The Iraqi authorities have reiterated that they are decisive in their decision to relocate Ashraf residents to the southern part of the country as a prelude to expelling them. The decision is the outcome of many failed attempts to convince the Western countries and other international bodies and organizations to find another willing host country for them since Iraq is no more interests to host the remnant terrorists of the former regime. However, the hard point is that there is still no specifically set timeframe for the relocation of Camp Ashraf to a certain temporary camp. It is much because none of the local provincial officials have assented to accept the risk of Ashraf residents’ relocation to the areas under their control and have warned that it would spark violence in peaceful areas. That is in absolute contradiction with MKO’s widely advertized claims that it has the support of many Iraqi Sheikhs and tribe leaders as well as known figures on its back.
As stressed before, MKO is the only opposition among all that has turned into a real problem for not only among other opposition but its own advocates in western and non-Western countries and parliamentarians since it has proved not to be a trustable company despite its beneficially hireling activities for all adversaries against the Iranian regime, from Saddam to the US that has globally registered it as a terrorist group. The worst, there is no Saddam to defend it against any opposition and no area on the Iraqi soil is willing to accept them even for a short while before their complete erase from the country.
The first signs of protest were publicized when, as a new devised strategy for Ashraf residents, the Iraqi government announced it would shut Camp Ashraf and move the occupants to Muthana, a province in southern Iraq. The local officials in Muthana resoundingly rejected the resolution and Ibrahim Salman al Mayali, the provincial governor, said he would do all he could to oppose a relocation. He argued that his people would not welcome a terrorist organization that once Saddam had sent its members to stop a revolution against him in 1991. He reasoned that “I cannot stop my people’s anger against this terrorist group. Maybe they will want to take revenge for 1991 and attack them. I certainly could not guarantee security for the MKO here.”
A leading local tribal leader, Sheikh Resan al Myasar, also cautioned there would be violence if the government resolved to send MKO members south. He justified that “We have not forgotten that they showed us no mercy when they crushed the uprising and so now the sons of our tribe would show them no mercy. There is malice here; the people of Muthana want to bury them with their hands.”
Whatever measures the Iraqi authorities decide to take with regard to the future of Camp Ashraf is lawful and according to the constitution but the people of Iraq have also the right to be sure of their security when they are just close to a temporary camp where the notorious accomplices of the ousted dictator are to reside. The thousands numbers of MKO’s claimed supporters exist only on the papers and its own publicized sites. The only ones MKO believes can be of any help to it are out of Iraq as it urges the United Nations and the American government over and over to guarantee the protection of Ashraf residents and ensure prevention of forcible relocation and a repeat of use of force and violence against them.
So far, the failure of the Muthana relocation attempt means that the issue of the MKO remains stuck in a stalemate. That is much because nobody is still convinced that the group’s terrorist potentialities are diminished and its link with insurgent groups gut off; it is a risk to have them around. The new proposal for solving the problem, although no country has yet assented to receive the group, by the Iraqi Government is to move Ashraf residents to Nuqrat al-Salman, a desolated prison camp. Although MKO has started a vast propaganda blitz to show its strong opposition to the decision, does Rajavi deserves any other place on the earth than a wasteland to wander?
