March 29, 2024

Arab lawyers and jurists describe Ashraf Camp case as “genocide”

Aswat al-Iraq

BAGHDAD –  Three thousand Arab and Iraqi lawyers and jurists have described the “time-table” set for Ashraf Camp as “genocide.”

In a statement received by Aswat al-Iraq, issued at the end of a press conference held in Cairo by lawyers and jurists from Iraq, Egypt and Jordan, they said that “Iranis attempting to forcibly move them to other provinces to kill them at a later stage,” regarding ” the next step as a genocide against humanity.”

“Although the Iraqi government has given assurances, the fact is that the future holds a potential genocide,” the statement added.

It called on the Arab League to interfere and called on the Iraqi government to cancel its decision to expel the anti-Iranian Ashraf Camp residents, pending their transfer to a third country.

Ashraf Camp is the base for anti-Iranian Mujahidi Khalq, which is regarded by the US, Iraq and Iran as a terrorist organization, while the European Union removed it from its black list in 2009.

The 3,400 camp residents lack any official standing inIraq at time of Iraqi government threats to close it by the end of this year.

http://ku.aswataliraq.info/Default1.aspx?page=article_page&id=132579&l=1

Lawmakers, retired colonel voice support for Iranian exile group

STARS AND STRIPES

BAGHDAD — Lawmakers and former military officials called on the U.S. government to protect an Iranian exile group in Iraq facing resettlement by the end of the year, citing conflict with Iraqi security forces earlier this year that killed dozens of people.

The hearing came in the wake of an intensive lobbying effort by former high-level U.S. government officials to have the Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MEK, removed from the State Department’s list of foreign terror groups.

The 3,400 MEK members at the camp were friendly to U.S. forces who oversaw their settlement at Camp Ashraf until the U.S. relinquished control in 2009, former camp commander and retired Army Col. Wesley Martin told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Wednesday, according to published testimony.

Martin advocated relocating the group to the United States, and referred to an April video that purportedly showed 34 unarmed people being killed during resistance to Iraqi security forces entering the compound as evidence that the Iraqi government had no intention of protecting them.

During the video, some rushed to the aid of fallen comrades during the gunfire, according to Martin.

“I know if either myself or the American warriors with me at Ashraf had been under such an attack, the residents at Ashraf would have been rushing equally fast to our rescue,” Martin said.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., said during the hearing that the camp risked massacre by Iraqi forces without special protection, according to a New York Times report.

The State Department is re-examining MEK’s status as a terrorist organization, said Ambassador Daniel Fried, who was appointed by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to oversee the MEK’s situation.

Lawmakers, retired colonel voice support for Iranian exile group

STARS and STRIPES

BAGHDAD — Lawmakers and former military officials called on the U.S. government to protect an Iranian exile group in Iraq facing resettlement by the end of the year, citing conflict with Iraqi security forces earlier this year that killed dozens of people.

The hearing came in the wake of an intensive lobbying effort by former high-level U.S. government officials to have the Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MEK, removed from the State Department’s list of foreign terror groups.

The 3,400 MEK members at the camp were friendly to U.S. forces who oversaw their settlement at Camp Ashraf until the U.S. relinquished control in 2009, former camp commander and retired Army Col. Wesley Martin told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Wednesday, according to published testimony.

Martin advocated relocating the group to the United States, and referred to an April video that purportedly showed 34 unarmed people being killed during resistance to Iraqi security forces entering the compound as evidence that the Iraqi government had no intention of protecting them.

During the video, some rushed to the aid of fallen comrades during the gunfire, according to Martin.

“I know if either myself or the American warriors with me at Ashraf had been under such an attack, the residents at Ashraf would have been rushing equally fast to our rescue,” Martin said.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., said during the hearing that the camp risked massacre by Iraqi forces without special protection, according to a New York Times report.

The State Department is re-examining MEK’s status as a terrorist organization, said Ambassador Daniel Fried, who was appointed by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to oversee the MEK’s situation.

Fried told the committee that the group’s past activities include the killing of six Americans and bombing of U.S. companies in Iran during its opposition to the Shah’s rule in the 1970s. The group continued its attacks against Iran’s current theocracy through the 1990s, according to the State Department.

The group also has been accused of aiding Saddam Hussein in repressing Kurdish and Shiite revolts following the Gulf War, although supporters say that such claims are groundless and politically motivated.

Immigration issues and other hurdles would preclude resettling the group in the United States, Fried said. Although he condemned Iraq’s use of violence against the group, he also blamed the group for its steadfast refusal to move to another location within Iraq.

“A humane and secure relocation is possible, but it will take intense and serious efforts by all parties,” Fried said, according to testimony.

Earlier this week, the U.N. envoy for Iraq called on the Iraqi government to extend the resettlement deadline and said in a briefing to the U.N. Security Council that the government “has a responsibility to ensure the safety, security and welfare of the residents.”

slavine@pstripes.osd.mil

http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/iraq/lawmakers-retired-colonel-voice-support-for-iranian-exile-group-1.162833

U.S. warns Iraq against eviction of foes of Iran

 THE WASHINGTON TIMES 

Deadline for closing camp of 3,400 nears

A senior U.S. official Wednesday warned Iraq against using violence to evict unarmed Iranian dissidents from a camp north of Baghdad by the end of the month, as a top member of Congress accused the State Department of moving at a snail’s pace to prevent what he called a possible massacre of the residents of Camp Ashraf.

“There is no doubt that the situation is serious. We are worried about the possibility of violence, and we are working flat out to ward it off,” Daniel Fried, special adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Camp Ashraf, said at a House subcommittee hearing.

The Iraqi government has set a Dec. 31 deadline to close Camp Ashraf, home to about 3,400 members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK).

The State Department, which listed the MEK as a terrorist organization in 1997, is reviewing this designation after a July 2010 order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs oversight and investigations subcommittee, snapped at Mr. Fried after he said the State Department is working at an “intense pace” to persuade the Iraqi government to extend the deadline.

“Maybe it’s an intense pace for a snail,” the California Republican said.

Mr. Fried told lawmakers the Iraqi government regards its decision to close the camp as a legitimate exercise of its sovereignty.

“Yet the exercise of a sovereign right does not obviate the need for care and restraint,” he said. “We expect the Iraqi government to refrain from the use of violence.”

“At the same time, the camp leadership must respect Iraqi sovereignty and refrain from acts of provocation, as we seek to resolve this matter,” he added.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers called on the Iraqi government to extend its deadline to close Camp Ashraf and on the Obama administration to take the MEK off the terrorist list.

Mr. Rohrabacher warned of the consequences of not preventing what he said was the imminent massacre of the camp’s residents by Iraqi forces.

“Why are we, the United States, being an accomplice to this crime? If they are deported or subjected to another massacre, the blood in the sand will also stain the Gucci shoes of the U.S. State Department,” he said.

The MEK, also known as the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran, was responsible for terrorist attacks in Iran in the 1970s that killed several U.S. military personnel and civilians, according to the State Department.

Camp Ashraf’s residents surrendered their weapons in 2003 as part of a cease-fire agreement with U.S. forces.

In June 2009, the United States turned over control of Camp Ashraf to the Iraqi government, which gave written assurances that it would treat the residents humanely.

However, Iraqi forces have attacked the camp several times, most recently on April 8, when the security forces killed 36 residents, including eight women.

The residents of Camp Ashraf fear that they will be arrested and executed if they are sent to Iran.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/7/us-warns-iraq-against-eviction-of-foes-of-iran/

Iran refugees fear bloodbath

THE NEW YORK POST

As he hosts Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Monday, President Obama will need to hastily tie upIraq’s loose ends — including CampAshraf, a mess that could quickly turn ugly and cloud Obama’s chance to claim “promise fulfilled” on ending the Iraq war. 

Maliki: Closing camp to please Tehran.

At year’s end, as US troops leave Iraq, Maliki plans to evacuate Ashraf. Since 1986, when Saddam Hussein took them under his wing as part of his war against Ayatollah Khomeini, the camp near the Iraq-Iran border has housed members of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) — a group that Tehran’s mullahs consider a formidable foe. 

When they handed over their weapons to theUSmilitary in 2005, ending their status as an armed militia, camp residents received written American assurances that they wouldn’t be sent back toIranand that we’d guarantee their safety. 

Yet that safety is in serious doubt, because Baghdadis much friendlier to Tehran these days. Last spring, as soon as US forces withdrew from the area, Iraqi troops entered Ashraf  (now more a city than a “camp”), indiscriminately killing residents. More recently, loudspeakers started blaring music and propaganda into the camp at all hours. 

Residents now fear that if they leave Ashraf, they’d quickly be “disappeared.” Though unarmed, some plan to resist Maliki’s evacuation, or “defend our home,” as they put it. 

Ali Safavi, aWashingtonactivist with close ties to the MEK, says they believe Maliki is “doingTehran’s bidding,” planning to prosecute, kill or hand them over to the mullahs. 

The United Nations is trying to determine how many of the 3,500 people at Ashraf can be relocated. Though a few have legal rights to live in America, Canada, Australia or Europe, most hold only Iranian citizenship — and returning there is likely a death sentence. 

The UN sorting process is complex, and Western countries aren’t eager to offer asylum to MEK members. So the UN’s point man inIraq, Martin Kobler, is calling on Americaand others to press Maliki to extend his year-end deadline for six months. And, as a European diplomat put it, “We also do need a long-term solution.” 

Since America is unlikely to accept all (or even most) Ashraf refugees, the least Obama can do is make a public demand, standing next to Maliki, that the Iraqi extend his deadline while we actively look for resettlement solutions. 

Yes, the MEK is often described as a cult. And (despite formidable bipartisan lobbying efforts) the State Department is yet to remove the group from its list of terrorist organizations. 

But Ashraf  shouldn’t become a violent coda to our Iraq withdrawal. For years, the group has been helpful in exposing Iran’s nuclear secrets and undermining the program. And we promised safety. 

If we leave them toIran’s mercy now, we confirm the impression that we’re a fair-weather friend to the enemies of our enemy. Worse: If we fail to tie up such loose ends inIraq, we deepen the impression that we’re running scared after spending eight years and much blood and treasure there.  

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/iran_refugees_fear_bloodbath_ZADOaK9T4NKqoEd75moSxM

 

G.O.P. Lawmakers Want Iranian Group Off Terrorism List

THE NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON — Republican legislators pressed the Obama administration on Wednesday to remove an Iranian opposition group known as the M.E.K. from its list of terrorist organizations and to do more to resettle about 3,400 members of the group who are confined in a camp in Iraq .
 
The lawmakers said Iraq ’s close ties to Iran put the residents of the camp, Camp Ashraf , in danger, pointing to two incursions by Iraqi security forces that left dozens of people dead. And they demanded that the administration commit to guaranteeing the safety of the camp’s residents as Iraq prepares to close it by the end of the year.
 
Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California, said that without such guarantees, the entire camp was at risk of being massacred by Iraqi forces, adding, “the blood in the sand will stain the Gucci shoes of those in the State Department.”
 
Ambassador Daniel Fried, who was recently appointed to oversee United States efforts on this matter, said diplomats were working to persuade Iraq to keep the camp open long enough to allow the United Nations to resettle residents to other countries.
 
Mr. Fried said the State Department was reviewing its terrorist designation against the M.E.K. He reminded lawmakers that during the 1970s, the M.E.K. had been involved in a campaign of attacks, including the assassination of six Americans and the bombings of American companies in Iran .
 
He also called on the M.E.K.’s leaders in Iraq and around the world to do their part to resolve the conflict over the camp in a peaceful and orderly way.
 
“A humane and secure relocation is possible,” Mr. Fried said, “but it will take intense and serious efforts by all parties.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/world/middleeast/republicans-want-iranian-group-mek-off-terror-list.html

Iranian-Americans Launch Television Ad Campaign About Camp Ashraf, Iraq

PRNewswire

BERKELEY, Calif., Dec. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The campaign to prevent another massacre at Camp Ashraf, Iraq, home to the 3,400 Iranian dissidents, at the hands of the Iraqi forces took a major step today with the launch of a television ad campaign running in the Washington, DC metropolitan area in the days leading up to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s December 12th visit to the White House.  

The advertising campaign hopes to make the public aware about the imminent danger facing unarmed men, women and children in Ashraf and to make sure that President Obama and Secretary Clinton intervene to resolve the situation peacefully and protect the residents.

The ad, titled People of Ashraf, contains images from the attacks on Camp Ashraf in both 2009 and in April of 2011 and urges President Obama to honor America’s promise to protect the people of Ashraf.

In 2004, the U.S. signed an agreement with each and every resident, promising to protect them until their final disposition. In breach of that written commitment, however, the administration handed over the protection of Ashraf to the Iraqi Government, which at the behest of the Iranian regime, has imposed a siege on the Camp, denying the residents fuel, medicine, and visits by family and friends. In two deadly attacks in July 2009 and April 2011, Iraqi forces killed 47 unarmed residents, including eight women, and wounded about 1,000.

The ad, produced and paid for by the Iranian-American Community of Northern California (www.iacnorcal.com) also invites the public to attend a White House rally for the protection of Ashraf residents on December 12 beginning at 10 a.m.  

The use of the graphic video is not for shock value.  The imagery in the ads demonstrates to viewers that the gravity of the situation of the people at Camp Ashraf is not hypothetical: Iraqi forces have killed unarmed Camp Ashraf residents before and all indications are that they will do so again if Maliki is allowed to follow through with his plans to block U.N. access and close Camp Ashraf by the end of 2011. Despite appeals by the international community and the U.N. for an extension of the deadline, Maliki insists on closing down Ashraf as planned.

The ad will air extensively in the days leading up to Maliki’s visit on all major networks and cable channels. Click hear:  http://www.usccar.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/CampAshrafAd_0002.wmv

SOURCE Iranian-American Community of Northern California

RELATED LINKS
http://www.iacnorcal.com
http://www.usccar.org

President Obama: Honor America’s Promise and Stop another massacre

 

Mr. War Criminal Is Coming for a White House Handshake

SCOOP INDEPENDENT NEWS

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, under investigation by a Spanish court for war crimes against Iranian dissidents in Camp Ashraf, Iraq, is coming to Washington for a hand hake with President Obama at the White House.

As his December 5 op-ed piece in the Washington Post shows, Maliki is visiting Washington to try to defuse the well-placed fears about Iraq, under his leadership, becoming a proxy state for Iran. And, again judging by his commentary in the Post, he feels behooved to justify, albeit ineffectively, his made-in-Tehran plans to either forcibly relocate Camp Ashraf residents to multiple detention centers in Iraq before extraditing them to Iran, or kill them all at Camp Ashraf if the residents resist the forcible relocation.

So, in either case, President Obama may be shaking hands with a war criminal responsible for massacre of the unarmed and defenseless population in Camp Ashraf. That’s not exactly the kind of poster image President Obama may want for his re-election campaign. He must therefore seize the December 12 White House visit to convey in the most unequivocal terms the United States’ resolve in seeing the camp residents unharmed. 

Speaking in a Washington conference about Camp Ashraf situation last November, Professor Alan Dershowitz, an authority in international law and genocide prevention, said in reference to Maliki’s White House visit that “If the President of the United States does not demand a change in the Iraqi government’s commitment to close the camp [by end of 2011], his silence will be taken as acquiescence, and that is so dangerous, silent acquiescence.”

Dershowitz said: “When the holocaust happened, everybody said we didn’t know. When the Armenian genocide occurred, we didn’t know, when Cambodian genocides were occurring, people were telling us it was propaganda, we didn’t know. Rwanda Darfur, we didn’t know. We know [about Camp Ashraf]. We have been told. We have been warned.”

The fact remains that the 3,400 residents of Camp Ashraf were promised protection. Those individuals and the camp’s leadership trusted America’s promise signed by most senior commanders of the US military, and gave up their weapons. With the deadline set by Iraq to close down the camp in just over three weeks and with the official departure of US forces, the question making round in the US Congress and among thousands of Iranian-Americans who s is:

Would President Obama uphold America’s promise and ensure safety and security of Camp Ashraf residents?

Would President Obama honor the contract America signed with each individual at Camp Ashraf and would not leave them behind unprotected?

Would Administration stop paying lip service to the dire humanitarian situation in Camp Ashraf and fulfill its commitments by asking Maliki to extend his December 31 deadline to close down Camp Ashraf so that the UN refugee agency can carry out the process of relocating the residents to third countries in a safe a secure manner?

The clock is ticking, and the lives of 3,400 Iranian dissidents, including 1,000 women, are on the line as Camp Ashraf is inching toward Srebrenica-style massacre before the year’s end.

Navid Dara is a Washington-based analyst of US policy towards Iran.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1112/S00037/mr-war-criminal-is-coming-for-a-white-house-handshake.htm

Rohrabacher presses State on future of Iranian exiles

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Wants terror label lifted as camp closing nears

The Iraqi government is using the State Department’s terrorist designation of a group of Iranian dissidents as an excuse to crack down on the unarmed exiles in their camp north of Baghdad, a top Republican lawmaker said Tuesday.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s subcommittee on oversight and investigations, said taking the group off the terrorism list would deprive the Iraqi government of this cover and expose it as a puppet of the theocratic regime in neighboring Iran.

“The Iraqi government is kissing the bloody boots of the mullahs in Tehran,” Mr. Rohrabacher said.

Mr. Rohrabacher is scheduled to convene a subcommittee hearing on Wednesday to seek an explanation from State Department officials about a court-ordered review of the terrorist label and an update on developments at Camp Ashraf.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has set a Dec. 31 deadline to close Camp Ashraf and relocate the 3,400 Iranian dissidents of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), a former military wing of the Iranian resistance that U.S. forces disarmed in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has said the deadline does not leave enough time to process the residents’ refugee status requests.

The Iraqi army attacked the camp on April 8, killing 36 residents, including eight women. More than 300 others were wounded. On Oct. 31, Iraqi troops and police entered the camp with sirens blaring in what residents said was an attempt to intimidate them. Supporters say all signs point to an impending massacre at Camp Ashraf.

“If we officially designated a group of people as a terrorist organization, we shouldn’t be surprised when someone commits an act of violence against them,” Mr. Rohrabacher said in an interview.

“However, the people at Camp Ashraf are not terrorists, and it is a great disservice to truth and to them and to finding some kind of peace in that part of the world to continue designating them as terrorists.”

Mr. al-Maliki wrote in The Washington Post this week that Camp Ashraf residents “are classified as a terrorist organization by many countries and thus have no legal basis to remain in Iraq.”

The Iraqi Embassy in Brussels last month sent a letter to the European Parliament in which it listed the designation of MEK as a terrorist organization by the “international community” as a reason to justify its decision to close Camp Ashraf by the end of the year.

Mr. Rohrabacher said taking the group off the U.S. terrorism list is not likely to change the Iraqi government’s attitude.

“They are trying to placate the mullahs, and that is not going to change simply because we change the designation,” he said.

“All we would have done is eliminate their cover, which is ‘These are terrorists, so thus we can do this,’ when in fact all they are doing is the bidding of a mullah dictatorship in Tehran,” he added.

The MEK has bipartisan support on Capitol Hill and is backed by prominent former officials, including those who have served in Republican as well as Democratic administrations. The MEK also IS known as the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran.

In July of 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit gave the State Department six months to re-examine its decision to keep the group on the terrorist list. The State Department designated MEK as a foreign terrorist organization on Oct. 8, 1997.

“Our focus is on reviewing the [terrorist] designation in accordance with the D.C. Circuit’s decision and applicable law,” said Noel Clay, a State Department spokesman.

The State Department is “working as quickly as possible to complete the review,” he added. At the end of the review, it will be up to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to decide whether to maintain or rescind the terrorist label.

State Department officials Daniel Fried, special adviser on Camp Ashraf, and Barbara Leaf, deputy assistant secretary for Iraq in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, are scheduled to testify at the subcommittee hearing.

President Obama is scheduled to meet with Mr. Maliki at the White House on Dec. 12.

Sam Drzymala, a spokesman for Rep. Russ Carnahan, the subcommittee’s co-chairman, said the Missouri Democrat hopes to get an update at the briefing on the status of the “safety, protection and potential relocation options for the residents of Camp Ashraf as the U.S. military transitions out of Iraq.”

All U.S. combat troops are expected to leave Iraq by the end of the year.

In June of 2009, the U.S. turned over control of Camp Ashraf to the Iraqi government, which gave written assurances that it would treat the residents in accordance with Iraq’s constitution and its international obligations.

Ed Rendell, a Democrat and former governor of Pennsylvania, said the al-Maliki government “cannot and should not be trusted to protect the lives of the residents of [Camp] Ashraf.”

Tom Ridge, homeland security secretary under former President George W. Bush, said the Iraqi government has to make a decision.

“Will they be a friend of the United States … or a lackey to Iran?” he asked.

He and Mr. Rendell spoke along with other MEK supporters at an event in Washington last week.

Camp Ashraf residents surrendered their weapons in 2003 as part of a cease-fire agreement with U.S. forces.

Besides the U.S., Canada, Iraq and Iran list MEK as a terrorist organization. Britain and the European Union took MEK off their lists of terrorist organizations in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

Earlier this year, French magistrates dismissed terrorism charges against MEK members after an eight-year investigation.

The State Department accuses the MEK of terrorist attacks in Iran in the 1970s that killed several U.S. military personnel and civilians. MEK also received military and financial support from Saddam Hussein’s regime, according to the State Department.

There is considerable debate in Washington over taking the MEK off the terrorist list.

Kenneth Katzman, a specialist in Middle Eastern affairs at the Congressional Research Service, said some U.S. officials are convinced that such action would be viewed by the Iranian government as a hostile act and eliminate hope for a resumption of talks on Iran’s nuclear program.

Michael Rubin, a resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said taking MEK off the terrorist list would set back U.S. interests in Iran for years.

“An American embrace of a group that has killed so many Iranians and allied itself with Saddam Hussein and other American embassies would be a world-class [mistake],” he said.

Others argue that delisting the MEK would be interpreted by the Iranian opposition as the U.S. throwing its weight behind what they say is an undemocratic group that does not have much support inside Iran.

“This is not a group the U.S. would look to work with as part of a policy of supporting groups that are trying to achieve human rights and democracy,” said Mr. Katzman.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/6/rohrabacher-presses-state-on-future-of-iranian-exi/