According to the Fourth Geneva Convention and
the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, this blockade is a war crime
It is over two weeks now that in an anti-human and
criminal measure, government of Iraq is barring entry of medicine and food to Camp
Liberty using fictitious excuses. Many of the essential foodstuffs in the camp are
either completely consumed or about to be finished and the sick are facing
shortage of the medicine that they need.
Additionally, Iraqi forces systematically hamper transfer
of patients to hospitals. In a recent case on March 16, as the ambulance was
leaving the camp, two of the interpreters of the patients were prevented from
accompanying the patients and only after two hours and switch of the
interpreters, the ambulance left the camp; however due to the delay, a number
of patients were too late for their medical appointments and fruitlessly
returned to camp.
Blockade of the foodstuff is a new method of tormenting
and harassing the residents of Camp Liberty by the orders of the Iranian
regime. The 5-year-old medical siege that has now taken on added dimensions has
so far resulted in the tormenting to death of 18 residents.
In a conference at the United Nations Headquarters in
Geneva on 14 March 2014, Professor Jean Ziegler, member of the Advisory
Committee of the UN Human Rights Council, draw a parallel between the siege
placed on Camp Liberty and that of areas under siege in Syria and said:
“According to article 54 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, imposition of hunger
on citizens as an act of war is prohibited” and “the Rome Statute that lays the
foundation for the International Criminal Court, accentuates that intentional
acts to impose hunger on citizens as a war method by depriving them of items
they need in order to stay alive, is a war crime”. He referred to the
condemnation of Charles Tylor in 2008 by UN special court for crime against
humanity in imposing hunger on residents of four cities in Liberia and said: “It
seems that this war crime is becoming rampant by leaders of the countries in
the region. Thorough criminals such as the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the
regime of Iran, and the regime of Maliki regarding Camp Liberty, should be
exposed right now”.
Moreover, this criminal blockade is a flagrant
transgression of the 25 December 2011 Memorandum of Understanding between the
United Nations and the Government of Iraq that explicitly says that “The
Government shall facilitate and allow the residents, at their own expense, to
enter into bilateral contact with contractors for provision of life support and
utilities such as water, food, communications, sanitation, and maintenance and
rehabilitation equipment” and “shall permit the United Nations to carry out
monitoring of the human rights and humanitarian situation… and establish
procedures for the reporting of complaints”.
This blockade is also a serious breach of the
quadripartite accord of 16 August 2012 between the United States, the United
Nations, the Government of Iraq, and the Ashraf residents. In this accord, the
U.S. government commits itself to “support safety and security of the residents
until the last of the residents leaves Iraq” and to resolve issues at “Camp Liberty that materially affect the daily lives of the
residents including sustainable mechanisms to provide water and electricity”. These commitments were once again reiterated by the
U.S. State Department in a 29 August 2012 statement.
Given the abovementioned facts, the Iranian Resistance
calls for the immediate intervention by the United States and the United
Nations to end this criminal siege commensurate with their lawful duties and
their repeated and written commitments on the safety and security of Camp
Liberty residents and not to allow Government of Iraq to pave the way for
another great massacre with these suppressive measures.
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