Wednesday, 1st February 2012
The Camp Ashraf Crisis
Note: This speech was delivered during a special plenary session of the European Parliament in the presence of Baroness Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs on 1st February 2012
President,
On Christmas Eve last year the UN ambassador in Iraq, Martin Kobler, contrary to all his pledges and contrary to the instructions of the UN Secretary General, signed an agreement with the Iraqi government without getting the approval of the residents of Ashraf. Within days there were rocket attacks on Camp Ashraf and Iraq began to breach the agreement, and yet we have not heard any words of condemnation from the UN or the EU.
Preparations are now underway to displace the 3300 refugees to a tiny corner of a former American camp called Liberty which has been prepared exactly like a prison and is surrounded by several thousand Iraqi military and police. At the moment Mr Kobler has accepted all the restrictions and inhuman conditions that the Iraqi government will impose in Camp Liberty and our High Representative has issued several statements in support of Mr Kobler instead of considering the security and safety concerns of the Ashraf refugees.
It is time, High Representative, for you to call on the UN to declare publicly that it must not allow the Iraqi government to breach its commitments to them and to the people of Camp Ashraf. You must be more active on this issue. It is highly unfortunate that your own special envoy for Ashraf, Jean De Ruyt, has been sidelined by the Iraqi government and not even given a visa to go to Iraq. Please now take a firm line with Iraq and please pull out all the stops to repatriate those Ashraf residents who used to be in Europe and do not need to go through the full interview process by UNHCR.
STRUAN STEVENSON, MEP
