NCRI – A full investigation into the serious human rights crimes and abuses against the Iranian opposition members in Camps Ashraf and Liberty must be carried out urgently, a leading United Nations expert has demanded.
On September 1, 2013, the Iraqi forces attacked Camp Ashraf and killed 52 members of Iranian opposition the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and abducted seven residents including six women. Camp Liberty where nearly 3,000 PMOI members reside has repeatedly come under missile attacks.
Alfred Morris Zayas, UN independent expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order, said: “More than three months had passed since the Human Rights Council demanded a probe into the seven missing Iranian residents of Camp Ashraf and condemned the gross violations of human rights endured by the residents of Ashraf and Liberty.”
He told a conference on Friday at UN Headquarters in Geneva: “The residents of Camp Ashraf and Liberty have been subjected to physical assault on repeated occasions. I condemned the lack of proper investigation of the massacres and the impunity of those responsible for them.
“Grave crimes of this nature and the impunity that has accompanied them entail violations of numerous international treaty provisions and constitute an assault on the rule of law and are affront international community and a threat to the international order.
“The families of the killed and disappeared are entitled to the right to know what happened to their loved ones and to reparation for the suffering endured and I hereby once again call upon all of my colleagues of the Special Procedures.
“I call formally on the Human Rights Council and I call on High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay to make a strong statement and to demand investigation of all these gross violations of human rights that continue to this date.”