FOX NEWS

Dec. 9, 2011: In this photo provided by the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, Iraqi police stand guard outside the opposition group's camp northeast of Baghdad, Iraq.

The United Nations and the Iraqi government have announced that they have signed an agreement about what to do with 3,400 Iranian exiles who have been left stateless and under siege at a refugee camp in Iraq. The State Department welcomed the announcement.

“We are encouraged by the Iraqi government’s willingness to commit to this plan,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote. “Officials from U.S. Embassy Baghdad will visit regularly and frequently….At this new location, the U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) will be able to conduct refugee status determinations for the residents of Ashraf — a necessary first step toward resettlement to third countries.”

But residents of Camp Ashraf say they fear for their lives, even though the Iraqis reportedly agreed to resettle these 3,400 Iranian exiles at Camp Liberty, the former U.S. military base near Baghdad, before helping them leave Iraq. The group is still waiting to view the signed agreement.

“The Secretary General’s Special Representative has underscored that in any event, this is a voluntary and not a forcible relocation,” said Shahin Gobadi of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the group’s representative in Paris. “Ashraf residents had repeatedly emphasized that they would in no way accept forcible relocation.”

So who are these Iranians left stateless in Iraq and why does the U.S. have a responsibility for them?

The group known as the Mujahideen Khalq or MEK, has been based in Iraq since the 1980s.

Saddam Hussein gave them protection because they helped him fight Ayatollah Khomeini and the mullahs in Iran. Since the U.S. military toppled Saddam Hussein after the invasion in 2003, the Iranians have been urging Iraq to hand over the exiles, whom Tehran considers traitors and spies.

Technically, the MEK is still on the State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organization list, placed there by President Bill Clinton because the group allegedly killed six American diplomats during the 1970’s when the U.S. was supporting the Shah in Tehran. The group was reportedly placed on the list at a time when the State Department was attempting to engage Iran diplomatically.

More recently, the MEK and its affiliates have also helped the U.S. and Western intelligence agencies. They provided information about the secret uranium enrichment facility in Natanz – a key intelligence breakthrough for the West.

Iran is so threatened by them that when an agreement was reported in recent days, a militia aligned with Iran’s Quds force reportedly fired Katyusha rockets at Camp Ashraf, which is located in northeastern Iraq.

Further, a bipartisan group of more than a dozen top former U.S. national security advisers have been lobbying the State Department to protect the people of Camp Ashraf. They argue that the U.S. has a moral obligation to protect the Camp Ashraf residents because the U.S. military convinced the MEK to disarm after the U.S. invasion, promising them protection and then washed its hands of the situation.

“The United States General gave a guarantee in 2003, when we invaded Iraq and they surrendered their arms, heavy arms and light arms that they could have used to defend themselves,” says former Attorney General Michael Mukasey. “We gave them a guarantee that they would be treated as protected persons.”

Fox News has obtained the July 21, 2004 letter signed by U.S. Army Major General Geoffrey Miller, Deputy Commanding General of Multi-National Forces Iraq, who wrote, “I am writing to congratulate each individual living in Camp Ashraf on their recognition as protected persons under the 4th Geneva Convention.” 

Click here to read the letter from U.S. Army Major General Geoffrey Miller.

A year later Major General William Brandenburg, another MNF-I commander writes, “Coalition forces remain committed to fulfilling the humanitarian mission of ensuring that the important rights provided by the Geneva Convention …are respected at Camp Ashraf.”

According to former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge, “We asked a group of people to disarm themselves, to give away, surrender their capability of defending themselves. And in exchange for that, we promised them, we made a commitment that we would provide for their safety and security.”

The 3,400 Iranian exiles living in Camp Ashraf worry they will be killed if left in Iraq without U.S. protection.

“This agreement has not been negotiated with the MEK,” Ridge wrote in response to a Fox query in the wake of the announced deal. “Since the U.S. has yet to lift its ‘foreign terrorist organization’ designation, many of us are concerned that the Iraqi government under the influence of Iran and even with their direct support may provoke an incident against these defenseless residents to justify another massacre. I just want to reiterate that this is NOT a negotiated arrangement and frankly, it doesn’t appear the U.S. had much influence on the outcome.”

In other words, if the State Department leaves the MEK and residents of Camp Ashraf on its terror list, even if the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees wants to help them emigrate, no Western countries or the United States will take them.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/12/26/iranian-dissidents-concerned-as-un-iraq-sign-agreement-over-refugee-camp/

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

US DEPARTMENT OF STATE

The signing of this Memorandum of Understanding represents significant progress on this issue and outlines steps necessary to achieve a peaceful and viable solution for the residents of Ashraf, including their temporary relocation to Camp Liberty, a former U.S. military base near the Baghdad International Airport. At this new location, the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) will be able to conduct refugee status determinations for the residents of Ashraf — a necessary first step toward resettlement to third countries.

We are encouraged by the Iraqi government’s willingness to commit to this plan, and expect it to fulfill all its responsibilities, especially the elements of the MOU that provide for the safety and security of Ashraf’s residents. We welcome the agreement by the Government of Iraq to allow the United Nations to station monitors at this new location around the clock and to observe the move from Ashraf to this new location. In addition, officials from U.S. Embassy Baghdad will visit regularly and frequently. We also welcome the Iraqi government’s willingness to delay the final closure of Camp Ashraf to give this plan time for implementation.

To be successful, this resettlement must also have the full support of the Camp’s residents, and we urge them to work with the UN to implement this relocation. All those who want to see the people at Camp Ashraf safe and secure should work together to see that the agreed upon plan is carried out.

http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/12/179695.htm

http://iraq.usembassy.gov/ashraf.html

NCRI – On Sunday evening, around 20:00 hours (Baghdad local time) terror teams affiliated with the Iranian regime’s terrorist Quds Force targeted Camp Ashraf with Katusha rockets that landed inside the southern section of the camp near where the housing units of the residents.

On Thursday, General Hossein Hamedani,  a commander of Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) acknowledged, in an interview with IRGC’s Fars news agency , that he had been personally to Camp Ashraf for reconnaissance activities and setting the stage for an attack against the camp.  

Since one week ago, some 400 agents of Iranian regime’s Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS) had been stationed in a building complex in northern part of Ashraf. The building had been occupied by the Iraqi forces during their attack on camp on April 8, 2011.

Therefore, the Iranian regime and its terrorist Quds Force are the ones that are in practice exercising their “sovereignty” over the camp area.
 
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
December 25, 2011

http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/ncri-statements/ashraf/11568-terrorist-quds-force-affiliated-teams-fire-katusha-rockets-at-camp-ashraf–

UNITE PRESS INTERNATIONAL

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Between 400 and 800 Iranian nationals living in a camp in Iraq could be transferred to a new location at the end of this year. Their security could be at risk while they are being moved. Amnesty International is calling on the Iraqi authorities to ensure the ir protection .

Camp New Iraq, formerly known as Camp Ashraf, situated 60 kilometres north of Baghdad, is home to some 3,250 Iranian asylum-seekers who have lived in Iraq for some 25 years. They are associated with the Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI). The camp has been attacked several times by Iraqi security forces, most recently in April 2011, causing the deaths of dozens of residents and injuries to others.

On 15 December, the Iraqi authorities publicly confirmed their plans to close the camp on 31 December this year. In an interview with press agency Agence France Presse (AFP), Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said that the decision to close the camp was “irreversible”. On 21 December, Nuri al-Maliki announced that he had agreed to extend the deadline for closing the camp until April 2012, but wanted the camp’s residents to have left Iraq by then. However between 400 and 800 residents could be temporarily moved to another camp, known as Camp Liberty, before the end of the year. Meanwhile the residents of Camp Ashraf have agreed that 400 residents can move to Camp Liberty, if certain safeguards are in place regarding their protection. PMOI representatives have announced they are ready to negotiate this with the Iraqi government as soon as possible as well as negotiating a peaceful solution for the rest of the residents.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had previously announced in a statement that it had received a high number of asylum requests from the camp residents and was putting in place a process to assess such requests on an individual basis. This process has not yet started.

READ MORE: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE14/047/2011/en/ff519369-e233-4826-a550-567eeba8e008/mde140472011en.html

NCRI – The AFP on Wednesday December 21 quoted the United States’ State Department as follows:  “After tensions related to necessary supplies to the camp during recent months, it seems that no problem remains as to the supply of food and water but some ‘worrying’ remains on fuel supplies.” Those affirmations are completely erroneous and devoid of truth.  The Iraqi government, on strict demands from the Iranian regime, has imposed a harsh all round siege on Ashraf since three years ago, a siege strongly intensified during recent months.

• Since the beginning of 2009 and especially during the last two years, repressive Iraqi forces have continuously hurdled the transfer of the urgently sick and the wounded to Baghdad hospitals or even those of Erbil or Baqouba, as well as blocking medical supplies to the camp.  Since April 17, 2011, no medicine has been permitted into the camp.  Twelve ill or wounded residents have died during last year because of this siege. Cases concerning those people have been referred to the United Nations and the US administration.
• Since February 8, 2011, not a single drop of gasoline has entered the camp.  Since May 17, no diesel fuel needed for lights, heating or air conditioning units or even kitchens has been supplied to the camp.  Even the fuel needed to produce electricity has been stopped since last month, with agents of the terrorist Qods force breaking fuel pipes on December 13 to deprive the power center of the fuel. The gas reserve has thus been emptied and the power station is now out of production.  On November 2, repressive forces even prevented biomass and coal, to be used as alternate fuel, from entering the camp.
• Repressive forces have even abstained from turning the corps of Mrs. Zahra Mehrsefat, resident of Ashraf who died on September 20 because of medical shortages, to her family.
• Psychological torture of residents which has been going on since nearly two years, continues through 300 loudspeakers on a permanent basis.   Family members, lawyers, members of parliaments and Human rights’ activists have been barred from visiting the camp since three years.  Working by the residents to gain part of their expenses has been prohibited.

By any standard, the above mentioned points as well as a long list of shortages and pressures imposed on the camp are considered an inhuman and criminal siege.  The United Nations and the United States of America have been informed of every single violation described above.
 
The Iranian Resistance regrets the unjust and unrealistic attitude of the US State Department and calls for an international fact finding delegation to be formed in order that a true report on the dimensions of this criminal siege be produced for public awareness and for international courts.   By any standards, such a siege is considered a clear example of crime against humanity and war crime with nobody being able to whitewash it.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
December 22, 2011

http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/ncri-statements/ashraf/11558-three-year-siege-of-ashraf-war-crime-and-crime-against-humanity-not-to-be-whitewashed

Mrs. Rajavi declares her readiness to travel to Baghdad for talks with the Government of Iraq at the presence of UN Secretary General’s Representative to Iraq, US Secretary of State’s Special Advisor on Ashraf, Special Advisor to Baroness Ashton on Ashraf, Vice-president of the European Parliament, President of the Delegation for Relations with Iraq at the European Parliament and the lawyers of Ashraf.

NCRI – Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, welcomed the peaceful resolution of the Ashraf crisis and repeated her readiness to visit Baghdad immediately to engage in discussions with the Iraqi government on arrangements to implement the plan for the peaceful resolution of Ashraf crisis and to ensure the minimum guarantees for the safe and security of 400 Ashraf residents as they relocate to Camp Liberty.

The talks should be held in presence of Ambassador Dan Fried, Special Adviser to the U.S. Secretary of State on Ashraf; Martin Kobler, the UNSG Representative to Iraq; Ambassador Jean de Ruyt, Special Adviser to Baroness Ashton on Ashraf; Dr. Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Vice-president of the European Parliament; Struan Stevenson, President of European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iraq; and lawyers of Ashraf.

Mrs. Rajavi noted that she had already made this proposal to the Government of Iraq through the United Nations and U.S. officials, but had not yet received any response. Pressuring the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and the Iranian Resistance to accept inhumane conditions that are demands of the Iranian regime, are unacceptable, she emphasized, especially when fraught with distortions, misrepresentations and falsifications.

Commenting on Wednesday’s remarks by Prime Minister Maliki, Mrs. Rajavi said:  “If Mr. Maliki, as he says, truly seeks the departure of PMOI from Iraq, he should have not wasted any time in the past four months and should have immediately had accepted that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees start its work in Ashraf to reaffirm the residents’ refugee status in order to resettle them in third countries.”

“Mr. Maliki claims that the PMOI has invaded an Iraqi city named Ashraf. However he conveniently forgets to acknowledge that the residents had turned this previously arid and barren piece of  land into a city during the past 25 years of  hard work  and enormous costs, and that they had certain rights.”

“More importantly,” Mrs. Rajavi said,  “Mr. Maliki deliberately remained silent about attacks on Ashraf in the past three years, including massacres of July 2009 and April 2011, in which 47 residents were killed and 1071 were wounded.  Neither did he mention that 12 residents had died due to lack of access to proper  medical services.  Instead, he referred to the terrorist designation of the PMOI by the U.S. and the clerical regime. Ironically, today the European Court of Justice categorically rejected any claim that the PMOI was terrorist.”

“It seems,  in his own words, the only red line for Mr. Maliki is refraining from ‘inflicting any harm,’ and upsetting the clerical regime.”

Mrs. Rajavi added: “Human rights principles and international law make forcible relocation illegal and the UN Secretary General, Deputy Secretary General, the UN High Commission for Refugees, the International Committee of Red Cross, UN Assistance Mission in Iraq and majorities in more than 30 parliaments have reiterated this fact.” Nevertheless, underscoring that that the GOI had not accepted the protection of Ashraf residents at Camp Liberty by the U.S., the Blue Helmets, EU forces or even private U.S. security companies,  Mrs. Rajavi said that upon the requests of the UN and the U.S., she had asked the residents of Ashraf  to accept in principle to relocate to Camp Liberty, with the minimum guarantees for their security and well-being and improvement in their conditions; the minimum humanitarian and legal guarantees that have not yet received positive response from the GOI.”

The President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, stated that the following are the minimum humanitarian and legal guarantees:

1. Safe and secure transfer of  each and every one of Ashraf residents, without exception, to Camp Liberty with their vehicles and moveable property under international observation;
2. 24/7 monitoring by the UN and the U.S. until the resettlement of the last person to the third countries;
3. Initiation of UNHCR work;
4. Iraqi forces shall be stationed outside of  fenced area of the new location to ensure security and tranquility, particularly for nearly 1,000 Muslim women;
5. Ending the siege against, and halting any persecution and harassment of, the residents and the annulment of forged warrants of arrests without exception; and
6. Selling of the fixed properties of the residents under UN supervision and reimbursing it to the residents to pay for their security, logistical expenses and transfer to third countries.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
December 21, 2011

http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/ncri-statements/ashraf/11555-mrs-rajavi-welcomes-peaceful-solution-for-camp-ashraf-announces-the-residents-consent-for-transfer-of-400-of-them-to-camp-liberty

ASSOCIATED PRESS

BAGHDAD (AP) – Under international pressure, the Iraqi government on Wednesday backed off its threat to close a refugee camp holding 3,400 Iranian exiles by the end of the month.

Instead, Iraq said it will shut Camp Ashraf sometime in January and insisted that all its residents must leave the country by April. It promised not to deport anyone to Iran.

A spokeswoman for the exiles responded positively to elements of the plan and insisted that the U.S. and U.N. guarantee their safety. The extension of the deadline raises the likelihood of a peaceful resolution to the standoff, heading off a possible bloodbath that many international observers have feared.

The future of Camp Ashraf, home to exiles dedicated to the overthrow of the Iranian regime, has been a sticking point for Iraq’s Shiite-led government, which counts Iran as an ally.

The armed People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran first moved to the camp during the regime of Saddam Hussein, who saw the group as a convenient ally against Tehran. U.S. soldiers disarmed them during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been determined to close down the camp, located in barren terrain northeast of Baghdad about 50 miles from the Iranian border. His government considers the camp, which the exiles vigorously defend with a sophisticated public relations operation in the West, as an affront to Iraq’s sovereignty.

“We don’t want to hand them over to Iran. We don’t want to kill them. We don’t want to oppress them and we don’t want to starve them. But their presence in Iraq is illegal and illegitimate,” al-Maliki said during a press conference Wednesday, three days after the last U.S. soldiers left the country.

The Iraqi government had vowed to shut the camp completely by the end of December and move the residents to another location. That raised concerns that forcibly removing them would result in violence, and the United Nations has been trying to broker a deal.

The U.N. has said that at least 34 people were killed in a raid on the camp by Iraqi security forces last April.

On Wednesday, Iraqi spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the government had worked out a plan to move up to 800 of the residents to a new facility in Baghdad by the end of December. That facility is a former American military base called Camp Liberty.

Al-Dabbagh said the rest of the residents would be relocated as soon as possible in January. Once they have all moved, Camp Ashraf would be closed. He said all the camp’s residents would then be relocated outside of Iraq by no later than April.

In a statement Wednesday, the head of the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, Maryam Rajavi, welcomed a peaceful solution for Camp Ashraf. She said she has asked the Ashraf residents to relocate to Camp Liberty provided certain conditions are observed including U.S. and U.N. monitoring.

Al-Dabbagh said the plan calls for camp residents who are citizens of non-Iranian countries to move there eventually. But most of the residents have only Iranian citizenship, so homes in other countries would have to be found for them as well. He said no one will be forcibly sent back to Iran and that they would be treated well at Camp Liberty.

A U.S. State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, said Wednesday that the process of moving the residents to a new location and eventually resettling them would take time.

“We’re gratified to see that the Iraqi government is going to give it a little bit more time and that they’re particularly cooperating well with the U.N. process,” she said.

For all the discussion over Camp Ashraf, little is known about the inside of the camp or its residents’ day-to-day lives. The Iraqi government generally does not allow journalists to visit.

The road to Camp Ashraf is heavily guarded with signs warning people against taking photographs. The Iraqi Army keeps people from getting too close, and all that’s visible of the camp are towers from which troops monitor the inhabitants.

The residents complain that they don’t get proper medical treatment or enough fuel in the winter. And they accuse the Iraqi government of harassing them through hundreds of loudspeakers stationed around the camp, blaring insults and threats around the clock.

Iraqi guards outside Camp Ashraf say it’s the residents, not the security officials, who hurl insults with loudspeakers. They also contend that the residents regularly attack the soldiers with stones. The guards say the residents have regular access to medical care, and that the only items withheld are possible poisons and explosives.

The guards did not want to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The U.S. State Department has said it does not know of any limits on food or water but that there were concerns over making sure the residents had enough fuel.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/story/2011-12-21/camp-ashraf-iran-iraq-exiles/52146682/1