OfficialWire News Bureau, Brussels, 29 Dec 2011 – The President of European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iraq, Struan Stevenson, issued a press release today, welcoming the decision of Iranian resistance leader Maryam Rajavi to urge 400 resident of Camp Ashraf, 60 miles north of Baghdad to relocate to Camp Liberty, a former US base near Baghdad airport.
Camp Ashraf was the scene of deadly clashes between Iraq’s army and the 3400 unarmed residents earlier this year when dozens of residents were killed and hundreds were wounded.
International pressure forced Iraqi government last week to back down from a deadline it had set to close Ashraf at the end of the year. As a condition Iraq wanted some of the residents of Ashraf to move to a new location near Baghdad as a first step for their transfer to third countries.
Stevenson described the decision of Maryam Rajavi who urged the 400 residents to relocate: “a vital breakthrough towards a peaceful future for the residents of Camp Ashraf.”
‘I am enormously grateful for the sincere goodwill of Mrs. Rajavi when she once again “emphatically urged Ashraf residents to count on and trust” the international community’s assurances for their safety and security,’ Stevenson stressed.
Referring to the agreement that was signed earlier in the week between Iraqi government and UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Iraq Martin Kobler, Stevenson said: “The international community now has redoubled responsibility to make sure that all terms of this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be fully respected especially with regard to the safety and security of the inhabitants.”
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Stevenson, regretted the ‘inability’ of the Iraqi authorities to honour their commitments after signing the MoU with the UN in respect of security at Camp Ashraf. “Unfortunately, during the past few days, Iraq has repeatedly failed to prevent missiles being fired at Ashraf from a near distance, despite it being in an area where Iraqi forces are patrolling day and night.”
‘These repeated acts of blatant terrorism, make a mockery of complaints about Ashraf being a threat to Iraq’s sovereignty, when in reality it is the sovereignty of the Iranian regime that seems to be dominating Iraq.’
‘The ball is now in Iraq’s court to show that the safety and protection enshrined within the MoU applies to each and every resident of Ashraf without exception. It also must keep away from police interference into the day-to-day life of the residents until the last resident has left Iraq for resettlement in a safe third country,’ Stevenson stressed.
Earlier tonight in Paris, Iranian resistance’s umbrella organisation National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in a statement confirmed that 400 Camp Ashraf residents were ready to move to Camp Liberty “with their vehicles and moveable belongings on December 30.”
Mohammad Mohaddessin, representative of Ashraf residents outside Iraq said: “It should be clear to the international community that from this time on, the Government of Iraq would be responsible for any delay, obstruction and prevention in transfer of these 400 Ashraf residents with their vehicles and moveable properties. The relocation of the first group of residents to Camp Liberty and the way they are treated would be a test for relocation of other groups within the extended deadline.”
NCRI urged UN Secretary General, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General, Ambassador Dan Fried, the special advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State on Ashraf, and the U.S. Ambassador in Iraq, to obtain the agreement of the Government of Iraq “with the minimum assurances” for the relocation of other Ashraf residents to Camp Liberty.