NCRI – The Iranian Resistance, on the eighth day after the massacre and collective executions in Camp Ashraf, calls on the U.S. government, the United Nations, and human rights organizations for urgent action to free and return seven Ashraf residents taken hostage by Iraqi forces.
The criminal attack on September 1 was implemented upon orders from Ali Khamenei and Ghassem Suleimani, Commander of the Qods Force, and with participation of Iraqi forces under command of Maliki.
As mentioned in previous statements by the Iranian Resistance, commander of the provincial police force was stationed in Camp Ashraf prior to the attack and remained there for several hours after the termination of the attack to directly oversee all stages of the attack that continued from 5 in the morning until around noon.
Iraqi SWAT forces and 60 members of the so-called Golden Division (Dirty Division) that is under the command of Iraq’s Prime Minister had gone to Camp Ashraf from Baghdad to participate in this crime.
The day prior to the attack (August 31), a joint meeting was held for final coordination of the attack where Commander of Diyala police, Commander of Operations of Diyala, Commander of the 5th Division stationed in Diyala, commanders of the federal police and Diyala SWAT force, and director of Khalis Police partook with Commander of the Iraqi Army participating via telephone.
There is no doubt that the responsibility for the collective execution of 52 PMOI members and the responsibility for safety and freeing of the seven hostages lies with Government of Iraq and the Prime Minister who is Commander in Chief of the armed forces and the man that Ashraf dossier is directly under his supervision.
Hostages are all protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention and the U.S. government has given them ‘Protected Person’ cards in 2004. Each and every one of these seven has signed an agreement with U.S. forces and United States has assumed responsibility for their protection until their final disposition. They had remained in Camp Ashraf according to a quadripartite agreement between U.S., UN, Iraq and residents’ representatives to guard the property in Camp Ashraf. In this agreement, United States has committed itself to support the safety and security of the residents. Moreover, Special Advisor to U.S. Secretary of State on Camp Ashraf Affairs declared on 3 October 2012 that the stay of the one-hundred residents in Ashraf has no time constraint.
As far as UN is concerned, according to numerous statements by UNHCR, the seven hostages, just like the other residents of Camp Ashraf and Liberty, are asylum-seekers and ‘people of concern’. In addition to the quadripartite agreement, the Special Representative of Secretary-General, in his letter to the residents on 6 September 2012 underscored the remaining of 100 residents until complete resolution of the property issue and wrote that government of Iraq would provide protection to these people and the property.
Since these hostages with no news on them are surely under threat of torture and extradition to the religious fascism, the Iranian Resistance calls on all international human rights organizations and pertinent UN bodies such as the Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance, and the Human Rights Council to call on the U.S. government and the UN Security Council and Secretary-General to resort to immediate action to free the hostages.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
September 8, 2013