By Eve Jean Galas, Peace Movement Deputy
Source: French daily Humanite, March 1, 2013
You may have never heard of Ashraf in Iraq or Camp Liberty near Baghdad, a base where American soldiers were temporarily stationed. But for several years now, a tragedy has been unfolding in these two refugee camps which belong to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a resistance movement made up principally of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). This organization has been the main movement opposed to the regimes of Shah and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Almost 20 years ago, Iraq gave the PMOI around 4,000 hectares of land on which Camp Ashraf was built. They have received the status of political refugees and protected persons under Fourth Geneva Convention. The camp gradually developed into a small city of about 3000 residents.
At the beginning of the Iraq war, about 10 years ago, the camp was bombarded. Ashraf residents then handed over their weapons to American forces in return for international protection. The situation has deteriorated again since 2009 and more people have been killed. The residents were subjected to all kinds of harassment by the Iraqi government: military attack, water cut-offs, medical blockades and the prevention of patients’ transfer to hospital, and also psychological torture day and night with loud noises and hostile and abusive chants and songs.
There have been negotiations between the Americans and Iraqis to end this harassment. Meanwhile, the Iranian dissidents in Washington advanced legal action and a political campaign which resulted in removing the PMOI from the list of terrorist organizations. Under pressure from the US, the UN representative signed an agreement with government of Iraq on December 2011, without the knowledge of NCRI, to transfer Ashraf residents to a former American military base called Liberty, much further from the Iranian border.
Since October 2012, 3,100 people have to live without shelter in a snake-infested camp 80 times smaller than Ashraf and with highly precarious sanitary conditions, while the Iraqi authorities prevent the transfer of their medical equipment. Liberty is located in the middle of a military zone. Despite that, several attacks have occurred.
On 9 February, Liberty was attacked by rockets and mortars. Six residents, including one woman, were killed and 100 others were injured. Some of them are in critical condition because the Iraqi authorities throw up obstacles to the transfer of injured residents to hospitals.
Liberty residents and their lawyers called on the UN Secretary General and American and European officials for their return to Ashraf, warning them that a new massacre by the Iranian regime and its Iraqi allies was imminent.
We can only express our disgust and outrage at this shameless crime. France has given the status of political refugees to the leaders of the NCRI, but it is not enough to just condemn the deadly attack on the residents, we must also push for the their return to Ashraf for their own security.
The US, EU, UN, UN High Commissioner for Refugees and UN High Commissariat for Human Rights must commit to return the 3,100 Liberty refugees to Ashraf, which has concrete buildings and underground shelters.
As Amnesty International urged, an investigation must be carried out to identify those responsible for the attack on the camp and the role played by the Iraqi intelligence service.