Maryam Rajavi expresses gratitude to Secretary Hillary Clinton for humanitarian approach to safety and security of Ashraf residents and to UN Secretary General, Special Representative of Secretary General for Iraq, EU High Representative, and UNHCR
Mrs. Rajavi announced that after receiving assurances and the letter of Mr. Martin Kobler, SRSG for Iraq, and as a sign of goodwill, 400 Ashraf residents are ready to go to Camp Liberty with their moveable property and vehicles at first opportunity.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, expressed gratitude for the humanitarian approach of Secretary Hillary Clinton in her December 25 statement on the situation in Ashraf for reaching a peaceful and durable solution on the Camp’s residents and for her stressing their "safety and security" and that "officials from U.S. Embassy Baghdad will visit (Camp Liberty) regularly and frequently."
Mrs. Rajavi repeated the readiness of Ashraf residents to relocate to Camp Liberty with minimal assurances and said: The residents of Ashraf welcome Secretary Clinton’s statement and anything that is contrary to the statement and its spirit will be unacceptable.
After receiving assurances and the letter of Mr. Martin Kobler, SRSG, to Ashraf residents, Mrs. Rajavi announced: Despite the targeting of Ashraf with 107mm rockets on December 25 and 27, and the continuation of various provocations in Baghdad and around Ashraf, 400 of the residents are ready to transfer with their moveable property and vehicles at first opportunity to Camp Liberty as a goodwill gesture. At the same time, the transfer of the first group of residents is a test of the Iraqi Government’s attitude in respecting obligations as professed to the UN and US.
The SRGS’s clarifications about the MOU in his letter to Ashraf residents has persuaded them to begin relocation based on the statement by Secretary Clinton on December 25 and the SRGS’s letter on December 28, 2011.
I have strongly called on Ashraf residents to rely and trust upon these foundations and statements by Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, EU High Representative Baroness Ashton, and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonia Gutiérrez. The letter of the SRSG is enclosed.
Mrs. Rajavi pointed out the continual flexibilities shown by Ashraf residents, that has with the acceptance of the UN and US plan reached a conclusion, and recalled: Ashraf was a barren desert, with no water, that thousands of people in the past 26 years have transformed to a modern city with their labor and extensive cost. It has a university, library, museum, hospital, power station, cemetery, mosque, parks, lake, sports and recreation facilities, and underground anti-bomb shelters in defense from the Iranian regimes’ repeated Scud B missile attacks.
Mrs. Rajavi called for an immediate end to the siege and limitations and provocations against Ashraf residents in conclusion. She called for maximum vigilance by the international community for the protection of the lives and rights of Ashraf residents and the recording of every single violation of the points stressed in the letter of the SRSG and statements by the UN Secretary General and Secretary Hillary Clinton, until the exit of the last person from Camp Liberty to third countries.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
December 28, 2011
Shahin Gobadi
National Council of Resistance of Iran
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