WASHINGTON, Feb. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — On Friday, February 17, 2012, as a goodwill gesture, 400 Iranian dissidents residing in Camp Ashraf in Iraq since 1986, many with families and relatives in the United States, began their relocation from Camp Ashraf, their home of 25 years, to Camp Liberty, a former U.S. military base near Baghdad international airport, even though minimum guarantees for their safety and security have not been provided by the Iraqi Government or the United Nations.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has formally recognized the residents of Ashraf as “asylum seekers” and “persons of concern,” which entitles them to fundamental protections and security based on humanitarian standards.

Nevertheless, the Iraqi Government, with the tacit approval of the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative, Martin Kobler, has relocated our loved ones to Camp Liberty which, contrary to its name, is, by all indications, more like a prison than a transitional facility for “asylum seekers”.

The Iraqi-imposed inhumane and humiliating conditions under which 400 residents were inspected and then transferred to Camp Liberty, as well as the atrociously sub-humane living conditions of the camp amply reveal the nefarious intentions of the Iraqi Government.

Equally appalling is the fact that the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), which is expected to be playing a humanitarian role, has increasingly acted to accommodate the Iraqi Government in exerting pressure against the residents.

Not surprising, emboldened by the UNAMI chief’s repeatedly one-sided actions and positions to the detriment of Ashraf residents, the Iraqi Government has heightened it’s blatant and repeated violations of the residents’ human rights and the December 25 Memorandum of Understating.

The US Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents (USCCAR), representing thousands of Iranian-Americans whose loved-ones reside in Camp Ashraf, urges Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to uphold the United States’ long-standing moral and legal obligations to ensure safety and security of the residents of Ashraf, particularly those 400 who are now at the mercy of Iraqi Government in Camp Liberty.

Specifically, Secretary Clinton, in line with her assurances provided on February 15, should ensure that the Iraqi Government removes its draconian restrictions on the 400 Iranian dissidents in Camp Liberty, guarantee the withdrawal of the Iraqi police from inside the camp and the freedom of movement of the residents – as stipulated by the UNHCR, as well as the unhindered access of the residents to their lawyers and their families.

Absent these guarantees, the stage would be set by the Iraqi Government to seriously jeopardize the safety and security of our loved ones in Camp Liberty. USCCAR urges the United States to address the serious concerns regarding this camp, otherwise, the relocation of the rest of Ashraf residents will be rendered moot.

A stellar roster of former senior US officials and a bi-partisan group of members of US Congress have declared their readiness to visit Camp Liberty and confirm its suitability to accommodate the Iranian asylum seekers. Such a visit and unfettered access of journalists to the camp and its residents will help to assuage the widespread anxiety of US families of the residents over their safety. To this end, Secretary Clinton should use her good offices to facilitate such a visit.

Camp Ashraf is home to 3,400 members of Iran’s principal opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) and their families, who were recognized by the United States as “Protected Persons” under the Fourth Geneva Convention in 2004. 

SOURCE US Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/usccar-urges-secretary-clinton-to-ensure-iraqi-guarantees-for-safety-and-security-of-400-iranian-asylum-seekers-in-camp-liberty-139634393.html

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19, 2012 /NEWS.GNOM.ES/ — A humanitarian tragedy unfolds as the Iraqi military and police harass and threaten 397 Iranian dissidents relocated to Camp Hurriya, a former American military base. They are the first of 3,400 residents of Camp Ashraf. How Iraq, UN, EU, and the United States act is a litmus test for whether the rest of the residents of Camp Ashraf relocate.

Professor Raymond Tanter, former member of the National Security Council staff in the Reagan-Bush White House and President of the Iran Policy Committee, stated, “The UN shares with Washington responsibility to protect Iranian dissidents from being harmed by Iraqi authorities. At the UN World Summit, September 2005, over 150 countries adopted ‘responsibility to protect’ populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.”

Professor Tanter said, “The United High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) formally recognized on 13 September 2011, and reiterated on 1 February 2012 residents of Ashraf as ‘asylum seekers,’ with rights and protections based on international humanitarian standards. According UNHCR, “International law requires that asylum-seekers must be able to benefit from basic protection of their security and well being. This includes protection against any expulsion or return to the frontiers of territories where their lives or freedom would be threatened.”

Professor Tanter added, “But the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) works at cross purposes with UNHCR. While UNHCR stands ready to conduct Refugee Status Determination to resettle the dissidents in other countries, UNAMI colludes with Iraqi authorities, providing a pretext for Baghdad to harm them, contrary to international humanitarian standards.”

UNHCR emphasizes protecting Iranian dissidents stating, “Any relocation outside Camp New Iraq Ashraf should proceed on a voluntary basis, with freedom of movement the most desirable state at the site of relocation.” But according to reports, Iranian dissidents are barred from taking their personal belongings, even items like wheelchairs, microwave ovens, and satellite dishes for Internet access. Contrary to UNHCR, the dissidents have no freedom of movement. Journalists are kept away, and neither lawyers nor families can observe or visit Camp Hurriya; in disregard of dissidents’ rights, UNAMI paid no attention to Iraqi harassment, intimidation, and insult to them upon arrival to Hurriya.

Washington is also accountable for failure to provide effective diplomatic pressure on Iraq to ensure safe relocation, often called the “American plan” because it stems from a Christmas Day statement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “We are encouraged by the Iraqi government’s willingness to commit to this plan, and expect it to fulfill all its responsibilities, especially to provide for the safety and security of Ashraf’s residents.”

Because of the Clinton statement, the dissidents accepted the relocation plan, which is now being violated by Iraqi authorities. A subsequent announcement by the Department of State “commends the decision by the Ashraf residents to begin to relocate to Hurriya, where the United Nations will begin a process aimed at facilitating their eventual departure from Iraq,” a commendation that enhances U.S. stake in the plan and responsibility to protect the dissidents. By praising the former residents of Ashraf for the first time, the pronouncement also implicitly commends their leadership in Paris for its constructive role in averting human tragedy.

The Way Forward
In a statement of 7 February this year, 23 former senior officials of the U.S. Government expressed concern about relocation, “We are very troubled by the official position of the Iraqi Government that the residents of Ashraf will have no freedom of movement while in Camp Liberty.”  

First, the IPC concurs with a recommendation of our former colleagues in the U.S. Government for American Embassy Baghdad to obtain assurances for security of dissidents now relocated in Camp Hurriya and as incentive for the 3,000 who remain in Camp Ashraf to relocate: “We believe an operational protocol must be developed through dialogue among all relevant parties, including the representatives of Camp Ashraf and the Iraqi Government.”

Second, the UN might inform dissidents of rights as asylum seekers. The IPC is dismayed to learn that Iranian dissidents in Camp Hurriya have no minimum assurances from either the UN or Washington about their security or rights under international human rights law.

Third, the Secretary General needs to bring operational practices of UNAMI in accord with humanitarian standards of asylum seeker status provided by UNHCR. If the Iraqi police were outside Camp Hurriya and UNAMI monitors inside, UNHCR humanitarian standards are more likely to be followed.

Without such steps, a calamity is likely, spilled blood of the Iranian asylum seekers will be on the hands of those with responsibility to protect, and appropriate legal action against accountable parties is likely in international and national tribunals.

SOURCE Iran Policy Committee

http://news.gnom.es/pr/iran-policy-committee-responsibility-to-protect-iranian-dissidents-in-iraq

UN NEWS CENTRE

REUTERS

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq evacuated an initial batch of 400 Iranian dissidents on Saturday from a base founded under Saddam Hussein, a first step towards expelling their entire group from Iraqi territory.

The People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), a group that calls for the overthrow of Iran’s clerical rulers, took refuge at Camp Ashraf, 65 km (40 miles) from Baghdad, during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. Ashraf now houses around 3,000 people.

With Iraq’s Shi’ite majority newly empowered following Saddam’s fall in 2003, Baghdad has forged closer ties with its Shi’ite neighbour Iran, and the PMOI is no longer welcome here.

“It is clear that for Camp Ashraf residents there is no future for them inside Iraq. It’s not easy for them to leave their place but I’m convinced this is the only peaceful alternative,” U.N. special envoy to Iraq Martin Kobler said shortly after the Ashraf residents arrived at a “transit site” on a vast former U.S. military base in Baghdad.

From this new camp, a cluster of prefabricated houses in Camp Liberty, near Baghdad airport, they are due to make arrangements to settle outside Iraq.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the PMOI’s political wing, says agreeing to move the initial group is a goodwill gesture, but its complaints about the camp and how the transfer was conducted suggest difficulties lie ahead.

Detailed searches of each person’s belongings took so long they arrived almost 24 hours after the media were invited to Camp Liberty to witness the transfer, one of the group said.

“This is an extremely unusual, insulting and humiliating inspection that is only compatible (with a) transfer of prisoners,” the NCRI said in a statement.

TROUBLE AHEAD?

The NCRI likens the new site to a prison. It says people will not be able to come and go freely or have unfettered access to lawyers and medical services. It has also complained about restrictions on the belongings which people can take with them.

The United Nations says the site meets humanitarian standards for “refugee situations”.

The PMOI waged a violent insurgency against the U.S.-backed shah of Iran in the 1970s, but turned against the rulers who replaced him after the 1979 Islamic revolution. It says it has renounced violence and wants to set up a democratic state.

Despite the PMOI being officially considered a terrorist organisation by the United States, Camp Ashraf was protected by American troops following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq almost nine years ago. Washington turned it over to Iraq in 2009.

The leader of the PMOI said on Thursday she agreed to have the initial group of 400 people moved after receiving assurances from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about their safety.

Safety concerns are understandable, given past violence.

Clashes between Ashraf residents and Iraqi security forces in April killed 34 people. The NCRI has also blamed rocket attacks targeting Ashraf on the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps “and its Iraqi agents”.

Under pressure from the United Nations and European Union, the Iraqi government agreed late last year to extend its deadline to close Ashraf from the end of 2011 to April 30, 2012, a measure aimed at preventing further violence.

The NCRI, citing the clashes, has objected to the presence of Iraqi police inside Camp Liberty and said no more Ashraf residents would be moved unless the police left the camp.

“Transfer of the next groups will only take place after the Special Representative of the (U.N.) Secretary-General and the Iraqi government declare their approval of the minimum assurances, particularly (the) departure of Iraqi police from inside Camp Liberty,” the NCRI said in a statement on Friday.

(Writing by Francois Murphy; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE81H08X20120218

Update on Camp Ashraf 

Press Statement

 The United States welcomes the peaceful departure of the first 397 residents from Camp Ashraf and joins the United Nations in welcoming their safe arrival at Camp Hurriya.

PRN: 2012/253

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/02/184204.htm

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

Camp Ashraf 

Press Statement

 The United States continues to pursue a peaceful, humane solution to the untenable situation at Camp Ashraf. The critical next step is the voluntary movement of the first group of 400 Ashraf residents to the new transit facility at Camp Hurriya (former Camp Liberty). The United States supports the UN’s call for the Iraqi Government and the residents of Camp Ashraf to continue to cooperate and begin this movement peacefully and without delay. Once the first group arrives at Hurriya, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) can immediately begin verification and refugee status determinations, a necessary step for Hurriya residents to safely depart Iraq.

PRN: 2012/234

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/02/184058.htm

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

PARIS — Iranian opposition group the National Council of Resistance said Thursday it has agreed to begin evacuating its long-time base in a camp in central Iraq to transfer to a UN-approved site near Baghdad.

According to a statement issued by the exiled group’s base in Paris, NCRI leader Maryam Rajavi has agreed that the first 400 of 3,400 refugees based in Ashraf camp will be transferred to Camp Liberty, a former US military base.

The statement said Rajavi had received assurances from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before agreeing to order the move.

“This is despite the fact that there was no agreement on the transfer of all their vehicles and personal movable property to Liberty,” the statement said, while calling for better guarantees for the residents’ safety.

The NCRI, which includes the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, demanded Iraqi police be removed from the Liberty site before any more of the group leave Ashraf, which Baghdad has vowed to close.

Thursday’s statement said that this demand was necessary “to avoid tension, violence and another massacre of the residents. This is particularly important for the security and peace of female residents.”

In Washington, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said: “The United States urges this voluntary movement to Hurriya (Liberty in Arabic) to begin on schedule February 17.

“The US will not walk away from the people at Camp Hurriya,” she said in a statement.

“We will visit Hurriya regularly and frequently, and continue to work with the UN to support their temporary relocation and subsequent peaceful and secure resettlement outside of Iraq,” Nuland said.

The NCRI has been in revolt against Tehran’s Islamic regime for more than three decades. While many of its members are living in exile around the world, its biggest base is in Ashraf in Iraq, near the Iranian border.

From there, the People’s Mujahedeen fought alongside Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces against their Iranian countrymen during the Iran-Iraq war.

The camp came under US forces’ control after their 2003 invasion toppled Saddam, and they oversaw the safety of its inhabitants until January 2009, when they transferred security for the camp to Iraq.

Under pressure from Tehran, the post-Saddam Iraqi regime now wants to close the camp and expel its inhabitants, but they have thus far refused to budge, seeking security guarantees and a new life abroad.

Ashraf residents are being assessed individually by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees after applying for refugee status, to allow them to resettle elsewhere, but Baghdad is becoming impatient.

Under a pact signed on December 25 between the United Nations and the Iraqi government, the residents of camp Ashraf will be transferred to Camp Liberty, a former US military site near Baghdad’s international airport.

The NCRI is in negotiations with the United Nations over the transfer, but has repeatedly complained that living conditions at Liberty are not adequate.

“Camp Liberty does not fulfill international humanitarian and human rights standards such as freedom of movement, which was raised by (UN refugee agency) the UNHCR, and there is no free access to medical services, lawyers and families,” it said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i2MWP9f7cEo-BaTNoGThgUzeCK2A

REUTERS 

PARIS, Feb 16 (Reuters) – The leader of an exiled Iranian opposition group said on Thursday she had agreed to start relocating Iranian dissidents from a long-disputed camp in Iraq after receiving assurances from the United States about their safety.

Some 65 km (40 miles) from Baghdad, the settlement known as Camp Ashraf is the base of the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), an Iranian opposition group that Washington considers a terrorist group.

The Iraqi government, which is friendly with Tehran, has said it intends to close the camp, which is home to an estimated 3,000 Iranian dissidents and has been the scene of bloody clashes between residents and the Iraqi security forces.

The PMOI said on Thursday it was starting to move people to a new location.

“Maryam Rajavi, after being informed of recommendations and assurances of Secretary (Hillary) Clinton last night, called on Ashraf residents to transfer the first 400 residents to Camp Liberty in the coming days to remove any doubts about their goodwill,” said a statement from the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the PMOI’s political wing.

Baghdad extended its deadline to close Ashraf late last year, under pressure from the United Nations and European Union, from Dec. 31, 2011 to April 30, 2012.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said on Wednesday that the infrastructure and facilities at Camp Liberty, a former U.S. base where the Ashraf residents will be temporarily rehoused, complied with international humanitarian standards.

“Transfer of the next groups will only take place after the Special Representative of the Secretary General and the Iraqi government declare their approval of the minimum assurances, particularly the departure of Iraqi police from inside Camp Liberty, in order to avoid tension, violence and another massacre of the residents,” the NCRI statement said.

The fate of Camp Ashraf is one of the main unresolved issues left over after U.S. forces withdrew from Iraq last year. Residents of the camp have long said they fear for their safety at the hands of Iraqi authorities without U.S. protection.

In April, the camp was the scene of clashes between residents and Iraqi security forces in which 34 people were killed, according to a U.N. investigation.

The U.S. State Department said in a statement that it hoped the switch from Camp Ashraf to another camp called Camp Hurriya would go ahead without delay as scheduled.

“The United States urges this voluntary movement to Hurriya to begin on schedule February 17. The U.S. will not walk away from the people at Camp Hurriya,” said the statement.

(Reporting By John Irish in Paris and Arshad Mohammed in Washington; editing by Andrew Osborn)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-rt-iraq-camp-update-1l5e8dg5ch-20120216,0,6720264.story