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Obama must act before the US implicates itself in a war crime at Camp Ashraf

December 15, 2011 by

 NEW INTERNATIONALIST

It is rare that the US will find itself singing from the same hymn sheet as the brutal religious theocracy in Iran. As I write this letter, a peculiar and tragic piece of politics is being played out in Camp Ashraf, Iraq, which has, inconceivably, united these two opposite parties.

Camp Ashraf is home to 3,400 members of the MEK, Iran’s main opposition group. They have been fighting for decades to create a democratic state in Iran.

During the Clinton administration, the US government declared that the MEK were terrorists, in order to bring Iran and its apparently moderate president Khatami to the negotiation table. It was appeasement of the worst kind. Over the past decade the 4,000 parliamentarians across the globe who have shown solidarity with the MEK have managed to get the ‘terrorist’ designation removed from EU and British lists. But despite support from numerous members of congress, including former US presidential candidate Howard Dean, the US is still doing Iran’s bidding by keeping this classification.

This failed piece of foreign policy is now being used to murder innocent civilians in Camp Ashraf.

In early 2004, US armed forces took over security of the camp and gave personal assurances to each and every person living there, designating them as protected persons under the fourth Geneva Convention. Unfortunately, they have received anything but protection.

The security of the camp was passed over to the Iraqi government in 2009. Within days, Iranian intelligence officials were allowed onto the site and their campaign of torture and intimidation started. Iran’s influence in Iraq has been growing over the past few years. The vast majority of US soldiers die at the hands of Iranian made IEDs (improvised explosive device). The residents have had vital supplies, such as food, fuel and medicine, restricted causing unnecessary deaths. The worst of this illegal treatment has been two military attacks on the camp. In April 2011, the Iraqi army attacked and massacred 36 unarmed civilians. Video footage which was released by the residents showed Iraqi soldiers shooting residents in the head and neck from point-blank range using semi automatic weapons. UNAMI (United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq) officials examined the deceased and confirmed the manner of their deaths. This tragic event was widely considered to be a war crime.

Unfortunately, one of the excuses which the Iraqi government has used is that these people are terrorists.

The Iraqi government and their puppet masters in Iran want MEK members to be removed the camp. Residents have declared that, despite living in Iraq for over 25 years, they are willing to go. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has announced that they are ready and waiting to assess each resident for refugee status. This would then allow them to be moved to third countries which would accept them.

Over the past few months the Iraqi government has refused the UNHCR access to camp residents. The route to a peaceful solution is available, but the reality is that leaders in Iraq and Iran are not looking for a peaceful ending. Iran realizes that it has the opportunity, and a willing ally, to wipe out its main opposition and they are hell-bent on achieving this.

Rather than allow the UNHCR access, the Iraqi government has announced that it will close the camp at the end of the year and that all residents will be relocated to other camps within Iraq. At the point of relocation, the UNHCR will be allowed access.

Residents have stated that they are only willing to be relocated within Iraq if these new locations are protected by UN blue helmets. In addition, they do not want to be moved until the UNHCR has recorded the names of every member of the camp prior to relocation. This is an important point.

Iranian security agents and their Iraqi counterparts have been working on an operation to murder many of these residents in transit, before any international body has recorded their details.  

The reality is that Iraq’s treatment of these innocent civilians over the past few years renders any promise they make utterly worthless.

Following Iraqi President’s Nouri Al-Maliki’s visit to the Oval Office earlier this week, President Obama must now make it abundantly clear that Camp Ashraf’s residents must be treated humanely. Al-Maliki must abandon his end of year deadline, as well the idea of relocation. The UNHCR must be allowed access to the residents in Camp Ashraf. If these points are followed, the saga of Camp Ashraf could come to a peaceful end.

Saeid Zabeti’s family fled Iran following the 1979 revolution. He has six family members currently living at Camp Ashraf.

http://www.newint.org/blog/2011/12/15/camp-ashraf-threatened-closure/

Filed Under: Camp Ashraf, News

Decision to close Iran exile camp ‘irreversible’: Iraq PM

December 15, 2011 by

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

Iranian-Americans wave banners and shout slogans against Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri-al-Maliki December 13, 2011 near the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC. Simultaneous with the visit of Maliki, to the Chamber of Commerce, Iranian-Americans and relatives of the 3400 Iranian dissidents at Camp Ashraf held a rally against Maliki and his plans to, at behest of the Iranian regime, close Camp Ashraf and forcibly relocate its residents by the end of the year. The family members of Ashraf residents and Iranian-Americans believe this would prelude a massacre of defenseless residents of the camp. Iraqi Armed Forces, under the command of Maliki, violently attacked Camp Ashraf twice -- in July 2009 and in April 2011 -- killing 47 and wounding more than 1,000 unarmed residents. Iranian-Americans believe Maliki should be held accountable for the crimes he committed against humanity. The residents of Camp Ashraf signed an agreement with the US Government in 2003, guaranteeing their protection until their final disposition. AFP PHOTO/Karen BLEIER (Photo credit should read KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images)

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s decision to close a camp housing Iranian dissidents by year-end is “irreversible,” Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told AFP on Thursday, rejecting UN calls for a delay to avoid bloodshed.

Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad, houses some 3,400 Iranian refugees hostile to the regime in Tehran. It is controlled by the People’s Mujahedeen, which Washington blacklists as a terrorist group.

“The decision we made is irreversible, especially because this organisation refused the visit of a UN representative to Camp Ashraf,” Maliki said.

“They’ve rejected the UN plan, which means this is a criminal gang and we cannot permit a criminal gang to remain here,” he added.

Saddam Hussein allowed the rebel People’s Mujahedeen to set up the camp when his forces were at war with Iran in the 1980s.

When Saddam was overthrown in the US-led invasion of 2003, the camp came under US military protection but US forces handed over security responsiblity to the Baghdad authorities in January 2009.

The Iraqi government says the camp is a threat to its relations with neighbouring Iran and is demanding that it close by December 31.

But last week the United Nations appealed for an extension to the deadline to allow more time for a solution to be negotiated with the camp’s residents who are refusing to move unless they are given UN protection.

The positions of the residents and the government “remain far apart,” the UN envoy to Iraq, Martin Kobler, told the UN Security Council, appealing to the international community to find new homes for the exiles.

In Paris, an exile Iranian group challenged Maliki’s statement that UN officials were not allowed to visit the camp.

“Last week, UN representatives were able to enter Ashraf two times,” said Mohamad Mohadessine, an official of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a group opposed to the Tehran regime.

“By these abject lies, Maliki does nothing other than prepare the terrain for a massacre of the residents of Ashraf and to counter muliple international apeals to delay the closing of Ashraf,” he added in a statement.

The camp has been in the spotlight since a controversial April raid by Iraqi security forces left at least 36 people dead and scores injured. Residents said the Iraqi forces attacked them.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hKiy836ZHWmvUNlwLgoArO7zH1Pg

Filed Under: Camp Ashraf, News

Camp Ashraf refugees get all-party support

December 14, 2011 by

CBC News

MPs say Iraq’s Camp Ashraf residents have been ‘indiscriminately massacred’

Government and opposition MPs concerned for the safety of 3,400 refugees — predominantly Iranians — facing expulsion from Iraq’s Camp Ashraf have joined forces to call for assistance from Canadian allies.

Residents are mostly members of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq of Iran, which is listed as a terrorist organization in Canada and the U.S. The group opposes the current regime in Iran.

After a deadly raid on the camp last spring, supporters fear for the safety of residents if they are forced to leave the camp. The Iraqi government wants the refugees out by Dec. 31, and its officials say they want the UN to repatriate the residents.

There are two Canadian citizens living at the camp.

A House subcommittee on human rights has been studying the situation at Camp Ashraf, Liberal MP Irwin Cotler said Wednesday morning.

“We have held a series of meetings, heard chilling testimony about the situation and dangers facing the residents in Camp Ashraf,” Cotler said.

Subcommittee members say the residents are unarmed, defenceless, and characterized as refugees by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

“The citizens of Camp Ashraf have faced ongoing harassment and intimidation by the Iraqi and Iranian governments, and twice this year alone residents of the camp have been indiscriminately massacred,” the subcommittee said in a news release.

Canadians to visit camp Wednesday

Conservative MP Russ Hiebert says he has met with Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird about the issue, and says Baird has been working with Canadian allies “to pressure the Iraqi government to protect the residents of Camp Ashraf.”

Hiebert says Baird is sending Canadian officials to visit the camp on Wednesday to monitor the situation, and that Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney met with UN and Iraqi officials in Geneva.

The subcommittee passed a motion calling for Iraq to allow international observers into the camp and to extend the deadline. They’re also asking the Canadian government to push for a UN Security Council resolution to put a protective force at the camp.

“The reason that we’re gathered here from every party in the House is because we are all seized with the urgency of avoiding a possible catastrophe,” Hiebert said, calling it a precarious situation.

“Right now the lives of 3,400 people are at serious risk.”

The deadline must be extended to give the UN High Commissioner for Refugees more time to evaluate individual refugee eligibility, he said.

The MPs are also concerned the residents of Camp Ashraf could be forcibly transferred to countries where they may face persecution.

NDP MP Wayne Marston says the humanitarian need on the ground is self-evident.

“There’s just over 3,000 people at significant and immediate risk at this time.”

 http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/12/14/pol-iraq-camp-ashraf.html

Filed Under: Camp Ashraf, News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Refugees or terrorists? They’ll soon be dead

December 14, 2011 by

TORONTO SUN

They are half-a-world away and there are only seven of them, but the members of Parliament on a House of Commons human rights committee are doing whatever they can for the 3,400 refugees at Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad, who, the MPs believe, are in imminent danger.

There are two Canadians among the refugees. They remain at Ashraf voluntarily despite offers from Canadian consular officials to get them out of what could, within days, become a very dicey situation.

Last month, diplomats convinced nine other Canadians to leave the camp.

Today, Canadian officials will travel from Jordan to Camp Ashraf, at some risk to their own personal security, to check on conditions and on the two Canadians who refuse to leave.

The rest, though, are mostly Iranian refugees opposed to the ayatollahs who govern their homeland. Their political organization was created in the 1960s and is called the National Liberation Army of the Mujahedin e-Khalq or MeK.

During the Iran-Iraq war they were armed by Saddam Hussein and used by that dictator to kill many thousands of Iranians.

They are also alleged to have killed Kurds, at Hussein’s urging, and committed other violent acts in the name of their cause. But since 2001, those at Camp Ashraf have given up their weapons.

Nonetheless, they are, above all else, enemies of the regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

But Iran’s president has a new friend in Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and, as soon as U.S. forces withdraws all its troops from Iraq at the end of the year, Maliki — many experts will tell you — will hand those 3,400 refugees and enemies of Ahmadinejad over to Ahmadinejad himself.

“They will face the prison and the gallows (and) the fight for democracy in Iran will take a severe blow,” Wes Martin told this small group of Canadian MPs last week. Martin is a retired U.S. marine colonel who was once the commander of Camp Ashraf while it was under U.S. control.

So why doesn’t the U.S. or its allies in the West save these 3,400 refugees?

We won’t because officially the MeK are all terrorists. Officially, we think they’re the bad guys because of those violent acts committed a generation or more ago.

Canada has designated the MeK as a terrorist organization since 2005 and just re-affirmed that status in 2010. The U.S. has had them on the list since 1997.

Because MeK is on the list, banks and financial institutions are required to freeze its assets. Listing also prohibits all persons in Canada, as well as Canadians abroad, from knowingly dealing with this entity and its assets.

Martin — whose other job in Iraq was being in charge of all anti-terrorism operations for the entire U.S. military — thinks we’ve got it backwards.

“I cannot say with enough emphasis that the MeK is not a terrorist organization,” Martin told MPs. “As a matter of fact, I found just the opposite when I was commander of Camp Ashraf, and they were my allies.”

Scott Reid, the Conservative MP who chairs this human rights committee, and all his MP colleagues had trouble Tuesday squaring Martin’s assessment with evaluations provided to them by Canadian bureaucrats who had never visited Ashraf.

“They’re just people,” he told his committee Tuesday. “They’re probably going to be dead people pretty soon. That’s our worry.”

 http://www.torontosun.com/2011/12/13/refugees-or-terrorists-theyll-soon-be-dead

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As U.S. Withdraws From Iraq, We Must Still Keep Our Promise to the Residents of Camp Ashraf

December 13, 2011 by

Fox News

Monday, President Obama welcomed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to the White House with the declaration that U.S. troops were leaving Iraq with “heads held high.” But while administration spin-miesters are promoting the so-called deepening strategic partnership between the United States and Iraq, an emboldened and increasingly defiant Maliki is quickly moving forward with sinister preparations of his own that threaten to jettison President Obama’s mission-accomplished moment.

In collusion with the Mullahs terrorist regime in Tehran, the Iraqi Prime Minister is planning a Srebrenica-style massacre of 3,400 unarmed Iranian dissidents living in his country at Camp Ashraf—each and every one of whom was given a written guarantee of protection by the U.S. government. I was the general who delivered that promise to the residents of Camp Ashraf in 2004.

Camp Ashraf is home to members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) who are “protected persons” under the Geneva Conventions. As the main Iranian opposition movement, MEK is committed to non-violent regime change in Iran and a democratic nuclear-free Iranian future. MEK has provided the US with valuable intelligence about the existence of multiple nuclear sites scattered in different parts of Iran. For these reasons, the Mullahs’ regime in Iran considers MEK an existential threat, and is enlisting a willing Maliki in their evil enterprise to annihilate the residents of Camp Ashraf.

So it’s no surprise that Maliki set the stage for his White House visit by refusing U.S., EU, and U.N. demands to postpone the arbitrary and illegal deadline he imposed for closing Camp Ashraf and making it impossible for UNHCR to register and resettle the residents safely in other countries.

That Maliki’s deadline coincides perfectly with Obama’s date for withdrawal of the US presence in Iraq—Dec 31–, is no accident: It sends a clear and unmistakable message to Washington that the Obama-Maliki relationship is a litmus test for the President’s legacy in Iraq and American credibility throughout the region.

“Closing” Camp Ashraf, is Maliki’s euphemism for dispersing these defenseless men women, and children throughout Iraq where they can be more easily killed out of sight of the international community or kidnapped and brought to Iran where they face execution.

Both Maliki and the Mullahs rationalize the atrocities at Camp Ashraf with the excuse that America has maintained MEK as a listed Foreign Terrorist Organization since 1997. The Clinton administration initially added MEK to the State Department’s blacklist as a good will gesture to Iran—mistakenly thought at the time to be moving towards moderation, and the designation was subsequently maintained in an effort to persuade Iran to abandon their nuclear program. But today, we can plainly see that Iran is no closer to moderation; its nuclear ambitions are actually closer to fulfillment, and Obama’s failure to de-list MEK, in the absence of any legal or factual basis, continues to stymie the prospects for democratic change in Iran.

It was about ten years ago that I first learned of the existence of the MEK. Little did I know then that in a very short time I would be personally involved with this group and its fight for survival. With a looming deadline coming on December 31, my fond memories of these Iranians might turn out be just that… memories. But this could be averted.

I know first-hand what it means to suffer at the hands of terrorists – I was the director of security for the Army at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Shortly thereafter, I deployed as the senior military policeman responsible for many missions in Iraq, including the safety and security of the residents of Camp Ashraf.

I was there when they voluntarily disarmed in return for U.S. promises of protection. I saw what remained of their other facilities after they were looted and destroyed by Maliki’s forces. I was there when each and every person of the MEK was biometrically identified, vetted, screened, and interviewed by the U.S. military. Did we find any terrorists or criminals or undesirables among the several thousand men and women? No. Each was thoroughly investigated and not one was identified as having any linkage to criminal acts. A few had unpaid parking tickets. That might seem frivolous, but I mention it to show how thoroughly we investigated each member of the MEK at Camp Ashraf.

I really had to step back and wonder why they are identified as terrorists by the State Department. I tried very hard but I could not find any credible allegation, any overt or covert crime, any reason why this group carried the FTO designation that Maliki and the Mullahs cite as a rationale for their atrocities.

I witnessed firsthand equal rights in action at Camp Ashraf. I spent significant time living and working at Camp Ashraf. I got to know almost every senior leader of the MEK at Ashraf, and many of the residents. After the vetting process was completed I brought the message back to the leadership of Ashraf that they were now classified as protected persons under the Geneva Convention and I was personally charged with their safety and security. And, even though I’m no longer directly responsible for safety and security at Camp Ashraf, I still feel morally responsible, as all of Americans who take pride in our country and our word should be.

I had open and unrestricted access to every area of Camp Ashraf. I staged independent, unannounced inspections and never, discovered any indication of anyone being kept there against his or her will by the Camp’s leadership, as some detractors mistakenly allege. And I really tried to uncover proof of those allegations. But the only thing I was ever able to prove without a doubt was that the allegations were false. Were there any issues between my units, my forces, and the MEK at Ashraf? Of course! But they were few and far between, and all were resolved by simple discussions and mutual understanding.

I spent well over a year seeking definitive guidance regarding a way to resolve the humanitarian crisis at Camp Ashraf. I brought many senior leaders of the coalition forces to Ashraf. They were all stunned that we were keeping these defenseless men, women and children in such limbo. I left Iraq frustrated after that tour, and a year later when I returned, I saw that there had been no change. There was still no definitive guidance. During that tour I was charged with rapidly rebuilding the Iraqi police, and simultaneously I was General Petraeus’s expert on all police and security operations, including security at Camp Ashraf.

We gave the people at Camp Ashraf a promise of protection following a very thorough vetting process—and I know this for a fact because I delivered that promise. I feel so strongly about it that even now, I would return to Ashraf to be an intermediary to ensure the safe relocation of the residents.

I fear that unless we have some type of intermediary, some type of initiative very soon, some due resolve, given the December 31 deadline imposed on Ashraf by the government of Iraq at behest of Tehran, another tragedy will occur. We’ve seen members of this organization viciously attacked in the recent past and dozens of them, young and old killed and about 1,000 wounded by the Iraqi armed forces. In a few weeks, if the deadline to close Camp Ashraf is not postponed, we could see an even greater tragedy.

A cry must be sounded loud and clear—the very same cry that was sounded by thousands of Iranian Americans who stood outside the White House on December 12 as the President was meeting with Maliki, that we will not stand for violence against the defenseless people of Camp Ashraf. Maliki’s arbitrary and illegal deadline must be postponed, his plans for forcible dispersion of Ashraf residents in Iraq shelved, and the U.N. refugee agency encouraged to find the residents sanctuary in third countries.

Evil thrives in darkness, so let’s shed some light on Camp Ashraf: I tried to find a terrorist at Camp Ashraf and I could not. I tried to find people held against their will at Camp Ashraf. I could not. All I found there were people committed to non-violence and a free and democratic Iranian future.

I only hope the world is listening. The time to act is now. This is more than a local issue: the people of “Camp Ashraf,” have relatives in the United States and Europe who care deeply about their fate.

As we exit from Iraq, the Obama White House should take care not to undercut the West’s fight against Iranian nuclear breakout by giving Iraq’s Shia prime minister the impression that the U.S. is a paper tiger that will easily abandon its solemn promises to Ashraf residents by sending them to face certain death in the Iraqi desert.

General David Phillips (ret.) is the former Chief of Military Policy at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri and forme commander of all police operations in Iraq which included the protection of Camp Ashraf.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/12/13/as-withdraw-from-iraq-must-still-keep-our-promise-to-residents-camp-ashraf

Filed Under: Camp Ashraf, Luminaries, News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bay Area Iranian-Americans fear forced closure of Iraq’s Camp Ashraf will lead to a massacre

December 12, 2011 by

San Jose Mercury News

Iranian journalist Asieh Rakhshani, who lived in Richmond and Albany for most of her childhood, was killed April 8 in a raid in Camp Ashraf in Iraq during a clash with Iraqi forces. ((Courtesy of Hamid Yazdanpanah))

For years, a Bay Area couple had been trying to publicize the danger that dissidents from their native Iran faced at a camp across the border in Iraq. Then, in April, Parviz and Ensieh Yazdanpanah’s greatest fear came true in a very personal way: Their adopted daughter was one of three dozen unarmed people killed at Camp Ashraf by Iraqi troops.

A family photo album that includes childhood pictures of birthday parties ends with the images of 30-year-old Asieh Rakhshani bleeding to death in an Ashraf hospital.

“She died hoping for peace and freedom in the region,” her mother said, breaking into tears.

On Monday, the couple and hundreds of others from the Bay Area’s Iranian-American community again raised their voices in protest in front of the White House, where President Barack Obama welcomed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the man whom the Yazdanpanahs accuse of ordering the attack on the camp that killed their daughter.

Rakhshani, who was training to be a journalist, had returned to Iraq to volunteer at the camp. When Iraqi troops attacked April 8, firing into crowds, she captured it on video.

In the video, “you can hear her voice shouting, ‘Allahu akbar,’ ” or “God is great,” her mother said. Then Rakhshani witnessed the shooting of a friend nearby. “Her friend next to her fell, and she’s screaming, ‘They shot her! They shot her!’ … While she was shouting, they shot her, and the camera rolled off her hand.”

Facing a bloodbath

Camp Ashraf is home to a now-disarmed Iranian militia that once waged war on Iran with the support of Saddam Hussein. With the rise of an Iraqi government with close ties to Tehran, the people in the camp are in an increasingly precarious position. Complicating their fate, the organization that controls the camp is listed by the U.S. as a terrorist organization and described by many as a cult.

But the Yazdanpanah family says the 3,400 people at Camp Ashraf are facing a bloodbath if the Iraqi government follows through on plans to forcibly close it by the end of the year.

“Their goal is to take them one by one, put them in a bigger jail inside Iraq, and from there deport them to Iran,” said Ensieh Yazdanpanah, 50, of El Sobrante. “And if that happens, we know they’re going to be killed. They’re going to be tortured, and they’re going to be killed.”

She said a few thousand Iranian-Americans, including about 500 from the Bay Area, showed up at Monday’s protest, at which former FBI Director Louis Freeh and former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge spoke in support of extending the Dec. 31 deadline for the camp to close.

The residents of Ashraf are members of the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran (PMOI, also known as MEK for its Farsi initials), a group that arose in 1965 in opposition to Shah Reza Pahlavi and later fought the clerics who overthrew him in 1979. The group has often been described as having a Marxist/Islamic ideology, but members say it favors democracy, freedom and religious tolerance in an Iran free of nuclear weapons.

Detractors say the group engages in cultlike practices under its leaders, husband-and-wife team Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, which include forced divorces and tape-recorded sessions of self-criticism designed to ensure loyalty. Older members were reportedly forced to divorce in the late 1980s, and younger members are said to have been pressured into vows of celibacy.

The PMOI moved its headquarters to Iraq in 1986, during the Iran-Iraq War, and Saddam allowed the group to build Camp Ashraf, 65 miles north of Baghdad, and helped to finance and arm its attacks on Iran. The militia is widely believed to have aided Saddam in the brutal suppression of uprisings by Kurds in northern Iraq and Shiites in southern Iraq in 1991, a charge it denies.

Charges of cultism

Half of the group’s fighters and most of its commanders were women, according to a New York Times Magazine writer, Elizabeth Rubin, who visited Ashraf in 2003. She described them as an “army of Stepford wives,” robotic and adoring of their leaders, and portrayed the movement as “bizarre” and cultish, with children nurtured from birth to be fanatically loyal.

The U.S. State Department designated the PMOI a foreign terrorist organization in 1997, primarily citing its attacks against Iran. The European Union removed the group from its terror list in 2009, and its U.S. status has been under legal challenge for years.

Supporters say the group has long renounced militant activity. It gave up its weapons in 2003 in exchange for U.S. protection.

But the U.S. had transferred control of the camp to Iraq by April, when the attack came that killed Rakhshani.

The Yazdanpanah family adopted the girl as a young child when her real parents, who were living at Ashraf, asked them to take her in for her safety. She grew up in the Bay Area and graduated from Albany High School but returned to Ashraf in 1999.

“My sister made a choice to return to her parents, when she had every opportunity to live a free and easy life in the United States,” said her adoptive brother, Hamid Yazdanpanah, a 25-year-old attorney in San Francisco. “Instead, she chose a path of hardship and resistance. … My sister died working as an amateur journalist trying to document the oppression and massacre of innocent people.”

http://www.mercurynews.com/nation-world/ci_19532354

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White House talks on Iraq’s Camp Ashraf draw protesters

December 12, 2011 by

CNN

Washington (CNN) — Several prominent Americans joined Iranian opposition activists Monday in a noisy demonstration outside the White House, urging President Obama to discuss what may soon happen at a refugee camp as the United States leaves Iraq.

Masked demonstrators rally Monday outside the White House to protest plans to close a refugee camp in Iraq. CNN

The Iraqi government plans to close Camp Ashraf northeast of Baghdad at the end of December, without clear assurances the refugees will be protected against attacks by Iraqi forces and reprisals from neighboring Iran.

The camp is home to more than 3,000 people described as Iranian resistance figures and their sympathizers. The group, known as MEK or the People’s Mujahidin of Iran, has been designated by the United States as a terrorist organization. Some GOP lawmakers are calling on the Obama administration to lift that designation and officials say that is under review.

The demonstrators rallied as Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki met with President Obama at the White House.

Among those leading the rally was former U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli, a Democrat from New Jersey.

“When President Obama welcomed Mr. Maliki to the White House he may have noticed something,” Torricelli told the crowd. “When he took his hand back, there was blood on it.”

Torricelli said, “That is the blood of the innocent people of Camp Ashraf.” Torricelli said he believes they have been tortured and killed by Iraqi forces under the Maliki regime.

Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge followed Torricelli to offer a simple plea as the Iraqi leader met with Obama, “to insist that the Maliki government extend the deadline, to ensure the protection of the 3,400 residents of Camp Ashraf.”

The group believes the current regime in Iraq, under orders from al-Maliki, has twice staged deadly attacks that have killed nearly 50 people. When word of such an attack in April came out, it was described as a “massacre” by the chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts.

Since 2004, the United States has considered the residents of Camp Ashraf “noncombatants” and “protected persons” under the Geneva Conventions. A United Nations commission on refugees has described those at Camp Ashraf as “formal asylum seekers” against persecution by the regime in Iran.

U.S. forces have handed security of Camp Ashraf to the Iraqi government as American forces depart.

Those at the rally outside the White House on Monday suggested Iran is hoping al-Maliki and Iraq will expose thousands of people opposed to the government in Tehran by closing the camp and not providing safeguards.

Some called for a United Nations-led force of “blue helmets” to provide security for those living at the camp.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/12/politics/iraqi-refugee-camp-protest/index.html

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Demonstrators Call On Obama To Protect Iranian Dissidents

December 12, 2011 by

RTTNews 

White House Rally Calls on Obama for Protection of Iranian Dissidents in Camp Ashraf

Hundreds of protesters gathered Monday outside the White House gates ahead of a meeting here between President Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The crowd called on Obama to help protect those at Camp Ashraf, home to 3,400 Iranian dissidents in Iraq.

Demonstrators said they fear that with U.S. combat forces leaving Iraq the al-Maliki government will evict the Iranian exiles from Camp Ashraf and deport them back to Iran, where they could face almost-certain death for their opposition to government leaders in the Islamic republic.

Located just 60-miles from the Iraqi border with Iran, Camp Ashraf has been the site of alleged human rights abuses. The unarmed dissidents have been attacked twice by Iraqi military forces. Nine exiles were killed in July 2009; this year, 36 were killed in April.

Dozens of members of Congress have urged Obama to use his meeting with al-Maliki to press for the protection of the dissidents.

by RTT Staff Writer

http://www.rttnews.com/Content/PoliticalNews.aspx?Node=B1&Id=1779501

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Will Obama live up to his Nobel Prize qualifications?

December 12, 2011 by

UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

LONDON, Dec. 12 (UPI) — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is to visit U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House. He also is wanted for questioning by Spanish courts for crimes that have taken place at Camp Ashraf, home to 3,400 Iranian dissidents in Iraq, in July 2009 and April 2011under his orders. These courts are waiting for his term of office to end to summon him.

Last week in Brussels, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a presidential candidate and chairman of the Democratic National Committee at the time Obama was elected, challenged Obama to live up to the qualifications of the Nobel Peace Prize he was given the first year he was in office.

He said the president had till the end of December to show the world he was worthy of that Nobel Prize. He also added: “Mr. President, we do have a responsibility. We gave our word to Ashraf residents and we gave it in writing. We have a responsibility. It is a legal responsibility. I do not want my country to be complicit in the carrying out of war crimes, as the Dutch found out in Srebrenica.”

In that same conference Alan Dershowitz, professor of law at Harvard University, said, “The potential war criminals who run the Iranian regime are so anxious to see Camp Ashraf shut down because they are planning the mass killing of the largest concentration of witnesses to their crimes in the world today, those who are living in Camp Ashraf in Iraq.

“If the president of the U.S. does not demand a change in the Iraqi government’s commitment to close the camp, his silence will be taken as acquiescence, and that is so dangerous, silent acquiescence.”

As the unworkable deadline set by Maliki to avoid questions about the massacre on April 8, 2011, at Ashraf nears the fingers are more and more pointed to the one man that can make the difference. After all, Maliki is a child of America’s war in Iraq. If it was not for American lives and finances, Maliki would not be in the position he is in today.

Obama must make it abundantly clear to Maliki during their meeting that America didn’t sacrifice all it has so that he could show this blatant disregard for international law.

Almost all the other world leaders have done so one way or the other. This week in the U.N. Security Council meeting, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressly filed concern over the situation and asked the Iraqi government to set aside the unworkable deadline of Dec. 31 and to let the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees complete its work. Catherine Ashton, the EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Affairs also voiced concern and asked Iraq to let the UNHCR carry out its mandate.

These demands on their own carry little weight. It is well within America’s remit and is in fact its obligation to make sure a government which it created does not carry out war crimes. The world is again moving towards a predictable massacre, a crime against humanity like those in Rwanda and Srebrenica. Yet those leaders who can and must do what is necessary to stop it are doing nothing.

In a world summit in Berlin in July 2008, Ban regarding Responsibility to Protect said: “It would be neither sound morality, nor wise policy, to limit the world’s options to watching the slaughter of innocents or to send in the marines. The magnitude of these four crimes and violations demands early, preventive steps — and these steps should require neither unanimity in the Security Council nor pictures of unfolding atrocities that shock the conscience of the world.”

“… We need to enhance U.N. early warning mechanisms, integrating the system’s multiple channels of information and assessment. We need to strengthen the capacities of states to resist taking the path to genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity”, he added.

Where else could these measures be applied more appropriately than in the case of Camp Ashraf?

So the responsibility lies upon all. We have only a few weeks to make use of all these tools described by the secretary-general to prevent another Srebrenica from unfolding.

Time is running out and of course those in high office bear a greater share of the burden.

Our role is to constantly and continuously remind them of their responsibilities. It is in the end, up to them to act responsibly. Otherwise they could be accused of complicity in yet another preventable crime against humanity.

Let us hope this time world leaders live up to their collective responsibility and prevent another slaughter in Ashraf. Obama is top on the list of those who would be held accountable should such genocide occur.

(Lord Tarsem King of West Bromwich is a member of British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom.” 

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Analysis/Outside-View/2011/12/12/Outside-View-Will-Obama-live-up-to-his-Nobel-Prize-qualifications/UPI-35681323695866/#ixzz1gg2UJaKj

Filed Under: Camp Ashraf, News

UN-Iraq calls on Europe to take Iranian camp members

December 12, 2011 by

AFP

BAGHDAD – European states should agree to accept members of an exiled Iranian group whose base in Iraq is being threatened with closure at year-end, the United Nations’ special envoy to Baghdad said on Monday.

Martin Kobler also called for the Iraqi government to extend the date of the closure of Camp Ashraf, which has been home to several thousand members of the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (PMOI) since the 1980s.

“I appeal to the governments of all UN member states, however in particular to the Europeans, to take Camp Ashraf residents into their countries,” Kobler told AFP following a ceremony to mark International Human Rights Day, which was on December 10.

Kobler said that in addition to “nationals of European countries [living] in Camp Ashraf,” there were around 900 people claiming to have documents relating them in some way to European nationals.

“I hope they will… because there is a danger of confrontation and violence,” he added.

Camp Ashraf, which has become a mounting international problem, has been in the spotlight since a deadly April raid on the camp by Iraqi security forces.

The camp was set up when Iraq and Iran were at war in the 1980s by the PMOI and later came under US control until January 2009, when US forces transferred security for the camp to Iraq.

The PMOI has been on the US government terrorist list since 1997.

Kobler also called for Iraqi authorities to extend what is currently a year-end deadline for the camp’s closure, arguing that “we will not be able to move several thousand people by the end of the year.”

“We are in the middle of negotiations … to bring about a peaceful and durable solution to the problem,” he said, adding: “I will fight until the last day, 31st of December, to bring about a peaceful and durable solution.”

http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArchiveDetails.aspx?ID=341886

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