On the following day, Mr. Kolber sent another email titled “DRAFT- Roadmap, 23 July.”
On July 24, a media spin campaign was launched by the SRSG to announce that: “The United Nations mission in Iraq today presented a roadmap to the Government [of Iraq] suggesting a series of steps to complete the peaceful relocation of Iranian exiles from Camp Ashraf to Camp Hurriya.”
Mr. Kobler added in his statement: “To facilitate the remaining moves that will lead to the closure of Camp Ashraf, UNAMI called on the residents ‘to start the preparations for the next move without delay,’ and asked the Government of Iraq ‘to be generous when it comes to the humanitarian needs of the residents and to continue to seek a peaceful solution to this issue under any circumstances’.”
1- The residents of Ashraf and their representatives, as usual, have been kept in the dark on the negotiations of the UN “facilitator” with the Iraqi government about their fate and the final version of the roadmap, because the Iraqi government has never accepted the idea of genuine dialogue with Ashraf representatives outside Iraq. The Government of Iraq (GOI) rather prefers negotiations under the gun, threatening their counterparts with arrest and extradition to Iran (refer to statement by ICJDA statement on June 2, 2012).
Last December Mrs Rajavi announced her readiness to travel to Baghdad and negotiate with the Government of Iraq on the matter, but the Government of Iraq did not accept the proposal (NCRI December 21, 2012 statement).
On January 2, 2012, Mrs Rajavi warned about full-fledged attempts by the Iraqi side, sponsored by the Iranian regime, to thwart a peaceful resolution to the crisis, and while recalling previous calls by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to the UN member states “to support and facilitate the implementation of any arrangement that is acceptable to the Government of Iraq and the camp residents” in order to find a peaceful and mutually acceptable solution, proposed a special conference be convened in Paris, Brussels, or Geneva, chaired by Special Representative of the UN Secretary General (SRSG) and attended by her or representatives of Ashraf residents and duly authorized Iraqi officials and other relevant parties (NCRI statement January 2, 2012 statement).
Mrs. Rajavi once again emphasized the necessity of convening an international conference headed by the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative with the participation of representatives of Ashraf residents, the governments of Iraq and the United States, European Union, UNHCR and European Parliament, to revive chances for a peaceful resolution to the crisis” (NCRI Statement-January 9, 2012). The GOI and SRSG again rejected the proposal.
2- The draft roadmap of July 23, which has been sent to the representatives of the residents, is totally unacceptable to the residents and contains nothing new in susbstance.
This is the final version of over 40 drafts and letters that have been circulated between Mr Kobler and the representatives of the residents over the past seven months. It is a gradual erosion of the residents’ fundamental rights that was started on December 18, during which Mr. Kobler has step by step either ignored their fundamental rights or has worn them as thin as possible so that the patience of the Iraqi government would not wear “thinner”.
3- Immediately upon receiving the roadmap of July 23, the representatives of the residents replied: “This document is nothing but the presentation of the schemes and aims of the GOI and Iranian regime by UNAMI, especially since you attested in your letter of 22 July that “We are in contact with the government on a roadmap to relocate Camp Ashraf.” He added, “Without implementation of the minimum requirements that have not been implemented, as outlined in the July 15 statement of the NCRI, no further move from Ashraf to Liberty is possible.”
4- In this roadmap, similar to previous ones, all the humanitarian requirements of the residents like water, electricity, utility and personal vehicles, and forklifts have been relegated to an unspecified and vague date and arrangement. Experience has shown that the Iraqis would never implement these. Also in other drafts, there is an unabated and futile repetition of an empty claim that the Iraqi government agrees with the sale of properties or transfer of power generators from Ashraf to Liberty, “according to the need,” but in practice GOI refrains from implementing all these commitments and agreements, while at the same time pocketing the thanks and appreciation of the SRSG in the Security Council. For example:
• In previous drafts, Liberty should have been connected to the city water network before the start of the month of Ramadan (starting July20), but in the roadmap there is no mention of a specific date. The roadmap states: “A technical committee will meet Tuesday, July 24, 2012 in CL [Camp Liberty] with participation of UNAMI to discuss equipment and engineering details of the future water system.”
However, on Tuesday July 24, despite the regrettable shortage of water, UNAMI informed Liberty representatives that the meeting of the relevant committee was not held and the Water Ministry technicians who met the UN monitors for almost 10 minutes the day before said that in the best case they would need three months to set up the infrastructure to pump water from a nearby river as requested by residents.
• There is no mention in the roadmap of the six large generators at Ashraf, the ownership documents of which were presented to Mr. Kobler and Iraqi officials four months ago. It would be impossible to generate electricity and pump water without transferring these six generators.
• After seven months, Ashraf residents have still not been allowed to sell even one dollar of their properties due to the fact that merchants and purchasers are barred from entering Ashraf, and yet the roadmap mentions nothing about removing this prohibition. This is while the residents have been forced to spend more than $2 million dollars over the past five months for fuel to operate smaller generators since the Government of Iraq has not allowed them to purchase fuel from the Iraqi market since four years ago and they are forced to import fuel from other countries at prices several times higher.
5. This roadmap is a clear attempt to coerce the residents to surrender their very minimum humanitarian requests. Altogether 2000 residents have relocated in five groups one after the other without their minimum humanitarian needs being provided, based solely on written and oral promises that these minimums would be provided with the next group, with repeated violations of such promises.
Now with this roadmap, Mr. Kobler wants to once again repeat the same scenario in order to forcibly evict and relocate the remaining residents to Liberty prison based on false promises without provision of their humanitarian minimum necessities. In practice, this is the same plan that the Iranian regime and its Iraqi proxies have engineered in order to compel the Iranian opposition to capitulate to the Iranian dictatorship in Tehran.
6. This roadmap is the result of a narrow bilateral agreement between the SRSG and the Iraqi side, whereas any roadmap should naturally result from trilateral talks, and agreed on by both the residents and the Government of Iraq, as announced on several occasions by the UN Secretary General. What a strange roadmap that has no precise arrangements and time line for resolving the most essential matters such as water, electricity, selling of the residents’ movable and immovable properties, and arrangements and prerequisites for evacuating Ashraf and its inspection? Why is there no mention of fundamental issues such as prohibiting the Iranian regime’s involvement in the fate of these dissidents, determination of the legal status and rights of Liberty residents, and a time limit for the process of refugee status determination in a place known as the Temporary Transit Location (TTL), which should have lasted only for several days, weeks or months? Why is there no mention of an end to the cruel Iraqi siege of four years on basic humanitarian needs, which has been a grave violation of all international laws? Why have the residents been denied their right to legal entrepreneurship and work activities, and denied any freedom of movement?
It seems that this roadmap is aimed solely at evacuating Ashraf at any price and herding the residents into cramped quarters in Liberty prison no matter what the consequences on their health and well-being.
As stated in his report to the Security Council and also in yesterday’s statement, Mr. Kobler is pinning his hopes on “Iraq’s generosity.” International laws, refugee law, International Humanitarian Law, international human rights law, all the known principles of the United Nations and the UNHCR and the principle of Responsibility to Protect, which has been so underscored by the UN Secretary General, are all ignored and misused by the SRSG.
7. The instant utility of this roadmap for the “generous” Government of Iraq has been that it immediately and openly threatened that it would act if the residents did not yield to this roadmap. (AFP, July 24)
8. Irrespective of the inaccuracies in this roadmap, it is full of shocking deceptions, fallacies and inverted claims.
• The roadmap that should have indeed looked to future steps, begins by boasting the transfer of 300 of the residents own air conditioners and 10 of their own generators and what was left from convoys 4 and 5, which should have been transferred over two and a half months ago, in order to conclude that a major part of the residents’ demands have been met.
It is made to sound as if the “generous” Government of Iraq, which has so far plundered tens of millions of MeK properties and crushed 22 Ashraf residents under their Humvee armored vehicles, has made a donation of the 382 generators and thousands of air conditioners that in fact belong entirely to the residents. If Mr. Kobler had not expected even this much from the Government of Iraq and considers this to be the GOI’s “generosity,” then before all, he must acknowledge that there is no rule of law in the country and that it is rather run by the law of the jungle and banditry.
• Instead of emphasizing the right of constructing necessary camp facilities and green area that was agreed to in the MOU and the letters of the SRSG, it is stated: “Housing is ready… Hotels are ready…”
• Regarding the issue of water, the roadmap makes it look as if the Government of Iraq is now providing 200 liters of water per day per person and states:
“The GOI continues to guarantee 200 liters per day per person in CH. UN monitors will report daily on water provision.”
It deliberately ignores the fact that the residents are forced to transport water to Liberty by accepting huge expenses and by waiting hours in a long queue at 55 degrees Celsius from 12 kilometer away and face tremendous problems to this effect.
9- Mr. Kobler receives daily reports about life in Camp Liberty regularly. As an example, the report of July 24 regarding water and other humanitarian requirements is quite explanatory:
“In the past 24 hours, with the breakdown of another pumping station in the airport area, water tankers from other sections of the airport area stormed into the pumping station that is used by the residents. Therefore, in the hours of 2 to 4 AM of today, that it was thought residents could use the uncongested condition at the station to bring water into the camp, they were faced with 16 to 20 other water tankers in the queue. Besides the deadly waiting at the pumping station, today, the water tanker drivers were forced to wait from one to one and a half hours at 1 PM which is the hottest time of the day at the camp checkpoint to get permission to leave and get an escort. They also had to wait 8 hours at the water outlet to fill up their tankers. All this was while the temperature was over 56 degrees Celsius and drivers are fasting in observance of religious ritual of this month.”
– Today, UNAMI monitors informed the residents’ representative that Sadeq from the Prime Ministry Committee has completely rejected the plan for porches outside living quarters to prevent dust storms from getting into the quarters of the elderly and particularly patients with asthma condition. He has asked residents to make another model for him to see and decide on. Hence, almost four months after the plan for the porches was given to the GoI representative and all the coming and going and change of plans and building a prototype… this plan too is not going anywhere and Sadeq, as always, is harassing the residents, just like with all other plans presented by residents to the Committee and Sadeq.
– Since last Thursday when the residents requested promised forklifts for moving the heavy consignments that have come in 28 trucks from Ashraf, the Prime Ministry Committee has not yet given any forklifts to the residents. This is while according to documents transmitted by UNAMI to around the world, “the GoI has already made available two forklifts to be operated by Iraqi drivers. The drivers can be provided any time from 8.00 to 18.00hrs. The GoI will provide a third forklift if needed.” It is obvious that all these hollow promises and commitments are to whitewash GoI’s opposition to the transfer of five of the residents own forklifts from Ashraf to Camp Liberty. Now, in this unbearable heat, residents are compelled to transfer heavy items that have come from Ashraf, such as AC units, with bare hands from one place to another causing many residents to suffer physical injuries up to this point.
– Today is the sixth day that Sadeq’s plainclothes agents are holding up vegetable seeds bought by residents for planting, at the checkpoint, refusing to allow them in. This is while vegetable seeds pose no security problem and have no dual use and it is unclear why the seeds are being held. Residents have time and again requested from the Committee to present a list of forbidden items to the residents so that they know beforehand; however, each time upon various pretexts, the Committee refuses to give such a list to residents so that it can arbitrarily prohibit entry of items whenever it wishes in a continued pattern of harassments and delays.
– Today was the 127th day that engineer Bardia Amir Mostofian, an Ashraf resident who passed away after pressures brought by the GOI during his transfer to Camp Liberty, passed away, and GoI still refuses to hand over his body to his relatives for burial.”
10- On July 23, in two separate letters to the UN Secretary General, the residents of Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty once more reiterated their minimum humanitarian requirements that must be met before the continuation of their transfer from Ashraf to Camp Liberty (NCRI Statement on July 24). The minimum requirements are only part of the reasonable and legitimate demands of Ashraf residents which they and their representative have been urging since December 2011. The residents have in the past considerately dropped some of their requests for their rights upon calls by SRSG and the US Department of State’s Special Representative. However, no roadmap is acceptable without the minimum requirements which must be implemented and secured.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
July 25, 2012