6th anniversary of Camp Ashraf massacre in Iraq

NCRI - Tuesday marks the 6th anniversary of the Nuri Maliki-led Iraqi government's massacre at Camp Ashraf which left 11 members of the main Iranian opposition group People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, PMOI (Mujahedin-e Khalq, MEK), killed and nearly 500 wounded, and a further 36 camp residents taken hostage.

On July 28-29, 2009, the Iraqi Army under the direct order of Iraqi dictator Nuri al-Maliki attacked the unarmed and defenseless Camp Ashraf residents.

The unprovoked attack on the group of refugees drew widespread condemnation from international lawmakers, human rights organizations and religious personalities.

Amnesty International, the International Federation for Human Rights, the World Organization Against Torture, Human Rights Watch, and the Archbishop of Canterbury were among those who condemned the attack and expressed concern about the situation of Camp Ashraf residents in numerous statements.

Other Camp Ashraf residents and their families and supporters around the world launched a 72-day hunger strike that eventually forced the Iraqi government to release on October 7 the 36 Camp Ashraf hostages that had been arrested and tortured. The Iraqi courts had issued three verdicts by this time ordering the Iraqi government to release the detained residents.

There was also a major international campaign to compel the U.S. government and the United Nations to live up to their legal and moral responsibility to protect the Camp Ashraf residents.

A resolution adopted by the European Parliament on April 24, 2009, had reiterated that the PMOI (MEK) members in Camp Ashraf were 'Protected Persons' under the Fourth Geneva Convention. The Parliament called on the Iraqi Government to respect the rights of Camp Ashraf residents and to refrain from their expulsion or forcible displacement within Iraq and to put an end to the siege imposed on them.

Following the brutal attack on Camp Ashraf in 2009, under Maliki's watch, the Iraqi army and Shiite militia groups backed by the Iranian regime have carried out five other deadly massacres and rocket attacks on Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty, where the PMOI (MEK) members were later relocated at the request of the United Nations.

The April 2011 attack on Camp Ashraf - described by then U.S. Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as a "massacre" - left 36 residents dead and hundreds wounded. That attack also drew widespread condemnation from the international community.

Since 2009, both Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty have been under a barbaric siege where delivery of food, fuel and medicine has been constantly hampered and visits by family members, human rights organizations, residents' lawyers, international lawmakers and independent journalists have been disallowed.

The several thousand PMOI (MEK) members now at Camp Liberty continue to face an inhumane siege by the Iraqi government.