Over Two Million Iraqis Condemn Tehran's Meddling in Iraq - Call on UN and US to Impel the Iraqi Government to Release Seven Ashraf Hostages and Guarantee Camp Liberty Residents' Protection

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Iran News Update

20 Jan, 2014, 19:16 GMT

BAGHDAD, January 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

The Iraq National Tribes Council, in coordination with a variety of national organizations, is campaigning to petition the Iraqi government to redress the humanitarian crisis facing Iranian exiles in Baghdad's Camp Liberty. The petition condemns the criminal attacks that government forces have launched against the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/Mek), which is temporarily housed in Camp Liberty. It also calls for UN forces to be stationed in the camp as a guarantee of the residents' safety. The petition has gathered 2,155,000 signatures from residents of eighteen Iraqi provinces.

Signatories include over 3,000 sheikhs, 14,000 lawyers and jurists, nearly 40,000 physicians, engineers and university professors, 500 clerics and senior religious figures, and 25,000 writers and intellectuals. The campaign garnered participation from sheikh councils, non-governmental organizations, women's associations, university students centers, legal associations, and other institutions from all across Iraq.

The petition calls attention to Iranian influence in Iraq leading to the suppression of exiled Iranian dissidents. It read in part: "By inflaming the sectarian war and provoking terrorist measures in Iraq, the Iranian regime has shed the blood of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis and also made millions of others flee from their homes. This regime has also placed the Iraqi government under its intense influence… the Iranian regime's dominance over Iraq has reached a point that it has, through the Iraqi government and its agents in this country, staged seven vicious attacks against the PMOI, the opposition to the Iranian regime. The members of this organization are defenseless and under international protection, and the result of these attacks have been 116 killed and over 1,375 others injured. This is while they were 'protected persons' under the 4th Geneva Convention and the Iraqi government, US government and UN had given signed commitments to protect them. Forces under the command of the Iraqi Prime Ministry have not been satisfied with these attacks and have also abducted seven PMOI members."

The popular statement went on to emphasize: "In our opinion the silence of the US and UN regarding these crimes and pressures is allowing the Iranian regime and its Iraqi agents to increase their killings and pressures, and we strongly condemn this matter. The PMOI are the Iraqi people's honorable guests, have always had brotherly relations with the Iraqi people and have stood alongside them at all times."

In signing this statement, 2,155,000 expressed agreement with its conclusion, calling on the UN and US government to immediately carry out the following measures:

  1. Impel the Iraqi government to immediately release the seven hostages that its forces took from the former PMOI residence, Camp Ashraf.
  2. Station UN forces in Liberty and guarantee security standards in this camp.
  3. Conduct an impartial investigation on the horrifying crimes of 1 September 2013, in which Camp Ashraf was attacked and over 50 residents executed.
  4. Pressure the Iranian regime to end its bloody and occupational meddling in Iraq.

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