GET THEM OUT OF THE DEATH CAMPS! NOW!
On September the first, and for the fifth time in two and a half years, Iraqi military forces under the direct supervision of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki have massacred Iranian opposition refugees now scattered into what used to be Ashraf and Liberty camps,but which in the meantime have been transformed into death camps.
The facts are known, have been widely documented and confirmed, not least by the former United Nations Iraq Human Rights supervisor, Tahar Boumedra, a whistle-blower who dared to confront the prevailing corruption and affiliation with Iran paymasters of his UNAMI leadership.
The present massacre targeted the remaining hundred Iranians that were left behind in Ashraf to prevent the looting of their belongings, while the other 3000 were moved to Liberty. Like former attacks,the latest one started by heavy shelling but was followed by the gruesome and coward assassination of the remainingsurvivors, some of them handcuffed and lined before the execution.
The Iraqi Army death squads did not even spare the medical clinic where Iranians were trying to assist refugees injured by the bombardment, machine gunning every-one inside. From the hundred residents, 52 bodies were left on the ground, whereas 7 disappeared.
From March 2003, the Badr Brigades –renegade Iraqi corps supervised by Iran which were created and enlarged extensively during the Gulf War and integrated in the structure of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards – were installed in Iraq and developed death squads specialised in the torture, murder and bombing of civilians. They now constitute the core of the Iraqi Prime Minister’s office forces.
Their crimes have been widely documented by numerous independent press authors and books but have been either not covered or distorted through propaganda in most of the Western media.
Besides the 40 survivors of the last massacre in Ashraf, over 3000 Iranian refugees still remain in Liberty, fearful of further attacks; waiting for the materialisation of protection and resettlement guarantees given by the international community, especially the US.
What are we waiting for? We cannot hesitate any longer; further attacks are on the horizon. We must fulfil our promise to protect the Iranian refuges! Can any honest, independent observer have any doubt that if nothing is done, more and more massive massacres will take place? Is there any doubt that blocking the escape of this people is nothing morally different from the policy of closed doors to the Jewish population trying to escape the Holocaust?
Please, Mr Kerry, do not waste any time, get them out of the death camps now!
Brussels, 2013.09.03
Paulo Casaca, founder and director of ARCHumankind
