(The
post- Shah Pahlavi era)
History
of Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty
A Victory
for Humanity
Stes
de Necker
International
Diplomatic Ambassador and
President
of Friends of Camp Liberty
Introduction
People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK) is the oldest, largest, and
most popular resistance organization in Iran. The PMOI was founded in September
1965 by three Iranian engineers who sought to replace the Shah’s repressive
monarchy with a democratic government.
The PMOI enjoys broad popularity in Iran
because of its longstanding support for democracy and freedom.
The People’s Mojahedin participated in a united front against the
Shahs monarchy, which violently opposed democratic reforms and had one of the
worst human rights records in the world.
Demonstrations against the Shah
commenced in October 1977, developing into a campaign of civil
resistance that included both secular and religious
elements and which intensified in January 1978.
Between August and December 1978 strikes and demonstrations
paralyzed the country. The Shah left Iran for exile on January 16, 1979, as the
last Persian monarch, leaving his duties to a regency council and an
opposition-based prime minister.
After the Shah fled Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini was invited back to Iran by the government, and
returned to Tehran to a greeting by several
million Iranians.
The PMOI/MEK worked to establish a democratic government, but
Ayatollah Khomeini hijacked the Revolution and instead created an Islamic
theocracy.
The royal reign collapsed shortly
after on February 11, 1979 when guerrillas and rebel troops
overwhelmed troops loyal to the Shah in armed street fighting, bringing
Khomeini to official power.
Iran voted by national referendum to become an Islamic
Republic on April
1, 1979, and to approve a new theocratic-republican constitution whereby Khomeini
became Supreme
Leader of the country, in December 1979.
The PMOI shifted course and directed its opposition against the
Ayatollah, continuing its struggle to restore democracy in Iran.
On June 20, 1981, the PMOI organized rallies across Iran to
protest Khomeini’s oppressive rule. More than a half million Iranians attended
the demonstration in Tehran but Khomeini brutally suppressed the half a million
people demonstration in Tehran and the resistance against the Khomeini regime. On direct fatwa by Khomeini, the Hezbollah blocked off streets and
fired into the growing crowds, killing hundreds of Iranians and injuring many
more. Thousands of Iranians were arrested.
The
reign of terror had begun
The largest 2009 uprising protests attracted crowds of more than
100,000 people in Tehran. Paramilitary Basij and police attacked the
demonstrators with batons, pepper spray, and guns. Hundreds were arrested, and
dozens were killed and wounded.
Camp
Ashraf
Camp Ashraf was created in 1986, after the PMOI leadership
relocated from France to Iraq.
Camp Ashraf has for over 25 years
been home to thousands of members and sympathizers of Iran's main opposition
group, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
The camp is situated north of the
Iraqi town of Al-Khalis in Diyala Province, about 44 miles from Iran's Western
border.
It began as barren land with only a handful of deserted buildings
and no facilities, paved roads, or running water. Over 25 years, however,
Ashraf was built by its residents into a modern city with a complex of roads
and buildings with many educational, social and sports facilities, and it
became the PMOI's main enclave in Iraq.
Camp Ashraf, was named after Ashraf Rajavi, a famous political
prisoner at the time of the Shah who was among the last group of political
activists released from the Shah’s prisons in 1979.
One remarkable characteristic of Ashraf is the presence of
thousands of people who have freely chosen to come to Ashraf with only one goal
and desire—to dedicate their lives to their people’s freedom from the clutches
of the mullahs’ terrorist religious dictatorship.
Prior to the 2003 U.S.-led war in Iraq, the PMOI publicly declared
its neutrality and played no part in 2003 Iraq War
In April 2003, US forces signed a cease-fire agreement with the
PMOI and the residents of Ashraf
Protected Persons Status under the 4th Geneva Convention
After an extensive 16-month investigation of every member of the
PMOI in Camp Ashraf by seven different US government agencies that began after
the US agreement, PMOI members were found not to have violated any US law [New York Times, July 27, 2004]
The US led Multi-National Force -
Iraq (MNF-I) formally recognized all the residents of Camp Ashraf as
"Protected Persons" under the Fourth Geneva Convention [Coalition
Statement, July 2004], and U.S. forces took up their protection.
The MNF-I reiterated its
obligations towards Ashraf residents under the 4th Geneva Convention on
numerous occasions.
This can be seen in a
February 16, 2006 letter by the then-Deputy Commanding General, and it is
also specified in the October 7, 2005, letter by Maj. Gen. William
Brandenburg which says: "The residents of Camp Ashraf have the right to
protection from danger, violence, coercion, and intimidation, and to special
protection for the dignity and rights of women."
In January 2009, despite strong
opposition by the residents and several legal opinions by distinguished
jurists, the camp's security was transferred to Iraq without the necessary
credible guarantees. The US stated that the Government of Iraq has given
written guarantee respecting the rights of the residents.
On July 2009 and April 2011, the Iraqi Army under the direct order
of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched deadly attacks on Camp Ashraf.
The first attack left 11 Ashraf residents dead and nearly 500
wounded.
The second attack during 2011 - described by then U.S. Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, as a "massacre" - left 36 dead and
hundreds wounded. The attacks drew widespread condemnation from the
international community.
Since 2009, the camp has been under a barbaric siege where
delivery of food, fuel and medicine has been hampered and visits by family
members, human rights organizations, residents' lawyers, and independent
journalists have been disallowed.
Camp
Liberty
Following an agreement between
Ambassador Martin Kobler of UNAMI and the Government of Iraq, and at the behest
of the Iranian regime, Ashraf residents were subject to a forced eviction and
involuntary relocation to Camp Liberty, a former U.S.-base in Baghdad.
Martin Kobler, the Special
Representative of the UN Secretary General in Iraq, misled the residents and
the international community by repeated assurances about the residents welfare
and protection at the new site which has proved to be blatantly false.
In 2012, some 3,200 residents were
moved to Camp Liberty, but Iraq has denied them freedom of movement, basic
humanitarian needs, and the right to transfer or sell most of their property.Martin Kobler, the Special
Representative of the UN Secretary General in Iraq (SRSG), gave the residents
repeated assurances about their welfare and protection at the new site. But the
Government of Iraq (GoI) has imposed a siege on the camp and denied them the
right to transfer or sell most of their property.
In violation of a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) signed between Iraq and the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq
(UNAMI), Camp Liberty lacks human rights standards and was considered a prison
from every aspect.
The area of the camp is half a
square kilometre, and it is run by Iraqi Col. Sadeq Mohammad Kazem, who is
wanted by a Spanish court for ordering his troops to open fire on Ashraf
residents in the massacres of July 2009 and April 2011.
There is a central police station
and at least five other police posts and uninterrupted patrols in the small
camp. Surveillance cameras have been installed in various areas of the camp to
control all commuting inside. The signals from these eavesdropping devices and
spying cameras are transmitted to the Iranian regime, leading to serious
security threats to the residents and their families in Iran.
Residents have no freedom of
movement, and Iraq has banned them from having access to their relatives, human
rights activists, parliamentarians, reporters and any foreign visitor in
Liberty or Ashraf.
Heavy medical restrictions are
imposed on the camp residents, and this has led to the death of two residents
by the start of 2013. The ground is gravel, and there are no pavements. The Iraqi
Government (GoL)does not permit contractors into the camp to build stable ramp
entries for the disabled.
Residents are not allowed to use
machinery and the GoI prevents them from transferring their forklifts from
Ashraf to move items and do construction work in Camp Liberty. The residents were
forced to carry heavy loads by hand leading to numerous injuries.
Iraq refuses to connect the camp
to the national electricity grid, and the few power generators that are in the
camp were dilapidated. By December 2012, Liberty residents had paid $3.5
million for fuel for generators at the camp to provide electricity and $2.5
million for a water supply project.
The UN Working Group on
Arbitrary Detention on 23 November 2012 described conditions at Camp
Liberty as synonymous with that of a detention centre and in violation of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights.
This was the second opinion
adopted by the Working Group detailing abuses at the camp. Another opinion
issued on 17 July 2012 found similar abuses taking place.
Mr. Tahar Boumedra, SRSG's
advisor on Ashraf affairs, who was responsible for Ashraf at the UNAMI for
three and a half years resigned in May 2012 in protest to Martin Kobler’s
attempts to cover up violations of human rights at Camp Liberty. In two shocking testimonies at
the U.S. Congress on 13 September 2012 and the UK Parliament on
11 December 2012, Mr. Boumedra revealed how Ambassador Kobler would manipulate reports
to cover up the abuses.
Instead of designating Camp
Liberty as a refugee camp, the camp has been illegally designated a “temporary
transit location - TTL” to cover up the appalling lack of minimum standards for
a refugee camp and violation of laws and regulations related to refugees and
asylum seekers.
The term TTL applies to a camp
which has a several-day or several-week passage for transferring refugees to
third countries.
Many distinguished international
jurists, Parliamentarians, former government officials, human rights advocates,
and human rights organizations have urged the UN to urgently recognize Camp
Liberty as an official Refugee Camp and accept responsibility for the residents’
protection and to ensure that their rights are respected under international
law
Successful
resettlement of Camp Liberty
Owing to the efforts of the
Iranian Resistance, the United States Congress introduced a number of resolutions
and passed legislation, obligating the U.S. Government to undertake the
necessary measures to protect the residents of Liberty and to safely transfer
them out of Iraq.
Similar resolutions and
declarations were also adopted in the European Parliament, and in parliaments
in the United Kingdom, as well as in other European and Middle Eastern
countries.On July 19, 2016, the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees stated, “UNHCR is supporting a steady
and growing stream of movements out of Iraq in coming months. It is hoped that
the process will be completed well before year end. This progress has been
achieved with the cooperation of the residents who have proceeded with the
relocation process despite difficult circumstances, including the attack on 4
July 2016, which fortunately did not result in any casualties.”
On Friday September 9, 2016, the last 280 members of PMOI in Camp Liberty,
left Iraq safely for Albania, marking the successful conclusion of the
four-and-a-half-year-long process of relocating members of the People’s
Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) to places of safety.
The relocation of the residents
has not been achieved without cost, however. The regime used its influence with the
Iraqi authorities to ensure that residents were not permitted to take any
personal possessions and that collective resources were disposed of without
compensation.
In the course of the process to
resettle Camp Liberty residents, Iraqi intelligence agents, acting at the
behest of the Iranian regime’s ambassador to Iraq (a commander of the terrorist
Quds Force), prevented the residents from taking with them their personal
belongings, such as computers, radios, cell phones, and even electric shavers.
The goal of the Iranian regime
was not to see the departure of PMOI members from Iraq; rather, it sought to
annihilate or force them into surrender.
The victorious transfer of the
PMOI members and regime’s major defeat in this regard, which takes place
simultaneous with growing calls seeking justice for 30,000 political prisoners
massacred in 1988, opens a new chapter for the Iranian people and the
PMOI.
After 4 years of heroic resistance and countless international
efforts by thousands of Political dignitaries and Parliamentarians all over the
globe, the history of Camps Ashraf and Liberty resulted in a victorious conclusion
and resettlement that enjoyed international congratulations.
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