection because of the Fourth Geneva Convention and relevant
points of international law. In short, US forces assumed responsibility
for the protection of the residents of Ashraf both because of
their bilateral agreement and their obligations to international
law.
Prominent jurists in the US, Europe and Iraq
believe that with the termination of the UN Security Council resolution
authorizing US presence in Iraq and the signing of the Status
of Forces Agreement between the US and Iraq, neither of the two
above reasonings have ended and the US must continue to protect
the PMOI. This is especially so since the Iraqi government and
its security forces are clearly influenced by the Iranian regime
and a transfer of Ashraf's protection to Iraq would lead to great
dangers. (Enclosures 5 and 6: Letter of European Parliament Vice
President Alejo Vidal-Quadras to UN Secretary General and legal
opinion of Prof. Eric David[110])
Numerous international bodies and organisations
have called on US forces to continue protecting Ashraf residents.
These include the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
which in a resolution on 2 October 2008 said: "Transferring
protection of Ashraf under the present circumstances violates
the principle of non-refoulement, the Fourth Geneva Convention,
the Refugee Convention, the Convention Against Torture, IHL and
International Law and would result in a humanitarian catastrophe,
thus we urge US forces for as long as they remain in Iraq to continue
to protect Ashraf residents and uphold their judicial protection
under international law". (Enclosure 7: Full text of resolution
by PACE[111])
In spite of the above, under pressure from the
Iranian regime and its proxies in the Iraqi government, the US
handed over protection to Iraqi forces as of 1 January 2009. At
the same time the US in various declarations including a 28 December
2008 statement by its embassy in Baghdad announced:
1 The Iraqi government has given assurances to
respect the rights of the PMOI.
2 US forces will monitor the protection of Ashraf
residents and respect for their rights.
However, since the day the transfer took place,
Iraqi forces have placed new restrictions on the residents of
Ashraf and have turned this place effectively into a prison. Iraq's
National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said in a statement
on 21 December 2008 that PMOI members must leave Iraq. (Enclosure
8: Statement by Mowaffaq al-Rubaie's Office[112])
While on a trip to Iran on 23 January, al-Rubaie announced: "The
more than 3,000 residents of Camp Ashraf must leave Iraq. This
camp will be closed down in two months... The only options available
to them is to return to Iran or choose another country... Iraq
will extradite some of these individuals to Iran to face prosecution".
Al-Rubaie has repeated this stance in numerous statements and
interviews both in Iran and Iraq. (Enclosure 9: Excerpts of remarks
by al-Rubaie[113])
From 1 January 2009, Iraqi forces have prohibited
any foreigner from travelling into Ashraf. This cruel action also
applies to the relatives of the residents of Ashraf. In February
2009, 18 relatives of some of the residents were detained in two
small trailers outside the camp in adverse weather conditions
for over a week until they were eventually forced to return to
Iran once their visas expired. Among them were children of 5,
10, 11, and 16 years of age and elderly parents in their 50s.
Iraqi forces denied the relatives entry to the
camp on the orders of Mr al-Rubaie. In a bid to intimidate them,
the security guards often loaded their guns in the middle of the
night.
These inhumane restrictions are taking place
despite the fact that for the past six years relatives of PMOI
members coming from Iran and elsewhere had been visiting their
loved ones in Ashraf freely, often staying there for several days.
The regime is also putting immense pressure
on relatives of Ashraf residents in Iran. Dozens of elderly parents
of members of the PMOI who were planning to visit their loved
ones in Ashraf were on 16 January 2009 detained at Tehran Airport
by suppressive forces and transferred to solitary cells in Ward
209 of Tehran's notorious Evin Prison. Some of those arrested
are aged upward of 80 years. On 19 February 2009, the homes of
many relatives of Ashraf residents in Tehran were raided, and
many elderly parents and young children were beaten and a large
number arrested.
Since September 2005 the Iraqi government has
cut off food, fuel and medicine rations to Ashraf residents. The
residents are forced to buy these items on the black-market for,
at times, 20 times the regular market price, and in many instances
they are left without basic commodities. In paragraph 7 of a resolution
on Iraq, adopted unanimously on 12 July 2007, the European Parliament
declared that it: "Strongly rejects the threats of expulsion
and cutting off supplies of fuel and drinking water made by some
senior officials in the Iraqi Government against 4000 members
of the Iranian opposition who have been political refugees in
Iraq for the past 20 years and have the legal status of `Protected
persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention' and calls on the Iraqi
Government to respect their rights under international law".
The Iranian regime is doing everything it can
to force the Iraqi government to expel or extradite the residents
of Ashraf. It hopes to both destroy its main opposition movement
and close down Ashraf, which represents the greatest political,
social, religious and cultural counterweight to its religious
fundamentalism and influence on Iraq. In previous years, the regime
tried to deceive the US into increasing pressures on the residents
of Ashraf. Now it is trying to destroy Ashraf altogether with
the help of the Iraqi government and its proxies in Iraq.
Ashraf enjoys widespread support among the Iraqi
population and Sheikhs as well as politicians who are not under
the influence of the Iranian regime. Some 5.2 million Iraqis in
2006 signed a statement in support of the residents of Ashraf.
Similar statements were signed by three million Iraqi Shiites
in 2008, 12,000 Iraqi lawyers and jurists and numerous Iraqi leaders.
(Enclosure 10: Statements by Iraqis is support of Ashraf residents[114])
Ashraf is supported on the international scene
by more than 2,000 MPs from the European committee "In Search
of Justice" and eight Parliamentary committees from the national
parliaments of EU member states as well as human rights organisations.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees, UNAMI, Amnesty International,
the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe and others have urged the US and Iraq to recognise the
rights of Ashraf residents in the framework of International Humanitarian
Law (IHL), international law, the Principle of Non-Refoulement
and Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions.
The British government as the second leading
member of the Coalition force, or Multi-National Force-Iraq, is
duty-bound to respect the provisions to which these forces committed
themselves in 2003-04. Britain's international obligations, including
its obligations to the Geneva Conventions, the Principle of Non-Refoulement
and International Humanitarian Law, make this country responsible
towards the situation of Ashraf. Therefore the British government
cannot remain indifferent to the increasing threats against the
more than 3,500 residents of Ashraf.
108 Not printed. Back
109
Not printed. Back
110
Not printed. Back
111
Not printed. Back
112
Not printed. Back
113
Not printed. Back
114
Not printed. Back
| 
