Iraq must be held to account for the massacre at Camp Ashraf, which was carried out on the orders of the Iranian regime, US Congressman Ted Poe has demanded.
He described the murder of 52 Iranian dissidents at the camp on September 1 as a ‘deliberate act of genocide’ which Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki has refused to condemn.
Speaking at a bipartisan congressional briefing on Wednesday, Judge Poe said: “They weren’t just killed, they were brutalized. And and those who survived the first gun shots were taken an assassinated. This was a deliberate act of terror against those defenseless, unarmed people.
“This was a deliberate act of genocide against the people in that camp. Specific individuals were not assassinated, not because the outlaws spared them for any reason other than to capture them, hold them hostage, and brutally interrogate them, which is what has happened to 7 of those individuals.
“Someday, those people that committed this act of terror will be captured and they ought to be tried on the international scene for war crimes.
“I wrote a letter to Prime Minister Maliki, wanting him to publicly condemn the attacks, and asking him to do something about it. Of course, I haven’t heard from him.”
Iraq had a ‘legal and moral duty’ to protect the residents of Camps Ashraf and Liberty, whether it is protection from the Iraqi government, the Iranian government, or whether its rogue militias running loose in Iraq, he said.
He added: “The world, Iraq, the United States, the United Nations, must present outrage and accountability for what has happened to these people.
“Let’s just make it clear, you’re not getting more American money Mr. President Maliki unless there is an accountability to who did this, and second to ensure that these people are safe, is that too much to ask before you get American money?
“Myself, and 33 other members of the House, have written a letter to Secretary Kerry, informing him that it is our request that we stop aid to Iraq until there is accountability and until we can also know that the folks in both camps are protected.
“I’ve also written a letter to Secretary General Moon, asking him to do all he can to get the UN to actually protect the people who have not been killed in Iraq, the Iranians.
“My own opinion is, the Iraqi government and certainly the Iranian government are in cahoots to make sure that the people in Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty are persecuted, and I believe they were both involved in this latest raid.
“The voices of the innocent cry out from their graves for the world to take notice about how they were killed and murdered. Justice demands that we do something, because justice is what we do in this country. And that’s just the way it is.”