In a statement issued on 8 September by the French International Human Rights League (FIDH), it called on the Iraqi authorities and the US to commit publicly that they will not forcibly send MKO’s members held in Camp Ashraf back to Iran and that the Multi-National Force will continue with its protection of Camp Ashraf, or Ashraf City as they call it. The statement is one of the many MKO’s provoked activities in recent weeks to safeguard its cult bastion in Iraqi soil following the justly taken decision by the Iraqi government to take the control of the camp to have a more close control over the group’s suspicious activities that jeopardize the country’s domestic order. The first question that forms in one’s mind is where and when Iraqi and the US authorities have publicly announced they would extradite MKO’s members to Iran which has worried FIDH? And the second question is why nobody, including FIDH, is really concerned about the members’ grave condition and human rights violations within Camp Ashraf?
In respect to the issue of handling over the control of Ashraf to Iraqi government and its decision to expel its residents from the country, it has to be pointed out that it is a matter of internal affair adopted according to the Council of Ministers’ decision. As stated in the published statement, according to “A decision of the Council of Ministers of Iraq dated June 17 stresses that control on the People’s Mujahidines Organization of Iran (PMOI) should be handed over to the Iraqi government by the US-led Multinational Force in Iraq and the necessity to expel the PMOI members from the country. According to various media reports, this decision was followed over the last two months by repeated declarations by Iraqi officials that the PMOI should be expelled from Iraq”.
The Iraqi government is well aware of the fact that the group is a terrorist organization in close contacts with the remnants of Saddam’s regime and other terrorist, insurgent groups that intend to lead the country to the precipice of a bloody internal war. The Iraqi government recognizes MKO a terrorist group as it is on the list of many other countries. In spite of many existing evidences of the group’s collaboration with Saddam’s regime against Iraqi people, the Iraqi government has announced that it will treat MKO according to the international laws and under the surveillance of international humanitarian bodies.
If FIDH, ICRC, and other humanitarian groups and committees are really concerned about Ashraf residents, the best they can do is a close cooperation with the Iraqi government so a decisive and secure decision can be taken. To release members from the bond of a terrorist cult and prepare for them to find a secure living-place wherever in the world is the most appropriate humanitarian duty these organizations can accomplish. And the least they can do is to beware of misleading propaganda activities by the group to act as its mouthpiece.
