the spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said he had no information about any missing residents. He denied there are any plans by Iraq to forcibly send former Camp Ashraf residents to Iran, and he pressed for help in resettling them safely abroad.“These new allegations are baseless. The Iraqi government calls on all countries to accept them
visit was intended to be”on humanitarian grounds, to assess where we can assist,”said U.N. spokeswoman Eliana Nabaa….The U.N., the United States and Britain have condemned the violence but avoided assigning blame. All three have urged Baghdad to ensure the security of the remaining Ashraf residents and investigate what happened.Amnesty International also pressed Baghdad to carry out a full and impartial investigation…
Georges Bakoos, who oversees the MEK/MKO/PMOI issue for the Iraqi government, dismissed the dissident group’s allegations as “propaganda.” He acknowledged there are occasional power cuts at the camp but said they are no different as those in other parts of Iraq.
The United Nations envoy to Iraq said Wednesday that residents of an Iranian dissident camp are denied freedom of movement by the exile group, and that efforts to relocate them outside Iraq are being stymied in part by lack of cooperation from the residents themselves.
Albanian Interior Minister Flamur Noka pledged to quickly complete arrangements to resettle the 14. He told The Associated Press that they [MEK/MKO/PMOI members] will get the refugee status immediately and then receive residence permits and proper documentation.”They will be treated like every other Albanian citizen,”he said, though”for the moment they will have the status of the refugee,”meaning…
Gobadi said there are two options: “The first option is the immediate, even temporary transfer of all the residents to the U.S. or to a European country and permanent resettlement from there or the return of all of the residents to Camp Ashraf and the continuation of resettlement process from Ashraf, including transfer to Albania from Ashraf.”
Canada’s government said Thursday that it has removed an Iranian opposition group once allied with Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime from its official list of terrorist organizations…The MEK, also known as the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, carried out a series of bombings and assassinations against Iran’s clerical regime in the 1980s and …
Ban called on the Iraqi government and residents of both camps[Liberty & Ashraf] “to continue to work together in a constructive and flexible manner in order to complete the relocation process without further delay.”He stressed the importance of residents of both camps cooperating with Iraqi authorities and stressed the U.N.’s commitment to a peaceful solution.
An exiled Iranian opposition group [MKO/MEK/PMOI] being forced to relocate from its paramilitary base in eastern Iraq proposed on Saturday to temporarily move to the Jordanian border instead of Temporary Transit Location near Baghdad.Last month, the Obama administration offered to move the group temporarily to Camp Liberty [Temporary Transit Location ], which once was a base for U.S. soldiers.Iraq wants Camp Ashraf, with more than 3,000 residents, shut down.
..Clinton rejected the suggestion, saying that no country has raised the issue of the MEK’s terrorist designation with the State Department. And she backed an Iraqi relocation plan that has already taken 397 camp residents to their new, temporary home at the former U.S. Camp Liberty. “There were complications but it was peaceful,” Clinton told lawmakers in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, several of whom have strongly pressed the MEK’s case. ..