A group of nine Iranian Canadians from Ottawa and Toronto are going into the fourth week of a hunger strike along MacKenzie Avenue, across from the U.S. Embassy, outside Major’s Hill Park.
Yesterday, a 45-year-old woman named Akram Ataie was taken away in an ambulance with health issues arising from 27 days without food.
The nine are part of a worldwide protest by Iranians in response to a July 28 raid by Iraqi troops on Camp Ashraf — a refugee camp near Baghdad that has been home to 3,500 Iranian dissidents since 1986.
Until last January, the camp had been under the protection of American troops in Iraq, but that area of the country was handed over to Iraqi forces earlier this year.
According to the Iran Democratic Association of Canada the raid resulted in 11 dead residents, over 450 wounded and 36 residents removed from the camp and handed over to the Iranian government.
The raid sparked massive hunger strikes inside the camp and in eight cities around the world including: London, England; Washington, D.C.; and here in Ottawa.
Reza Beyzaei, a teacher in Toronto, said their demonstration is targeted at getting the American government to fulfil an obligation to protect the people in the camp.
“We are determined to continue this sit-in until the Iraqi troops are out of Camp Ashraf and the U.S. takes over the protection of the camp until another international peace keeping group can monitor the safety of those people,” said Beyzaei.
