European-US call for annulment of Iraqi government suppressive deadline to close Ashraf

International Conference at European Parliament in Brussels: European-US call for annulment of Iraqi government suppressive deadline to close Ashraf
• Maryam Rajavi: I warn that a humanitarian catastrophe is looming; we should not lose time to stop it

NCRI - In an international conference at the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday, 19 October 2011, prominent international figures from the United States and Europe expressed their concern about the ominous intents of the Iranian regime and the Iraqi government against Ashraf residents. They called for the annulment of the illegal end-of-2011 deadline for closure of Camp Ashraf and prevention of another massacre.



The conference called on the United Nations Secretary-General, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and western governments to adopt urgent measures to ensure protection of Ashraf and prevent a humanitarian catastrophe and to obligate the Iraqi government to remove its deadline until the resettlement of all residents to third countries.

The conference in particular blamed the United States for its failure to abide by its responsibility to protect the residents. The conference emphasized that the U.S. would be fully responsible for another bloodbath in Ashraf. The conference also called on the U.S. President and the State Department to remove the PMOI from the FTO list as a first essential step to ensure protection of Ashraf.

Speakers to the conference, presided by Mr. James Higgins, member of the European Parliament Bureau, were: Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance; Dr. Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Vice President of the European Parliament; Mr. Stephen Hughes, Vice President of the Socialist Group; Louis Michel, MEP and former Belgian Foreign Minister and European Commissioner; Judge Michael Mukasey, former U.S. Attorney General (2007-09); Louis Freeh, Director of FBI (1993-2001); Günter Verheugen, European Commissioner (1999-2009) and former Advisory Minister in German Foreign Ministry; Colonel Wesley Martin, former Coalition’s counter terrorism commander in Iraq and former U.S. security commander in Ashraf.

In this conference, with participation of dozens of members of the European Parliament, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, based on the Resistance’s sources inside Iran, revealed the joint plot by the Iranian regime and Iraqi government to attack Ashraf and occupy another section of the camp which will lead to another massacre.

She added: “Currently, the Iraqi government is making military preparations to conduct this plot.”
“The Iraqi government wants to disrupt the UNHCR work to confirm refugee status of the residents in a bid to use lack of progress as a pretext for another deadly attack at the end of December,” she said.

Mrs. Rajavi asked Western governments, especially the European Union, that are allocating enormous financial assistance to Iraq to enforce the Iraqi government to abide by its international obligations, including cooperation with Lady Ashton’s special envoy on Ashraf affairs and refraining from hindering the efforts of UN agencies.

She asked the UN Secretary General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to station UN monitors at Ashraf as soon as possible as a guarantee to avert the next humanitarian catastrophe. She also urged the United States, all EU Member States, Baroness Ashton and the United Nations to voice protest over Iraqi government’s dangerous deadline for closure of Ashraf by the end of December and to not be witness to another catastrophe about which they were warned in advance