Article by:
Paymaneh Mirshafei
 |
| US-UN Silence over Ashraf massacre |
The Middle East is riddled with strange and
rather unpredictable episodes. But this one sure is one of the top ones. On
September 1, Iraqi special operations forces, at the behest of the Iranian
regime, entered Camp Asharf, home of Iranian dissidents in Iraq and shot dead
52 unarmed and defenseless refugees who were all ‘Protected Persons’ under the
4th Geneva Convention.
Most victims were handcuffed, identified and
then executed with a bullet in the head. They took seven of the residents, six
women and one man as hostage.
Now, the Iraqi government, whose ties to the
September 1st attack on Camp Asharaf have been thoroughly proven, has assumed
responsibility to probe the massacre.
Wait a minute!. Where in the world do we have
committed murderers or rapists interrogate their own victims? This outrageous
request is not just a criminal act but it is changing the international laws of
protecting the citizens’ rights.
The undertaking is a mockery of justice and
impartiality, and must be firmly rejected by the US and UN. The objective of
this sham investigation by the Iraqi government is to wash the blood from Iraqi
Prime Minister Maliki’s hands and pave the way for future massacres.
Following
the massacre, a United Nations delegation conducted a visit to the camp the
next day and verified that the 52 deceased had "suffered gunshot wounds,
the majority of them in the head and the upper body, and several with their
hands tied."
The fate of the seven Camp Ashraf residents
missing since the attack is also of great concern, as a letter by Catherine
Ashton, indicates the high risk of them being transferred back to Iran. This is
a crime against humanity that should not go unheeded in silence and inaction,
especially since the rest of the Ashraf residents and 3,000 residents in Camp
Liberty are threatened by similar massacres.
All residents of Ashraf and Liberty, including
the 52 who were murdered in cold blood, are protected persons according to Geneva
Convention and asylum-seekers who have the U.S. and UN responsible for their
safety.
The US
and UN have been silenced and have resorted to a simple inaction regarding the
heinous crime at Camp Ashraf and the fact that seven residents were abducted by
Maliki's henchmen.
This is not the first attack by Iraqi forces to
innocent residents of Camp Ashraf and Liberty, but US officials repeatedly ask
the Government of Iraq to investigate their own crimes! Despite repeated
assurances by the Iraqi government that the Iranian dissidents, members of the
People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the principal Iranian
opposition movement will be safe and protected, since 2012, 113 residents have
been killed in five separate attacks.
It
should be clear to all by now that the Iraqi government cannot be trusted to
keep these refugees safe. Meanwhile, the MEK residents at Camp Liberty are not
safe and secure.
What
makes the Iraqi mockery is more amazing is the fact Iraqi government claims it
had no part in the crime!
According to Mr. Taher Boumedra, the former UN
Human Right Chief in Baghdad, who resigned in protest last year this is simply
not true. "I remember the watch towers around camp Ashraf which make it
absolutely impossible for anybody to penetrate the camp without being detected.
So, for the government of Iraq to say that it doesn’t know what happened, I
could tell you that they do know and they did it. I could also tell you through
experience because the previous incidents that took place in Ashraf in July
2009 and in April 2011, I was the person who did the fact finding mission and I
know they already denied those incidents and later they admitted the killings
in camp Ashraf in two instances.
This is the third one. They did it once, they
did it twice, they got away with it and now they did it a third time and if we
keep quiet they will get away with it, and I tell you that they will repeat it
in Liberty. The reason they will repeat it is because the highest authority in
Baghdad said as long as they are here we will keep harassing them till they
leave Iraq.
So it is the responsibility of member states
and representatives in Baghdad to speak out because they know the realities.
The USA also knew the details of what happened.
Keeping this quiet is covering up a crime against humanity." Despite the
cost of two trillion dollars and thousands of innocent American and Iraqi lives
lost during the war in Iraq, Nouri al Maliki has chosen to side with the devil,
the Supreme Leader of the Iranian regime.
By going after defenceless Iranian dissidents,
Maliki is returning favor to Tehran. This is a clear case of mockery of human
rights! The United States and United Nation ought to change their position and
force the Iraqi government to release the seven hostages, including six women,
immediately before it’s too late.
The UN must urgently conduct a thorough and
independent investigation into the massacre at Camp Ashraf. Moreover, it is
appropriate to call for UN monitors to be stationed at Camp Liberty constantly.
Keeping silence on the crimes of the dictators is tantamount to complicity. No
ifs or buts!
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Paymaneh Mirshafei, a graduate of San Jose
State University and a resident of Northern California, is a human rights
activist with focus on her birthplace, Iran. Ms. Mirsafei specializes in social
media activities and in 2008 hosted her Talk Show in a Persian Satellite TV
which broadcasted in US and Middle East. She is also well known in the
community for hosting events and organizing human rights events and a series of
Self Knowledge courses on Iranian poetry with focus on Rumi.
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