Reuters

Iraq says will force out Iran dissident group MEK

Iraq on Tuesday told an Iranian dissident group that was given a base in Iraq by Saddam Hussein but is now out of favor with a government that is close to Iran that it must move out of the camp immediately or be forced to leave.

Iraqi authorities have been locked in a protracted row with the Mujahadin-e Khalq (MEK) over their plan to move 3,000 MEK members from Camp Ashraf to a large former U.S. military base – a step toward expelling the group from Iraqi territory.

The United States also said last month that the group should close the camp, saying it was "gravely mistaken" to think there was another option.

"We have reached a dead end (with them) and the extension ends today, they have to move," Falih al-Fayadh, Iraq’s National Security Advisor, told a conference attended by the U.N. mission in Iraq, aid groups and Western and Arab diplomats.

"Now we are free to implement the mechanisms required to transfer those who live in (Camp Ashraf) to where we find appropriate."

The MEK has complained of mistreatment and poor conditions at the new facility, known as Camp Liberty, and U.S. officials say they have urged the Iraqi government to address some of its concerns.

A spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Paris (NCRI), an affiliated group, said the 1,200 members still living at the camp would leave only when specific demands, including the provision of clean water, were met.

About 1,800 to 1,900 people have already been moved to the new facility, according to officials.

PEACEFUL TRANSFER URGED

Also known as the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran, the group led a guerrilla campaign against the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran during the 1970s that also included attacks on U.S. targets. It took refuge at Camp Ashraf, 65 km (40 miles) from Baghdad, during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

The MEK, which wants to overthrow Iran’s clerical leaders, is no longer welcome in Iraq under the country’s Shi’ite-led government, which is close to Iran.

The Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in Iraq, Martin Kobler, urged Iraqi authorities to avoid violence in their efforts to remove the group.

Clashes between Ashraf residents and Iraqi security forces last year killed 34 people. The NCRI has also blamed rocket attacks on Ashraf on the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps.

"The Iraqi government does not define involuntary transfer as being through violence or the use of weapons," Fayadh told the conference.

Iraq said it will observe a grace period of "a few days" to allow foreign governments to offer the group sanctuary or to suggest other solutions to the dispute.

The United States added the MEK to its blacklist of foreign terrorist organizations in 1997, but the group has since said that it has renounced violence and has mounted a legal and public relations campaign to have the designation dropped.

By Aseel Kami
Editing by Barry Malone and Tim Pearce

August 1, 2012 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

U.S. steps up warnings on Camp Ashraf

The United States warned an Iranian dissident group on Friday that time was running out for it to vacate its Iraqi base camp, and said its hope to be taken off the official U.S. blacklist of terrorist steps up warnings on Camp Ashraf in Iraq organizations could depend on its compliance.

Daniel Benjamin, the State Department’s coordinator for counter-terrorism, said the Mujahadin-e Khalq (MEK) must complete its move from the Camp Ashraf facility, which the Iraqi government has vowed to close by July 20.

"It is past time for the MEK to recognize that Ashraf is not going to remain an MEK base in Iraq," Benjamin told reporters, saying Baghdad’s patience was running out.

"The Iraqi government is committed to closing it, and any plan to wait out the government in the hope that something will change is irresponsible and dangerous."

The dissident group, which calls for the overthrow of Iran’s clerical leaders, is no longer welcome in Iraq under the Shi’ite-led government that came to power after Saddam Hussein’s downfall in 2003.

Also known as the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran, the group led a guerrilla campaign against the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran during the 1970s that also included attacks on U.S. targets.

The United States added the MEK to its official list of foreign terrorist organizations in 1997, but the group has since said that it has renounced violence and has mounted a legal and public relations campaign to have its terrorist designation dropped.

COURT DEADLINE

Last month, a U.S. appeals court asked U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to make her determination on the MEK’s status by October, a ruling hailed as a victory by MEK supporters.

But U.S. officials have stressed that Clinton – who has herself said that the disposition of Camp Ashraf will be key to her eventual decision – may still find against the group.

"MEK leaders appear to believe that the secretary has no choice now but to delist them. That conclusion is quite plainly wrong," Benjamin said.

"The MEK’s relocation will assist the secretary in determining whether the organization remains invested in its violent past or is committed to leaving that past behind."

Despite repeated U.S. appeals to close the camp and the successful relocation of some 2,000 MEK members to a new holding facility near Baghdad, the group continues to have 1,200-1,300 members at Camp Ashraf and has taken no steps to relocate them since May 5.

The MEK has complained of mistreatment and poor conditions at the new facility, a large former U.S. military base, and U.S. officials say they have urged the Iraqi government to take steps to address some of the group’s concerns.

Daniel Fried, Clinton’s special advisor on Ashraf, said that while the Iraqi government had shown flexibility on earlier deadlines for Camp Ashraf, there was no indication it would do so again unless there were signs of significant movement from the camp by July 20.

"That date should put everyone on notice, and the MEK on notice, that it needs to proceed with the next convoy of people out of Camp Ashraf," Fried said.

Reporting By Andrew Quinn; Editing by Paul Simao

July 7, 2012 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

MEK victims warn Lobby groups

MEK victims warn Lobby groups – "we will claim compensation from MEK beneficiaries"

Critics of Iran’s human rights record are being warned by former MEK members in Europe not to be fooled into giving support to a terrorist cult. The Iranian Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) wants to be removed from the U.S. FTO list and is using front organisations to lure paid speakers to a campaign rally in VillePinte, Paris on 23 June.

The warnings come after documents were made available to the U.S. Treasury linking an array of front organisation finances to companies and investments controlled by the Mojahedin-e Khalq’s leader. Top MEK members are also directing political support for the campaign through proxy parliamentary groups like Friends of a Free Iran.

Speakers’ agencies are being urged to exercise extreme caution regarding the MEK’s methods for recruiting support. In the U.S., former political and military heavyweights have already fallen foul of this tactic, where several are currently being investigated for aiding and abetting a terrorist entity. Those attending the rally must know they are engaged by organisations with direct links to the MEK.

With the MEK’s financial sources exposed it has become possible for victims to pursue a class action to claim compensation directly from the Rajavis.

Victims of the MEK, including former members who say their basic human rights were denied them for years, have launched a legal case for compensation from the companies which Massoud and Maryam Rajavi use to fund their elaborate and expensive propaganda campaigns. Anne Singleton speaking for the victims said, "Individuals who accept financial recompense from the MEK through its front organisations for speeches or lobbying should know that they can no longer claim ignorance and we will pursue them through the courts to recover money which should rightfully go to compensate the victims."

The MEK was removed from European terrorist lists on legal technicalities but concerns remain at official levels about the group’s propensity to use violence.

In spite of their public bravado, the MEK leaders are facing harsh setbacks. Massoud Rajavi’s stronghold in Iraq is being dismantled by UNAMI. His wife and co-leader Maryam Rajavi was in court last week in Paris to answer to charges of terrorism related activities, fraud and slavery. Other high ranking MEK members are being pursued for murder and terrorism offences relating to Iran, Iraq and France.

SOURCE Iran-Interlink

June 19, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Top US expert:NCRI report should be treated with great skepticism

An exiled Iranian opposition group said on Saturday that Iran has some 60 scientists and engineers involved in a concerted and expanding program to develop nuclear weapons under defense ministry auspices.

However, diplomats say the National Council of Resistance of Iran has had a spotty record with allegations about Iran’s nuclear work since exposing a secret uranium enrichment plant at Natanz in 2002. A top U.S. nuclear expert said the NCRI report, like previous ones, should be treated with great skepticism.

Its latest report, whose details could not be verified, appeared timed to encourage a tougher line at talks with Iran the U.N. nuclear watchdog will have in Vienna on Monday and Tuesday and six world powers will hold in Baghdad on May 23.

But it clashed with the assessment of U.S. and Israeli intelligence officials that Iran has not decided whether to "weaponries" its enrichment program. Tehran says it is refining uranium solely for peaceful energy.

In the six-page report shown to Reuters, the NCRI cited sources in the Iranian government and military as saying some 60 scientists were pursuing bomb-relevant research in 11 agencies operating clandestinely under defense ministry control.

"Information … shows that the clerical regime has expanded the organization responsible for nuclear weapons development," the report said. "This finding reveals a complete and elaborate, and highly … secret research structure and a network for procurement of the required parts and equipment.

"So far, the identities of 60 directors and experts working in various parts of the New Defense Research Organization and 11 institutions and companies affiliated with it have been detailed," the report went on.

It featured diagrams said to lay out the disguised command structure and named scientists and engineers involved.

The NCRI, an umbrella bloc of five opposition groups in exile that seek an end to Shi’ite Muslim clerical rule in Iran, urged the International Atomic Energy Agency to launch a "robust probe" into Iran’s nuclear program and all personnel involved.

Iran says it is stockpiling enriched uranium for a future network of nuclear power plants. But the world’s No. 5 oil exporter has stonewalled an almost decade-old IAEA investigation into suspected military dimensions to its atomic activity.

World powers trying to rein in Iran’s nuclear activity via negotiations want to halt a spiral towards confrontation that has stoked fear of a new Middle East war, with Israel mooting last-resort air strikes on the nuclear sites of its arch-enemy.

But Western leaders have rejected Iranian calls for an end to U.N. sanctions against it as a precondition for any deal.

NO "SMOKING GUN"

In its last quarterly report on Iran issued in February, the IAEA cited generally credible information indicating Iran had carried out activities relevant to developing a nuclear explosive, but without evidence of actual weaponisation.

The NCRI is the political wing of the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI), which the United States classifies the PMOI as a terrorist organization.

David Albright, head of an influential Washington-based think tank that tracks Iran’s nuclear work and has access to sensitive intelligence, said "we have to be extremely skeptical of whatever they (the NCRI) say.

"(They are) an activist group with a huge incentive to say there is a nuclear weapons program that is making great progress, " Albright said when asked about the report.

"We know this organization exists," he said, referring to the command structure cited by the NCRI. "We know the (NCRI) receives intelligence information from countries so sometimes it is good, but the trouble is, they fill in details …(without) evidence. You just don’t know whether it’s true or not."

Albright said the best available evidence was that Iran "doesn’t have a structured, coherent, active nuclear weapons program … Most of their effort is really focused on developing the capability to make nuclear explosive material…

"The real bottleneck in their program is the lack of any ability to make weapons-grade uranium quickly."

Refined uranium can be used to fuel nuclear power plants, which is Iran’s stated aim, or provide the core for a bomb if enriched to a much higher degree of fissile purity.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton referred without qualification to Iran’s "nuclear weapons program" on Friday. But her language went beyond that of Western security officials who are more plugged in to Iran’s activities, describing them as an attempt to advance towards a nuclear weapons capability.

In January, U.S. intelligence chief James Clapper said Iran was keeping the option open to develop a bomb but U.S. intelligence agencies did not know whether it would eventually decide to build one.

At the Vienna talks next week, the IAEA will once again try to get Iran to address suspicions about military aspects to its nuclear work. Atop the IAEA’s agenda will be gaining access to a military site that they fear Iran may be "sanitizing" to remove incriminating evidence of tests relevant to nuclear weapons.

The following week, the six big powers – the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany – will seek gestures from Iran that would evolve into guarantees that it is not after atomic bombs. These could include much more intrusive IAEA inspections and limits on Iranian capacity to refine uranium.

By Nicholas Vinocur and Fredrik Dahl , Editing by Mark Heinrich

May 15, 2012 0 comments

USA

MKO remains on US FTO list

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plans to rule on whether to remove an Iranian dissident group from a U.S. terrorism blacklist about two months after its refugee camp in Iraq closes, the Obama

U.S. to decide MEK’s fate after camp closes

administration said on Tuesday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard arguments on a petition from the group, Mujahadin-e Khalq, or MEK, which is seeking an order forcing the State Department to either remove it from the list or require action within a specified period on its request to be delisted.

Iranians who belong to the group have been moving out of its Camp Ashraf base in Iraq to a processing center at a former U.S. military base in Baghdad, and the remaining 1,200 or so are expected to be moved in the next nine weeks or so, the administration said.

Clinton plans to decide on the group’s request to be delisted from the U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organization list "no later than 60 days after the last move," Robert Loeb, a Justice Department lawyer representing the administration, told the appeals court that heard oral arguments on the issue.

It appeared to be the first time that the State Department had publicly given a rough timeline for making a decision on the matter.

Loeb acknowledged that a 60-day period for a decision "may not be realistic" because they could find additional evidence that needs to be weighed, but that Clinton had authorized him to tell the court of her plan.

Loeb said the administration has been carefully weighing whether the group has fully renounced its violent past and given up any weapons. He denied that the process was without an end. Clinton said in February the camp move was a "key factor" to making a decision.

"We’re not citing world peace" as a goal to determine the fate of the designation, Loeb said.

Also known as the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran, the group led a guerrilla campaign against the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran during the 1970s that included attacks on U.S. targets. It was added to the list in 1997, but the group has said that it has renounced violence.

UNWELCOME IN IRAQ

The group, which has pushed for the overthrow of Iran’s clerical leaders, found itself no longer welcome in Iraq under its new Shi’ite-led government that came to power after Saddam Hussein’s downfall in 2003.

As a result of the MEK’s listing as a foreign terrorist organization, Americans are barred from supporting the group, and its members or representatives are banned from entering the United States.

A lawyer for the group, Viet Dinh, pressed a three-judge appeals court panel to force the Obama administration’s hand and said that the terrorism designation has "severe implications on constitutional liberties" for the group.

He denied that the MEK members at the base were armed and saying that "the group for a decade has renounced violence."

The three judges appeared skeptical of both sides during the arguments, acknowledging that it was not as if the Obama administration was "sitting on their hands", as Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson put it during the nearly hour-long arguments.

Judge David Tatel raised the possibility of establishing a deadline for when Clinton must rule or take the Obama administration’s backup suggestion to require regular progress reports to the court.

But he questioned whether the group wanted a decision that could go against the group now but in a few weeks or months could be reversed.

Dinh argued that the law required Clinton to make a decision within short order and that the group wanted a decision made even if it was not to delist it because then it could appeal it in the courts. "Any decision would be better," he said.

Tatel also pressed Loeb on why the administration just did not deny the application so the appeals process could move, but the lawyer said that the situation was "fluid" and did not want to risk hurting cooperation to close Camp Ashraf.

(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Editing by Philip Barbara)

By Jeremy Pelofsky

May 9, 2012 0 comments

USA

U.S. urges court to stay out of decision on MEK

The Obama administration on Monday urged a U.S. appeals court not to interfere with its review and decision-making process over whether to remove the Iranian dissident group Mujahadin-e U.S. urges court to stay out of decision on MEK Khalq from a U.S. terrorism blacklist.

The group asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to order the State Department to either remove it from the list or require action within a specified period on its request to delist the group.

The State Department urged the court to stay out of the matter, saying it was continuing to evaluate the matter, consulting with the intelligence community and other government agencies and that it had met with representatives of the Mujahadin-e Khalq.

Further, in its reply to the appeals court, the department repeated what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last month to U.S. lawmakers: that they were closely watching the group’s cooperation in closing its Camp Ashraf base in Iraq.

The group, which calls for the overthrow of Iran’s Islamist government, has been based in Iraq. It was supported by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, but is no longer welcome in Iraq under the Shi’ite-led government that came to power following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and Saddam’s downfall.

The Iraqi government plans to expel the residents of Camp Ashraf and is in the process of moving them to a processing center at a former U.S. military base in Baghdad.

Camp residents, who numbered about 3,000 and had been under the protection of the U.S. forces since 2003, agreed to be moved last month. U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq in December.

Also known as the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran, the group led a guerilla campaign against the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran during the 1970s that included attacks on U.S. targets.

As a result, the United States placed it on its list of foreign terrorist organizations. The group has said that it has renounced violence.

BAN ON FINANCIAL SUPPORT

Americans are banned from providing financial and other support to any group included on the so-called "Foreign Terrorist Organization" list, and its members or representatives are banned from entering the United States.

Representatives for the group, which has also received support from several former senior U.S. government officials, had urged the court to intervene and force the administration to act or take the step itself of removing the group from the list.

"Such relief would – despite the PMOI’s long history of terrorism – remove an important barrier to the PMOI’s ability to operate freely in the United States, and is clearly unwarranted here," the State Department told the court.

"Moreover, an order directing the Secretary to act by a particular date is also inappropriate given the highly complex and delicate overall nature of the matter pending before her," it said.

The State Department also warned that court action "would seriously interfere" with its efforts to resolve the Camp Ashraf situation.

A lawyer for Iranian opposition group, Viet Dinh, said that they would respond by the April 2 deadline set by the court.

"The important thing to recognize from the brief is that the Secretary recognizes her responsibility to delist the PMOI if it does not meet the statutory criteria, and she does not have any discretion to keep the group on the list simply out of national security concerns," he told Reuters.

The appeals court has deferred a decision on whether it will hear oral arguments in the matter.

The case is In re: People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, No. 12-1118.

Jeremy Pelofsky
(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

March 27, 2012 0 comments

The MEK Expulsion from Iraq

Iraq begins the Third Round of Expelling Mojahedin Khalq

Iraq on Monday night took a further step to expel hundreds of Iranian dissidents who received support from Saddam Hussein but who are no longer welcome as relations improve between the Shi’ite-ruled neighbours.

The Iraqi government aims to evict the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), which opposes the clerical rulers of neighbouring Iran and fought with Saddam’s forces in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

On Monday night buses moved 400 residents from Camp Ashraf – built under Saddam and which remained under the protection of U.S. forces – to a former U.S. military base in Baghdad, said Uday al-Khadran, mayor of the nearby town of Khalis.

The Iraqi government moved similar numbers of Ashraf residents to the temporary processing centre at Camp Liberty on February 18 and March 8 as part of its plans to expel them from the country.

There are now about 1,200 PMOI members at Camp Liberty and 2,000 still at Camp Ashraf. They say they fear for their safety now that U.S. troops have withdrawn from Iraq.

Residents agreed in February to move to the new camp, where the United Nations intends to process them for refugee status in other countries, but they complain that the conditions at the new base are dire. They say they have not been permitted to bring many of their personal belongings.

Behzad Saffari, a resident who moved to Camp Liberty last month and acts as a legal adviser there, said one of the new arrivals died of heart failure overnight shortly after the journey, after enduring 48 hours without sleep.

"At the movement it is a prison, with the saturation of police forces and no freedom of movement," Saffari said via telephone, since Camp Liberty is off limits to journalists.

He said others due for relocation were refusing to move to Camp Liberty until Iraqi police were withdrawn from the camp.

There is no suggestion that PMOI members will be sent back to Iran but finding refuge outside Iraq is made more complicated because the United States lists the group as a terrorist organisation. The PMOI carried out attacks decades ago including against U.S. targets but says it has long since renounced violence and shares the West’s opposition to clerical rule in Iran.

The European Union removed the PMOI from its terrorist blacklist in 2009 after being ordered to do so by a court.

(Reporting by Peter Graff in Baghdad and a Reuters correspondent in Baquba, Iraq; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Ben Harding)

March 24, 2012 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

Rajavi says no more transfers unless police leaves new camp

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. Rajavi says no more transfers unless police leaves new camp

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.

By Francois Murphy and Yara Bayoumy

February 19, 2012 0 comments

Iraq

Iraq extends deadline for closing MEK camp

Iraq on Wednesday extended a year-end deadline to close an Iranian dissident camp by six months, responding to a request by the U.N., which is mediating the resettlement of its more than 3,000 residents, to delay the closure. Iraq's Premier Nuri al-Maliki said he had agreed to extend the deadline

The 25-year-old Camp Ashraf, home to the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran, or PMOI, an Iranian opposition group that the United States and Iran officially consider a terrorist group, is some 65 km (40 miles) from Baghdad.

Iraq’s Premier Nuri al-Maliki said he had agreed to extend the deadline on condition the U.N. transfer about 400-800 residents to other countries before the end of this year.

"He (U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon) asked us to give them a chance and we gave them a chance. The case is now in the hands of the U.N. We hope they will close this file, we don’t want to hand them to Iran," Maliki said at a press conference.

"We don’t want to kill them, we don’t want to abuse them and we don’t want to make them starve. But their presence is illegal, so under any title, this has to end."

Camp Ashraf’s future became uncertain after Washington turned it over to the Iraqi government in 2009. Baghdad has repeatedly said it does not want the guerrilla group on Iraqi soil.

The United Nations, along with the European Union, has been trying to resolve the issue, one of the main outstanding problems left after the last U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq on Sunday, almost nine years after the 2003 invasion.

Rights group Amnesty International says the residents are subject to harassment by the Iraqi government and are denied access to basic medicine. More than 30 residents were killed in a clash with Iraqi security forces in April.

A leader of the PMOI said on Tuesday it would agree to a U.N. plan to move residents of the camp to a new location on condition that the U.N., U.S. and EU support and endorse the proposal and that the Iraqi government guarantee the residents’ security and well-being.

In the 1970s the group, which is also known as the Mujahadin-e Khalq (MEK), led a guerrilla campaign against the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran, including attacks on U.S. targets.

(Writing by Serena Chaudhry; Editing by Matthew Jones)
By Suadad al-Salhy

December 22, 2011 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

MEK exiles in Iraq may accept U.N. plan

The leader of an exiled Iranian opposition group said on Tuesday it would agree to a United Nations plan to move residents of a dissident camp in Iraq to a new location, depending on certain conditions and guarantees.

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

The Iraqi government, which is friendly with Tehran, has said it intends to close down the camp, home to an estimated 3,000 Iranian dissidents, by the end of this year, leaving less than two weeks to work out a solution.
Maryam Rajavi ,the so called leader of MKO
As described by U.S. officials on Monday, the U.N. plan would move the residents to a location near the Baghdad airport, where the United Nations would monitor them and process them for possible resettlement as refugees.

In a statement, PMOI leader Maryam Rajavi said the camp’s residents were "in principle" prepared to relocate on condition that the United Nations, United States and European Union support and endorse the proposal and that the Iraqi government guarantee the residents’ security and well-being.

The fate of Camp Ashraf is one of the main unresolved issues left over after U.S. forces withdrew from Iraq this month. 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, during which 34 people were killed, according to a U.N. investigation.

U.S. officials have urged residents to accept the U.N. plan.

Rajavi said Baghdad had refused U.S., U.N. or European Union forces protecting the camp, so the group wanted "minimum" guarantees before it would accept the plan.

Its demands include no Iraqi forces being allowed within the camp, independent U.N. and U.S. observers based at the new settlement, the end of harassment of camp residents, provision of medical supplies and international supervision of the transfer of residents and all belongings to the new camp.

Resettling the dissidents in other countries will not be easy given that some may be afraid to return to Iran, where they could be viewed as enemies of the state, while others may be regarded as terrorists by the United States or other nations.

In the 1970s the group, which is also known as the Mujahadin-e Khalq (MEK), led a guerrilla campaign against the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran, including attacks on U.S. targets. It says it has since renounced violence.

Reporting By John Irish

December 21, 2011 0 comments

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