Day 460 Of Protest And Continue: MEK Refugee Camp Turned Into Concentration Camp

Iranian Protestors express shock at UN’s role in a possible humanitarian catastrophe in refugee camp to be and present Liberty prison

by Fabian Mahmoudi

(WireNews+Co) - Geneva, Switzerland - 06 August 2012

The Iranian Community has staged the longest sit-in near the UN headquarters in Geneva, to voice grievances and frustration of their relatives in Camp Liberty over the Iraqi Government’s non-compliance with its commitments.

The Iranian community has expressed particular concern over a possible humanitarian catastrophe at a greater scale than 2009 and 2012 in Camp Ashraf.

The residents are dissident members and affiliates of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK/PMOI) who accepted relocation from Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty, a former United States of America military base near Baghdad international airport, in order to begin the process of having their refugee status reconfirmed. Before being transferred to Camp Liberty, these persons and their belongings were processed for 11 hours by security forces, under similar procedures to those for admitting inmates to prisons. Many belongings, such as wheelchairs, communication and video equipment, personal photographs, medicine, heaters and sanitary equipment were not allowed and were confiscated.

The Iranian community at the sit-in believes the residents are facing forcible relocation, and their good-faith efforts have not been reciprocated. They specifically complain that the (Mr. Kobler) SRSG’s pledges in the past months have not been implemented and while he has ignored the violations of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), he has failed to report them to the UN Security Council. Whereas the public expected an official dismissal of allegations that the SRSG has acquiesced to the intervention of the Iranian government in discussions over the fate of the dissidents, no such attempt was made.

They also state that the SRSG’s reports to the Security Council had not been impartial in that his narration of the facts had been favourably disposed towards Iraq and cast a negative light on the conduct of the residents.

The community believes these had presented an inaccurate picture to the reality, including the dangerous assertions by the Iraqi Government that the residents of Camps Ashraf and Liberty had no legal status in Iraq.

The UN Human Right Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has in a recent opinion and letter to Iraqi government (sixty-third session, 30 April–4 May 2012) described the residents held in Camp Liberty as having “Protected Person” status under the Fourth Geneva Convention “

Consequently, the green light given by the UN Special representative Mr. Martin Kobler, has encouraged the Iraqi forces, who have been responsible for the two previous violent assaults of 2009 and 2011, to run the new Camp Liberty as a detention centre.

Documents have recently revealed Tehran’s hand in preparing maximum limitations in order to force a split within its main opposition, assembled in the camps.

On April 30, 2012, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the Human right Council expressed serious concern over the use of Camp Liberty as a detention centre.  

“The conditions in Camp Liberty are synonymous with those in a detention centre, as residents have no freedom of movement, nor interaction with the outside world, nor do they have freedom of movement and the semblance of a free life within the Camp. The situation of the residents of Camp Liberty is tantamount to that of detainees or prisoners…There is no legal justification for holding the above-mentioned persons and other individuals in Camp Liberty, and that such detention is not in conformity with the standards and principles of international human rights law, and more specifically violates article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and articles 9 and 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”

Iranians participating at the Geneva UN sit-in have been voicing demands, which include: Connection of Liberty to city-water-network or pumping water from a river near the camp; transfer of the main generators of 1.5 Mega Watt; allowing the sale of the movable and immovable properties; minimum constructions; particularly, six trailers for handicapped; transfer of the six utility vehicles; transfer of five forklifts and 50 passenger cars. The residents have expressed their readiness to implement the above eight items at their own cost and energy and by utilizing Iraqi contractors in a month after the approval by the GoI; and subsequently, the sixth convoy will be transferred to Liberty.

The Iraqi officials heading Camp Liberty have manifested a long list of “spontaneous breaches” of basic rights of the refugees, including forced assaults; kidnapping and hostage taking; depriving the wounded of medical treatment; implementing ‘white noise torture’ on refugees; transcending a refugee camp into a concentration camp; violating refugee rights by allowing surveillance and policing by agents of Tehran over the Camp; implementing three years of siege over the Camp; harassing outside aid to camp residents; terrorizing Iraqi neighbors to prevent communication with camp residents;  and one hundred other breaches of humanitarian obligations stipulated in the human Rights Charter.

The Iranian community supporting Human Rights and relatives participating at the sit-in rejected the extensive mediatic mud-sliding campaign against the residents and their leadership by the US State Department and the SGSR, Martin Kobler- who recently visited Tehran.

The Participants of the sit-in blamed the deadlock in completing the relocation of residents from Ashraf to Liberty on the Iraqi government's obstructions and repeated violations of written commitments that were stipulated in the MoU it signed with the UN.

Mr. Kobler and the US State Department will be held responsible for any humanitarian catastrophe facing the refugees in the Camp.