MKO backlashed against Daniel Fried’s briefing and conditioned relocation to realization of demands
In an angry reaction to the US Special Advisor on Camp Ashraf Daniel Fried’s briefing on July 6, MKO released a statement stressing that Ashraf residents resist relocating to transit center unless their requirements are realized and provided. In answer to Huffington Post’s question that if MEK’s demands were generally realistic, Mr. Fried said; “Some of the MEK demands are reasonable. For example, given the hot weather in Iraq, they’ve requested more air conditioners. The Iraqi Government has agreed to provide them, that is agreed to allow a special shipment of air conditioners from Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty, and this is being arranged as we speak. Some of the other demands strike me as not central – for instance, private cars. Well, that’s not an issue critical to basic humanitarian needs.”
Since the halt of relocation, MKO has proved its unusual skill in inventing endless excuses. Except a few of them that the Iraqi government has already agreed their transfer to transit camp, other demands are not realistic since they are of no use in a temporary camp. For instance, “transfer of all the power generators that are currently in Camp Ashraf, transfer of 50 passenger cars, 25 trucks and five forklifts, permission for construction activities inside the camp” are not reasonable demands if you compare the capacity and moving area of Camp Ashraf with that of the temporary transit center, an area measuring less than half a square kilometer.
MKO demands immediate negotiations to sell the immovable assets and properties in Ashraf with partial payments in advance. That is impossible and unreasonable until Ashraf is completely vacated. Besides, to arrive at a solution of properties, it requires interference and supervision of the UN and other concerned international bodies as well as representatives from among the Iraqi people. Not all the claimed properties and assets have a function of legal and civil purpose and many of the vehicles, instruments and machinery allocated to the group by the ousted dictator belong to Iraqi army and people living in the vicinity. In fact, the group brought nothing when it came to Iraq and all it claims to possess is out of the bundles of dollars Saddam allocated to it from the pocket of the poor Iraqi people when they needed the sums more than any other time.
