U.S. Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents

Iraqi government is preparing for another massacre at Camp Ashraf through sabotaging the efforts of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which seeks to resettle residents of Camp Ashraf in third countries.  As a prelude to another deadly assault on Camp Ashraf, the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has arbitrarily set an end of the year 2011 deadline to close down Camp Ashraf, creating a de facto deadlock through impeding UNHCR’s efforts and ensuring Camp’s residents have no other place to go. UNHCR has announced it has recognized the residents as “asylum seekers” and that it intends to interview each applicant as the first step to determine their refugee status. It called on the Iraqi government to extend the December 2011 deadline so that the interview process could be completed in accordance with UNHCR standards. Instructed by Iran, Maliki has refused to grant the extension.

With the arbitrary deadline looming, President Obama and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon must intervene immediately and: 

• Compel the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to end the barbaric siege of Camp Ashraf and cooperate with the UNHCR.  
• Declare null and void the December 2011 deadline set by Maliki to close down Camp Ashraf.  The arbitrary deadline serves as a prelude to another deadly assault on Camp Ashraf.
• Station a unit of UN Blue Helmets in Camp Ashraf to deter further assaults on defenseless and unarmed Camp Ashraf.

  On April 8, 2011, Iraqi forcesbacked by tanks, armored personnel carriers, and artillary launched amassive assault on defensless and unarmed residents ofCampAshraf, killing 36 and wounding several hundreds of the residents. The April attack, described by the Chairman John Kerry of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as “massacre”, left 36 dead and hundreds wounded. In both attacks US forces refrained from intervening to stop the bloodshed.   Since transfer of CampAshraf’s … [Read More...]