The Iraqi government has confirmed that it will transfer the residents of Ashraf Camp to an unknown place in Baghdad or to a prison as the Mojahedin Khalq Organization has made it known through released news. The organization also states that transfer of its Ashraf Camp from Diala province to Baghdad violates all international calls and that it denounces claims of an agreement with the Iraqi government in this regard. Does the Iraqi Government actually needs confirmation of a terrorist group and arriving at any agreement to expel or relocate it to any place to have full control over it? Some may be of the opinion that long nurtured by Saddam Hussein and receiving supports by America after its invasion to recognize its members as refugees has emboldened the group to take a hostile attitude against any legal decision by Iraq.
But it seems that even Americans have lost their interest in the group since they may be accountable for any reaction by the group to protest its relocation as it did in July when the Iraqi police decided to establish a controlling post inside the camp. An evidence to present that US remains impartial, and putting the responsibility all on the Iraqi Government, is when the State Department spokesman in a press briefing gave details about the announcement by Iraqi Prime Minister Nori Al-Maliki of intentions to relocate or deport the Iranian dissidents at Camp Ashraf.
"QUESTION: On Iraq, Camp Ashraf, the Iranian opposition, says that the Iraqis are going to move them next Tuesday, I think. Are you going to try and use your influence with the Iraqis not to move them? The opposition says there’ll be bloodshed if they do attempt to do that.
MR. KELLY: Well, I think what we would do, first and foremost, is to urge the Iraqi authorities to conduct any such relocation with the residents of Camp Ashraf, that it be done in a lawful and humane way. They’ve made clear to us, to the Government of the U.S., that they do plan to do this. And this is entirely an Iraqi planned initiative. And as I said before, we’d expect this be carried out in a humane way.
We have, all along, recognized Iraqi sovereignty over the entire territory of Iraq, including the area where Camp Ashraf is located. And as I think we’ve said before, the Government of Iraq has assured us that they would not deport any of these citizens to any country where they would — if you have a well-rounded fear of being treated inhumanely.
So we — I mean, we’re engaging the Government of Iraq. Diplomatically, we respect Iraqi sovereignty. But of course, we’re making it clear that we would expect these – the residents of Camp Ashraf to be treated well and with respect.
The underlying truth in his response is that the United States deems the Mojahein Khalq a registered terrorist organization on its list notwithstanding its removal by judicial judgments from Britain’s list of terrorist organizations and from that of the EU. And of course it seems that the US has taken the right side since the organization has recently warned about any attempt to force its insiders from Ashraf and the US is among the firsts that were and are well aware of the group’s potentiality in waging violence to counteract moves by the Iraqi Government. Also to influence the public opinion, it has hired people to spread rumors of being relocated to notorious places that might jeopardize the life and security of its members.
Accounted by Allan Gerson, one of the advocates of the organization presently involved with other attorneys in representing it in its efforts to be removed from the U.S. List of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, the group is the subject of an appeal to be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington DC on January 12th. But what is he much concerned about is relocation of Ashraf residents to a place where he reveals to be Neqrat as-Salman, referring to it as a desolate military prison and as Iraq’s most feared prison after Abu Ghraib that has been used since 1921 for detaining mostly political prisoners.
For sure, there is no ambiguity in the case of Mojahedin Khalq; it is a proven terrorist organization and has to leave the country that is determined to remove the last remnants of a notorious dictator whose adherents are still embroiling the country in disorder and civil war that is taking many lives every day.
