Anyone who has passed along Sussex Drive over the past 50 days or so would have noticed 10 Iranian Canadians on hunger strike in front of the American Embassy. As their health deteriorates, their appeal to the Canadian and American governments to intervene effectively against Iraqi brutality would appear to be continuing to fall on deaf ears.
On July 28, Iraqi security forces attacked unarmed Iranian refugees at Camp Ashraf, using guns, axes, clubs and American-made Humvee armoured vehicles.
They left 11 people dead and 500 injured; 36, who also continue to hunger strike, were taken into custody and remain so without being charged with any offence despite an Iraqi court order releasing them.
Unchallenged, the Iraqi military is still in Ashraf and can commit further criminal acts. American soldiers were present at the scene but did nothing but film what was happening.
The camp is located 100 kilometres northeast of Baghdad and is home to 3,400 members of the largest Iranian opposition, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), and includes about 1,100 women and approximately 50 persons who are Canadian citizens.
The residents surrendered their weapons to U.S. forces in 2003 after signing an agreement, stipulating in part that the Americans accepted the responsibility to protect them until the determination of their final status.
In early 2009, following seven court decisions across Europe, the 27 nations of the European Union delisted the PMOI as a terrorist organization, leaving only Canada, the U.S., and Iraq in the disturbing company of Iran.
In February 2009, Ashraf's protection under the fourth Geneva Convention was transferred to Iraqi forces, despite warnings by numerous parliamentarians, jurists and human rights organizations, who predicted that Ashraf residents would have no security if their protection were transferred to Iraq's heavily Tehran-influenced government.
Amnesty International has voiced its concern that the 36 residents taken away risk being forcibly returned to Iran where they could face torture or execution.
At a press conference in Paris, David Matas, one of Canada's best-known lawyers and my colleague on the International Commission of Jurists in Defence of Ashraf, noted: "The United States, elsewhere in the world, condemns violations of human rights. It should do no less in Iraq when the violations occur in front of its own armed forces. I expect and hope that the U.S. would take note of and censure grave violations of the human rights of the residents of Camp Ashraf. But now that is not happening. We have to find others in the international community who are able and willing to do what the United States is not doing."
The attack on Ashraf residents, who are all "protected persons" under the Fourth Geneva Convention, was clearly carried out at the request of the Iran's current deeply discredited leadership, emboldened by its recent crackdown of Iranian dissidents.
To avoid further human disaster, Iraq must withdraw its forces from Ashraf and American protection of Ashraf residents must be reinstated immediately. Lawyers and international human rights organizations as well as journalists must be given access to the camp.
A representative of the UN Security Council or Secretary General should go to Ashraf immediately to bear witness to any further attacks. Those who ordered or perpetrated the brutal attacks and massacre in Camp Ashraf should be prosecuted by an international tribunal for crimes against humanity.
David Kilgour is a Canadian member of the International Committee of Jurists in Defence of Ashraf.
