Sheikh Saeid al-Lafi – the spokesman for protesters in Iraq’s al-Anbar Province – also demanded Iraq immediately return the Liberty residents to the safety of Camp Ashraf.
He told the al-Hadath news agency: “We are facing a government which is a puppet of the Iranian regime and does not work for its people. It is trying to kill the people of Iraq and our brothers in the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), who have sought refuge with the Iraqi people.
“They have been in Camp Ashraf for decades and their relocation to Camp Liberty was a plan prepared in Tehran with the assistance of the UN Special Representative to Iraq, Martin Kobler, raising this relocation to an international level. However, the real aim of this plan was to massacre the defenseless residents of Liberty in Baghdad by launching rockets.”
“This incident which happened in February, in which eight were killed and 100 were injured, and also the inhumane medical siege that has been imposed on them for years, are acts disapproved by God and his prophets.”
Sheikh al-Lafi added: “We have continuously demanded that the Iraqi Government return the residents of Camp Liberty to Ashraf because it has a larger area and where they can live in security. Unfortunately the government has not listened or given any positive response because it is only doing the work for the Iranian regime.
He called on the international community and human rights groups to take a clear stance against the ‘criminal actions’ of the Iraqi government, adding: “”The GoI does not recognize the religion, law and the rights of its people. How then would it recognize the rights of the PMOI, who have an opposing view to theirs.”
Sheikh al-Lafi also called last month for Kobler to be sacked, telling the Almasalah website: “We urge the UN to replace its envoy in Iraq for taking sides with the government. His failure to react to execution and torture inside government’s prisons is the best indication that Kobler’s mission in Iraq is a failure.”