• Ashraf residents, beyond and above goodwill, with maximum flexibility and giving up many of their rights, have many times declared that as soon as 6 lawful and legitimate demands are met, all would immediately go to Camp Liberty
On Monday evening, June 11, Mr. Kobler, the Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) and UNAMI’s chief in Iraq said: “I urge the remaining residents of Camp Ashraf to relocate to Camp Hurriya without delay” “The relocation process should not be stalled. I am concerned that there will be violence if the relocation doesn’t recommence. Any violence would be unacceptable.”
Agence France Press in this regard reported ”Kobler did not specify what was causing the delay, or which party he was concerned might instigate violence.”
So far two-thirds of Ashraf residents have gone to Liberty in five convoys with intense pressure and insistence of Mr. Kobler. But in order to blame the residents, his statement intentionally fails to mention any reasons for “delay” of next groups and hundreds of emails and personal or collective letters that he has received over this period from the residents and their representatives.
Meanwhile he continues to call for “voluntary displacement”, which in practice has been nothing but to push forward Iraqi government’s policy and to evict the residents under the United Nations’ name by force.
The representative of Ashraf residents outside Iraq wrote to Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on May 22 that during past six months and only in Paris we have had 230 exchanges of letters and emails and about 40 telephone calls (often more than one hour) and he had met with and talked to our President, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi seven times totaling 50 hours.
Therefore Mr. Kobler is completely aware about the reasons for delay in details, which is the breach of agreements and violation of basic rights of asylum- seekers by Iraqi government. He introduces himself as an impartial facilitator but any time he wishes, in the role of guardian of juveniles, he signs and dictates anything he wants without notifying and getting the agreement of Ashraf residents who are forced to choose between homelessness, forcible displacement and violation of their dignity, or being killed by Iraqi aggressors.
NCRI’s daily statements about the situation of Ashraf and Liberty (30 statements from May 1 until June 12), leaves no ambiguity or doubts about the reasons for delay.
In another amazing example, NCRI became aware from its sources inside Iran of a strange report of Mr. Kobler on his May 27 visit to Liberty, copies of which are available in Khamenei’s office, the mullahs’ Supreme leader, Iranian regime’s National Security Council, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Intelligence, Revolutionary Guards Corps, Qods terrorist force and the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, and the Iraqi government. By erroneous facts, this report provides a reverse picture of the facts, position and demands of Ashraf residents for going to Liberty and paves the way for a third massacre in Ashraf, that now has made Mr. Kobler himself worried. In this report there is no mention of breach of agreements and supressive measures of Iraqi government and its ominous plans or the Iranian regime’s meddling. This is while the minutes of the meeting and negotiations of Mr. Kobler on May 27 in Liberty was prepared by the legal adviser of the residents and sent to Mr. Kobler, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Baroness Ashton, High Commissioner Guterres, ISJ President, President of the European Parliament delegation for relations with Iraq, and all relevant US authorities. ISJ, which is comprised of 4000 parliamentarians in both sides of Atlantic, in its May 30 statement declared:
“The conditions at Liberty are grossly violating many of the minimum human rights and humanitarian standards, and while it has been exactly 4 months since the statement by Mr. Kobler, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative, announcing the confirmation of standards by the UNHCR and UNAMI, Liberty is suffering from lack of basic needs such as water, electricity, and a properly functioning sewage system, and the government of Iraq inhumanely prevents the transfer of residents’ necessary items from Ashraf to Liberty.
Despite repeated statements by the UNHCR, including statements of February 1st, March 1st, and March 28th, the residents do not have the right of passage, have no access to their lawyers, and their relatives are not permitted to enter Iraq or Liberty/Ashraf. Liberty is, by all means, a prison.
And instead of improving these conditions, Mr. Kobler’s mandate seems to be, first and above all, closing Ashraf at any price and piling up the residents in Liberty Prison. This has caused us all frustration and dismay.
One of the Iraqi government’s excuses for violating these standards is that Liberty is a Temporary Transit Location (TTL). This designation relates to conditions where the expectation was that the UNHCR’s process would take at most 6 months and the residents would be fast relocated outside Iraq, while according to UNAMI and the U.S. government, most of the residents will, under the optimum conditions, stay at Liberty for at least 2 years.
Under these circumstances, an immediate and active intervention is needed by the international community particularly the UN Secretary General, the US Secretary of State, the EU High Representative and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to resolve the following issues:
• Explicitly underscore the rights of Liberty residents in order to prevent any misuse by the Government of Iraq. This means emphasizing the humanitarian and human rights standards such as freedom of movement, free access to lawyers, property rights or those rights which have been stipulated in the refugee laws, the international Covenant on Civil and Political Rights or Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions”.
The Iranian resistance deeply regrets the cover up of facts, breach of neutrality and ignoring the legitimate demands of residents by Mr. Kobler and calls on the international community to investigate and address the lawful and legitimate demands of Ashraf residents.
Ashraf residents, beyond and above goodwill, with maximum flexibility and giving up many of their rights, have many times declared that as soon as 6 lawful and legitimate demands are met, all would immediately go to Camp Liberty. These demands that have been articulated in numerous letters to Mr. Kobler, Iraqi authorities and all relevant parties in the US and EU, were resent on May 27 to UN Secretary General with 1269 signatures of Ashraf residents:
1. SRSG will not permit any interference of Iranian regime against its opponents in Camp Ashraf and Liberty.
2. All the agreements and commitments related to the fifth convoy, mainly women, will be fulfilled by GOI (6 utility vehicles, 25 trucks to transfer their belongings, 6 special trailers and 3 vehicles of the paraplegic patients).
3. All the provisions of SRSG letters, particularly about the police, 10 passenger cars for every convoy, a precise date for connection of Liberty to the city water network and power grid, construction, green area and plant trees will be guaranteed and implemented before any other move.
4. Liberty legal status will be recognized as a refugee camp.
5. UN guarantees selling all Ashraf moveable and immoveable assets or transferring moveable assets to another country/ or Iraqi Kurdistan;
6. U.S. will inspect Camp Ashraf as soon as possible
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
June 12, 2012
