Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly - Declaration of protection of Camp Ashraf

Protection of Camp Ashraf

Written Declaration No 501

This written declaration commits only the members who have signed it

We alert the international community to a Srebrenica-style massacre of 3 400 Iranian opponents in Camp Ashraf, Iraq.

So far, 47 unarmed refugees have been killed and hundreds injured in two murderous attacks on Ashraf at the behest of the Iranian regime. The Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri Al-Maliki, has said that the camp must be closed by the end of 2011, thus preparing the ground for a new massacre.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has declared that Ashraf residents are “asylum-seekers” who must benefit from international protection.

We support the mission of Ambassador Jean de Ruyt who was recently appointed as the EU’s special representative on Camp Ashraf. We demand that he visit Ashraf very soon to make his efforts for a peaceful solution to the crisis more effective.

We also demand:

- that the UNHCR reconfirms the political refugee status for the camp residents,

- that the UN Secretary General and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) station a constant monitoring team at Ashraf to secure the protection of the residents until they are all resettled in third countries,

- that the United States, the European Union and the United Nations make Iraq cancel the deadline to close Ashraf, end the siege and psychological torture by 300 loudspeakers, uninstall jamming and surveillance devices outside the camp and allow the residents free access to their lawyers and medical services.

Signed:

Total = 108
EPP/CD: Group of the European People’s Party
SOC: Socialist Group
ALDE: Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
EDG: European Democratic Group
UEL: Group of the Unified European Left
NR: not registered in a group