By Hanifeh Khayeri
Intellectual Conservative, 24 Jan 2012 – Iran has now threatened to close access to the Persian Gulf. China responded and said that would be perceived as aggression towards other nations.
The start of this New Year has brought some promising signs to all Iranian political refugees, as the international communities seem to have finally realised how dangerous the forces that rule Iran are to global peace, as heavier sanctions have been proposed on Iran. To illustrate just how ill-willing and dangerous Iran has become, the country has threatened to close the access to the Persian Gulf whereby China in turn as replied that such actions would be regarded as aggression against most of the worlds’ nations; all events pressing on an already unstable Middle East. In this situation, the west should be decisive and stay firm on its proposal for heavier sanctions on Iran. The rulers of Iran are well-known for their empty threats and promises in order to avoid international pressure, they are known for their false and presumptive accusations and have a long track-record for ignoring declarations from the United Nations condemning the country’s human rights abuses. The international community must keep up the pressure on Iran and go through with the sanction plans if any change is to happen in this country and region. Anything else would give indication to Iran that it is free to do whatever it wants as long as the Persian Gulf is kept open.
At the same time, in the neighbouring country Iraq, the Iranian opposition movement (the PMOI – the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran) is fighting for its rights and survival. Since the U.S. intervention, these political dissidents have been recognised as ‘protected persons’ under the Geneva Convention and signed individual agreements with the U.S. forces concerning their protection. However, as the U.S. plan to withdraw its forces from Iraq came into action, the security of these dissidents was handed over to the Iraqi forces which have attacked the dissidents twice at their residence (Camp Ashraf), killing more than 50 of the dissidents.
The dissidents in this camp are around 3400 men and women who are unarmed and have lived in this camp in Iraq peacefully for more than 25 years, pursuing their political struggle against the mullahs’ rule of Iran. But the U.S. invasion of Iraq left the country open and vulnerable to outside influences. Iran has seized this opportunity to not only spread its fanatic religious ruling ideology in the Middle East, to make bigger and better friends, but also to finally and once and for all eliminate its largest and strongest opposition movement, the PMOI. Iran’s influences in Iraq have reached a point where Iraq is taking orders from Iran on how to deal with the Iranian dissidents in camp Ashraf. As a result, the camp has been assaulted twice and been under a heavy siege where not even medical care and fuel are allowed to enter the camp, let alone visits from family members, lawyers and journalists. Iraq is so keen to satisfy the demands from Iran that it is even preventing the work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which has recognised the residents as ’asylum seekers’ and needs to hold private interviews to process their cases.
Just before New Year eve, Iraq issued statements that it was going to close the camp and force out the residents from their homes, leading inevitably to the massacre of 3400 unarmed innocent people. However, with great international pressure and campaigns, this catastrophe has been avoided so far as Iraq agreed to postpone its deadline for closing the camp until April. Despite the efforts made by the international community and the Iranian dissidents in camp Ashraf to find a peaceful solution, the Iraqi government does everything it can to pave the way for a massacre still. The Iranian dissidents have agreed to relocate to another camp (camp Liberty), suggested by the U.N., E.U. and the U.S. But, the Iraqi government is refusing to let the residents move with their belongings, has set up surveillance inside the new camp, built large walls around the area, only allocated only 0.5 sq.km of the 40 sq.km camp area, stationed hundreds of its own forces inside the camp and is refusing the Iranian dissidents to inspect the new camp before moving.
As if this was not enough, the Iraqi government has also issued warrant of arrest for 126 of the residents accusing them to have committed various fabricated crimes. Iraq is also still preventing the U.N. to pursue its work, continues to forbid medical supplies, fuel, lawyers and journalists into camp Ashraf and has put up jamming devices to prevent the Iranian dissidents to report on their situation to the rest of the world through their satellite-TV equipment. With the eyes of the world shut to see what is happening inside this camp, Iraq, on orders from Iran, can put into motion its long sought plan for a human massacre.
Inside Iran, the situation for Iranian political dissidents is not any brighter. The Iranian government started this New Year by executing 43 political prisoners. More and more political prisoners are sentenced to death and are waiting for their execution. The crack-down on political dissidents have gone so far that their families are being persecuted and put into prisons too, where they are ill-treated and often tortured. Families of those dissidents in camp Ashraf have even been executed because they visited the camp some years ago to see their sons and daughters when visits were still allowed. The situation is deteriorating and the instances of human rights abuses are innumerable.
In our part of the world, the western world, where we have peace, democracy and countless forms of liberties, we need to stand up for those that don’t and we need to stand up against those that suppress all of those values and freedoms that we cherish and enjoy. The west needs to stand firm on its decision on heavier sanctions on Iran. The international community must make greater efforts to help the Iranian dissidents in camp Ashraf, whose rights are so clearly and brutally violated. And it sure is time to put a stop to the executions of political prisoners and dissidents in Iran. If we take strategic steps to firmly stand up for those that value democracy and human rights, then 2012 will be the year that brings a positive change in Iran and thereby the Middle East.

Hanifeh Khayeri is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Political Science at Trinity College Dublin.

http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2012/01/24/the-new-year-brings-disturbing-news-from-iran/