Brussels, 27/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 26 October, in Strasbourg, the president of the European Parliament delegation for relations with Iraq, Struan Stevenson (ECR, UK), called for the evacuation of Camp Ashraf (Iraq), planned for 31 December, to be deferred. Over 3,400 Iranian opponents are to be found in the camp. In his view, the proposal to close the camp might serve as a pretext for a large scale “massacre for the sake of Iran”. “A battle is preparing around Camp Ashraf to physically remove the occupants”, he explained, speaking of the risk another Srebenica massacre.
On Wednesday, 120 MEPs from all political groups signed a declaration urging EU High Representative Catherine Ashton, the member states, the United States and the UN to put pressure on the Iraqi government to discard the idea of closing down the camp. Stevenson called on the international community to act “before it is too late”.
The European Commission is closely monitoring this question. The EU special representative for Camp Ashraf, Jean de Ruyt, is continuing in-depth discussions with the United Nations in order to estimate how the EU may support the process recently launched by the High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR), who had said that those living in the camp are asylum seekers who must enjoy international protection.
Stevenson underlined that western countries, including the EU, are willing to take in the residents of the camp but, in his view, the process is being “deliberately” blocked by obstacles set in place by the Iraqi prime minister himself, due to pressure from Iran.
Maja Kocijancic, the spokesperson for the EU high representative, said there are reasons to hope that the process launched by the HCR will lead to an orderly resolution of the complex challenges raised by the camp, in full respect of human rights and international humanitarian law. She said this will only be possible with the collaboration of the Iraqi government. (CG/transl.jl)