Take care of human rights of Iranian refugees in Iraq! Storming of the Ashraf camp must be investigated

Your Excellency, dear Mr. Talabani,

For almost four decades the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) has been active in pressing for the human rights of the Kurds in Iraq. We have consistently documented and reported in the international press the crimes of genocide against Kurds, we have had confrontations with poison gas firms before German courts and looked after Kurdish refugees. We are to this very day glad that you as a leading figure in public life, who has for decades fought the rule of terror of Saddam Hussein, have become the first democratically elected president of the Republic of Iraq.

We ask you to give us your support in the following matter:

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) (nochmal?) is very concerned about the attacks of Iraqi security forces against members of the Iranian opposition group “People’s Mujaheddin” in the Ashraf camp in the Iraqi province of Diala. Last Wednesday night (29.07.2009) Iraqi police stormed the camp. It has been reported that in the following conflict with the camp inmates eight persons were killed and 455 injured. It seems that there were Iranians as well as Iraqis among the victims.

In the name of our human rights organisation I appeal to you urgently to make sure that all the injured Iranians receive proper medical treatment and that all aid organisations are enabled to enter the Ashraf camp. The camp, in which it is understood that at least 3500 Iranians are living, lies on the territory of your country. For this reason your government bears full responsibility for the safety of the members of this Iranian political group.

Since these Iranian refugees as members of the “People’s Mujaheddin” are threatened in the Islamic Republic of Iran with death, prison and torture, I beg of you to enable all inmates of the camp to look for asylum in western countries. These people must never be deported against their will to Iran or another country.

Should the reports be confirmed that members of the Iranian government took part in the attack on the camp, this would mean a most serious violation of all international human rights standards. So we also ask you to ensure that an independent commission investigates the circumstances of the storming of the camp.

Even if the Iranian “People’s Mujaheddin”, an organisation with a totalitarian structure, joined with Saddam Hussein in persecuting the Kurds and Shiites and took part in the Iraqi war of aggression against Iran from 1980 to 1988, the human rights of this organisation must not be damaged.