against Ashraf and Liberty residents to set stage for more suppression and intensify blockade
Camp Liberty – No.34
A leakage brook out on Friday in a black water tank located near the Camp Liberty’s bakery. On many occasions the camp’s black water tanks have developed leakage due to the corrosion, polluted the camp and threatened the camp residents’ health.
Meanwhile, in order to put pressure on the residents, the Government of Iraq (GoI) prevents black water tanks and tools for the repair of the corroded tanks to be transferred from Ashraf to Librty. Furthermore, the GoI denies entry of professional engineers to the Liberty. Therefore, the residents are forced to do primitive repairs which end up with renewed leakage in few days.
The rusted underground water and sewage pipes are often being damaged due to passing cranes and trucks which pass through the camp area to transport camp’s T-walls that are being stolen on the order of the Iraqi committee tasked with suppression of Ashraf.
In order to dig the ground and repair the pipes, hydraulic shovels and other materials are needed, but the representative of GoI prevents their entry. Therefore, the residents are forced to dig the ground with primitive tools. The attached photos showing the residents working in difficult condition reminds the forced labor prisoners in fascist regimes.
In a misleading statement on January 31, the office of United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), based on a report by a shelter expert, had declared that “The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UNAMI Human Rights Office have now confirmed that the infrastructure and facilities at Camp Liberty are in accordance with the international humanitarian standards stipulated in the MoU.”
However, even though 100 days are passed since the first group of Ashraf residents have entered Liberty, despite continuous efforts by the residents, the camp’s infrastructure remains anything but acceptable as any impartial judgment will simply reach that conclusion. As nearly two third of Ashraf residents have been transferred to Liberty, the GoI has only handed over to residents a third of Liberty while acknowledging that the rest is not ready.
In another development, the stat-run Mehr news agency affiliated with the Iranian regime’s Ministry of Information and Security, and a number of other state-run media, falsely claimed that three of Camp Liberty residents stabbed a person who tried to join Iraqi forces and he has been transferred to a hospital in Baghdad due to injuries.
While emphasizing that such misinformation are aimed at setting the stage for more suppression of the residents and intensifying the imposed blockade, the Iranian Resistance draws the attention of the United Nations and the U.S. Government to the ominous plans by the ruling mullahs in Iran and their Iraqi elements, it also reminds them their responsibilities towards the protection of the residents of Ashraf and Liberty.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
May 26, 2012