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News Bulletin of the Foreign Aairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of IranNo. 332 30 Spmbr 2011

UN urged to station observers in Ashraf

until full completion of residents resettlement

Internaonal Conference in Geneva

September 22, 2011

Maryam Rajavi:As ar as Ashra is concerned, ater the partial recognition othe rights o the residents by the UN High Commissioner or Reugees, theUN Secretary General and the Commissioner or Human Rights should takethe initiative to protect Ashra residents.

Rudy Giuliani: Te UN High Commissioner or Human Rights can just,with the stroke o a pen, set up a monitorship or Ashra. Tat decision shouldbe made now, without delay, without going through hurdles and all kinds obureaucratic procedures.

Edward Rendell: Every day that we dont protect Ashra, every day that theMEK remains on the terrorist list is a potential danger. In the name o the

American democracy, in the name o human rights, the time to act is now.

Judge Michael Mukasey: Te USA has to stop just being a great powerand start acting and behaving like a great power and show that the words o

Abraham Lincoln, who described the US as the last best hope o earth are inact even truer today than when he rst spoke them.

John Bruton:Te European Union which has already given one billion Eurostowards reconstruction o Iraq,...I urther assistance is to be given to Iraq, Ithink that should be made conditional on insuring that the sovereign nationo Iraq exercises the sovereign responsibilities to protect the people o Camp

Ashra.

Genenral James Conway:In the US military we teach marines that evenwhen youre in combat you have a moral responsibility. I ear we do not havetime. But I certainly advocate that a rst best step is de-listing the MEK,providing protection or the people at Ashra.

Gnter Verheugen:Te situation is critical. Tere is a deadline that is not yetremoved; I dont see any system o guaranteed protection. And thereore, it istime or Europeans to act. I have seen enough. No more nice words. Action isnow required, action at the very top o the UN, action in our relationship withIraq, and action in our relationship with the US.

Louis Freeh: Te designation remaining as it is today, is a licence to kill,not only to the Iranian Ministry o Intelligence and Iranian RevolutionaryGuards Corp and its agents but to the Iraqi government as was witnessed sobrutally on April 8th o this year.

Jean-Charles Rielle:I know that a rst step has been made to recognizethe asylum seeker request. oday, or people o Ashra to be protected, it isessential that UNHCR recognizes their status as reugees

Giorgio Bornacin: I believe that the United Nations should have actedmuch sooner on this issue. We do not understand the reason or their lacko action.

In an international conerence held in Geneva on Tursday, September 22, 2011 by the Swiss Committee in Deense o Ashra, prominent European andAmerican dignitaries and personalities expressed their deep concerns about intentions o the Iranian regime and the Iraqi government against residents oAshra and especially the illegally set deadline o December 2011 or closing the camp. Mr Eric Sottas moderated the conerence.

From let : General James Conway, Louis Freeh, Jean-Charles Rielle, Nils Dedardel, Michael Mukasey, Mitchell Reiss, John Bruton, Eric Sottas, Edward Rendell,Maryam Rajavi, Matthew Oford, Rudy Giuliani,Remy Pagani.

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Edward Rendell, Former Governor oPennsylvania (2002 2011) and ormerChairman o the Democratic Party (2000):

Well, were here today to ask the StateDepartment and the President to make thatdecision on two criteria. One, on the meritso the case. Not on a political deal. Not as abargaining tool. You cannot appease a terroristregime. Make this decision on the merits othe case. On no other actor.Te evidence is overwhelming. I we decide this

case on the merits, i we adhere to Americanjustice and the ideals o the American justicesystem, i we dont use this as a bargaining tool or make a political deal, iwe decide on the merits, the MEK should be de-listed. Te United Statesand the UN should guarantee the security o the Ashra residents. And asMayor Giuliani said, the time is now. Te clock is ticking. We dont knowwhat could happen. Every day that we dont protect Ashra, everyday that theMEK remains on the terrorist list is a potential danger.

Michael Mukasey, Former US Attorney

General (2007 2009):Back in February when Egyptians were rstbeginning to stir, at Friday prayers in ehran,the supreme leader Ali Khamenei, speakingnot in Farsi but in Arabic to make sure that hereached and would be understood in Cairo.Prayers what he calls this explosion o sacredanger and warned against US intererencein Egypt. He claimed that events in ahreersquare were a natural extension o the 1979revolution in Iran. He was obviously notembarrassed that in 2009 he, himsel, hadgiven the orders to put down the uprising in

the streets o ehran that actually began the Arab Spring...Tis is a great opportunity to change the dynamic that has prevailed until

now and to do it dramatically. Delisting MEK would have two immediateand positive eects. First, it will show the current regime that we meanbusiness and that we are prepared to take all necessary steps to bring pressureon a regime, including by removing a designation that simply enables thatregime to continue abusing MEK members and claiming that even the USthinks they deserve it.

John Bruton, Former Prime Minister oIreland (19972004) and the Ambassador oEuropean Union to the US (20042005):Iraq is a sovereign country and Iraq does havethe right to control over all o it territory asall sovereign states do. Tats true. But it

is important to recall that with every rightgoes a responding responsibility. And I thinkwe have to say quite clearly to the Sovereigngovernment o Iraq that it is ailing and hasailed lamentably to exercise properly thecorresponding responsibilities to protect thatgo with the rights o sovereignty as ar as theresidents o Camp Ashra are concerned. And

I believe the European Union which has given already one billion Eurostowards reconstruction o Iraq. I urther assistance is to be given to Iraq, Ithink that should be made conditional on insuring that the sovereign nationo Iraq exercises the sovereign responsibilities to protect the people o Camp

Ashra.

Rudy Giuliani, Former Mayor o New Yorkand a 2008 Presidential Candidate:Now, theres a decision pending here inGeneva that is o critical importance. Te UNHigh Commission can just, with the strokeo a pen, set up a monitorship or Ashra. Amonitorship by the United Nations. Tatdecision should be made now, without delay,without going through hurdles and all kindso bureaucratic procedures. Because the longerit takes, the more people will be injured, the

more people that may be murdered. So weshould all, with one voice, demand that theCommissioner make that decision as soon as

she returns rom New York. Immediately! Not three days rom now. Not aweek rom now. Not a month rom now. But now!I am ashamed that my country turned its back on those people. I remember adierent kind o America. I remember the people o Poland seeking reedom.

And I remember an American president, Ronald Reagan, standing with thepeople o Poland. I remember him going to the Berlin Wall and saying, MrGorbachev, tear down this wall! Well, we need that kind o leadership now.

We need that kind o leadership rom America. And rom the Western world.o say to Iran: ear down the mullahs, tear down the theocracy and throwout Ahmadinejad.

Gnter Verheugen , EuropeanCommissioner (1999-2009) and ormerGerman Deputy Minister o Foreign Aairs:Te rst thing to do is to send a permanentmonitoring mission to Camp Ashra to makesure that nobody can attack the people therewithout being criminalized ater that. So we needa monitoring. And I think it is now time or

Europeans to tell the government o Iraq that thisgovernment cannot expect the European taxpayersto pay or the reconstruction o this country andget nothing in return.I expect the European institutions and theMember States o the European Union to make it

absolutely clear that the government in Bagdad cannot expect urther supportrom the European Union as long as they threaten the people in Camp Ashra.

We want a binding commitment rom the government in Bagdad that it stopsonce and orever.Tere is also the problem o how to discuss it with USA. We have so prominentoutstanding personalities rom USA, who are on behal o that allocations, Ireally wonder how many o such outstanding people who serve that countryin such important oces, how many o such outstanding people in Ashra,how many witnesses must still show up to testiy that putting the MEK onthe terrorist list was part o the political manoeuvre that went terribly wrong?I really must ask Hillary Clinton, Madame Secretary, how much time do youneed to recognize that this was a atal error and it must be corrected as soon aspossible? I am deeply disappointed to why I could not see action against the

American special envoy in Camp Ashra last December.

General James Conway,Commandant

o US Marine Corps (2006 2010) andCommander o US Marine corps in IraqIn 2008 I was the 34th commandant and we werecharged with putting marines in the security roleat Camp Ashra. As a result o that when I hadthe opportunity to visit Iraq, I specically wentthere. Te events o April o this year changed alot o things in my mind.I would also oer to you that in a personal sense,a casualty o that day was the condence that Ihave in the US country team.I certainly endorse every aspect o what your

Madam President has said. I think it is now becoming a responsibility o theUN at a minimum to put observers on the ground as soon as possible with acertain vow that leadership will be held responsible on the world stage or any

urther atrocities that may be committed.I ear we do not have time. But I certainly advocate that a rst best step isde-listing the MEK, providing or the people at Ashra, and throwing our ullsupport behind those people who are part o both organizations.

Eric Sottas, Former Secretary General of WorldOrganization against Torture:

It became scary to see going orward the idea o theIraqi authorities to evacuate Camp Ashra, by theend o this year, and more disturbing to note that theU.S. Ambassador, who ollowed this issue, echoed thisposition, considering the European plan as illusory;this plan is providing protection, especially with thepossibility, i necessary, to relocate Ashra residentsoutside o Iraq.

Tereore the mobilization o August seems to havebeen the element that has ended the deadlock. Recognition o the UNHCR [othe status o asylum seeker or Ashra residents] is recognition o a humanitarianprotection to prevent a massacre. For this process to take place, a protectionshould be provided throughout the period o the investigation that independentinternational experts should hold.

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Louis Freeh, Director o FBI (1993 2001):President Rajavi we applaud your leadership, wehonor your programs, programs that have everysingle attribute o human rights, reedom rights,women rights and we pray or the day when youcan go to ehran and also come to WashingtonDC, please and see us there.[I have] three very simple repeated but criticalmessages tonight: Delist the MEK immediatelyrom the Foreign errorist Organization list.Tis organization is not a terrorist organization.Number 2: Protect the men and women o Camp

Ashra immediately. And 3: Support, as MayorGiuliani said, support positively and armatively and aggressively the MEKand reedom ghters in Iran.

And let me just tell you something about not just Washington but any capital inany government in any country in the world, i there was one scintilla o evidenceo credible act that supported listing o the MEK as a terrorist organization, doyou think or a minute, an Attorney General o the US, the Mayor o NY city,ormer ambassadors and governors would be up here?Te designation remaining as it is today, is a licence to kill, not only to theIranian MOIS and IRGC and its agents but to the Iraqi government as waswitnessed so brutally on April 8th o this year.Te United States o America has a duty to protect the men and women oCamp Ashra.

Mitchell Reiss, Director o StrategyDevelopment o the US State Department(2003 2005):

We need to continue explaining to the UN andUS government why it is so very important orthem to help resolve these issues beore there isanother humanitarian catastrophe. We need tokeep up the pressure.Te residents o Camp Ashra need internationalprotection and they need it immediately. Newcommunications equipment has been installed

around the camps that will jam communicationsand thereby prevent the world rom learningabout what very well might be another round o atrocities like the ones wesaw on April 8th.Tere needs to be international monitors, preerably UN, placed in the campto saeguard the residents. Tis needs to be done now.

As we all know, the US has a special responsibility to protect the residentso Camp Ashra, Governor Rendell and Attorney General Mukasey havealready spoken eloquently to that point. Tis responsibility does not end onDecember 31st, it does not end when the last American solider leaves Iraq. Itends when all o the residents o camp Ashra are sae and secure and whenthey are all allowed to live their lives in peace and in dignity. Te astest, theeasiest, the best way to accomplish this goal is to delist the MEK.

Nils Dedardel, Lawyer and Co-president oSwiss Committee in Deense o Ashra :Our Swiss Committee was ounded in 2008.

At that time, there was great ear that withthe transer o Ashra protection to the Iraqiorces, this protection becomes completelyuseless. Unortunately, this ear materialized inpractice, since you know that it is precisely theIraqi orces, supported by Iranian murderers,who killed 47 people on two occasions inCamp Ashra. However, the situation remainsdramatic in Ashra. Te deadline, imposed bythe Iraqi government by the end o the year, orthe removal, the destruction o the camp still exists. Te danger o a majormassacre, again, is hovering over Ashra, with consequences that could be

much worse than what already happened.We must continue to develop demands, mainly to the international communityand international organizations here in Geneva.

Luc Barthassat, Member o Swiss Parliament:Te people o Ashra are now paying the price oreedom and democracy.Te United Nations must move and movea lot. It is unacceptable that Madam HighCommissioner or Human Rights does not haveactual move to protect the people o Ashra.It is shameul and unacceptable that the UN

reers to the lack o personnel and budgetaryconsiderations as an answer. I a new tragedyhappens in Ashra with bloodshed again, we willhold you accountable or it.Mr. Secretary General, Madam High

Commissioner, we require that your promises be honored and that you actaway rom any pressure that could come rom some countries. Show the worldthat your role is to act also in avor o minorities and ethnic groups which arethreatened, including the people o Ashra.

Giorgio Bornacin, Member o Italian Senate:

My colleagues in Italy and I, believe thatthe United Nations should have acted muchsooner on this issue. We do not understand thereason or their lack o action. It is said that theOce o the High Commissioner or HumanRights has diculty or providing unds or theprotection o a UN monitoring team in Ashra.

What steps this oce has taken to solve thisproblem? Are they waiting or more peopleto get killed so they realize that they need toprovide protection or the monitoring teamand solve its budgetary needs?On behal o mysel and my colleagues in Italy I promise you we will do allwe can to deploy a U.N. monitoring team in Ashra.

Jean-Charles Rielle, Member o SwissParliament:I know that a rst step has been made torecognize the asylum seeker request. oday, orpeople o Ashra to be protected, it is essentialthat UNHCR recognizes their status as reugees.

And we are no longer in diplomatic times, weare in humanitarian times. Tere is no questionthat in Ashra, they live again the experiences oa ew months ago, when the Iraqis moved in thecamp. It is extremely important today to senda clear message. Were really at a stones throwrom UNHCR and the authorities who can

decide to recognize the reugee status.I wanted to tell you, Madam Rajavi, that you are at home. For a long time we

wanted to see you in our city.

Remy Pagani, Member o GenevaAdministrative Council, Mayor until 2011:I went, or the 60th anniversary o the GenevaConventions, to Srebrenica and to Rwanda. Isaw what damage the non-intervention and non-solidarity o the international community hadmade, while these people and these combatantswere entitled, according to the GenevaConventions, to be protected. I went also to South

Kivu, Democratic Republic o Congo. I saw, again,the shortcomings o the international community.I hope and wish - and the city o Geneva is on yourside that it will not happen again, that the international community willmake the law to prevail, here in Geneva, the city which I am proud, and I dointend to take part in your ght.

Matthew Oford, Member o British Parliament:I stand here as a British Member o Parliament and aBritish Member o the Committee or a Free Iran, ledby Lord Corbett, who many o you here know today,and whose hard work has ensured that the PMOI is nolonger on the prescribed list o terrorist organizationswithin the EU.

As a rst step, the Iraqi Government must allow the EUmonitors and humanitarian rights observers to enterthe camp and to monitor the situation in Camp Ashra.

Tey are the legitimate resistance o the Iranian people.Tey are the only hope or a ree and democratic Iran.

And theyre only crime has been to resist the tyrannical Iranian regime. I salutethose people. I say that we here today stand with them as well. Additionally,we stand with the people o Iran in their struggle or a ree and democratichomeland.

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o the Iranian people.Te Iranian people need an organized movementin the ace o the brutal oppression meted out bythe religious ascist regime to obtain its reedom.

You remember the uprising o 2009 in Iran.Some say that the United States was neutral atthe time.Unortunately this was not the case. Simultaneouswith the uprisings in Iran, the United States

transerred the protection o Ashra in Iraq to agovernment loyal to Khamenei.It was a huge git to the mullahs. Without thistranser, Khamenei could not have attacked

Ashra in 2009 and the course o uprisings in Iranwould have been quite dierent.Te removal o the PMOI rom the U.S.State Departments FO list and ensuringthe protection o Ashra residents until nalresolution o their status, are the most objectivecriterion to demonstrate where the United Statesstands in this struggle.

(Excerpts o her speech at the conerence)Te United Nations High Commissioner orReugees has declared that Ashra residents areunder international law asylum seekers andshould benet rom essential protections.Certainly this is a positive step but it is not enoughand the UNHCR must continue in this issue.Tereore, in order to prevent another massacre,the UN Secretary General should now declare

Ashra a non- military zone under the supervisiono the United Nations. He should also order thestationing o UN observers in Ashra.

At the same time the UN High Commissioneror Human Rights must begin an independent,transparent and comprehensive investigation intothe attack o 8 April as soon as possible.Tese are vital measures because the Iraqigovernment insists on its ultimatum to close

Ashra until the end o 2011, every day.Te issue o Ashra is at the center o a greatercrisis, namely the Iranian crisis.Tis issue refects the resistance o the Iranianpeople or reedom on one hand, and reveals theprecarious situation o the Iranian regime on the

other.Te clerical regime is encircled by a ourdimensional crisis:First, Iranian society is deeply dissatised. Weall witnessed the uprisings Orumieh and abriz(northwest Iran) three weeks ago despite extensiverepression.Second, the revolutions in the region haveincreased the danger o an uprising in Iran. Teyhave also accelerated the disintegration o theIranian regimes regional alliances.Tird, the economic collapse o the regime has

Maryam Rajavi, Te President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iranhiked the infation rate to 20%, unemployment is17%, economic growth is close to zero, and thecountrys industrial base operates at only 30% ocapacity.Fourth is the internal crisis within the leadership othe regime, particularly the conrontation betweenKhamenei and Ahmadinejad, which is describedby the ruling mullahs as the worst schism withinthe regime since its rise to power.

Now the key question is why the mullahs havestill not allen with all these crises around them?Why, despite the Arab spring, uprisings have notrestarted in Iran? Particularly since the events o2009 and 2011 put away the illusion o popularsupport or the mullahs.Te Iranian people have made enormous sacricesin their ght against dictatorship. Te end result othese sacrices has been an organized movementwith a democratic platorm.Still we must ask: why do the mullahs survive?Te rst reason is that the repression practicedby this regime is incomparable to that o anymodern dictatorship. Tis regime has organized 70suppressive security agencies. In reality, the entire

regime is a machine or suppression o the people.Te second reason has been the assistance oWestern governments. I Western governmentshad not helped the mullahs this regime couldnot have survived. Because Western governmentshave on one hand blocked the path o the Iranianresistance movement with the terror list, and theyhave given a ree hand to the regime and its alliesin Iraq to act against the residents o Ashra on theother. And at the same time they watch the wave orepression and executions in Iran in silence. Teyare practically active participants in the suppression

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