Subsequent to the long-overdue transfer of 14 residents of Camp Liberty to Albania, a spokesperson of the US State Department instead of appreciating the efforts of the leadership of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and the Iranian Resistance, who facilitated this transfer with tremendous efforts and heavy costs, targeted the victims.
This is while the representatives of the UNHCR expressed their appreciation to camp leadership for their cooperation in transferring of the group.
It seems that some in the State Department have been deceived by Martin Kobler and his fabricated reports. The urging from the MEK leadership “to cooperate fully with the UNHCR relocation process and to facilitate access by United Nations monitors to Camp Hurriya residents,” takes place while the UNHCR teams are talking to the residents for hours on two occasions in the morning and afternoon on daily basis and while there is no restriction in conducting private talks with all of the residents. Photos of UN monitors’ visit and free access to anywhere and anyone are available and could be published.
If one would believe Martin Kobler, 210 of the residents should have been transferred to Albania in April and another 100 to Germany. But only 14 residents have been transferred to Albania so far. For that reason, the MEK provided a list of 240 of the residents to the UNHCR in Geneva and the US authorities in Camp Liberty in February, March, and April. The list of the next 100 individuals is also ready for submission.
Martin Kobler is trying to take credit for the MEK efforts and Secretary Clinton’s personal request from the Albanian Government that was ultimately implemented during the trip to Albania and the meeting with the Albanian Prime Minister in March by Ms. Barbara Leaf, then-U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq, and the endeavors of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres. Kobler is also trying to use the transfer of 14 residents as a pretext to exert greater pressure on the defenseless residents, 57 of whom were slain in the previous attacks on Ashraf and Liberty, 14 of whom died due to the siege imposed on the camps, and 1232 of whom were wounded.
But the most damaging consequence of Kobler’s propaganda in publicizing the news of the transfer of 14 residents was to invite the religious dictatorship ruling Iran to meddle in the Albanian case and its efforts to limit the number of the residents accepted in Albania. The Iranian Resistance has repeatedly protested against Martin Kobler’s communications and contacts with the Iranian regime and drawing the mullahs’ regime into the case of opposition members at Ashraf and Liberty.
The Iranian Resistance draws the attention of State Department spokesperson to the May 5 letter by representative of the Ashraf and Liberty residents to Secretary John Kerry, regarding the details of the relocation, MEK’s cooperation, and the immediate need for security at Liberty, as well as Kobler’s lies and the role of his special agents in the persecution and harassment of the residents (the letter is attached). The Iranian Resistance urges Secretary Kerry to dispatch a fact-finding delegation to Liberty, with the participation of US dignitaries and Generals who had previously requested to visit the Camp, and to publish their report.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
May 16, 2013