Call for Cancellation of Deadline for Closure of Camp Ashraf
To Prevent a Major Human Catastrophe
26 Oct 2011
The lives of 3,400 Iranian dissidents, including 1000 women, in Camp Ashraf, Iraq are in danger. Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister of Iraq has unilaterally announced that the camp must be shut down by the end of 2011. This could be used as a pretext for a large-scale massacre.
Since 2009, during two deadly attacks on the camp, Iraqi forces – at the behest of the Iranian regime, have killed 47 defenceless and unarmed refugees including 8 women and wounded hundreds more. For the last two years, Iraqi forces have been engaged in psychological torture of the camp residents using 300 loudspeakers day and night blaring threats and insults against women, added to restrictions imposed on access to fuel and medicines. At least 12 patients have died in recent months as a result of the inhumane medical blockade of the camp. Since September, two powerful communication-jamming stations have been stationed alongside the Camp, which could be used to keep the world in dark if a new attack was to happen.
The European Parliament in a resolution adopted in April 2009 called on the Iraqi Prime Minister to refrain from forcibly displacing, deporting, expelling or repatriating Ashraf residents; and in a declaration adopted in November 2010 called on the UN to provide urgent protection for Ashraf. However, an official delegation from the European Parliament’s Iraq Delegation who visited Iraq in April, were not allowed by the Iraqi government to visit the camp.
A proposal by the Parliament to find a peaceful long-term solution for Ashraf residents has received international support. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees recently announced that Ashraf residents are protected as asylum seekers. In order to have time to conduct individual interviews with each resident to decide on their refugee status, the UN has asked Iraq at least to extend this deadline so the UN could fulfill its objectives. Iraq has so far rejected this idea and Prime Minister Al-Maliki has repeated recently that he wants to terminate Ashraf’s presence by the end of 2011. The Iranian regime and its proxies in Iraq are in fact exploiting this fabricated deadline in order to obstruct the process of achieving a peaceful solution for the Ashraf residents.
In a declaration adopted on 6 October 2011, over 100 Members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe called on Iraq to cancel the deadline to close Ashraf.
The recent announcement by President Obama that the entire US forces will leave Iraq by December 31, has made the situation even more dangerous for the residents of Ashraf unless immediate action is taken.
Under these circumstances and while we express our gratitude and support for the valuable initiative by the European Union’s High Representative in appointing Ambassador Jean de Ruyt as a Special Envoy responsible for Ashraf affairs, we urgently ask Baroness Ashton, the EU and the Member States, as well as the USA and the UN, to prevent a major human catastrophe, by denouncing the aforementioned deadline and forcing the Iraqi government to postpone it until the final transfer of all residents to third countries has been accomplished. We call on the United Nations and the Security Council to station a permanent monitoring team at Ashraf in order to assure and guarantee the residents’ protection until they are transferred to alternative host countries.
Alejo VIDAL-QUADRAS (EPP)
Stephen HUGHES (S&D)
Struan STEVENSON (ECR)
Louis MICHEL (ALDE)
Søren SØNDERGAARD (GUE)
José BOVÉ (Verts)
plus 180 signatures
Partial list of Signatories of declaration: “Call for Cancellation of Deadline for Closure of Camp Ashraf To Prevent a Major Human Catastrophe” until Wednesday 26 October 2011.
Alexander ALVARO, Laima Liucija ANDRIKIENĖ, Alfredo ANTONIOZZI, Richard ASHWORTH, Jean-Pierre AUDY, Zigmantas BALČYTIS, Edit BAUER, Bastiaan BELDER, Adam BIELAN, Sebastian Valentin BODU, Piotr BORYS, José BOVÉ, Jan BŘEZINA, Simon BUSUTTIL, David CASA, Michael CASHMAN, Sergio Gaetano COFFERATI, Andrea COZZOLINO, George Sabin CUTAŞ, Ryszard CZARNECKI, Chris DAVIES, Esther DE LANGE, Leonidas DONSKIS, Frank ENGEL, Derk Jan EPPINK, Sari ESSAYAH, Tanja FAJON, Richard FALBR, Andrzej GRZYB, Małgorzata HANDZLIK, Roger HELMER, Jacky HÉNIN, Jim HIGGINS, Gunnar HÖKMARK, Stephen HUGHES, Vincenzo IOVINE, Danuta JAZŁOWIECKA, Sidonia Elżbieta JĘDRZEJEWSKA, Elisabeth JEGGLE, Romana JORDAN CIZELJ, Filip KACZMAREK, Jarosław KALINOWSKI, Michał Tomasz KAMIŃSKI, Arturs Krišjānis KARIŅŠ, Ioannis KASOULIDES, Tunne KELAM, Jaromír KOHLÍČEK, Jan KOZŁOWSKI , Eduard KUKAN, Vytautas LANDSBERGIS, Bogusław LIBERADZKI, Krzysztof LISEK, Elżbieta Katarzyna ŁUKACIJEWSKA, Bogdan Kazimierz MARCINKIEWICZ, Antonio MASIP HIDALGO, Barbara MATERA, Kyriakos MAVRONIKOLAS, Edward MCMILLAN-SCOTT, Íñigo MÉNDEZ DE VIGO, Alajos MÉSZÁROS, Louis MICHEL, Marek Henryk MIGALSKI, Miroslav MIKOLÁŠIK, Claudio MORGANTI, Radvilė MORKŪNAITĖ, James NICHOLSON, Sławomir Witold NITRAS, Jan OLBRYCHT, Doris PACK, Rolandas PAKSAS, Justas Vincas PALECKIS, Marit PAULSEN, Alojz PETERLE, Sirpa PIETIKÄINEN, Gianni PITTELLA, Tomasz Piotr PORĘBA, Miloslav RANSDORF, Crescenzio RIVELLINI, Oreste ROSSI, Alfreds RUBIKS, Potito SALATTO, Jacek SARYUSZ-WOLSKI, Marco SCURRIA, Czesław Adam SIEKIERSKI, Csaba SÓGOR, Søren Bo SØNDERGAARD, Bogusław SONIK, Francesco Enrico SPERONI, Peter ŠŤASTNÝ, Struan STEVENSON, Michèle STRIFFLER, Alf SVENSSON, József SZÁJER, Konrad SZYMAŃSKI, Hannu TAKKULA, Eleni THEOCHAROUS, Britta THOMSEN, Róża Gräfin Von THUN UND HOHENSTEIN, Marianne THYSSEN, Patrizia TOIA, László TŐKÉS, Rafał Kazimierz TRZASKOWSKI, Ioannis TSOUKALAS, Vladimir URUTCHEV, Inese VAIDERE, Peter VAN DALEN, Wim VAN DE CAMP, Alejo VIDAL-QUADRAS, Oldřich VLASÁK, Manfred WEBER, Cecilia WIKSTRÖM, Jacek WŁOSOWICZ, Janusz WOJCIECHOWSKI, Anna ZÁBORSKÁ, Jan ZAHRADIL, Boris ZALA, Artur ZASADA, Milan ZVER, Tadeusz ZWIEFKA,