Care needed to prevent humanitarian disaster

August 22, 2008
British daily Birmingham Post
By Lord King of West Bromwich

Dear Editor, Hundreds of Iranians and I gathered outside the UK office of the International Committee of the Red Cross on Wednesday urging the world humanitarian body to take action to ensure that US forces continue to protect the members of Iran's main opposition force, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), in Camp Ashraf, Iraq.

On June 17, the Iraqi government issued a directive, demanding to take control of Ashraf, emphasizing that the PMOI will be expelled from Iraq and that some of its members will be prosecuted.

The forcible expulsion of the residents of Ashraf would be a grave breach of international humanitarian law and the principle of non-refoulement since they are all protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The Iraqi government directive is therefore unlawful. Handing over the security of those in Ashraf, who are disarmed and have no means of protecting themselves against any hostile action, to a government which has already stated its intention to expel them to Iran would itself constitute a grave breach of international law and the Principle of Non-Refoulement.

Iranian regime's agents are known to have infiltrated Iraq's security forces.

Transferring the protection of Ashraf to it would create a humanitarian disaster, which the ICRC cannot allow to happen.

The Iranian community in the UK and many of us in Parliament are very concerned with these developments.

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Lord King of West Bromwich,
Labor peer,
Member, British ParliamentaryCommittee for Iran Freedom