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In this Issue:
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USCCAR Condemns Iraqi Forces' Attack on Camp Ashraf,
Demands UN Protection and US Guarantee,
PR NewsWire,
April 16, 2010
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Five members of an Ashraf
resident family sentenced to death as "Mohareb", NCRI Press Release,
April 19, 2010
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IRAQ: Civilians Under Fire - VIOLENCE AGAINST
REFUGEES,
Amnesty International, April 27, 2010
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Cruel treatment of Ali Saremi, an Ashraf
Resident's Family, on death row,
NCRI Press Release,
April 26, 2010
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Understanding the Mujahedin-e Khalq:
Resistance Against Tyranny,
The Huffington Post, April 22, 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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USCCAR Condemns Iraqi
Forces' Attack on Camp Ashraf, Demands UN Protection and US Guarantee
Statement by the U.S. Committee for Camp Ashraf
Residents
Friday, April 16, 2010
WASHINGTON – Around midnight Thursday, the Iraqi forces attacked residents of
Camp Ashraf, home to 3,400 members of Iran's main opposition, the People's
Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). Threatening to occupy a number of
buildings by force, they used electric batons, daggers and iron bars in beating
up the residents, wounding five. They also tried to abduct a female resident but
were thwarted when she resisted.
The US Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents (USCCAR) deplores this barbaric
attack, clearly carried out at the behest of the Tehran regime and with the
approval of the Iraqi Prime Minister.
The residents of Camp Ashraf were recognized as “Protected Persons” by the
United States in 2004. Since the US transfer of Ashraf’s protection to the Iraqi
government in 2009, the human rights of Ashraf residents have been
systematically breached in violation of international law and Iraq’s written
assurances to the United States.
Still dumbfounded by the strategic defeat during Iraq’s recent parliamentary
elections, Tehran and its Iraqi surrogates have been bent on destroying Ashraf.
USCCAR demands that the United Nations must assume the protection of Ashraf
residents before another humanitarian tragedy occurs. The Committee also urges
President Obama to guarantee the protection of Ashraf residents consistent with
the US government's signed agreement to this effect with Ashraf residents in
2004...
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Five members of an Ashraf resident family sentenced to
death as "Mohareb"
NCRI Press Release
Thursday, April 19, 2010
Iranian Resistance calls for actions to save the lives of the prisoners
NCRI - In an unprecedented and inhumane decision, the Iranian regime has
sentenced five members of an Ashraf resident family to death charged with
Mohareb. Mr. Mohsen Daneshpour-Moghadam, 67, a bazaar merchant along with his
wife Mrs. Motahareh (Simin) Bahrami, 55; their son Ahmad Daneshpour; Mrs.
Bahrami's niece Ms. Reyhaneh Haj-Ibrahim; and Mr. Hadi Ghaemi, a family friend,
had been arrested and transferred to Evin Prison on Ashura day (December 27,
2009).
The family was arrested for their visit to Camp Ashraf last year to see their
son and a relative. Mr. Daneshpour, a political prisoner of the 1960's had
already spent five years in Iranian regime's prisons on the charges of
sympathizing with the People's Mohjahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK)...
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IRAQ: Civilians Under Fire
Amnesty International
April 27, 2010
VIOLENCE AGAINST REFUGEES
In addition to internally displaced Iraqis, there are about 35,000 refugees from
other countries registered by the UNHCR in Iraq. The largest groups are
Palestinians as well as Turkish and Iranian nationals…
Iran (PMOI), an Iranian opposition group, who are living in Camp Ashraf in
Diyala governorate. Following months of rising tension, Iraqi security forces
forcibly entered and took control of the camp, which had been under US military
control until June 2009, on 28 and 29 July 2009. Video footage taken as Iraqi
security forces entered the camp showed them deliberately driving military
vehicles into crowds of protesting residents.
They used live ammunition, apparently killing at least nine refugees, and
detained 36 others who they subsequently tortured. The 36 were taken to al-Khalis
police station in Diyala, where they mounted a hunger strike, and were then
moved to Baghdad despite repeated judicial orders for their release. They were
freed and allowed to return to Camp Ashraf in October after an international
campaign for their release. However, in early 2010 the authorities were reported
to be insisting that the camp residents move to another location in southern
Iraq...
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Cruel treatment of Ali Saremi, an Ashraf Resident's
Family on death row
NCRI Press Release
Monday, April 26, 2010
NCRI - In a cruel and inhumane act, on Monday, April 20, the clerical regime’s
henchmen put on trial on fresh charges a political prisoner already sentenced to
death. Ali Saremi is the father of one of the residents of Camp Ashraf in Iraq.
The 62 year old was inhumanly taken to the regime’s court while in chains just
two short days after undergoing a serious surgery. The show trial came to an end
without any rulings and was ordered to resume at a later date.
The presiding judge, Mohammad Moqisseh, is a former member of the “Death
Committee” responsible for the massacre of political prisoners in 1988. The
subject of the proceedings was a brutal attack in September 2008 which was
carried out against political prisoners by a number of dangerous inmates
organized by Evin prison officials. During the show trial, Mr. Saremi protested
against the new plot of prison officials and the creation of a phony case
against him, as well as his exile to Karaj’s Gohardasht prison. He also stressed
on his rights as a Muslim and a PMOI supporter in the face of Moqisseh’s insults
and accusations...
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Understanding the Mujahedin-e Khalq: Resistance
Against Tyranny
The Huffington Post
April 22, 2010
By Ali Safavi, Member of Iran's Parliament in Exile; President of Near East
Policy Research
Aside from the clearly false allegations against the MEK, which have been
addressed in previous posts, some of the MEK's activities inside Iran prior to
2001 have been cited by the US Department of State and others as providing
ostensible justification for the terrorist label against the organization. The
MEK's activities have been painted with an unjustified brush of terrorism,
thereby conflating instances of otherwise legitimate resistance against a
tyrannical system with horrid acts of blind terrorism.
... Therefore, armed resistance against the clerical regime, and especially its
specific application by the MEK (carried out prior to 2001), was completely
justifiable and legitimate, at least according to the universally-established
international democratic norms and legal criteria.
Aside from all this, although the end does not always justify the means, in this
particular case, too much focus and emphasis on the methods of resistance
obscures the noble end and takes the spotlight off the regime's inhumane crimes.
The main issue and the reason for the MEK's activities revolve around democracy
and popular sovereignty in their home country since day one. That is why, even
prior to voluntarily handing over all its weapons in 2003 to Coalition Forces in
Iraq, and in fact since the early 1980s, the MEK has repeatedly declared its
readiness to take park in a free and fair election under the auspices of the
United Nations and fully accept the results of a genuinely democratic plebiscite
in Iran.
This explains why before 2001, when the MEK ceased its military actions in Iran,
a majority in the US House of Representatives and 32 Senators as well as
majorities in the UK House of Commons and in several European parliaments,
including Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium and Norway, voiced support for the MEK as a
"legitimate opposition [movement]," that is "working to establish a democratic
and pluralistic system in the country.”...
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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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