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UN ‘should run Ashraf’- Liberty News

CHURCH TIMES – By Ed Thornton 20 May, 2011

MPs and peers this week demanded that the UN take control of Camp Ashraf, the refugee camp north of Baghdad which houses 3400 Iranian exiles, writes Ed Thornton.

The camp came under attack again last month, when 34 were left dead and dozens were injured (News, 15 April).

Speaking at a meeting in Westminster on Monday, the chairman of the British Parliament ary Committee for Iran Freedom, Lord Corbett, said: “The mullahs in Iran have instructed Iraq to raze Ashraf from the face of the earth, and slaughter its residents.”

The chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Holy See, the Conservative MP, David Amess, called for an “independent inquiry by a panel of jurists” into the “massacre” last month. “Our Government and the Prime Minister need to play a pro-active role to compel the UN to urgently take over protection of Ashraf and ensure thewithdrawal of Iraqi forces.”

Lord King of West Bromwich described Camp Ashraf as “a beacon of hope, hope which we have seen spreading in the Arab Spring”.

Earlier this year, the Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Revd John Pritchard, expressed concern about “outrageous attempts to intimidate” the residents of Camp Ashraf, after an attack on them (News, 21 January). He called on the international community to ensure that the residents, of whom a minority are Iranian Christians, are protected.