March 29, 2024

UN asks Iraq to extend dissident camp deadline

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

The United Nations on Tuesday appealed to the Iraqi government to push back a December 31 deadline to close an Iranian dissident camp north of Baghdad, warning of a growing risk of violence.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also renewed appeals to the international community to find a home for the estimated 3,400 Iranian exiles at Camp Ashraf.

Amid heightened international concerns, the UN envoy to Iraq, Martin Kobler, told the UN Security Council many “obstacles” remain to ending doubts over how to end the camp standoff.

The positions of the residents and the government “remain far apart,” Kobler told the 15-member council.

There is “a real danger of confrontation and even violence” because of the uncertainty over the camp, which has been home to members of the People’s Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) since the 1980s.

Iraq has insisted it must close by the end of the year. But the camp’s inhabitants refuse to move unless they are given UN protection.

At least 36 people at the camp were killed in clashes in April. Residents said they were attacked by Iraqi forces.

Kobler said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is ready to start interviewing Camp Ashraf residents, but there is little hope of ending the dispute over the camp by December 31.

“I therefore appeal to the government of Iraq to extend this deadline in order to permit adequate time for a solution to be found,” Kobler said.

The envoy said any solution must suit the Iraqi government, which says the camp is a security threat, and the residents’ demands for a safe exit.

“Lives are at stake and must be protected,” Kobler said. “The government has a responsibility to ensure the safety, security and welfare of the residents. Any forced action that results in bloodshed or loss of lives would be both ill-advised and unacceptable.”

UN leader Ban Ki-moon appealed for countries to volunteer homes for the Camp Ashraf residents in a report to the Security Council for the meeting.

“In order to find a durable solution for the camp residents, it is essential that potential third countries indicate their willingness to receive them for resettlement,” Ban said.

Iraq’s UN ambassador, Hamid al-Bayati, also called for international help.

“I would like to assure the Security Council that my government doesn’t want to force anybody to go back to Iran,” he said.

But Bayati said the camp residents were preventing Iraqi forces and government officials from entering.

“We cannot allow any group inside Iraq which will attack neighboring countries, that will cause lots of problems,” he told the Security Council.

UN envoy Kobler also stressed the need for Iraq and Kuwait to make a new effort to normalize their relations. Iraq remains on the UN Security Council agenda because of the 1990 invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Kobler said “little progress” has been made in the past two years and offered UN assistance.

New efforts are “needed to promote confidence between the two countries and facilitate solutions,” said Kobler The Iraqi ambassador said repairing ties was a “top priority” of the Baghdad government.

Iraq and Kuwait have not settled their border and Iraq still has to pay almost $20 billion in war damages. The two are also in dispute over a new Kuwaiti port that Iraq considers a threat to its sea access.

http://www.france24.com/en/20111206-un-asks-iraq-extend-dissident-camp-deadline

Congress to hold hearing into US responsibility for Camp Ashraf

IRAN FOCUS

Washington, Dec. 06 – Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle in the United States plan to hold a hearing on Wednesday into the responsibility of the State Department towards a camp of Iranian exiles in Iraq which is feared to come under attack by Iraqi forces as US forces leave the country by the end of the year.

Camp Ashraf, home to some 3,400 members of Iran’s main opposition movement Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI / MEK), was attacked in April by the Iraqi military, leaving 36 residents killed and hundreds injured. The MEK claims the attack was carried out at the behest of Iran. It was the second deadly assault on the camp. In July 2009, at least 11 residents were killed and 500 wounded when Iraqi forces tried to overrun the camp.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has vowed to close Camp Ashraf before the end of the year, which the residents fear would be a prelude to a massacre by Iraqi forces.  

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and the Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia plan to hold a joint hearing, entitled: “Camp Ashraf: Iraqi Obligations and State Department Accountability”.

Daniel Fried, the Special Advisor on Ashraf at the State Department, and Barbara Leaf, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Iraq at the department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs will be questioned by lawmakers, according to a statement by the office of Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) who chairs the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Ambassador Lincoln Bloomfield, former Assistance Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs and Col. Wesley Martin (Ret.), former Camp Ashraf commander, are the other witnesses.

The situation at Camp Ashraf has also been a source of major concern in the upper chamber of the U.S. Congress. Last month, Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, urging her to  “press the Iraqi government to extend its deadline for closing Camp Ashraf so that UNHCR can complete its work of assessing the refugee status of each of the camp’s residents”.

http://www.iranfocus.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=24143:congress-to-hold-hearing-into-us-responsibility-for-camp-ashraf

U.N. urges states to take Iranian dissidents in Iraq

REUTERS

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Dec 5, 2011 – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged nations to accept residents of a camp of Iranian dissidents in Iraq that Baghdad has vowed to close by the end of the year, according to a report released on Monday.

“In order to find a durable solution for the camp residents, it is essential that potential third countries indicate their willingness to receive them for resettlement,” Ban said in his latest report to the Security Council on the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI). 

Ban said he and other senior U.N. officials “have been encouraging member states in this regard.” The U.N. Security Council will review Ban’s report at a meeting on Tuesday.

Last month, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she would urge EU member states to accept residents of Camp Ashraf, a base of the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran, which mounted attacks on Iran before the U.S.-led removal of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The future of Ashraf’s more than 3,000 residents became uncertain in 2009 after the United States turned the camp over to the Iraqi government, which considers its residents a threat to security.

Amnesty International says the Iranians there are subject to harassment by the government and denied access to basic medicine. More than 30 were killed in a clash with Iraqi security forces in April.

“The United Nations continues to advocate that the humanitarian needs of the residents be met,” Ban said.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been trying to arrange to interview the camp’s residents to determine who among them qualifies for refugee status and resettlement but Iraq has yet to allow this.

“The government of Iraq’s approval would be vital in moving this process forward,” Ban’s report said. “The support of the leadership of Camp Ashraf for U.N. efforts in this regard is also necessary.”

The EU removed the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran from its terrorism list in 2009 but it is still considered a terrorist organization by some countries, including the United States and Iran.

Last month, members of the European Parliament called on Ashton to step up pressure on Iraq to extend the deadline for closing the camp. British MEP Struan Stevenson said residents would face “certain torture and execution” if sent back to Iran.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/05/us-iraq-ashraf-un-idUSTRE7B42PB20111205

Reaching Across the Aisle, Former Governors Call for Urgent Intervention to Save Iranian Dissidents in Iraq

PR Newswire

As December 31 Deadline Nears for American Military Withdrawal, Fate of 3,400 “Protected Persons” Hangs in the Balance

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — At a press conference at the National Press Club, former Pennsylvania Governors Tom Ridge and Ed Rendell urged the Obama Administration to draw a clear line in the sand with the pro-Iranian government in Iraq: lift the approaching deadline for closing Camp Ashraf, home to more than 3,400 Iranian dissidents, refrain from forcible relocation of the residents that could lead to a massacre and allow their resettlement in third countries.

The dissidents are members the main Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK).

The Governors, joined by former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, retired US Army Colonel Wes Martin, the former commander of Camp Ashraf, and Dr. Ramesh Sepehrrad, Scholar Practitioner from the School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University, made their call for action before Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki meets with President Obama in Washington on December 12, 2011.

“The only reason we called this press conference is to call attention to a pending humanitarian disaster, the potential massacre of 3,400 democratic Iranian dissidents.  The massacre can only be avoided by the collective action of Prime Minister Maliki and President Obama,” Governor Ridge stressed.

“We have sent hundreds of thousands of men and women around the world for decades to promote freedom and democracy. It was the ideal that got us into Iraq. US blood and treasure notwithstanding, this administration continues to ignore the commitment it also made when they signed the Status of Forces Agreement to protect and defend and provide for the safety and security of the people at Camp Ashraf… America’s credibility is at stake,” he added.

Governor Rendell laid out an immediate plan of action. “America has an obligation to protect the people of Camp Ashraf. We want President Obama to move swiftly to delist the dissidents from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, and do it quickly.  This unfair designation has given Iran and Iraq a license to kill the dissidents at will. Secondly, we want President Obama to insist to Prime Minister Maliki that he delay his order to close the camp on December 31st.”

“[We] have an obligation, we gave our word to protect [Camp Ashraf residents]. Our word has to stand for something…the Maliki Government cannot and should not be trusted to protect the lives of the residents of Ashraf. They aren’t coming to do peaceful relocation.  They are coming to arrest and put in prison the leadership of the MEK,” he added.

Judge Mukasey warned, “The people in Camp Ashraf are facing a crisis that is entirely precipitated by the Iraqi Government acting at the behest of Iran. There is no reason, none, for a deadline of December 31 other than the threat of the Iraqi Government to move in…with troops and arms and vehicles provided by the United States to attack defenseless women and men…  This is not a political matter.  This is a human rights matter. This is matter of the safety and security of people.  This is a matter of the word of the United States.”

“This is a coming disaster that can be averted by the United States President making it clear to Prime Minister Maliki that we will not tolerate this. And if we do not act, this will happen and will go down in history as a disgrace to ourselves, our country, to the remainder of the human race.”

“Make no mistake that it is the Iranian plot that is driving the December 31st deadline, the forcible relocation within Iraq and repatriation to Iran. Through its Iraqi proxies, Tehran is working hard to either surrender or wipe out every single resident of the camp at any cost. So the options are to either die under torture in Iran or be killed in the coming days. Camp Ashraf residents will never surrender to the Iranian regime. They will also resist against any relocation within Iraq unless it is under U.S. protection and UN supervision,” Dr. Sepehrrad underscored.

Recalling his experience as Ashraf base commander, Col. Martin said, “In Ashraf, I had a group of people actually trying the best they could to help the Americans. They were one of our allies, yet we were calling them terrorists. That just doesn’t mean sense… When we would go outside the perimeter, I always knew I had good strong allies on my flank. The Iranian Mujahedeen was around to the same energy to rescue us even though they didn’t have arms.”

SOURCE Institute for Democratic Strategies

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/reaching-across-the-aisle-former-governors-call-for-urgent-intervention-to-save-iranian-dissidents-in-iraq—institute-for-democratic-strategies-134962803.html

Iraqi forces preparing for a deadly assault and massacre of Ashraf residents

NCRI – Despite extensive international efforts in search of a peaceful solution for Ashraf and opposite to the display of increasing abhorrence by the Iraqi people and politicians regarding the suppressive plans against Ashraf, the Government of Iraq, as the no-question-asked executor of policies dictated by the religious fascism ruling Iran, continues to prepare itself for a fresh deadly assault on Ashraf. Some of these measures are:

Iraqi forces have started new military engineering work around Ashraf. Since Tuesday midnight, 29 November 2011

1- In preparation for an assault on the defenseless residents of Ashraf, Iraqi forces have started new military engineering work around Ashraf. Since Tuesday midnight, 29 November 2011, Engineering Battalion of Iraqi Army 5th Division are busy constructing berms 3 meters in height in the eastern and southern flanks of Ashraf. This engineering work is ongoing. The Iraqi Army 5th Division played the major role in the crime against humanity of 8 April against Ashraf residents with its various battalions taking part in that assault. 

One of these berms is 15 meters far from the protecting fence of Camp Ashraf and is close to the location where elements of the Iranian Intelligence Ministry are stationed. In the last 654 days, using earsplitting loudspeakers, these elements were psychologically torturing Ashraf residents by threatening them to death, torture, extradition and setting Ashraf on fire.

2- According to information received from within the clerical regime, the Iranian embassy in Baghdad has tasked mullah Jabar Mamouri, a Qods Force agent in Iraq, to infiltrate Ashraf with elements of the Qods Force concurrent with the measures that the Iraqi Army 5th Division is implementing. At 2:30 am on December 1st, together with a number of Iranian regime hirelings, Jabar Mamouri attempted to tear the protecting fence of Ashraf’s western flank for the Qods Force elements to get inside the camp. His plot was foiled with awareness on part of the residents and their vehement protests.
 
Jabar Mamouri played a key role during the January 7, 2011 attack against Ashraf which led to injury of 175 residents. He outright threatened the residents with hanging and cutting off their heads. He had also resorted to tearing the protective fence of Ashraf in the past to get Qods Force agents inside the camp.

3- On Friday, December 2nd, Jabar Mamouri and his hirelings are again moving around Ashraf’s perimeter conducting reconnaissance. They attempted to tear Ashraf’s fence at another section, but were faced with protests from residents and were forced to flee the scene.
 
Iranian Resistance calls on the United Nations Security Council and Secretary-General, Special Representative of Secretary-General for Iraq, and also the U.S. government not to remain silent in face of these attempts by the Government of Iraq that is paving the political and military grounds for the massacre of residents. They should undertake necessary steps to provide protection for Ashraf residents by UN blue helmets or U.S. forces until transfer of all residents to third countries.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
December 2, 2011

 

WILL U.S. BREAK PROMISE?

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Two Republican senators are pressing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to guarantee the safety of thousands of Iranian dissidents in Iraq, where the government is planning to evict them from a former military camp by the end of the year and possibly deport them to Iran, where they would be killed as terrorists. 

Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina asked Mrs. Clinton in a recent letter how the United States can keep its promise to protect the 3,400 unarmed residents of Camp Ashraf after all U.S. forces withdraw from Iraq by Dec. 31. 

“These individuals seek protection from the oppressive government in Iran and fear, with good reason, that a forced return to Iran would be tantamount to a death sentence for them,” said Mr. McCain and Mr. Graham, both members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. 

“Once U.S. troops have fully withdrawn from Iraq, it is hard to see how the United States will be able to honor our pledge to protect the lives and basic human rights of the civilian population of Camp Ashraf.” 

Although the United States transferred control of the camp to Iraq in 2009, the continued presence of U.S. troops has prevented Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki from evicting the dissidents. 

However, Iraqi troops repeatedly have raided the camp, killing dozens and wounding hundreds. They also have cut off supplies to the residents. 

Critics accuse Mr. Maliki of trying to win favor with Iran’s theocratic dictatorship. 

The letter from Mr. McCain and Mr. Graham accompanied one from about a dozen bipartisan members of the House who also called on Mrs. Clinton to stop the Iraqis from evicting the Iranian dissidents. 

The congressional support comes as the Iranian dissidents are gaining support from former U.S. officials, members of the European Parliament and about 2,500 tribal leaders inside Iraq who gathered about a million signatures on petitions opposing the eviction at Camp Ashraf. 

“We believe the Iranian dissidents have a valid status, and we consider them our guests, and we call on the government and all peace-loving people around the globe to find a solution for them,” Sheik Youssef al-Aziz, chief of the al-Baeeg clan, told the Agence France-Presse in Baghdad. 

Sheik Matlab al-Taei, head of the Iraqi Tribal Council, said that “jurists, physicians and clerics” were among “approximately a million Iraqi citizens” who signed the petitions. 

Some of the strongest support for the Iranian dissidents is coming from the European Parliament, where Struan Stevenson, a Conservative Party member from Scotland, is leading the effort to prevent their eviction.

“The government of Iraq is continuously working on its plan to attack Ashraf and massacre the residents,” he said at a news conference in Brussels on Wednesday. 

He accused Iraq of working with agents from Iran’s intelligence agency to prepare for the expulsion of the residents. Mr. Stevenson said Iraqi forces plan to separate the men from the women and transfer them “to various locations around Iraq.” The 120 leaders in the camp will be arrested and deported to Iran. 

Mr. Stevenson, chairman of the European Parliament’s committee for relations with Iraq, said the United Nations is working to register the camp residents as refugees and have them transferred to other countries, but U.N. officials cannot complete their work before the end of the year. 

He called on EU foreign ministers to “show they have some spine” and pressure Iraq into cooperating with the United Nations. 

Alejo Vidal-Quadras, vice president of the European Parliament, last week said, “There is no doubt that any relocation inside Iraq is tantamount to sending the residents to their deaths. 

“We in the European Parliament do not trust the Iraqi government and its assurances.” 

The dissidents are members of the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, a formerly armed resistance that sought to overthrow the Iranian government. U.S. troops disarmed them in 2003 after toppling Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who had allowed the dissidents to operate in Iraq against his regional rival Iran. 

The United States put the Iranian resistance on its list of terrorist groups in 1997, when former President Bill Clinton was trying to open talks with Iran and meet a key demand for negotiations. However, a U.S. federal court has ordered the State Department to justify keeping the group on the blacklist. 

The European Union removed the group from its terrorist list in 2009 after a top European court found no evidence that the Mujahedeen is a terrorist organization.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/1/embassy-row-699350423/

Iran resistance leaders urge EU to prevent massacre

NEW EUROPE

The National Council of Resistance of Iran along with MEPs are urging the EU foreign ministers to take action against Iraq’s attempts to close an Iranian camp, home to more than 3,000 dissidents.

The EU foreign ministers are scheduled to meet Thursday in Brussels and the scheduled 31 December closing of Camp Ashraf is on the agenda for members to discuss. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has ordered the relocation of the camps residents.

Camp Ashraf is home to over 3,000 Iranians who fled to Iraq. The camp’s residents are opposed to the current Iranian regime and are working to overthrow the current government. The Iran resistance council has said the closure of the camp is a front for al-Maliki to “massacre” the Iranian dissidents.

President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran Maryam Rajavi urged the foreign ministers to condemn al-Maliki’s actions and call on the United Nations to declare the camp’s residents as refugees.

“I would like to tell the leaders of the European Union that you have the power and the means to avert a definite humanitarian catastrophe,” Rajavi said.

Although the Iraqi government has promised the camp residents would not be harmed, Rajavi cited an 8 April raid on Camp Ashraf that resulted in the death of 36 people as a reason not to trust the Iraqi officials.

“Experience shows that Iraq’s governments’ promises cannot be trusted,” she said.

European Parliament Delegation for Relations with Iraq President Struan Stevenson pointed to intelligence showing the Iraqi army beginning to plan an attack on the camp. Stevenson said that al-Maliki is closing the camp on orders from Iran.

“Iraq’s coalition government is a product of Tehran…al-Maliki owes his job to Tehran,” Stevenson said.

European Parliament Vice President Alejo Vidal-Quadras urged the United Nations to declare all residents of Camp Ashraf as refugees immediately. Normally, the UN conducts interviews individually with each refugees before they are given that classification.

According to Ravjani, the Iraqi government has insisted the interviews be conducted away from the camp and while members have agreed to these terms, they will only leave if the UN provides security to and from their home.

Ravjani has advocated the deadline for close the camp be “put-aside”, that the UN provide security forces to Camp Ashraf and for the international community to accept the residents as refugees.

With the deadline of 31 December fast approaching there is not a lot of time to conduct the interviews required for refugee status and transfer to other nations. Vidal-Quadras urged the UN to act quickly and grant the refugee status to the camp’s residents.

“If this is not an emergency than I don’t know what one is,” he said.

Former Irish Prime Minister and EU Ambassador to the United States John Bruton said the 2003 Iraq war was to blame for the condition of Camp Arshaf. He said that those responsible for the war have a special responsibility to speak up for the residents.

“If leaders are willing to take credit for the good that came out of the invasion than they should also accept responsibility for its consequences,” Bruton said.

Rajavi added that neither the US or the UN have given assurances and instead rely on “empty promises from the Iraq government.”

Rajavi hopes the EU foreign ministers will take a stand on the issue during their meeting Thursday in Brussels.

 http://www.neurope.eu/article/iran-resistance-leaders-urge-eu-prevent-massacre

Push to drop Khalq terror designation in US

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

WASHINGTON — A group of prominent Americans is lobbying President Barack Obama to lift designation of Iranian opposition group Mujahedeen Khalq as a terrorist group, The New York Times reported.

Former CIA directors James Woolsey and Porter Goss and former FBI director Louis Freeh are among those seeking the change, the paper reported.

Others include former attorney general Michael Mukasey, ex-homeland security secretary Tom Ridge, former national security adviser General James Jones and former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

The advocates insist their motive is humanitarian: to protect and resettle about 3,400 members of Mujahedeen Khalq, or People?s Mujahedeen, who are now confined in a camp in Iraq, the report said.

Mujahedeen Khalq, a former ally of ex-Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, has been designated as a terrorist organization under US law.

But its supporters say the terrorist label, which dates back to 1997, reflecting decades of violence that included the killing of some Americans in the 1970s, is now outdated, unjustified and dangerous, The Times said.

The Iraqi government has said it plans to close Camp Ashraf, where the member of Mujahedeen Khalq are currently staying, by December 31 and move the people elsewhere in Iraq, the paper noted.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iRl-m-9A3bp8T0kLgIOH0EIVDRhg

Obama Administration Urged to Compel Iraq to Lift the Deadline to Close Down Camp Ashraf

PRNewswire

WASHINGTON, Nov. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — “Lives in Peril, Honor on the Line: America’s Promise to Protect Camp Ashraf,” was the title of a symposium in which several former senior U.S. officials as well as prominent human rights advocates urged the Obama Administration to prevent an impending humanitarian catastrophe at Camp Ashraf, Iraq, home to thousands of members of Iran’s main opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK).  

The panelists also rejected the call made jointly by the Iranian regime and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that the residents of Ashraf must give in to relocation inside Iraq without any reliable protection for their safety and security. The fact that the United States and the United Nations have not yet publically and unequivocally dismissed this ominous plan was equally criticized.

The panel included Alan Dershowitz, Professor of Law at Harvard University; Governor Howard Dean, Secretary Tom Ridge, former Rep. Patrick Kennedy; Richard Ben-Veniste, former Member of the 9/11 Commission; Robert Joseph, former Under Secretary Of State For Arms Control & International Security; Gen. John “Jack” Keane, former Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army; and Christian Whiton, former Special Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs.

Prof. Dershowitz said that “the potential war criminals who run the Iranian regime are so anxious to see Camp Ashraf shut down [because] they are planning the mass killing of the largest concentration of witnesses to their crimes in the world today, those who are living in Camp Ashraf in Iraq.”

“If the president of the US does not demand a change in the Iraqi government’s commitment to close the camp, his silence will be taken as acquiescence, and that is so dangerous, silent acquiescence,” he added.

“It does look like we [the United States and the Iraqi government] are in collusion and as long as we continue to designate the MEK as a terrorist organization, the Iraqi government can send these documents around the world just to provide rationalization for the murder of innocent unarmed people on two occasion in Camp Ashraf,” emphasized Secretary Ridge, adding, “Even today Martin Kobler was told by the Iraqi government, you must move men and women to another location in Iraq.. Why we are letting this government, for whom we’ve sacrificed thousands of lives, tell us what to do which is inconsistent with our broader moral obligation to support humanitarian human rights and to keep our promise, which we gave individually to every member of Camp Ashraf, when we also guaranteed them protections under the Geneva Convention.”

“The person who is representing the United Nations [in Iraq], made the ridiculous suggestion that the people from Ashraf be redistributed inside Iraq, and that somehow, without any guarantee of protection, either from the United States or the United Nations, they would be fine… Explain to me Martin Kobler, what rationale you give for what you have done which is essentially to sign the execution order for 3500 unarmed civilians,” Governor Dean said.

He added, “Mr. President, we do have a responsibility. We gave our word [to Ashraf residents] and we gave it in writing.  We have a responsibility. It is a legal responsibility. I do not want my country to be complicit in the carrying out of war crimes, as the Dutch found out in Srebrenica.”

Congressman Kennedy stressed that “before Maliki can come to this country, we must make clear that the deadline for Camp Ashraf should be rejected and the UN should be allowed to do their job; that he make sure that not only those residents are treated with dignity and respect, but honored the international law that applies to them… This is a moment for the US to set clear for the rest of the world where it stands…”

SOURCE: Iranian American Community of Northern California

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/obama-administration-urged-to-compel-iraq-to-lift-the-deadline-to-close-down-camp-ashraf-in-advance-of-iraqi-prime-ministers-visit-to-the-white-house-according-to-iranian-american-community-of-northern-california-134465558.html

 

EU to urge members to accept Iranian dissidents

REUTERS

BRUSSELS, Nov 24 (Reuters) – EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will urge EU states next week to accept as many residents as they can of a camp of Iranian dissidents in Iraq that Baghdad plans to close by the end of the year, EU officials said on Thursday.

Ashton will make the call as part of efforts to resolve the issue of Camp Ashraf, a base of the People's Mujahideen Organisation of Iran, which mounted attacks on Iran before the U.S.-led removal of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been trying to arrange to interview the more than 3,000 residents to determine who among them qualifies for refugee status and thus resettlement, but Iraq has yet to allow this.

A senior EU official said the United Nations and Iraq were working to resolve “a logistical problem” caused by Iraq's refusal to allow the interviews to take place at the camp.

He said Iraq had proposed that the interviews take place at a Baghdad hotel. Talks were also under way on the possibility of housing those not immediately relocated to third countries at a former U.S. base near Baghdad for up to six months.

The official said the United Nations had estimated in the past that about 800-900 of the residents had sufficient links to third countries to allow their resettlement, while another 1,000 were thought to want to return to Iran.

Another EU official said Ashton would call on EU states at a meeting of EU foreign ministers next week to take responsibility for those entitled to resettle in their countries.

“We have a deadline coming up,” he said. “We are doing all we can to make sure member states take their responsibility.”

The senior EU official was unable to estimate how many residents might be entitled to resettlement in EU countries. He said many claimed links to France and Germany but both countries showed a reluctance to accept them.

The EU removed the PMOI from its terrorism list in 2009, but it is still considered a terrorist organistion by other countries, including the United States.

The senior EU official said Iraq had issued arrest warrants for up to 120 of the residents, some of whom had helped Saddam in his campaigns against Iran and Iraq's Kurdish minority.

“I guess the Iraqis will want to put them on trial,” he said, adding that he did not think any EU country would want to give this group asylum.

The official said that while some EU countries were willing to take in limited numbers, the best hope for the others was for resettlement in countries such as Australia and Canada.

“The International community will do its best to relocate them, but it won't be easy because many people consider them (the PMOI) terrorists.”

The future of Ashraf's residents became uncertain in 2009 after the United States turned the camp over to the Iraqi government, which considers its residents a threat to security.

Amnesty International says they are subject to harassment by the government and denied access to basic medicine. More than 30 were killed in a clash with Iraqi security forces in April.

On Tuesday, members of the European Parliament called on Ashton to step up pressure on Iraq to extend the deadline for closing the camp. British MEP Struan Stevenson said residents would face “certain torture and execution” if sent back to Iran. (Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Jon Hemming)

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/eu-to-urge-members-to-accept-iranian-dissidents