INTV, 6 Oct 2013
European Council – 30 September 2013

 
Brian Binley, member of UK House of Commons: Politicians from across Europe expressed horror at the attacks on Camp Ashraf, at the deaths of 52 people in that camp and in Camp Liberty and with the taking of 7 hostages who both the Iranians know and the US Government knows are alive and in captivity in Iraq, including my own government Great Britain. Washing their hands by trying not to recognize to horrors perpetuated by the al-Maliki government in Iraq at the behest of the Iranian government and here we have so-called president Rouhani working to on a charm offensive, which he hopes will allow sanctions to be lifted on Iran. And I can put my bottom dollar on the fact that if sanctions were lifted then the Iranians would immediately start or continue to work on their nuclear weapons program. The West cannot be gulled into believing that Rouhani, the voice of moderation so-called in not working at the behest of the supreme leader whose goal is to get sanctions lifted but then to continue with their nuclear weapons program. We cannot fall for that.
 

Tahar Boumedra, former UNAMI advisor on Ashraf: Council of Europe is the European institution that sets standards for human rights and humanitarian conducts of the states. And been in the Council of Europe, my message to them is that it is unacceptable to have witnessed a crime against humanity taking place in Camp Ashraf and their representatives in Baghdad are keeping silent. They must speak out and they must witness what is going on in Ashraf. They know exactly what happened. They know happened in Ashraf was an intervention of the Iraqi Army. It was a massacre that could amount to a crime against humanity. Seven people were abducted and taken to Baghdad. The diplomatic community knows exactly what happened and where they are, and yet they are still keeping quiet. So what puzzles me is why the silence from UN, from US and from the member states of the Council of Europe. They know the realities on the ground and they know that the 52 people were killed intentionally, premeditatedly by the Iraqi Army. The European community is in Baghdad and taking the lead in interacting with the Government of Iraq on all issues and I would urge them to raise this issue and to make sure that the 7 abducted people are freed and those who kidnapped them and those who killed the 52 people in Ashraf are held accountable. I thank you.
 

Lars Rise, former Norwegian MP: And as I am looking at the pictures of the 52 victims I see several of my friends, my personal friends of when I went and stayed in Camp Ashraf a while in the summer of 2005. It’s shocking and horrifying and especially thinking about how the US and UK spent so much money and resources and personnel in order to win the war in Iraq, meaning the Maliki government has been installed with the help and the sacrifices of the US military forces and British military forces and to see that they have helped the Iranian government, finally to have a strong impact on Iraq, as they have tried to get through generations. The urgent matter is to get the 7 hostages out of their arrest. We see that they are probably being interrogated in a very tough was and that the plan is to bring them to Iran. The hope is that when we see more and more documentation that actually Iraq’s security forces are behind this and that the ’Golden Division’ of Prime Minister Maliki is also behind holding and moving around the 7 hostages from place to place and more and more Western politicians will have their eyes open so that they can put pressure on their governments in order to have actions because we need action now.