March 29, 2024

Clinton Under Pressure

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee this week pressed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on her failure to remove the Iranian resistance from the U.S. list of terrorist groups.

They warned that the lives of more than 3,000 dissidents living in a camp in Iraq are in danger because of the State Department’s refusal to take them off the list. The Iraqi government has even used the list as an excuse to attack the unarmed dissidents, one committee member said.

Rep. Ted Poe told Mrs. Clinton that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki last year cited the U.S. terrorist designation as a reason to refuse to allow a congressional delegation to visit the rebels of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) in Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad.

Mr. Poe, Texas Republican, recalled that Mr. Maliki said his government treats the people there as a terrorist group because the United States lists them as such.

“So he dumped it back on our designation as the reason he was treating them the way he was treating them,” he said.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher warned Mrs. Clinton that the rebels are “in grave danger.”

“There are 3,000 Iranian exiles who have been residing in Iraq … because they are enemies of the Iranian mullah dictatorship,” the California Republican said.

Mrs. Clinton defended her department’s handling of the group’s nearly 4-year-old request for removal from the list. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rejected the request from Camp Ashraf in 2008, but a federal appeals court two years later ordered the State Department review the request.

“We are deeply concerned about the security and safety of these residents of Camp Ashraf,” Mrs. Clinton said. “We continue to work on our review of the [PMOI] designation.”

Attorneys for the PMOI this week increased pressure on the State Department by filing a request that the federal appeals court in Washington order Mrs. Clinton to remove the group from the terrorist list.

Viet Dinh, a former top Justice Department lawyer now representing the resistance, noted that Mrs. Clinton has recognized the group’s reunuciation of violence and is “legally bound to delist their organization.”

“She cannot pocket veto PMOI’s application for revocation of its terrorist status,” he said.

The group operated as an armed resistance against the Iranian regime from the Iraqi base as a guest of dictator Saddam Hussein, a bitter enemy of Iran’s.

The rebels surrendered their weapons to U.S. forces who toppled Saddam in 2003. The U.S. later declared them protected persons under international law, but Washington turned them over to Iraq on Jan. 1, 2009.

The resistance has been on the terrorist list since 1997, when President Bill Clinton declared them a terrorist group in an attempt to improve relations with Iran.

Mr. Dinh on Tuesday filed a writ of mandamus, a legal maneuver that asks a judge to order a public agency to fulfill a statutory duty. He said the PMOI’s lawyers want the federal court to “order the secretary of state to delist the group as a foreign terrorist organization.”

Mr. Dinh drew immediate support from many former U.S. national security officials who joined a legal brief filed by Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor and one of the top U.S. defense attorneys.

Mr. Dershowitz said the former national security officials and retired generals who joined him in his brief all had access to intelligence on the PMOI or had first-hand dealings with the resistance.

They believe “there is no evidence that PMOI has the capability or intent to engage in terrorism or terrorist activities,” Mr. Dershowitz said.

He also complained that the State Department’s “foot-dragging” is “powerful evidence” it cannot justify keeping the PMOI on the list.

Others who joined Mr. Dershowitz in the brief include: former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey; former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge; former FBI Director Louis Freeh; former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani; and retired Gen. Hugh Shelton, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/1/embassy-row-clinton-under-pressure/

Petition in US Court of Appeals to Remove PMOI from US Blacklist

WASHINGTON – Today, the legal counsel for Iran’s principal opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK), filed a Writ of Mandamus in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to enforce the Court’s July 2010 ruling which ordered the Secretary of State to reconsider the PMOI’s petition to be removed from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO).

The PMOI “seeks a writ of mandamus, in the face of unwarranted and unreasonable agency delay, to order the Secretary of State to delist PMOI as a designated ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization,’ or, alternatively, to act on PMOI’s request for delisting within 30 days (and specifying that, if she does not, the designation shall be revoked).”

Camp Ashraf, home to 3,400 PMOI members since 1986, was attacked by Iraqi forces in July 2009 and April 2011. The Iraqi government justified both massacres, in which 47 unarmed civilians were murdered, as cracking down on “terrorists.” According to Members of US Congress Iraqi officials have acknowledged that US designation of the PMOI is partly to blame for the bloodshed in Camp Ashraf.  The UN refugee agency officials have also told members of US Congress that as long as the PMOI remains listed, it would be near impossible to find third countries for Ashraf residents.

Camp “Liberty”: A Cruel Hoax?

THE HUFFINGTON POST

In 1932, the eminent theologian Reinhold Niebuhr wrote “Moral Man and Immoral Society” warning of the tendency of institutions to lose their sense of humanity. How better to explain today’s actions of the US State Department in toying with the lives and hopes of over 3000 Iranian dissidents being “voluntarily” relocated from Camp Ashraf , a small city 40 miles north of Baghdad, where they have lived for the last 25 years? From there they are being moved to a small isolated section of Camp Liberty, an abandoned American base, looted by the Iraqis, with no basic amenities and under the watchful eyes of Iraqi police who have viciously attacked them before.

In the State Department’s view, they are doing these dissidents, members of the MEK (The Mujahedeen-e Khalq), a favor and are not dishonoring a solemn commitment made to them by the US Army in July 2004 when it promised that they would be treated as Protected Persons under the Geneva Conventions in return for the MEK’s surrendering their means of self-protection. But, sad to say, the State Department’s benevolent view is seriously flawed.

In reality, it has, as Niebuhr warned, lost its sense of humanity and has shown instead that US assurances of protection cannot be taken seriously in the face of institutional interests. The US has ceded any rights it may have had as an occupying power to a new Iraqi regime, one which wishes to placate neighboring Iran as the devil it must deal with. Who suffers as a result? In the short run, the MEK, of course; in the long run, the United States.

To be sure, the State Department can rightly claim that it has attempted to soften the blow to which the MEK would otherwise be exposed if its people remained at Camp Ashraf. For there they would be subject to additional lethal attacks by Iraqi forces and perhaps forcible deportation to Iran to face death sentences. Instead, State, working with UN officials, has proposed the “solution” of a so called voluntary transfer to Camp Liberty, where despite sub-standard conditions it would serve as a gateway to Europe and the Americas once the new arrivals are processed as refugees by the UN.

Here is what is wrong with this scenario as provided by recent reports by those on the ground: 400 MEK members who, despite strong skepticism about the plan accepted the offer as a way of testing the good intentions of the State Department, the United Nations and the government of Iraq.

1. Camp Liberty has no serviceable water supply let alone drinking water.

2. The trailers in which new arrivals are to be housed are worn-out and extremely dirty to the point of being un-inhabitable. There are only 80 trailers and most of them lack electrical wiring and thus there is no light and no heating.

3. The sewage system is not functioning and thus the lack of hygienic facilities is likely to cause serious health problems, with raw sewage in open areas of the residential quarters.

4. Contrary to assurances by the Secretary General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Ambassador Kobler, that Camp Liberty meets humanitarian standards – and similar assurances from the State Department on which MEK members relied in accepting relocation there, minimal international humanitarian standards are blatantly absent.

5. The police headquarters is situated northwest of the camp, next to section where the residents are located. In addition there are four other police stations and checkpoints with one situated on the pathway to the dining facility so that every resident going to the dining facility must pass the police checkpoint. More ominously, the police commander in charge of the camp appears to be the same commander responsible for incursions into Camp Ashraf which on two occasions left a total of more than 40 unarmed civilians dead and hundreds wounded. In addition, police are constantly patrolling within the camp on vehicles with heavy machine-guns.

6. Furthermore, the Iraqis have installed seven surveillance cameras all directed on the residential area of the Camp. Those cameras leave absolutely no privacy for anyone.

7. A prison would be much better than Camp Liberty, because in a prison, the prison guards will have to abide by certain rules, and the prisoners have certain rights. In Camp Liberty, the Iraqi policy operation seems to be unbridled.

All of this raises the question of why the State Department would be party to such chicanery, for Camp Liberty gives no sign of being a processing center for resettlement, but more in the nature of a prison where liberty is a dead-letter word. We have only one State Department and would of course like to give it the benefit of the doubt. Certainly, this is what the leadership of the MEK has done. Yet, what credibility does the State Department have with regard to the MEK when it has persisted in keeping it on its FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organizations) List, long after the UK and EU have taken it off its respective lists for lack of any substantiating evidence.

Unfortunately, it appears that Camp Liberty may be but a cruel hoax perpetrated on this group. Surely the State Department is aware that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al -Maliki has made his intention perfectly clear: to rid the MEK from Iraqi soil. Problem is no one wants to accept them for relocation so long as they remain on the State Department FTO List. Instead of removing them from this list, the State Department, without any showing of good reason, as called for by the US Court of Appeals in Washington, has refused to delist the MEK. Thus it enables the Iraqi regime to fall back on the canard that the MEK, deemed as a terrorist entity by the United States, deserves whatever treatment the Iraqi government deems fit. Thus, understandings reached about resettlement, whatever they may be, are undermined by the State Department itself.

Apparently, the State Department refusal to budge, despite a US Court of Appeals order in July 2010 to expedite the de-designation review process, is anchored in the fantasy that Iran can be induced to negotiate its nuclear development program if Iran’s key opponents – the MEK – can be kept in shackles.

Aside from questions of the integrity of what the United States says and does – today the MEK, tomorrow who knows who?–there is something about the State Department position which defies logic as well as law. The MEK is the enemy of our enemy, not America’s enemy. It has renounced terrorism. In the face of extreme provocation the MEK has once again shown its commitment to non-violence and exhaustion of all peaceful means to transforming Iran from brutality to humanity, from theocratic autocracy to a semblance of democracy.

Perhaps, against a dismal picture so far, some good will still come of the State Department’s efforts at resettlement at Camp Liberty. This much is certain: if Camp Liberty turns out to be a hoax, there is no reason for anyone ever to believe that the United States will stand up to Iran.

Allan Gerson is the Chairman of AG International Law in Washington D.C. He is presently involved with other attorneys in representing the PMOI/MEK in its efforts to be removed from the State Department List of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/allan-gerson/camp-liberty-a-cruel-hoax_b_1294291.html

Sub-Humane Living and Security Standards in Camp Liberty

On February 17, 2012, as a goodwill gesture, 400 Iranian dissidents residing in Camp Ashraf in Iraq began their relocation from Camp Ashraf, their home of 25 years, to Camp Liberty, a former U.S. military base near Baghdad international airport. They volunteered for this transfer even though minimum guarantees for their safety and security have yet to be provided by the Iraqi Government or the United Nations. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has formally recognized the residents of Ashraf as “asylum seekers” and “persons of concern,” which entitles them to fundamental protections and security based on humanitarian standards. Nevertheless, the Iraqi Government, with the tacit approval of the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative, Martin Kobler, relocated the Iranian dissidents to Camp Liberty which, contrary to its name, is more like a prison than a transitional facility for “asylum seekers.” The Iraqi-imposed inhumane and humiliating conditions under which 400 residents were transferred to Camp Liberty, as well as the atrociously sub-humane living conditions of the camp amply reveal the nefarious intentions of the Iraqi Government.
 

Sub-Humane Living and Security Standards in Camp Liberty: Open Sewage System

 

Sub-Humane Living and Security Standards in Camp Liberty: Armed Iraqi Police Guarding a Check Point inside the Camp

 

Sub-Humane Living and Security Standards in Camp Liberty: Layers of Concrete Walls and Sand Bags Surround the Residential Area

 

Sub-Humane Living and Security Standards in Camp Liberty: State of Residential Area

  

Sub-Humane Living and Security Standards in Camp Liberty: State of Toilets in Residential Trailers

  

Sub-Humane Living and Security Standards in Camp Liberty: State of a Residential Area

 

Sub-Humane Living and Security Standards in Camp Liberty: A View of Residential Trailers

USCCAR Urges Secretary Clinton to Ensure Iraqi Guarantees for Safety and Security of 400 Iranian Asylum Seekers in Camp Liberty

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — On Friday, February 17, 2012, as a goodwill gesture, 400 Iranian dissidents residing in Camp Ashraf in Iraq since 1986, many with families and relatives in the United States, began their relocation from Camp Ashraf, their home of 25 years, to Camp Liberty, a former U.S. military base near Baghdad international airport, even though minimum guarantees for their safety and security have not been provided by the Iraqi Government or the United Nations.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has formally recognized the residents of Ashraf as “asylum seekers” and “persons of concern,” which entitles them to fundamental protections and security based on humanitarian standards.

Nevertheless, the Iraqi Government, with the tacit approval of the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative, Martin Kobler, has relocated our loved ones to Camp Liberty which, contrary to its name, is, by all indications, more like a prison than a transitional facility for “asylum seekers”.

The Iraqi-imposed inhumane and humiliating conditions under which 400 residents were inspected and then transferred to Camp Liberty, as well as the atrociously sub-humane living conditions of the camp amply reveal the nefarious intentions of the Iraqi Government.

Equally appalling is the fact that the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), which is expected to be playing a humanitarian role, has increasingly acted to accommodate the Iraqi Government in exerting pressure against the residents.

Not surprising, emboldened by the UNAMI chief’s repeatedly one-sided actions and positions to the detriment of Ashraf residents, the Iraqi Government has heightened it’s blatant and repeated violations of the residents’ human rights and the December 25 Memorandum of Understating.

The US Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents (USCCAR), representing thousands of Iranian-Americans whose loved-ones reside in Camp Ashraf, urges Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to uphold the United States’ long-standing moral and legal obligations to ensure safety and security of the residents of Ashraf, particularly those 400 who are now at the mercy of Iraqi Government in Camp Liberty.

Specifically, Secretary Clinton, in line with her assurances provided on February 15, should ensure that the Iraqi Government removes its draconian restrictions on the 400 Iranian dissidents in Camp Liberty, guarantee the withdrawal of the Iraqi police from inside the camp and the freedom of movement of the residents – as stipulated by the UNHCR, as well as the unhindered access of the residents to their lawyers and their families.

Absent these guarantees, the stage would be set by the Iraqi Government to seriously jeopardize the safety and security of our loved ones in Camp Liberty. USCCAR urges the United States to address the serious concerns regarding this camp, otherwise, the relocation of the rest of Ashraf residents will be rendered moot.

A stellar roster of former senior US officials and a bi-partisan group of members of US Congress have declared their readiness to visit Camp Liberty and confirm its suitability to accommodate the Iranian asylum seekers. Such a visit and unfettered access of journalists to the camp and its residents will help to assuage the widespread anxiety of US families of the residents over their safety. To this end, Secretary Clinton should use her good offices to facilitate such a visit.

Camp Ashraf is home to 3,400 members of Iran’s principal opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) and their families, who were recognized by the United States as “Protected Persons” under the Fourth Geneva Convention in 2004. 

SOURCE US Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/usccar-urges-secretary-clinton-to-ensure-iraqi-guarantees-for-safety-and-security-of-400-iranian-asylum-seekers-in-camp-liberty-139634393.html

Iran Policy Committee: Responsibility to Protect Iranian Dissidents in Iraq

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19, 2012 /NEWS.GNOM.ES/ — A humanitarian tragedy unfolds as the Iraqi military and police harass and threaten 397 Iranian dissidents relocated to Camp Hurriya, a former American military base. They are the first of 3,400 residents of Camp Ashraf. How Iraq, UN, EU, and the United States act is a litmus test for whether the rest of the residents of Camp Ashraf relocate.

Professor Raymond Tanter, former member of the National Security Council staff in the Reagan-Bush White House and President of the Iran Policy Committee, stated, “The UN shares with Washington responsibility to protect Iranian dissidents from being harmed by Iraqi authorities. At the UN World Summit, September 2005, over 150 countries adopted ‘responsibility to protect’ populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.”

Professor Tanter said, “The United High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) formally recognized on 13 September 2011, and reiterated on 1 February 2012 residents of Ashraf as ‘asylum seekers,’ with rights and protections based on international humanitarian standards. According UNHCR, “International law requires that asylum-seekers must be able to benefit from basic protection of their security and well being. This includes protection against any expulsion or return to the frontiers of territories where their lives or freedom would be threatened.”

Professor Tanter added, “But the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) works at cross purposes with UNHCR. While UNHCR stands ready to conduct Refugee Status Determination to resettle the dissidents in other countries, UNAMI colludes with Iraqi authorities, providing a pretext for Baghdad to harm them, contrary to international humanitarian standards.”

UNHCR emphasizes protecting Iranian dissidents stating, “Any relocation outside Camp New Iraq Ashraf should proceed on a voluntary basis, with freedom of movement the most desirable state at the site of relocation.” But according to reports, Iranian dissidents are barred from taking their personal belongings, even items like wheelchairs, microwave ovens, and satellite dishes for Internet access. Contrary to UNHCR, the dissidents have no freedom of movement. Journalists are kept away, and neither lawyers nor families can observe or visit Camp Hurriya; in disregard of dissidents’ rights, UNAMI paid no attention to Iraqi harassment, intimidation, and insult to them upon arrival to Hurriya.

Washington is also accountable for failure to provide effective diplomatic pressure on Iraq to ensure safe relocation, often called the “American plan” because it stems from a Christmas Day statement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “We are encouraged by the Iraqi government’s willingness to commit to this plan, and expect it to fulfill all its responsibilities, especially to provide for the safety and security of Ashraf’s residents.”

Because of the Clinton statement, the dissidents accepted the relocation plan, which is now being violated by Iraqi authorities. A subsequent announcement by the Department of State “commends the decision by the Ashraf residents to begin to relocate to Hurriya, where the United Nations will begin a process aimed at facilitating their eventual departure from Iraq,” a commendation that enhances U.S. stake in the plan and responsibility to protect the dissidents. By praising the former residents of Ashraf for the first time, the pronouncement also implicitly commends their leadership in Paris for its constructive role in averting human tragedy.

The Way Forward
In a statement of 7 February this year, 23 former senior officials of the U.S. Government expressed concern about relocation, “We are very troubled by the official position of the Iraqi Government that the residents of Ashraf will have no freedom of movement while in Camp Liberty.”  

First, the IPC concurs with a recommendation of our former colleagues in the U.S. Government for American Embassy Baghdad to obtain assurances for security of dissidents now relocated in Camp Hurriya and as incentive for the 3,000 who remain in Camp Ashraf to relocate: “We believe an operational protocol must be developed through dialogue among all relevant parties, including the representatives of Camp Ashraf and the Iraqi Government.”

Second, the UN might inform dissidents of rights as asylum seekers. The IPC is dismayed to learn that Iranian dissidents in Camp Hurriya have no minimum assurances from either the UN or Washington about their security or rights under international human rights law.

Third, the Secretary General needs to bring operational practices of UNAMI in accord with humanitarian standards of asylum seeker status provided by UNHCR. If the Iraqi police were outside Camp Hurriya and UNAMI monitors inside, UNHCR humanitarian standards are more likely to be followed.

Without such steps, a calamity is likely, spilled blood of the Iranian asylum seekers will be on the hands of those with responsibility to protect, and appropriate legal action against accountable parties is likely in international and national tribunals.

SOURCE Iran Policy Committee

http://news.gnom.es/pr/iran-policy-committee-responsibility-to-protect-iranian-dissidents-in-iraq

400 Iran exiles reluctantly move to new Iraq home

ASSOCIATED PRESS

BAGHDAD (AP) — Lugging clothes, tables and whatever else they could carry, roughly 400 members of an Iranian exile group reluctantly moved Saturday from their camp in northwestern Iraq to a deserted military base outside the capital in what they called a show of good faith that they eventually will be allowed to leave the country peacefully.

It was the first group to move of the more than 3,300 members of the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran who have lived at Camp Ashraf for three decades.

They left under pressure from the Iraqi government, whose army stormed Ashraf last April in a raid that left 34 of the exiles dead.

The United Nations also wants the exiles to move to the Camp Liberty military base outside Baghdad, where they can be screened for asylum eligibility and, presumably, better protected.

The process of moving the exiles to the new location has proceeded in fits and starts over recent months. Iraqi soldiers searched the exiles for almost an entire day before they left Ashraf, and they were being searched again Saturday morning before they were allowed into Liberty.

Members were reluctant to leave their home, which they turned into a miniature city with parks and a university, in favor of an abandoned military base. Residents have not strayed outside for years.

“People are very upset,” said Bahzad Saffari, 50, a camp resident since 2003 who was among the first group of exiles to go. “It took many days to convince them to go.”

He said soldiers ordered the exiles to leave some of their heirlooms behind, including photographs, microwave ovens, satellite dishes for Internet access and, in one case, a pair of therapeutic socks.

“They say it has metal in the socks and so they must be bulletproof,” Saffari said as the exiles were being searched at the camp. “Who wears bulletproof socks? Some of the people are very much bothered and they said, ‘If it is going to be like this, you can imagine how Liberty will be.'”

“This is to break the morale of the people.”

A spokesman for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the exiles are in Iraq illegally but that the move is a first step toward to sending them out of the country.

“We consider the moving of Ashraf people to the new location as a positive step toward reaching a final solution for their presence in Iraq and sending them to a third country,” al-Maliki media adviser Ali al-Moussawi said Friday night. “During the past years, the presence of the (exiles) has represented a problem to the Iraqi government because their staying was illegal, and it was a source of irritation to some neighboring countries.”

The People’s Mujahedeen, which seeks the overthrow of Tehran’s clerical rulers, has been labeled everything from a cult to a terrorist organization — although one that has provided the U.S. with intelligence on Iran. The group says it renounced violence in 2001, after carrying out bloody bombings and assassinations in Iran in the 1980s.

Also known by its Farsi name, the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, the group is the militant wing of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran. The U.S. considers it a terrorist organization although the European Union removed it from its terror list two years ago.

They were welcomed to Iraq by Saddam Hussein during the 1980s in a common fight against Iran. But since Saddam’s ouster they have been an irritant to the Iraqi government and which is trying to build stronger ties with Iran.

Al-Maliki sees the group’s presence as an affront to Iraqi sovereignty, and last spring ordered Ashraf to close by the end of 2011. The U.N however has dubbed the forced removal of Ashraf residents as “ill-advised and unacceptable.”

Ashraf is located in the desert near the Iranian border, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad.

Until recently, the exiles refused to go. In December, the group’s Paris-based head, Maryam Rajavi, agreed to move 400 residents to Camp Liberty in a show of goodwill as the U.N. tries to broker a compromise between the two sides. In a statement this week, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said Iraq’s government has agreed to let Ashraf stay open until April 30 to give the exiles more time to move.

In the meantime, “any provocation or violence must be avoided and would be unacceptable,” Ban said.

The U.N. mission in Iraq has been frantically working to relocate the exiles in other countries. But as of Friday, fewer than 30 have been granted asylum, said Ashraf chief spokesman Shahriar Kia.

Ban’s statement urged member states to help relocate eligible residents of Camp Ashraf who wish to resettle in third countries. Returning to Iran is unlikely because of their opposition to the regime.

Camp Liberty, which sits next to Baghdad’s international airport, was a sprawling U.S. Army base until the American military withdrew from Iraq in December. The Ashraf residents fear it will be a cramped “prison” where they will be barred from moving around and lack clean water, security and free medical services.

An Associated Press photographer who on Friday was allowed into one of the areas of Camp Liberty where the exiles will live described it as surrounded by concrete blast barriers to protect about 140 temporary buildings that each will house nine people. There is a refrigerator and an air conditioner in each building, and portable bathrooms and a dining hall on the compound that will be guarded by Iraqi army soldiers.

They are leaving what Rajavi in December described as a “modern city” with a university, library, museum, hospital, power station, cemetery, mosque, parks, lake, sports and recreation facilities, and underground bomb shelters. Ashraf residents have not left the camp for years, and the little contact they have with outsiders in Iraq is through the Iraqi military, visiting diplomats and aid agencies. They do have extensive communications equipment that allows them to communicate with the outside world.

Kia said the eldest exile who moved Saturday is 70 years old.

Saffari said none of the exiles wanted to go but agreed to be among the first tranche when Ashraf’s leaders asked for volunteers.

After Saddam fell, U.S. troops took control of Camp Ashraf, disarmed its fighters and confined the residents to their 30-square-mile (78-square-kilometer) camp. In return, the military signed an agreement with the camp giving the residents protected status under the Geneva Conventions. But the U.S. turned over those responsibilities to the Iraqi government in 2008.

The International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, which oversees whether nations are complying with the Geneva treaties, is helping resettle the exiles in other countries once the U.N. determines asylum eligibility for each that would grant them, individually, protected status.

Associated Press Writer Sameer N. Yacoub and Photographers Karim Kadim and Hadi Mizban contributed to this report.

http://www.iranfocus.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=24638:400-iran-exiles-reluctantly-move-to-new-iraq-home

UN welcomes start of relocation of Iranian exiles to new camp in Iraq

UN NEWS CENTRE

The United Nations has welcomed today’s safe relocation of about 400 residents of the Iraqi settlement formerly known as Camp Ashraf to a new transit centre elsewhere in the country, calling it “the first step towards a better future” for the residents, who are Iranian exiles.The 400 people who voluntarily relocated today – the first to do so – now reside in Camp Hurriya, a temporary transit location, according to a press release issued by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) in Baghdad.The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will immediately start the process of verification and refugee status determinations, a key step in preparing the submissions of eligible candidates for resettlement in third countries.

Today’s relocation is in line with the memorandum of understanding signed in December by the UN and the Iraqi Government to resolve the situation facing the residents of Camp New Iraq (formerly Camp Ashraf), who are members of a group known as the People’s Mojahedeen of Iran.

Martin Kobler, the head of UNAMI and the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, commended the 400 or so residents for their decision to move to Camp Hurriya.

“This is the first step towards a better future outside Iraq,” he said. “I look forward to their continued cooperation with the Iraqi authorities to complete the relocation without delay.”

Mr. Kobler also commended Iraqi authorities “for having ensured a safe and secure relocation of the first group of residents. I urge them to pursue the relocation of the remaining residents in a manner that continues to guarantee the human rights, safety and welfare of all residents.”

He urged other Member States to confirm that they are ready and willing to accept eligible candidates from Camp Hurriya who want to resettle in third countries.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=41294&Cr=Iraq&Cr1=

First exiles to leave Iraq’s Camp Ashraf slam new site

CNN

Baghdad (CNN) — About 400 members of an exiled Iranian opposition group who are the first to leave a long-term camp in Iraq under a U.N. plan criticized their treatment and the conditions at the new temporary site Saturday.

The group left Camp Ashraf at midnight following 12 hours of inspections and checks, Shahin Gobadi of the National Council of Resistance of Iran said in a statement.

When they arrived seven hours later at the new site, a former U.S. military base near Baghdad International Airport long known as Camp Liberty, the group discovered a heavy presence of police.

Camp Liberty has been renamed “Camp Hurriya” and is now an Iraqi facility.

Another inspection was then demanded, prompting the residents to protest what they consider “degrading, humiliating and inhumane treatment” and the obstructive behavior of the Iraqi forces by refusing to leave the transit buses, Gobadi said.

“The preliminary reports indicate that Camp Liberty (Hurriya) is a prison from all aspects,” he added.

The group’s relocation to the new site was agreed between the United Nations, Iraqi authorities, the United States and the European Union.

The U.S. commended Iraq for the relocation to the camp and called for the Iranian expatriates to cooperate with Iraqi and U.N. authorities in a State Department statement from spokeswoman Victoria Nuland Sunday.

“Patience and willingness to resolve issues related to the relocation will be important as the process moves ahead,” Nuland said.

Human Rights Watch has criticized tensions between the Shiite-lead Iraqi government and the MEK’s leadership. And it has also accused the MEK leaders at Camp Ashraf of holding individual residents — who attempted to leave — against their will, coercing them to remain with the organization.

From Camp Hurriya, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees will begin efforts to resettle the group outside of the country.

Martin Kobler, the U.N. secretary general’s special representative and head of the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), was at the temporary site to welcome the new arrivals.

“This is the first step towards a better future outside Iraq,” he said. “I look forward to their continued cooperation with the Iraqi authorities to complete the relocation without delay.”

He also praised the Iraqi for having ensured the “safe and secure relocation” of the first group of residents and urged them to guarantee the human rights and safety of all those still to relocate.

Camp Ashraf has been home to members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MEK, for more than 25 years. More than 3,000 exiles, described as Iranian resistance figures and their sympathizers, live at the camp.

The MEK has been on the U.S. terrorism list since 1997 because of the killing of six Americans in Iran in the 1970s and an attempted attack against the Iranian mission to the United Nations in 1992. However, since 2004, the United States has considered the residents of Camp Ashraf “noncombatants” and “protected persons” under the Geneva Conventions.

Before moving, the Camp Ashraf residents had demanded a commitment that no Iraqi police would remain inside the new site, in order to ensure the security of the residents. The group believes the current regime in Iraq, under orders from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, has previously staged deadly attacks against Camp Ashraf.

Instead, there are several police posts inside the facility and residents must be accompanied by the police even to go to the dining area, Gobadi said.

“The most important of the Ashraf residents’ demands is that the police must leave the camp area and stay outside the walls,” a statement released by the group Friday said. “This is a condition without which it will be impossible to have more people in Liberty (Hurriya) as it will result in further confrontations, tensions and killing.”

The residents also asked for guarantees with regards to the site’s infrastructure — and say these have not been met.

“In a nutshell, Camp Liberty lacks the most basic international humanitarian standards and human rights standards are not met,” the statement said.

The residents say the camp is much smaller than they were told it would be, and that they are being denied free movement and access to medical services.

The U.N.’s refugee agency confirmed that the new camp’s infrastructure and facilities were in line with international humanitarian standards at the end of January, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said earlier this week.

Camp Ashraf was established in 1986 after former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invited members of the MEK to relocate to Iraq in an effort to undermine the Iranian government, which was then at war with Iraq. Iran also considers the group to be a terrorist organization.

A U.N. commission on refugees has described the residents as “formal asylum seekers” from persecution by the regime in Iran.

The temporary facility, at Camp Huriyya, formerly the U.S.-run Camp Liberty, will remain open for an unspecified period of time, though a senior U.S. administration official said in December that there were plans to keep it open until all of the camp residents were resettled.

CNN’s Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/18/world/meast/iraq-camp-ashraf-relocation

Iraq moves batch of Iranian dissidents from camp

REUTERS

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq evacuated an initial batch of 400 Iranian dissidents on Saturday from a base founded under Saddam Hussein, a first step towards expelling their entire group from Iraqi territory.

The People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), a group that calls for the overthrow of Iran’s clerical rulers, took refuge at Camp Ashraf, 65 km (40 miles) from Baghdad, during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. Ashraf now houses around 3,000 people.

With Iraq’s Shi’ite majority newly empowered following Saddam’s fall in 2003, Baghdad has forged closer ties with its Shi’ite neighbour Iran, and the PMOI is no longer welcome here.

“It is clear that for Camp Ashraf residents there is no future for them inside Iraq. It’s not easy for them to leave their place but I’m convinced this is the only peaceful alternative,” U.N. special envoy to Iraq Martin Kobler said shortly after the Ashraf residents arrived at a “transit site” on a vast former U.S. military base in Baghdad.

From this new camp, a cluster of prefabricated houses in Camp Liberty, near Baghdad airport, they are due to make arrangements to settle outside Iraq.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the PMOI’s political wing, says agreeing to move the initial group is a goodwill gesture, but its complaints about the camp and how the transfer was conducted suggest difficulties lie ahead.

Detailed searches of each person’s belongings took so long they arrived almost 24 hours after the media were invited to Camp Liberty to witness the transfer, one of the group said.

“This is an extremely unusual, insulting and humiliating inspection that is only compatible (with a) transfer of prisoners,” the NCRI said in a statement.

TROUBLE AHEAD?

The NCRI likens the new site to a prison. It says people will not be able to come and go freely or have unfettered access to lawyers and medical services. It has also complained about restrictions on the belongings which people can take with them.

The United Nations says the site meets humanitarian standards for “refugee situations”.

The PMOI waged a violent insurgency against the U.S.-backed shah of Iran in the 1970s, but turned against the rulers who replaced him after the 1979 Islamic revolution. It says it has renounced violence and wants to set up a democratic state.

Despite the PMOI being officially considered a terrorist organisation by the United States, Camp Ashraf was protected by American troops following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq almost nine years ago. Washington turned it over to Iraq in 2009.

The leader of the PMOI said on Thursday she agreed to have the initial group of 400 people moved after receiving assurances from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about their safety.

Safety concerns are understandable, given past violence.

Clashes between Ashraf residents and Iraqi security forces in April killed 34 people. The NCRI has also blamed rocket attacks targeting Ashraf on the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps “and its Iraqi agents”.

Under pressure from the United Nations and European Union, the Iraqi government agreed late last year to extend its deadline to close Ashraf from the end of 2011 to April 30, 2012, a measure aimed at preventing further violence.

The NCRI, citing the clashes, has objected to the presence of Iraqi police inside Camp Liberty and said no more Ashraf residents would be moved unless the police left the camp.

“Transfer of the next groups will only take place after the Special Representative of the (U.N.) Secretary-General and the Iraqi government declare their approval of the minimum assurances, particularly (the) departure of Iraqi police from inside Camp Liberty,” the NCRI said in a statement on Friday.

(Writing by Francois Murphy; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE81H08X20120218