NCRI – A group of non-governmental organizations with special consultative status have united to urge the UN to move vulnerable Iranian dissidents out of Camp Liberty and back to Ashraf in the wake of the deadly missile attack which left seven dead and more than 100 injured.
The NGOs also want the UN Secretary General to probe its representative in Iraq Martin Kobler for sending the refugees to Camp Liberty at the bidding at Nouri Al-Maliki’s government in Baghdad.
The strongly-worded statement from the French human rights campaigners including France Libertés, the Fondation Danielle Mitterrand, The Movement Against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples (MRAP) was presented to Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon last month.
It stressed the inhumane living conditions and daily risk to their lives being faced by the 3,100 residents who are in ‘arbitrary detention’ in Liberty, a squalid camp surrounded by Iraqi troops near Baghdad airport.
A deceitful eviction
They wrote: “One year has passed since Camp Ashraf’s residents were transferred to Camp Liberty. The lack of any prospect for quick transfer of the asylum seekers and the adverse and poor living condition at Camp Liberty indicate that this relocation has been nothing more than a deceitful eviction.”
The statement described how residents were enduring floods of raw sewage exposing them to severe risk of disease, and it attacked a UN document of January 31, 2012, which confirmed that the infrastructure at the camp ‘could not be verified’.
And it quoted former UNAMI official Taher Boumedra, who said he had personally warned Martin Kobler that the camp was not fit for human habitation.
The statement added: “Prior to this, Mr Boumedra testified under oath that in Ashraf’s case, Mr Kobler was not impartial and was taking the side of the Iraqi government.”
Mr Boumedra also testified that Kobler had held meetings at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad regarding the fate of the Liberty residents, which it said raised ‘serious concerns’.
It added: “According to testimonies, the basic rights of the asylum seekers such as free access to medicine and physician, the right of patients to have interpreter and accompanying nurse, and confidentiality of physician-patient relationship is frequently violated.
“Furthermore, allegedly there have been numerous instances where the Iraqi intelligence agents, sent by Iraq’s prime ministry, have prevented hospitalization of patients.”
Liberty residents even wrote to the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay in November 2012 warning that lives were being lost through inadequate medical care, the statement said.
Prison like condition in Camp Liberty
A UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention which examined the complaint by Liberty residents agreed that conditions were ‘prison like’.
The property issue and UNAMI
The statement to the Secretary-General also accused the Iraqi government of preventing Liberty asylum seekers from selling their own property, and an agreement by asylum seekers’ legal representatives to resolve the issue had been repeatedly stalled by Iraq, it said.
This was because UNAMI was intent on shoring up Al-Maliki’s government as the only way of preventing the country from descending into chaos, the legal representatives reported after their visit to Baghdad.
The report by asylum seekers’ legal representatives was quoted: “However, contrary to UNAMI’s analysis many observers consider Mr Al-Maliki to be the problem, not the solution. In our view, much of the attitude of UNAMI toward the MEK [the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK)] file can be explained in light of this premise. We were explicitly told, for example, that the Maliki Government would literally not survive a decision to pay the MEK [PMOI] for its immovable property.
“We fully understand that the Iraqi Government will erect all kinds of barriers to a legally correct and fair outcome. We are concerned that UNAMI must not act in a way to legitimize or to support baseless arguments.
“Rather, we expect UNAMI to take an impartial position, consistent with international law principles that have long been part of the United Nations system. If international and domestic law requires that the residents should be compensated for their property, saying so should be entirely consistent with UNAMI’s mandate.”
Martin Kobler refused to visit Camp Libeerty after the attack
The statement also noted that Martin Kobler had refused to visit Liberty after the February 9 mortar attack, and demanded that the UNHCR now recognise the camp a refugee camp where residents
have ‘absolutely no security’.
It added: “The asylum seekers are demanding to be immediately returned to Camp Ashraf, which is equipped with shelters that protected them already in the past from heavy bombing and where they can live in a condition consistent with international standards.”
NGOs demand UN to act
The statement said it now wanted the UN to act on its four key demands.
Firstly, for the Human Rights Council to call upon the Security Council to take the immediate steps to ensure the protection and the safety of the asylum seekers in both Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty.
Secondly for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to use her moral authority to demand that UNAMI personnel respect the fundamental human rights and principles that the UN promotes.
And thirdly, that the UN Secretary General arranges for quick return of Liberty residents to Ashraf and to guarantee their rights, safety and protection while they are waiting to leave Iraq.
And lastly that the UN Secretary General to order a thorough investigation into the actions of its UNAMI representative Martin Kobler.
