Once again, I thank you.
I have not only personally witnessed the great crimes that were perpetrated by the Iraqi forces, but as you saw in the video, I was also severely wounded in the attacks.
About 4:30 on the morning of April 8, 2011, Iraqi forces entered the northern flank of Camp Ashraf. They stormed in fully equipped. At about 7:30 I heard shooting noises, and I went to see what was going on. I rushed to see what was happening, and I noticed that Iraqi army personnel, fully equipped with tanks, Hummers, snipers, grenade launchers, and machine guns were attacking unarmed Ashraf residents. I witnessed Iraqi soldiers pointing and saying “Look over there”, and then shooting people.
I was severely wounded in the attack when an Iraqi soldier threw a grenade with a grenade launcher and it exploded between my legs. It destroyed my thigh muscles from my knees to my hips in both legs. Also, as you saw in the picture, the muscles, tendons, and nerves in my left hand were torn apart. I had a wrist fracture in the left hand, left arm. The muscles of my right arm were torn apart as well, and I had three fractures in the elbow area. I still have difficulty walking and I need surgery to continue, but I can't use the left hand at all and I still need help. Despite having five operations, as I said, I still have problems and I'm waiting for further surgery.
Thirty-six unarmed residents were killed in the Ashraf attack. Eight were women. Three hundred and fifty were injured, and among the 350, 250 were directly shot at. Some were run over by Hummers and the rest were beaten.
In the 2009 attack, 11 people were killed and hundreds were wounded.
I was taken to a local hospital, but we were prohibited from receiving full care and immediate medical attention. We were not able to receive free and open medical access. We weren't allowed to go to the hospitals we wanted to go to or to see specialists. I needed to visit nerve or orthopedic specialists, but they denied me that. They did a lot of stonewalling and prevented us from going to see the doctors we wanted to see.
We asked U.S. forces to take us to Balad Hospital. This is a U.S. facility, which is near Ashraf. Before 2009 we used to get medical aid there.
My friend Saba Haftbaradaran, 28, was shot in the thigh. All she needed was blood. They didn't give it to her. Also, my friend Shahnaz Pahlavani needed oxygen. They didn't give it to her.
Every time we wanted to get medical appointments, they would cancel our appointments or delay the appointments, so we had a lot of problems. This caused a lot of deaths of members in the camp. They refused to give us adequate medication and treatment, which made the recovery very difficult for many of us.
Before the 2009 handover of the camp to Iraqi forces, we didn't have any problem accessing medical facilities or treatments for the residents. Moreover, in that period, parliamentarians, our lawyers, families, and personalities had easy access to the camp. I was there. I personally met with a high delegation of European Parliament members who came to visit. It was headed by Mr. Alejo Vidal-Quadras. He's the EP vice-president.
After the attack, despite the fact that the European Parliament delegation and a six-member U.S. congressional delegation wanted to travel to Iraq to meet with officials and visit Camp Ashraf, they were denied access to the camp. That was the cause of the video link that I had with the U.S. Congress: they weren't allowed to come to the camp to visit.
Another issue I would like to inform you about today is the installation of 300 loudspeakers around the camp by agents of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence, with the complete approval and the help of the Iraqi authorities. They blare profanity and threats against the residents, starting at 4:30 in the morning. It goes on until 2:30 at night, so Camp Ashraf residents have two hours of sleep. This is specifically targeted at women. They insult and, as I said, they use profanity to insult the women in the camp. It's designed so that residents lack sleep. With this kind of psychological torture, they want to affect the residents.
Today is December 15. Considering the arbitrary year-end deadline set by the Iraqi government, there is not much time to act, because the Iraqi government still emphasizes closing down the camp.
Based on the brutality and the intent to kill that I have witnessed, and considering the last two attacks—one in July 2009 and the other one in April of this year—I can assure you, as is evident in Iraq's letter to the European Parliament, that the notion of forcible relocation within Iraq is simply a preamble to annihilation of the residents outside the monitoring of the United Nations and the international community. They did what you saw, knowing the whole world would watch it, so just imagine what they're prepared to do if nobody knows and nobody sees what's going on.
Accepting such a demand is just like voluntarily going to a concentration camp for Camp Ashraf residents. That's unacceptable. It appears to me that what the Iraqi government is trying to achieve is to distract the attention of the international community in order to carry on with this ominous plan to annihilate the residents. What could be scarier than that?
To prevent such a terrifying outcome and a possible wholesale massacre, the international community has to act urgently and swiftly. The United States has more than a moral responsibility. They gave us a promise in writing that they would protect us. U.S. generals promised to protect us. This is an agreement that they made with each and every one of us in the camp. But I believe that in addition to a moral responsibility, a signed assurance must mean something if the world is going to trust the U.S.
The inaction of the United States is obvious. It appears to me that the United Nations blue helmets must be deployed to offer protection for the most vulnerable population in Ashraf.
As I said, time is really running out. The Iraqi government must be told to remove the illegal deadline and must understand that the international community will not accept another massacre. Pressure must be put on the Iraqi government to remove the deadline and allow the UNHCR to start its work and to be able to relocate the residents.
I really want to thank you for giving me this opportunity to tell you just a little about what went on in Ashraf. Particularly, I want to thank you for the resolution that you adopted yesterday about Camp Ashraf. I think it's a very important step, but I think more pressure must be put on the Iraqi government to completely stop the deadline and to prevent killings.
