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In this Issue:
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Situation in Camp Ashraf,
Report of the U.N.
Secretary-General to the Security Council, November 11, 2009
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Iranian Dissidents in Iraq,
The New York Times, November 20, 2009
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Human Rights and the Iranian Opposition,
The Global Politician, November 17, 2009
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Iraqi forces prevent entry of physicians to
Camp Ashraf,
NCRI Press Release, November 9,
2009
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Iran creates new spy agency to fight protests,
Independent, November 13,
2009
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"Protected persons are entitled, in all circumstances, to respect for their
persons, their honour, their family rights, their religious convictions and
practices, and their manners and customs.”
Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention
“In no circumstances shall a protected person be transferred to a country where
he or she may have reason to fear persecution for his or her political opinions
or religious beliefs.”
Article 45 of the Fourth Geneva Convention
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Situation in Camp Ashraf
Report of the U.N. Secretary-General to the Security
Council
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
... With regard to the situation in Camp Ashraf, tensions escalated on 28 and 29
July between Iraqi security forces and the camp’s residents who belong to the
People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran. When Iraqi security forces entered the
Camp to establish a police station within its boundaries, the People’s
Mujahedeen Organization of Iran strongly objected and the ensuing confrontation
resulted in 11 residents killed and approximately 200 wounded.
Iraqi security forces further arrested and detained 36 residents, who then
staged a hunger strike in conjunction with another 136 residents. On 7 October,
the detainees were released and returned to the Camp, after agreeing to appear
before an Iraqi court if summoned and to leave Iraq for third-country
resettlement if the opportunity were made available.
Subsequently, Iraqi Government officials have called for the closure of the
Camp, but have repeatedly given assurances to UNAMI of their commitment to treat
the residents in accordance with international humanitarian law and the
principle of non-refoulement.
In response to numerous requests UNAMI, supported by the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has undertaken monitoring of the
humanitarian situation in the Camp as part of an effort to find possible
solutions involving various interested parties...
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Iranian Dissidents in Iraq
The New York Times (Letters to Editor)
Friday, November 20, 2009
By the U.S. Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents
“In Iraq, Tensions Bubble Inside and Outside an Iranian Exile Camp” (news
article, Nov. 10) correctly highlights concerns about a repeat of the Iraqi
forces’ deadly July attack on 3,400 defenseless Iranian dissidents at Camp
Ashraf, Iraq.
For the residents of Ashraf, “protected persons” under the Fourth Geneva
Convention, relocation to the European Union countries or the United States is
an option. Until then and given Tehran’s continued efforts to crack down on
Ashraf through its Iraqi proxies, the United States must ensure that Ashraf
residents are safe and not forcibly displaced inside Iraq.
According to Article 45 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the United States’
responsibility toward Ashraf did not end with the transfer of protection of Camp
Ashraf to Iraq earlier this year.
Washington’s reluctance to fulfill its humanitarian obligations has only
exacerbated concerns among Ashraf residents and their families in Iran and
abroad.
Although the United Nations has called on Iraq to treat the residents humanely,
it is the United States that has a responsibility under the Geneva Conventions
(and written commitments from Baghdad) to ensure that this happens.
Our loved ones in Ashraf, contrary to the assertions of Iraqi Army officers in
the article, are not “cultlike” or “too frightened to leave.” They are members
of the main Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedeen Khalq, who went to Ashraf
of their own free will to strive for freedom and human rights in Iran...
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Human Rights and the Iranian
Opposition
The Global Politician
BY Prof. Raymond Tanter
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Professor Raymond Tanter is president of the Iran Policy Committee; he was
a member of the National Security Council staff and personal representative of
the Secretary of Defense in the Reagan-Bush administration. His latest book is
President Obama and Iraq: Toward a Responsible Troop Drawdown, 2009.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of the United Nations begins
with the statement that all peoples and all nations should strive to promote
respect for human rights. Moreover, the Declaration ends with the principle that
“Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group
or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the
destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.”
One of the rights is that “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security
of person.” At issue is how serial violators of human rights principles should
be held accountable for such violations. Consider the cases of Iran and Iraq,
which appear to be in collusion to deny human rights protections to thousands of
Iranian dissidents in Iraq.
Tehran not only is probably complicit in violating the human rights of its
opponents in Iraq, but also is clearly in violation of the rights of its
citizens in Iran. On November 4, 2009, a day for anti-Americanism on the
anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, tens of thousands
of protestors took to the streets, chanting slogans against Supreme Leader Ali
Khamenei. The activists were violently dispersed by Iranian security forces,
contrary to the principles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In a November 4 speech to the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, U.S.
Representative Mark Kirk (R-IL) drew attention to human rights violations on the
streets of Iran’s major cities and read aloud the names of Iranian dissidents.
Now, another human rights catastrophe involving additional Iranian
oppositionists is gaining the attention of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq,
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Christian
clergy. If human rights activists were to read aloud the names of the
threatened, the Government of Iraq can be held accountable for the fate of the
oppositionists.
The main Iranian opposition group in exile is based at Camp Ashraf, Iraq, about
60 miles northeast of Baghdad, and is under threat from Iraqi Security Forces,
most probably operating at the behest of Tehran. A seven month siege by Iraqi
Forces escalated tragically on July 28-29, 2009, when Iraqi police invaded
Ashraf, home of the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK). These violent actions are clearly
contrary to the principles in the UDHR.
Iraqi proxies for Tehran felt confident enough to invade Ashraf while Secretary
of Defense Robert Gates was in Iraq; the assaults left at least 11 Iranian
oppositionists dead, and several hundred injured. Thirty-six residents were
detained for 72 days, despite three court rulings for their release. They
finally reached Ashraf, hours before several were about to die after they
embarked on a seven-day dry hunger strike, following a 65-day liquid only hunger
fast. Now, international humanitarian organizations fear they and the others at
Camp Ashraf may be dispersed within Iraq and subjected to attack because of
their enhanced vulnerability, or extradited to Iran to face torture and
execution...
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Iraqi forces prevent entry of physicians to Camp Ashraf
NCRI Press Release
Monday, November 9, 2009
NCRI - Upon the order of the Iraqi government’s committee for suppression of
Camp Ashraf residents, Iraqi forces on Sunday prevented the entry of a group of
specialist physicians to the camp who had come from Diyala province’s health
department to treat patients at the camp’s hospital.
This is for the fourth time during the past two weeks that the Iranian agents in
Iraq have prevented physicians from entering the camp. The forces threatened the
physicians with arrests as they tried again to enter the camp. Previously, they
were forced to return on October 25 and 28 and November 1.
Physicians are barred while many of some 500 camp residents who were injured
during the July 27-28 brutal attacks by Iraqi forces are in need of special
medical attention.
Also, Iraqi forces prevented two fuel tankers from entering the camp last week.
Their drivers were arrested and taken to Khalis city prison and their tankers
were seized. The Iraqi committee for suppression of Ashraf had ordered that no
fuel should be allowed into the Camp. This is an open offer of service to the
Iranian regime during Larijani’s visit to Iraq against the Iranian people and
their Resistance...
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Iran creates new spy agency to fight protests
Independent
Friday, November 13, 2009
Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has created a powerful new intelligence
organisation to try to quell any further public unrest in the wake of June's
disputed election, an exiled Iranian opposition group said yesterday.
The new organisation, responsible for intelligence and security, is an off-shoot
of the Revolutionary Guards and will report directly to the Supreme Leader's
office, according to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a
Paris-based group that has followers in Europe and claims many in Iran.
The shift is the largest overhaul of the intelligence structure since 1989, when
Iran's first supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, died, the NCRI
believes, and reflects the depth of the leadership's concern about post-election
protests.
"Although the mullahs have made public declarations about the new organisation,
they have nonetheless concealed its real dimension and true nature," Maryam
Rajavi, the leader of the NCRI, told a news conference in Brussels. "Its command
structure is linked directly to Khamenei. Its formation marks an unprecedented
transformation for the regime's intelligence and suppressive apparatus."
The organisation, called the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps, took shape in June, soon after President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad was re-elected in a vote his opponents said was rigged, a charge the
authorities reject.
Ms Rajavi said work on the new body was completed last month, and that the
information came from sources in Iran. Iranian officials have yet to comment on
reports of a revamped intelligence organisation...
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About Humanitarian Crisis for
Iranian Dissidents and their Families in Camp Ashraf
More than 3,400 members of Iran’s
main opposition, the People’s Mojahedin (PMOI/MEK) and their families, among
them nearly 1,000 Muslim women, reside in Camp Ashraf in Iraq. The PMOI
was the source of ground breaking revelation in the United States in 2002 about
Iran’s two until-then secret nuclear sites at Natanz and Arak.
On July 28-29, 2009, Iraqi forces
ordered directly by Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki acting at the behest
of Iran rulers, carried out a violent, unprovoked raid on Camp Ashraf, killing
11 residents, wounding 500, and abducting 36.
The brutal raid on Ashraf was a
blatant violation of the solemn commitment Iraq had given to the United States
that it would provide "humane treatment of the Camp Ashraf residents in
accordance with Iraq’s Constitution, laws, and international obligations."
The assault took place while U.S. service members on the scene were observing
the situation closely. Regrettably they took no action to prevent the
premeditated violence despite direct appeals by Ashraf residents at the outset
and during the attack.
International Humanitarian Law Obligate U.S. to Provide Continued Protection for
Camp Ashraf Residents in Iraq
On July 2, 2004, the United States formally
recognized members of the PMOI in Camp Ashraf as “protected persons” under the
Fourth Geneva Convention.
Both the U.S. and Iraq are parties to all four
1949 Geneva Conventions.
Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention specifies that:
“Protected persons are entitled, in all circumstances, to respect for their
persons, their honour, their family rights, their religious convictions and
practices, and their manners and customs […]”.
Article 45 of the Fourth Geneva Convention specifies that:
“In no circumstances shall a protected person
be transferred to a country where he or she may have reason to fear persecution
for his or her political opinions or religious beliefs.“
United States had legal and moral
obligations and responsibilities under international humanitarian law to protect
these Iranian exiles.
About
the U.S. Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents:
The U.S. Committee for Camp Ashraf
Residents (USCCAR) was established in December of 2003 by families and relatives
of residents of Camp Ashraf. The purpose of the Committee is to ensure the
safety and security of those Iranians and others living in Camp Ashraf. The
Committee will defend the proposition that the protections of the Fourth Geneva
Convention, as well as of other treaties and customary international law, must
be applied to the Iranians in Iraq. For more information please visit:
www.usccar.org
About
Ashraf Monitor
Ashraf Monitor newsletter is a
compilation of news and commentaries about the developing humanitarian
crisis for nearly 3,500 members of Iran's main opposition, the People's
Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in Camp Ashraf, Iraq. Ashraf Monitor is
compiled and distributed by the US Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents (USCCAR).
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