By Nima Sharif
Stop Fundamentalism, 3 Dec 2011 – The 3400 residents of Camp Ashraf in Iraq, for over 2 years have been subjected to the most inhumane treatments ever perpetrated against a group of refugees by the Iraqi government and its forces.  While they are facing the year-end deadline declared by Nouri al-Maliki for closing their camp, which would mean a possible genocide is about three weeks away with the whole community in danger of being wiped out, the residents know for a fact that absent of international protections and guarantees, the only place for them in Iraq offering some degree of safety is where they are right now, Camp Ashraf.  Displacement inside Iraq is meaningless, illogical and most dangerous and Ashraf residents will not accept it.
Beside the two military assaults on the unarmed residents of the camp leading to 47 deaths among them and hundreds of injuries, they have endured ongoing threats and abusive language being blurt, around the clock, over 300 loudspeakers installed at the camp by Iraqis.  Iraq has also imposed a blockade of food, medicine, fuel and other supplies on the camp and has denied the residents’ visitation by families and friends, lawyers, and Parliamentary delegations from US and EU.

The government of Iraq took over protection of the camp in 2009 from Americans giving written assurances that it will protect the residents and treat them humanely.  But since the takeover, the Iraqis have acted more like prison-keepers, butchers, and torturers rather than protectors.
The residents of Camp Ashraf are exile Iranian dissidents.  Their friends and families were subject to torture and execution in Iran.  Now in Iraq, they are being subjected to the same treatment and are facing genocide by the Iraqi government at the end of this year.  If these people by definition cannot be considered political refugees, then who in this world can be?
While the critical situation calls for a group determination by the United Nations Refugee agency, UNHCR, the residents have accepted its demand and filed individual applications for asylum with the agency.  But for many months the Iraqi government has not allowed a single application to be processed.
Does Iraq really want the residents of Ashraf be resettled outside the country?
The intentions of the Iraqi government are far from finding a peaceful solution.  Its reactions to all types of solutions offered are most peculiar.  If the Iraqi government really wants Ashraf residents to leave the country and be settled in other parts of the world by the end of the year, why block the work of UNHCR?
The facts are clear and obvious about Nouri al-Maliki’s intentions.  He is planning for a genocide one way or the other; a total massacre of all Ashraf residents at the end of the year.  That will definitely win him some favors with the Iranian mullahs in absence of United States.
If that is the intention of Maliki, Ashraf residents cannot be asked to agree with any type of displacement and release themselves into the hands of their own murders; agree to go into a dark alley instead of sunlight so they can all be murdered peacefully and quietly while the whole world look away!
And for the United States and United Nations, they should clearly move away from any traps set by Iraqis and their Iranian puppet masters and should make strong stance against any kind of displacement inside Iraq. Otherwise, inaction and passive response would make them a complicit to the crime against humanity foreseen.
So let us be clear on this issue. Displacement inside Iraq for Ashraf residents, absent of protection and guarantees provided by the United Nations or the US, is out of the question and unacceptable.   Furthermore, any agreement reached on the fate of Ashraf residents by any authority without the presence of Ashraf residents or their representatives are worthless and unacceptable and will not stand a chance to be accepted by the reside