Source: Iran Policy Committee
Baghdad prepares to crackdown on Iranian dissidents in Iraq by forcibly removing them from their camp Tuesday, December 15, 2009. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced plans to move the more than 3,400 members of the group living at Camp Ashraf near the Iranian border to Neqrat al-Salman, a location in the desert south of Baghdad that once housed prisoners during the reign of Saddam Hussein.
The state-controlled Iranian press celebrated and congratulated Baghdad for its crackdown on Ashraf, and Iran’s ambassador to Iraq welcomed news that Baghdad was seriously pursuing a policy of expulsion of the Iranian dissidents
In July 2009, seven months after Iraqi Security Forces took control of the camp from the U.S. military, an ensuing raid killed 11 and wounded hundreds more. Dozens were taken hostage by the Iraqis and only released after weeks of worldwide hunger strikes.
According to IPC President and former member of the National Security Council staff in the Executive Office of the President, Professor Raymond Tanter, “There are several indications of collusion between Baghdad and Tehran during the July 2009 Iraqi attack on Ashraf, suggesting that the Iranian regime may also be pushing the Iraqi Government to close down Camp Ashraf on December 15.”
Professor Tanter said, “Consider a trip to Iraq in November 2009 by Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani. The speaker strongly urged Iraqi lawmakers to expedite the process of ‘expelling members of the [MEK] from Iraqi soil.’ Larijani also lauded the July crackdown stating that, ‘Even though it is rather late, the action by the Iraqi government is praiseworthy.’” Professor Tanter concluded that, “It appears as if Iraq’s Shiite-led government does not want to continue to host Iranian dissidents and risk souring its relations with Shiite power Iran.”
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Jeffrey Feltman said in response to a question from a Member of Congress who expressed concern that Baghdad would expel the Iranian dissidents, “The expectation is…that they would try to forcibly move them to a different location in Iraq and that, too, could lead to bloodshed.”
Moreover, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Washington is holding Iraq to previous assurances that the People's Mujahedeen will be treated humanely and do not end up in a country where they could be harmed.
General Thomas McInerney (Lt Gen, US Air Force Ret, chair of the IPC Advisory Council), drew attention to statements by international organizations in support of residents of Ashraf: “I concur with the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), which has expressed concern regarding the human rights situation at Camp Ashraf. I welcome the statement by Ad Malkert, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, who voiced his unease and a UNAMI press release: ‘The UN continues to advocate that Camp Ashraf residents be protected from forcible deportation, expulsion or repatriation.’”
Regarding the threat to evict residents of Ashraf, General McInerney referred to a statement by Amnesty International, which stated, “The Iraqi authorities must not forcibly relocate about 3,400 members of an Iranian opposition group from a settlement north of Baghdad where they have lived since the mid-1980s.” Amnesty’s statement expressed “fears that forced removals of the residents of Camp Ashraf would put them at risk of arbitrary arrest, torture or other forms of ill-treatment, and unlawful killing.”
R. Bruce McColm, former Executive Director of Freedom House, IPC Board of Directors said, “President Obama has an opportunity to issue strong public statements in support of both the protesters on the Streets of Tehran as well as their sisters and brothers in Iraq.”
McColm drew attention to President Obama’s acceptance of the Nobel Prize, in which the President said: “We will bear witness…to the hundreds of thousands who have marched silently through the streets of Iran.” McColm said, “I believe the President’s Noble Prize acceptance statement is a step in the right direction, especially if it applied equally to Iranian dissidents not only in Iran but also in Iraq.”
McColm stated that, “President Obama might wish to reinforce the warning of Vice President of the European Parliament, Alejo Vidal-Quadras’s letter to Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki, which stated that ‘any forcible displacement’ from Camp Ashraf ‘would no doubt lead to far greater casualties’ than the July [2009] raids.” McColm concluded that, “Because of collusion between Tehran and Baghdad to close Camp Ashraf where Iranian dissidents have been living peacefully for years, it is in the U.S. interest to persuade Iraq to resist such pressure from Iran.”
Neqrat as-Salman, Iraq’s most feared prison after Abu Ghraib, is a desolate military facility in the south of Iraq. After the 2003 War, Neqrat as-Salman was used by U.S. forces as a detention center until last year. It has been used since 1921 for detaining mostly political prisoners. This detention center is several days walk from the nearest oasis in each direction. The closest location with drinking water is about 150 km (90 miles) away.
