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In this Issue:
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Iraqi forces attack Ashraf residents in support of
Iranian regime's agents,
NCRI Press Release,
April 16, 2010
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Iraqi battalion collaborates with
Iranian regime in psychological torture of Camp Ashraf residents, NCRI Press Release,
April 15, 2010
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Tehran's strategic defeat in Iraq,
The Huffington Post, April 6, 2010
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Mujahedin-e Khalq, Kurds and Shiites in Iraq,
The Huffington Post, April 6, 2010
-
1,000 Women in Camp Ashraf Under Siege,
The Women's International Perspective,
2010
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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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Iraqi forces attack Ashraf
residents in support of Iranian regime's agents
NCRI Press Release
Friday, April 16, 2010
Iranian Resistance warns against mullahs’ plots and demands protection of
Ashraf residents by the United Nations and guarantees of the United States
NCRI - On Thursday evening, at about 23:30 local time, in a failed attempt,
Iraqi forces attacked Ashraf residents and tried to overtake some of
installations inside the camp. The assault took place in support of the agents
of the Iranian regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and the
terrorist Quds Force stationed at the entrance of Ashraf for the past 66 days.
The agents, with full support of the Iraqi army battalion and the clerical
regime’s embassy in Baghdad, have been psychologically torturing the residents
of Ashraf. Using high powered amplifiers and loudspeakers they have been
threatening to “set fire” and “close down” Ashraf and “kill” PMOI members
residing in the camp and to “pull their tongues out of their throats.” The
agents have been disrupting peace for the camp residents. Video clips and
pictures of these agents have been regularly provided to the international
bodies as well as the American forces and relevant US authorities...
Five Ashraf residents were wounded in the attack. Their names are: Karim Gomasai,
Mehdi Abdulrahimi, Azim Mish Mast, Rahim Sohrabi and Khaled Shah Karami. They
were taken to hospital for treatment...
The Iranian Resistance reiterates that the events of last night showed once
again that the Iranian regime and the Iraqi government are determined to
suppress and destroy Ashraf and draws the attention of the United Nations
Secretary General, Special Representative of the Secretary General for Iraq and
the US officials and military commanders to the ongoing tragedy in Ashraf. It
also strongly demands the United Nations to assume protection of Ashraf
residents and calls on the US forces to guarantee the protection as it had
committed itself to at the time when it disarmed the residents...
Read
More
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Iraqi battalion collaborates with Iranian regime in
psychological torture of Camp Ashraf residents
NCRI Press Release
Thursday, 15 April 2010
NCRI - Reports sent by the Iranian regime's embassy in Baghdad to the terrorist
Quds Force and the regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) reveal
that Iraqi Prime Minister’s office and the Iraqi Army battalion stationed at
Ashraf are cooperating fully with the MOIS agents camped out at Ashraf’s main
gate.
According to these reports, the Commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 37th
Brigade of the 9th Division of the Iraqi Army and the battalion's chain of
command, supposedly responsible for protection of Ashraf residents, are
providing logistical support to the MOIS agents posing as families of Ashraf
residents ever since they were brought to the gates of Ashraf on February 8,
2010.
In the past two months, the battalion commander Colonel Latif Abdol-Amir Hashem
Al-Enavi, has been assisting the MOIS agents, personally arranging for
everything they need. His deputy, two officers of the Iraqi Army's intelligence
branch and two other army officers are also helping them. Col. Al-Enavi has
assigned two officers to ensure that these agents are fully satisfied and have
everything at their disposal.
The battalion provides them with loudspeakers, drums and cymbals among other
things. It also arranges the agents' transportation between their residence, the
regime's embassy in Baghdad, and Camp Ashraf as well as their trips to and from
Iran. Three of the battalion's vehicles and their drivers are allocated to these
agents. Under the instructions of the battalion commander, these vehicles are
well maintained... Read More
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Tehran's strategic defeat in
Iraq
The Huffington Post
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
By Alireza Jafarzadeh, Author of The Iran Threat
The March 7 parliamentary elections have heralded a new era for Iraq,
pushing aside the incumbent Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki and officials with
ties to Iran while opening way for a new slate of politicians hoping to mend
serious sectarian divides. But, as a U.S. military official in Iraq told the
Washington Post, Maliki and his allies "have no intention of giving up their
regime," something that could threaten the hard earned post-election gains for
progress and stability and harm US troops withdrawal timetable.
"These are people who were exiled and who've risen to power almost overnight
because we brought them back to power," the official was quoted as saying. "Now
they're going to lose that relative lock on power through these elections,"
which explains the Maliki bloc's frantic reaction to its defeat.
With the Iraqiya coalition declared as the winner of the March 7 vote, arduous
talks are now under way to form a new government. The triumph of the
cross-sectarian and nationalist Iraqiya list, headed by former PM Ayad Allawi,
represents a major threat to the ambitious agenda of the regime in neighboring
Iran.
Mr. Allawi and his allies managed to win the most votes, overcoming monumental
political and security obstacles and thwarting Iran's bag of dirty tricks, while
displaying surprising resilience and strength. Tehran will no doubt heighten its
already extensive interference in a bid to rob Iraqis of their electoral choices
and engineer a surrogate government in Baghdad.
Still, regardless of which political blocks will ultimately succeed in forming
the next government, the Iranian regime and its Iraqi allies have been dealt a
strategic blow as Iraq takes small and fragile steps toward a pluralistic
democracy. Iran's state-run media are lamenting the "lost opportunity,"
launching a disinformation campaign to tarnish the historic electoral
performance of the nationalist and non-sectarian political forces...
Read More
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Reality Check: Mujahedin-e Khalq, Kurds and Shiites in
Iraq
The Huffington Post
Thursday, April 8, 2010
By Ali Safavi, Member of Iran's Parliament in Exile; President of Near East
Policy Research
One of the unsubstantiated allegations against the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK)
is that it was involved in the suppression of Iraqi Kurds and Shiites in the
aftermath of Operation Desert Storm in 1991. The source of this allegation,
which later found its way into a 1994 Department of State report on the MEK,[1]
and subsequently in the Department's Country Reports on Terrorism, is none other
than the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).
The fact is that in the aftermath of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the Iranian
regime launched an extensive propaganda campaign alleging that the MEK had
played a role in putting down the Kurdish uprising in northern Iraq. The
propaganda blitz specifically meant to overshadow Tehran's dispatching of
thousands of troops into Iraq in March and April 1991 to destroy MEK bases close
to the Iran-Iraq border.
Surprisingly, despite a palpable dearth of factual and evidential basis, this
accusation also acted as one of the justifications for the MEK's terror listing
in the United States. Not only is there not the slightest bit of evidence
supporting this accusation, in fact, a plethora of documents and evidence exist,
at times offered by prominent Iraqi Kurds and Shiites themselves, that
definitively dismiss the allegation...
Read More
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1,000 Women in Camp Ashraf
Under Siege
The Women's International Perspective
April 2, 2010
By Maryam Zoljalal
Camp Ashraf, 50 miles north of Baghdad, is home to 3,400 Iranian dissidents,
including 1,000 women, all members of the Iranian opposition group, the People’s
Mojahedin Organization (PPO) of Iran, living as political refugees for nearly 3
decades and under the Fourth Geneva Convention after 2003. My name is Maryam
Zoljalal, 28, and I am one of these women. Due to the oppression of my people in
Iran by the ruling mullahs’ regime, I left my life and education in Sweden and
relocated to camp Ashraf in Iraq. I have lived in Ashraf for the last 10 years
for the freedom of my people, being the voice of the oppressed women of my
country. Currently I spend part of my time as a nurse in the Camp Ashraf clinic.
Camp Ashraf is a small city in Iraq and its residents are mainly Iranian
intellectuals - educated in various Iranian universities, as well as U.S. and
European countries, all opposing the religious fascism ruling Iran. While
cherishing life and family, they devoted themselves to bringing freedom and
democracy to Iran, and by coming to Ashraf, joined a resistance for a better
future and democracy for their country. Ashraf is a small democratic society
where women have key leadership roles. They have become the mainstay for Iran’s
new generation to resist and persevere and also confront the mullahs’
dictatorship and oppression.
The Iranian regime has used every opportunity to terrorize and oppress Ashraf
residents, especially in the past two decades. My mother, Efat, was gunned down
in an Iranian regime’s Quds Force terrorist attack in Baghdad on May 17, 1995. I
loved her very much...
Read More
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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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