{mosimage}BPCIF: Cross-party MPs and Peers on Thursday voiced alarm at a recent Iraqi government directive ordering the displacement of 3,400 members of the main Iranian opposition movement PMOI from Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad.

PRESS RELEASE

{mosimage}Cross-party MPs and Peers on Thursday voiced alarm at a recent Iraqi government directive ordering the displacement of 3,400 members of the main Iranian opposition movement PMOI from Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad.

"We are alarmed that an Iraqi government representative told representatives of Camp Ashraf on October 19 that all its residents must be transferred to a place in Samava, near the Saudi border in south of Iraq, by December 15, 2009", Lord Corbett of Castle Vale, chair of the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom, told a panel in Parliament. "The Iraqi official warned that if the residents do not agree with the transfer, the government will use force and repeat their violence of July 28 and 29".

"The Iranian regime is determined to see Ashraf raised to the ground. We are even more determined that it won't be", Lord Corbett said.

Andrew MacKinlay MP of the Foreign Affairs Committee said the Iraqi government had issued an "intolerable ultimatum". He said the UK and US should take action to stop those in the Iraqi government who are doing the Iranian regime's bidding. "If those in the Iraqi government foolishly and recklessly try to fulfil their threat, there would be a major reaction across the world".

Two Camp Ashraf residents, who were formerly among 36 residents held as hostages by the Iraqi government for 72 days despite three court verdicts, spoke to the Parliamentary meeting by telephone from Ashraf and expressed their appreciation for the activities of members of the all-party Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom for gaining their release.

Prominent human rights lawyer Sir Geoffrey Bindman said a European Parliament resolution on 24 April 2009 urged Iraq to "end its blockade of the camp and respect the legal status of the Camp Ashraf residents as 'protected persons' under the Geneva Conventions". The EP resolution called on Iraqi authorities to "protect the lives, and the physical and moral integrity of the Camp Ashraf residents and to treat them in accordance with the obligations under the Geneva Conventions, notably not to forcibly displace, deport, expel or repatriate them in violation of the principle of non-refoulement".  

"There is therefore no justification in international law for the displacement of these people, and the physical violence is an outrage and a major atrocity for which the British government has a major obligation under international law to do everything it can to bring the perpetrators to justice and to secure the safety of the residents in the future", Bindman said, adding: "Any displacement of Ashraf residents is unlawful. The US which still has troops in Iraq should give substance to its guarantee. Iraq must implement the European Parliament resolution of 24 April 2009. The UN has a major responsibility here. The way forward should be for an international monitoring team to be inside the camp".

Former UK solicitor-general Rt. Hon. Lord Archer of Sandwell QC, former lord advocate for Scotland Rt. Hon. Lord Fraser of Carmyllie QC, Lord Lea, Liberal Democrat Party Deputy Leader Lord Dholakia, Baroness Verma, Lord Cotter, Lord King of West Bromwich, Baroness Gibson of Market Rasen, Lord Clarke of Hampstead and Mark Williams MP announced their continued support for the rights of Ashraf residents, particularly those enshrined in the ‘principle of non-refoulement' which forbids their forcible displacement within Iraq.

Ms. Dowlat Nowrouzi, Deputy Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran and the council's representative in the UK, said Iraqi officials had conducted private interviews with all Ashraf residents outside the camp in the presence of US officials earlier this year, and the residents had stated that they considered Ashraf to be their home and that their forcible displacement would be illegal. Ms. Nowrouzi urged Parliamentarians to press the government to stand against the threat of Islamic fundamentalism which is being exported by the Iranian regime to Iraq and the region.

The British Committee for Iran Freedom
22 October 2009