In a recent session held at the European Parliament at the initiative of Friends of a Free Iran Committee, Dr. Alejo Vidal Quadras, Vice President of the European Parliament delivered a speech stressing.

Thank you very much, however, the meeting of the plenary was very much related to Iran and the Sakharov Prize   two representatives of civil society. Today is the occasion that we meet us in 2012. So I think it is right that we have a short summary of the events we had last year. Many of you probably remember that this time last year we were very anxious because of the deadline imposed at that time by Maliki and the Iraqi government to close camp Ashraf. We launched a major international campaign with a petition that was signed by over 400 European members of Parliament asking to postpone the deadline. Similar petitions were circulating in the national Parliaments all around the world and also many outstanding international figures NGOs and everybody supported the case. This year we witnessed a very difficult but brave decision by the leadership of NCRI our good friend Madam Maryam Rajavi to ask the Ashraf residents to move to a camp called ironically Liberty near Baghdad airport. At the moment more than 3100 have gone to Liberty and about 100 remain in Ashraf looking after the properties that still remain there. According to UN working group on arbitrary detentions camp Liberty is in fact a prison. The residents lack freedom of movement. They cannot have access to lawyers the camp is surrounded by very high walls there is intensive Police presence inside the camp and there are many infrastructure problems water electricity swage water supply problems that have not been solved. There is also a sign of cruelty from the Iraqi government psychological torture because the person in charge in camp Liberty is Colonel Sadeq he was the one that conducted the massacres in Ashraf in 2009 and 2011 with more than 40 people killed. So the man that conducted these massacres is the man in charge of camp Liberty but of course from the side of the Iraqi government it is the sign of the lack of the most elementary humanitarian requirements.
 

I want to remind you that Colonel Sadeq is investigated by the Spanish court under the principal of the universal jurisdiction. We are concerned by the lack of a biased view in Ashraf and Liberty by UNAMI and the UN envoy Mr. Martin Kobler. Many of us have been in contact with Mr. Kobler in good faith since the first weeks that he took over the Ashraf case fortunately now we can say that Mr. Kobler was and is following a political agenda which is not neutral or impartial. We believe that UN Secretary General must appoint another envoy because Mr. Kobler as I said is completely partial and it will be good to have an unprejudiced envoy instead of Mr. Kobler. We have addressed UN Secretary General several times asking for this. We also call on Mrs. Ashton to urge Iraq to end the restrictions in Liberty and declare it a refugee camp now it is not a refugee camp it is a concentration camp it is a prison so it should be officially called a refugee camp. The United States the European Union and the United Nations should not allow the properties of Ashraf residents to be looted and plundered by the Iraqi government and should call on the Iraqi authorities to allow the sale of these which are the product of the work of thousands of people over 25 years and they are worth hundreds of millions and they have owners and the property rights should be respected. The biggest political development by the Iranian opposition in 2012 was the decision by the Department of State of the United States to remove the Iranian democratic opposition from the United States terrorist list this was a major political achievement and it was established by unrelenting efforts by the members and supporters of the Iranian resistance and by the collaboration and sacrifice of the Ashraf residents. We must congratulate Mrs. Rajavi for this difficult but courageous decision and express our gratitude to her for leadership in difficult circumstances. We hope that the United States will compensate for the damages caused by this designation which was illegitimate from the very beginning and helped to block the road for regime change in Iran the fact of being on the list has had consequences I dare say that the fact of being on this list has had a cost in human lives and this is not something we can take lightly the United States should reflect upon this and think about a fair compensation to the NCRI. Today following the Arab spring we see an escalation of extremisms in the region.

Look at the situation of Egypt for instance and democratic alternatives are suffering from a sort of fundamentalism and all these have a source and the source is in Tehran. Some of us we said this when the Arab spring started and some said oh Democracy is arriving in North of Africa we live in the best of worlds some of us were immediately accused of pessimism and we said be careful because the mullahs regime will not be passive in this circumstances they will try to get some advantage in this situation and they are doing it and situation in Egypt and other countries prove it. So we have another problem now which is the influence by the Iranian regime that is clear in Iraq and is now extending to the rest of the region. Sometime we should think about our foreign policy for God sake because some questions are elementary my question is why do we and also the United States and our allies make such decisions and always fall in the same traps and we always want to appease the bad ones it is very disappointing. You probably have noticed that I am not in a good mood this afternoon but let’s look forward to the future and the future for us is  a free Iran a democratic Iran many of us in this Parliament share the same goals and same values of the NCRI and the PMOI we believe that their position in this opposition to the mullahs has proved to be very democratic and they have always been prepared to pay a heavy price for freedom in Iran and the fact that they have paid a heavy price has made them credible. The historical leader of PMOI Massoud Rajavi was in prison for 7 years in Shah times,  several members of his family was killed by the regime Mrs. Rajavi herself has lost two sisters and one daughter in this fight so nobody can ask more of a leadership nothing can replace the lives lost over these years of repression we must cling to the hope that Iran will be free from tyranny and its people will live in democracy and peace and of course we will go on working as your friends to achieve these goals and as the experience of all these years has proven there is only one way we must be persistent we must be constant we must be determined and at the end things will happen. I remember that when the de listing in United States seemed almost impossible and it happened. Why it happened? It did not happen because one day suddenly Hillary Clinton saw the light of the truth. No it happened because of the constant pressure that we and many others have been making during many years and this together with the sacrifice of Ashraf residents. In this year we have many things like the delisting to be happy about, things that are source of great concern like the situation in Liberty but we must go on fighting for the things we believe in and I wish all of you a Merry Christmas.