“People of Iran will secure democracy and choose who to govern them”, Danish MEP

“We see the people of Iran standing up for their rights by joining mass protests in spite of severe suppression. They are rising up to demand their rights in spite of the fear of prison, torture and execution. The people of Iran will secure democracy and the right to choose those who govern them. This is very encouraging to see,” said Soren Sondergaard, in the European Parliament in Brussels on November 11.

The Danish MEP was speaking in a meeting organized by the parliamentary intergroup «Friends of a Free Iran» with Alejo-Vidal Quadras, EP Vice-President. Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the Iranian Resistance, was the special guest.

I would like to express my admiration for the brave people of Iran. What we are now seeing in Iran is that, you can suppress the people, you can violate the rights of the people, but in the end the people will rise up against oppression. This is what we are now witnessing in Iran.

We see the people of Iran standing up for their rights by joining mass protests in spite of severe suppression. They are rising up to demand their rights in spite of the fear of prison, torture and execution. The people of Iran will secure democracy and the right to choose those who govern them. This is very encouraging to see. 20 years ago we celebrated the fall of the Berlin wall and Iran is now experiencing the same phenomenon. You cannot imprison a people behind a wall, whether that wall is physical or a wall of police and military oppression.

I wish to send my greetings to the residents of Ashraf. For many years the Iranian opposition have informed us of the threats posed to the Camp Ashraf residents, threats which many people underestimated. I experienced this personally in Denmark when we attempted to bring these threats to the attention of our government. However, these threats were once again underestimated. Unfortunately, we saw that the Iranian opposition was correct and these threats were real. The Camp Ashraf residents were violently attacked and they have been deprived of their basic rights.

It was therefore critical to bring about a campaign to save the lives of these Iranians who were in grave danger. This was a battle not only for the 36 detained Camp Ashraf residents, but an entire nation’s resistance against tyranny in Iran. There was now a direct threat against the entire idea of resistance. It was critical that we succeeded in this campaign and the release of the 36 detainees was a success for resistance as a whole.

However, the struggle for the rights of the Camp Ashraf residents remains. The Iraqi authorities have maintained a blockade on Camp Ashraf denying entry to the camp of fuel and doctors. Although the European Union and hundreds of politicians around the world have called for an end to this blockade and called for the residents to be treated in accordance with the Fourth Geneva Convention, significant threats remain against their lives.

This campaign must continue. In Denmark at the Foreign affairs Committee we will be calling on the government to clarify what they are doing to guarantee that the rights of the Camp Ashraf residents are protected. I hope that we will be able to provide good news about the actions of the Danish authorities in assisting to solve this situation.