There is no formula to banish MKO’s procrastination that has delayed the process of transfer
The best way to get something done as easy as possible is to begin it in due course, but if you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it. Everything is ready according to already reached agreements to relocate the sixth group of Mojahedin Khalq Organization MKO/MEK members residing at Camp Ashraf to the Temporary Transit Location TTL near Baghdad. But so far there has been found no magic formula to banish MKO’s procrastination excuses that has delayed the process of transfer. However, MKO has no other option but to get past procrastination founded on ungrounded excuses otherwise it will be swimming against the current it has already set running itself.
There is not plenty of time for MKO and it is well aware of the fact that despite it is procrastinating, it will eventually have to actually submit to the transfer of the reminders. Massoud Rajavi, the leader of the group, in his message addressed to residents before the transfer of the third group, asked them to abide by the promises to be relocated to TTL; however, he never terms it transfer or relocation but “battle”: “today you have fought your first and second battles and two groups have already gone to Liberty. Now we are getting ready to fire the third big shot to send the third group. Congratulations!”
Thus, MKO considers the peaceful and humanitarian issue of relocation another battle that has to be fought to the end. And of course, a battle is not an easy job to accomplish and must be made as hard as possible for those on the opposite front. Asserted by the US officials even before the relocation began, who testified before the House Foreign Affairs Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, that efforts to peacefully resolve the standoff are being rebuffed by MKO leadership. The US Special Adviser on Camp Ashraf Daniel Fried also said “MEK leadership has impeded a refugee resettlement process and interfered with the UN’s ability to conduct interviews with individuals at the encampment”.
Calling it a battle or anything else, Rajavi has no other option but to let it be accomplished and all the residents be fully relocated to TTL because. Even those the group expects protection from voice that relocation of residents it is a humanitarian issue that should be made as easy and peaceful as possible to accomplish. In December 2011, Ambassador Daniel Fried, Special Advisor for Camp Ashraf for the State Department, made the cause clear and promised to monitor the process of the transfer: “Embassy Baghdad will visit former Camp Liberty on a frequent basis to provide robust observation. The US seeks a safe, secure, humane resolution. Our interest is humanitarian”. And the promise has been kept so far both by the US and UN as well as by the Iraqi government.
Immediately after that announcement, however, MKO advocates argued that the group should be allowed to stay at Ashraf beyond the agreement. And now, it has become evident that MKO is obstructing the process. The big impediment to the process is the group itself that turns a humanitarian issue into a subject for dispute and battle. That is how MKO defines “good will gesture” when Maryam Rajavi, living far from the regional afflictions and hardships of Iraq in the cool, luxurious comfort of her residence in France, agreed to relocate residents as a goodwill gesture.
Some say Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin. That is true from the angle that by refusal of transferring Ashraf residents MKO is assassinating their granted opportunity of regaining their freedom. But the group will also lose the opportunity of the promised immediate post-relocation interests atop of which stands its removal from the terror list. But there is none if MKO is expecting for the better. Although it is acknowledged that the MKO leadership can be helpful in reaching a humanitarian resolution, which he completely disregards, he has unilaterally resisted de-politicization of Camp Ashraf and grabbed at a vague, faint hope that procrastination is the fancied chance to retard the progress of losing members. He just keeps putting off complying to make it hard both for the insiders and outsiders.
