29 October 2013
Hon. Barack Obama,
President of the United States of America
The White House
Dear President Obama,
The visit by Nuri al-Maliki, the New Iraq’s dictator, to the United States and welcoming him to the White House is a profoundly sad precedent in U.S. history and a dark spot on your 8-year legacy. You are admitting Maliki at a time when, 20 days earlier, on the occasion of the World Day Against the Death Penalty, he executed 42 political prisoners. According to reports by the United Nations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, the number of executions in Iraq since 2009 has been consistently on the rise and, in the first 10 months of 2013, about 150 prisoners have been executed. This is only comparable to the record of human rights violations of Maliki’s allies in Tehran.
You are welcoming Maliki who is the murderer of 127 Iranian dissidents, members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), while your administration has had direct responsibility for their protection. Since you have taken charge and transferred protection of Ashraf residents to the Iraqi Government, 112 of them have been killed by forces under Maliki’s command, 1,200 wounded, and 15 of them suffered to death due to the medical siege. The last occasion was the massacre and group execution of 52 members of PMOI with their hands tied. Although certain officials in your Administration attempt to depict that Maliki and the Iraqi Government had no roles in this crime, the truth cannot be covered up and any impartial court will verify the role of Maliki and his forces. The evidence is so strong that it cannot be covered up by statements of spokesmen or officials.
You are meeting Maliki while 7 Ashraf residents have been taken hostage by Iraqi forces and, under Maliki´s supervision, are being transferred from one prison to another so that no one can locate them. You certainly agree with me that American forefathers like Thomas Jefferson, freedom-loving people like Abraham Lincoln, and great Americans like Martin Luther King, whom you are proud to follow, would have never met such a criminal.
Mr. President,
As European Parliament’s Vice President and the President of the International Committee in Search of Justice, which enjoys the support of 4,000 parliamentarians on both sides of the Atlantic, I ask you to refrain—as a symbol of your commitment to democracy and human rights—from meeting Maliki, at least until he frees the 7 Ashrafi hostages, and do not allow him to use his visit to the U.S. and meeting with you as a tool for suppression and slaughter of the rest of Liberty residents, that is, the 3,000 political refugees who are covered under Geneva’s Fourth Convention.
After his visit to Washington and meeting with you in July 2009, Maliki carried out his first slaughter of Ashraf residents; concurrent with the visit of your Defense Secretary to Baghdad in April 2011, he carried out his second massacre at Ashraf. After meeting you and returning from Washington in December of 2011, he intensified the executions in Iraq and stepped up purges on political parties inside Iraq. Undoubtedly, if he receives your warm and kind reception again on this trip, the Iranian dissidents in Iraq and the suffered and mistreated people of that country will have to pay the price with more killings, executions, and suppression.
Mr. President,
It is better to contain this murderous dictator—who has unfortunately come to power with the assistance of the U.S. government and by the blood of young Americans—while you are still in office, and not allow him to commit more crimes. You are the only person who can prevent the continued bloodshed in Iraq, especially the slaughter of the Iranian dissidents in Camp Liberty, and liberate the 7 hostages from their imprisonment and torture.
If you don’t take distance from Maliki today, if you don’t make him do the right thing, undoubtedly future US Administrations, facing the resentment and dissatisfaction of the people of Iraq and Iran and the world’s freedom-loving people, will apologize to the Iraqi and Iranian nations and to the PMOI for your support and that of your Administration to this cruel dictator, and this is surely a legacy no President of the leading democracy of the world would want to leave to the future generations.
Yours sincerely,
Alejo Vidal-Quadras
Vice-President of the European Parliament
President, International Committee In Search of Justice
