BRUSSELS, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Roughly 1,000 Iranian expatriates gathered in front of the European Parliament building in Brussels Wednesday to demand international protection for the Iranian opposition living in Camp Ashraf in Iraq.
Iraqi authorities have put Ashraf under a de-facto siege and are denying its residents access to doctors and medication, Javad Dabiran, a spokesman for the exiled Iranian opposition in Europe, said in a telephone interview with United Press International.
Ashraf is home to some 3,400 members of the People's Mujahedin of Iran, classified as a terror organization by Iran and the United States for its armed struggle against the Mullah regime in the 1980s and 1990s. The PMOI members in Camp Ashraf surrendered to U.S. forces in 2003, and the group says it has abstained from armed resistance.
Ashraf and its citizens have long been an issue of friction between Tehran and Baghdad, with allegations of wrongdoing from both sides.
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After the Iraqi military took over the protection of Camp Ashraf from U.S. troops in 2009, international aid groups came forward saying they're worried about the worsening humanitarian situation there.
The Iranian opposition claims the Shiite-led Iraqi government has clamped down on the camp because of political pressure from Tehran. Melees between Iraqi forces and Ashraf residents have led to injuries and deaths, and the PMOI would like to see U.S. forces return to protect Ashraf.
On Wednesday the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an umbrella opposition group that includes the PMOI, in a news release said Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently urged Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to deport the PMOI members from Ashraf to Iran, where they would face torture and death. In return, Khamenei promised al-Maliki political support for his premiership, the PMOI claims. Iran has repeatedly denied meddling in Iraqi affairs.
The demonstration in Brussels came less than a week after European lawmakers in a non-binding resolution urged the EU to pressure Washington to take the PMOI off the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations.
The European Union removed the group from its terrorist list last year after Britain had done so in 2008. The PMOI is heavily lobbying to be removed from the U.S. list and has won backing from several American lawmakers.
A U.S. appeals court in Washington this summer ordered the State Department to reconsider the terrorist label for the PMOI, saying Washington should give the group a chance to disprove claims that it continues to or retains the intent to engage in terrorist activities.
