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MEK ending standoff with Iraq government

Nejat SocietyDecember 29, 2011057 views

The head of an Iranian exile group holed up at a camp in Iraq said Wednesday that the first of the camp’s residents are ready to move to a new location picked by the Iraqi government, solving a potential crisis…Rajavi’s statement also gave rare insight into a camp that was built during the 1980s and has largely been closed off to the outside world. The group’s residents have not left the camp for years, and the little contact they have with outsiders is through the Iraqi military, visiting diplomats and aid agencies.

Iraq to relocate Camp Ashraf residents to Baghdad

Nejat SocietyDecember 22, 2011077 views

On Wednesday, Iraqi spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the government had worked out a plan to move up to 800 of the residents to a new facility in Baghdad by the end of December. That facility is a former American military base called Camp Liberty. Al-Dabbagh said the rest of the residents would be relocated as soon as possible in January. Once they have all moved, Camp Ashraf would be closed.He said all the camp’s residents would then be relocated outside of Iraq by no later than April..

Iranian exiles ;MEK ready to leave Iraq camp

Nejat SocietyDecember 21, 2011069 views

U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said Tuesday that the top U.N. envoy in Iraq, has made helping the Iraqi authorities and camp residents find a workable solution”a top priority.””The U.N.’s role here is to facilitate, to help the Iraqi government and the camp residents,”..ultimately it is the responsibility of the Iraqi authorities to work to find a peaceful way out of this, and for the residents of the camp likewise to shoulder their responsibility.”

Hundreds demonstrate in DC for Mojahedin Khalq

Nejat SocietyAugust 27, 2011066 views

… Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and former Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy were among those speaking in support of the Mujahedin-e Khalq. The midday crowd filled a a street outside the State Department for a rally with confetti and doves released into the air. The U.S. declared the group a terrorist body in 1997. But a court last year ordered the State Department to reconsider the designation. ..

Four more hostages have escaped from Camp Ashraf

Nejat SocietyJuly 2, 2011051 views

… An Iraqi official claimed Thursday that 58 people have fled from an Iranian exiles’ camp northeast of Baghdad and promised the government would help them immigrate into another country. The claim by Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammed al-Askari is the latest in the saga of several thousand Iranian exiles living in Camp Ashraf, where an April 8 raid by the Iraqi army killed dozens or residents. The camp is run by the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran,..

US to close base near camp housing MKO exiles

Nejat SocietyJune 12, 2010060 views

… Iraqi officials could not immediately be reached for comment. In the past, the government has said the exiles will not be forcibly returned to Iran, where the Islamic leadership considers the People’s Mujahedeen, or MEK/PMOI/MKO, an enemy of the state…The U.S. military will relinquish control of a base near a compound housing an Iranian opposition group next month

MKO still deserves its terrorist listing

Nejat SocietyJanuary 13, 2010068 views

The People’s Mujahidin is sick and tired of being called a terrorist organization by the U.S. government..The government’s lawyer, Douglas Letter, wasn’t about to negotiate with”an organization that for at least 30 years has been involved in terrorism, violence, assassination, et cetera.”He admitted the public record was not sufficient to demonstrate that the group still poses a threat, but he said”it was the classified material”that made it clear that the group still deserves its terrorist listing.

Iraqi official: 36 Mojahedin members released but their deportation order stands

Nejat SocietyOctober 8, 2009084 views

… The group, known as MEK, operated for years in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. The U.S. military turned over responsibility for Camp Ashraf to the Iraqis on Jan. 1. The U.S. considers MEK/MKO/PMOI a terrorist organization, though one that has provided the Americans with intelligence on Iran. The European Union removed it from its terror list this year…”We demand the international community help provide a place for them because they are unwanted persons,”al-Dabbagh said.”We are looking for a country that is willing to accept them.”Ali al-Dabbagh

36 detained Mojahedin members will be deported from Iraq but not to Iran

Nejat SocietyOctober 6, 2009078 views

An official in the office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Iraq is looking for a country to accept 36 detained members of an Iranian opposition group. The announcement was the first clear signal from the government on its plans for the men, who were arrested in a raid on their camp in northern Iraq in July ..The men were moved to Baghdad last week from Diyala Province, northeast of the capital. They are members of a resistance group, the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran[MKO/MEK/PMOI], which claims many of the men are severely weakened from a hunger strike..

As US Eases Out, Iraq Takes Control of Terrorist Camp

Nejat SocietySeptember 5, 2009071 views

The deadly melee at Camp Ashraf, the base of the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, provides a glaring example of what can go wrong as the U.S. military scales back ..Camp Ashraf and the presence of the Iranian exile group have long been a source of friction between Washington and Baghdad..The group _ also known by its Farsi name the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq _ is the militant wing of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran. It carried out a series of bloody bombings and assassinations in Iran ..