Former Canadian Lieutenant General and current member of the Canadian Senate, Romeo Dallaire, commander of the UN Peace Keeping forces in Rwanda from 1993 to 1994, in a letter to the Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird condemned the December 31st, 2011 deadline of the Iraqi Government to close Camp Ashraf.
Senator Dallaire said in his letter that Ashraf residents have enlisted for refugee status through the UNHCR, yet Iraq is preventing the initiation of the registration and interviews. It is necessary for the Iraqi Government to cancel the arbitrary deadline to close Ashraf and allow the UNHCR to complete its job in reaffirming the refugee status of the camp residents.