German lawmaker presses Berlin to help end siege on Camp Ashraf

 NCRI, 25 November 2010 – A prominent German parliamentarian from the ruling party has written to officials in his country and at the UN calling for immediate measures to end an inhumane siege against Camp Ashraf, Iraq, where members of the Iranian opposition reside.
Leo Dautzenberg, the parliamentary financial policy spokesman for Germany’s Christian Democrats sent a letter to German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.
 
Mr. Dautzenberg, who is also a member of the ruling party’s leadership in Parliament, wrote separate letters to the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Ad Melkert, Germany’s Federal Government Human Rights Commissioner, Markus Löning, and Berlin’s ambassador to Baghdad.
Mr. Dautzenberg told his country’s Foreign Minister, that, “Following the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s recent meeting with [the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei and [the mullahs’ President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad in Iran, Iraqi armed units have intensified a siege against Camp Ashraf, where 3,400 members of the opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) reside.”
“The responsibility of this siege lies with a notorious committee and some armed units that receive their orders directly from the Iraqi Prime Minister’s Office.”
Mr. Dautzenberg specifically pointed to cancer patients at Ashraf who are being refused access to proper medical care by the Iraqi forces.
“For example, for the fifth time in the past seven months, Ms. Elham Fardipour, who is diagnosed with cancer, has not been allowed to be transferred to a Baghdad hospital in order to receive vital chemotherapy.”
The German lawmaker also mentioned another patient, Mr. Mehdi Fathi, diagnosed with kidney cancer, who underwent a surgery six months after receiving his diagnosis. The cancer has spread throughout his body as a result of the delay.
Iraqi doctors and surgeons willing to treat the patients have either been refused to enter Camp Ashraf or threatened by Iraqi commanders to avoid treating the patients, depriving them of the urgent medical attention they require, he said.
The Iranian regime has consistently demanded to make life intolerable for the residents of Ashraf, Dautzenberg said. The European Union cannot stay indifferent to the situation, he added.
He urged the German Foreign Minister to enact urgent measures to ensure proper care for patients in Ashraf and to end the inhumane siege against the camp with the support of the EU.