AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

BAGHDAD — Searches of Iranian opposition members have delayed their departure from a camp in Iraq for a UN-approved site near Baghdad, an Iraqi army officer and a legal adviser to the exiles said on Friday.

A group of some 400 Iranians opposed to the regime in Tehran was to depart on Friday from Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad, for a new location called Camp Liberty, as part of a process that aims to see them resettled outside Iraq.

The planned move is part of a December 25 deal between the UN and Iraq, which was reached after extensive talks, under which around 3,400 members of the opposition People’s Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) are to leave Camp Ashraf, which the Iraqi government has said will be closed in April.

“Four hundred is a big number, and we are still searching them and their belongings,” an Iraqi army major told AFP by telephone on Friday evening.

“We are also calling for backup for security reasons because we are worried about moving them from Diyala (province) to Baghdad with a small number of soldiers,” the major said.

Behzad Saffari, the legal adviser for residents of the camp, told AFP by telephone that the seaches began around 2:00 pm (1100 GMT), and that more than 300 people had been searched as of 10:30 pm (1930 GMT).

It was not clear when they would depart the camp.

“They search all the bags, every single item,” said Saffari, who arrived in Ashraf ahead of the US-led invasion of 2003 and is to travel with the group to Camp Liberty, near Baghdad airport.

He said that Iraqi forces had raised objections to items including cameras and cooking knives, making for a lengthy process.

“It shows that they just want to be difficult,” Saffari said. “It’s been a long wait.”

Now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein allowed the PMOI to set up Camp Ashraf during his 1980-88 war with Iran.

The left-wing PMOI was founded in 1960s to oppose the shah of Iran, but took up arms against Iran’s new clerical rulers after the Islamic revolution of 1979.

According to the US State Department, which has blacklisted the PMOI as a terrorist organisation since 1997, members of the group have carried out a large number of attacks against Iranian targets, and also against Americans.

The PMOI announced in 2001 that it had renounced violence, and is seeking to have the terrorist designation lifted.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5idKcxFBDS-6K0ZOLHnuIQsWh8JIA

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

Camp Ashraf 

Press Statement

 The United States continues to pursue a peaceful, humane solution to the untenable situation at Camp Ashraf. The critical next step is the voluntary movement of the first group of 400 Ashraf residents to the new transit facility at Camp Hurriya (former Camp Liberty). The United States supports the UN’s call for the Iraqi Government and the residents of Camp Ashraf to continue to cooperate and begin this movement peacefully and without delay. Once the first group arrives at Hurriya, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) can immediately begin verification and refugee status determinations, a necessary step for Hurriya residents to safely depart Iraq.

PRN: 2012/234

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/02/184058.htm

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

PARIS — Iranian opposition group the National Council of Resistance said Thursday it has agreed to begin evacuating its long-time base in a camp in central Iraq to transfer to a UN-approved site near Baghdad.

According to a statement issued by the exiled group’s base in Paris, NCRI leader Maryam Rajavi has agreed that the first 400 of 3,400 refugees based in Ashraf camp will be transferred to Camp Liberty, a former US military base.

The statement said Rajavi had received assurances from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before agreeing to order the move.

“This is despite the fact that there was no agreement on the transfer of all their vehicles and personal movable property to Liberty,” the statement said, while calling for better guarantees for the residents’ safety.

The NCRI, which includes the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, demanded Iraqi police be removed from the Liberty site before any more of the group leave Ashraf, which Baghdad has vowed to close.

Thursday’s statement said that this demand was necessary “to avoid tension, violence and another massacre of the residents. This is particularly important for the security and peace of female residents.”

In Washington, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said: “The United States urges this voluntary movement to Hurriya (Liberty in Arabic) to begin on schedule February 17.

“The US will not walk away from the people at Camp Hurriya,” she said in a statement.

“We will visit Hurriya regularly and frequently, and continue to work with the UN to support their temporary relocation and subsequent peaceful and secure resettlement outside of Iraq,” Nuland said.

The NCRI has been in revolt against Tehran’s Islamic regime for more than three decades. While many of its members are living in exile around the world, its biggest base is in Ashraf in Iraq, near the Iranian border.

From there, the People’s Mujahedeen fought alongside Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces against their Iranian countrymen during the Iran-Iraq war.

The camp came under US forces’ control after their 2003 invasion toppled Saddam, and they oversaw the safety of its inhabitants until January 2009, when they transferred security for the camp to Iraq.

Under pressure from Tehran, the post-Saddam Iraqi regime now wants to close the camp and expel its inhabitants, but they have thus far refused to budge, seeking security guarantees and a new life abroad.

Ashraf residents are being assessed individually by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees after applying for refugee status, to allow them to resettle elsewhere, but Baghdad is becoming impatient.

Under a pact signed on December 25 between the United Nations and the Iraqi government, the residents of camp Ashraf will be transferred to Camp Liberty, a former US military site near Baghdad’s international airport.

The NCRI is in negotiations with the United Nations over the transfer, but has repeatedly complained that living conditions at Liberty are not adequate.

“Camp Liberty does not fulfill international humanitarian and human rights standards such as freedom of movement, which was raised by (UN refugee agency) the UNHCR, and there is no free access to medical services, lawyers and families,” it said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i2MWP9f7cEo-BaTNoGThgUzeCK2A

REUTERS 

PARIS, Feb 16 (Reuters) – The leader of an exiled Iranian opposition group said on Thursday she had agreed to start relocating Iranian dissidents from a long-disputed camp in Iraq after receiving assurances from the United States about their safety.

Some 65 km (40 miles) from Baghdad, the settlement known as Camp Ashraf is the base of the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), an Iranian opposition group that Washington considers a terrorist group.

The Iraqi government, which is friendly with Tehran, has said it intends to close the camp, which is home to an estimated 3,000 Iranian dissidents and has been the scene of bloody clashes between residents and the Iraqi security forces.

The PMOI said on Thursday it was starting to move people to a new location.

“Maryam Rajavi, after being informed of recommendations and assurances of Secretary (Hillary) Clinton last night, called on Ashraf residents to transfer the first 400 residents to Camp Liberty in the coming days to remove any doubts about their goodwill,” said a statement from the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the PMOI’s political wing.

Baghdad extended its deadline to close Ashraf late last year, under pressure from the United Nations and European Union, from Dec. 31, 2011 to April 30, 2012.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said on Wednesday that the infrastructure and facilities at Camp Liberty, a former U.S. base where the Ashraf residents will be temporarily rehoused, complied with international humanitarian standards.

“Transfer of the next groups will only take place after the Special Representative of the Secretary General and the Iraqi government declare their approval of the minimum assurances, particularly the departure of Iraqi police from inside Camp Liberty, in order to avoid tension, violence and another massacre of the residents,” the NCRI statement said.

The fate of Camp Ashraf is one of the main unresolved issues left over after U.S. forces withdrew from Iraq last year. Residents of the camp have long said they fear for their safety at the hands of Iraqi authorities without U.S. protection.

In April, the camp was the scene of clashes between residents and Iraqi security forces in which 34 people were killed, according to a U.N. investigation.

The U.S. State Department said in a statement that it hoped the switch from Camp Ashraf to another camp called Camp Hurriya would go ahead without delay as scheduled.

“The United States urges this voluntary movement to Hurriya to begin on schedule February 17. The U.S. will not walk away from the people at Camp Hurriya,” said the statement.

(Reporting By John Irish in Paris and Arshad Mohammed in Washington; editing by Andrew Osborn)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-rt-iraq-camp-update-1l5e8dg5ch-20120216,0,6720264.story

UN News Centre

15 February 2012 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called for the start of the relocation of residents of the settlement in Iraq formerly known as Camp Ashraf, urging the Government and the camp dwellers to continue to cooperate so that the process can be carried out in a peaceful manner.

The United Nations and the Iraqi Government on 25 December signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the voluntary relocation of several thousand Iranian exiles living in Camp New Iraq, previously known as Camp Ashraf, in the north-eastern part of the country.

On 31 January, the UN High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) and the human rights office of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said they had confirmed that the infrastructure and facilities at the new relocation camp met international standards.

In his statement today, Mr. Ban acknowledged the efforts of the Iraqi Government to prepare the temporary transit location to host the residents and allow UNHCR to undertake refugee status determination.

He reiterated his call to Member States to contribute to a durable solution by demonstrating their readiness to accept eligible residents of Camp New Iraq who wish to resettle in third countries.

The Secretary-General stressed that the UN “remains strongly committed to continue to do its utmost to facilitate a peaceful and durable solution.”

Situated in the eastern Iraqi province of Diyala, Camp New Iraq camp houses several thousand members of a group known as the People’s Mojahedeen of Iran.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=41253&Cr=iraq&Cr1=

New York, 15 February 2012 – Statement Attributable to the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General on Camp Ashraf

The Secretary-General continues to closely follow the situation in Camp Ashraf. Over the past few months, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), under the leadership of his Special Representative, Martin Kobler, and in close cooperation with UNHCR, the European Union, the United States and other interested Member States, has been tirelessly working as an impartial facilitator to promote a peaceful resolution of this issue, within the framework of UNAMI’s humanitarian mandate.

At the request of the Secretary-General, the Government of Iraq extended its deadline to close Camp Ashraf from 31 December 2011 to 30 April 2012. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on 25 December 2011 between the United Nations and the Government of Iraq has laid the foundation for a peaceful and durable solution, respecting both the sovereignty of Iraq and meeting Iraq’s international humanitarian and human rights obligations.

The Secretary-General acknowledges the efforts of the Government of Iraq to prepare the temporary transit location to host the residents and allow UNHCR to undertake refugee status determination. On 31 January 2012, UNHCR confirmed that the infrastructure and facilities at the temporary transit location are in accordance with the international humanitarian standards stipulated in the MoU.

The Secretary-General believes that the time has come to start the relocation process without further delay. He urges the Iraqi authorities and the residents of Camp Ashraf to continue to cooperate and complete the process in a peaceful manner. The Secretary-General reiterates that the Government of Iraq bears the primary responsibility for the security and the welfare of the residents of Camp Ashraf. At the same time, the residents of Camp Ashraf also bear a responsibility to abide by the laws of Iraq. Any provocation or violence must be avoided and would be unacceptable.

The Secretary-General reiterates his call to Member States to contribute to a durable solution by demonstrating their readiness to accept eligible residents of Camp Ashraf who wish to resettle in third countries.

The Secretary-General stresses that the United Nations remains strongly committed to continue to do its utmost to facilitate a peaceful and durable solution.

http://www.un.org/sg/statements/index.asp?nid=5863

REUTERS

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Iraq on Wednesday to speed up the transfer of Iranian dissidents at a camp near Baghdad to a temporary facility which the dissident group has compared to a prison.

Camp Ashraf, 40 miles from Baghdad, has been home for 25 years to the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran, or PMOI, an Iranian opposition group the United States and Iran officially consider a terrorist organization.

The current Iraqi government has never concealed its desire get rid of the camp. Under pressure from the United Nations and European Union, Baghdad extended its deadline to close Ashraf late last year from December 31, 2011 to April 30, 2012.

But Ban is now urging Baghdad not to wait until April.

“The Secretary-General believes that the time has come to start the relocation process without further delay,” Ban’s press office said in a statement. “He urges the Iraqi authorities and the residents of Camp Ashraf to continue to cooperate and complete the process in a peaceful manner.”

The statement said the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has “confirmed that the infrastructure and facilities at the temporary transit location are in accordance with … international humanitarian standards.”

It was not immediately clear how the Iranians at Camp Ashraf reacted to Ban’s call to accelerate their move out of the camp.

Earlier this month a spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the PMOI’s political wing, dismissed suggestions from U.N. special envoy to Iraq Martin Kobler that conditions at the new facility – Camp Liberty – were acceptable.

The spokesman, Shahin Gobadi, said in an email the new facility would have “prison conditions,” with residents denied the freedom to come and go and without access to lawyers and medical services.

Camp residents will also be banned from taking vehicles and other property with them, apart from “individual belongings,” and will only be able to contact U.N. officials by telephone, Gobadi said.

NEW CONDITIONS

In an article in Wednesday’s New York Times, however, Kobler said the new camp would have medical facilities and would be monitored around the clock by U.N. observers. Residents would be interviewed by the U.N. refugee agency to determine their eligibility to resettle as refugees outside Iraq, he added.

Camp Ashraf continued to operate after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. But its future became unclear after Washington turned it over to Iraq in 2009. Baghdad has repeatedly said it does not want the guerrilla group on Iraqi soil.

Kobler said Camp Ashraf’s leaders, after agreeing in principle to move out an initial group of 400 residents, had hesitated in recent days to do so, placing new conditions on the transfer to which the Iraqi government rejected.

“The government’s patience is wearing thin, and further delay could lead to provocation and violence,” he said. “Change is understandably unsettling for the residents, but maintaining the status quo is neither a safe nor viable option.”

In the 1970s, the PMOI led a guerrilla campaign against the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran but after the 1979 Islamic revolution turned against Iran’s new clerical rulers. It was hosted in Iraq by former leader Saddam Hussein, a bitter foe of Iran.

Late last year, there were several rocket attacks on Camp Ashraf, which the NCRI blamed on the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps “and its Iraqi agents.”

In April 2011, Ashraf was the scene of clashes between residents and Iraqi security forces, during which 34 people were killed, according to a U.N. investigation.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/15/us-iraq-iran-un-idUSTRE81E2B520120215

UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL