Three other MEK loyalists have recently left Camp Ashraf and are now somewhere in Europe. The significance of this is that these three individuals are the MEK’s top explosives experts, trained by Saddam Hussein’s army. The three were tracked from Camp Ashraf until they reached Europe where the trail went cold. They are presumably now in one of the MEK’s aka MKO/PMOI many European bases. ..
U.S. officials testified before the House Foreign Affairs Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee last week that efforts to peacefully resolve the standoff are being rebuffed by MEK aka MKO/PMOI leadership. U.S. Special Adviser on Camp Ashraf Daniel Fried said MEK leadership has impeded a refugee resettlement process and interfered with the UN’s ability to conduct interviews with individuals at the encampment.
The MEK fled Iran in the mid-1980s and took up arms with Saddam Hussein in the fight against Iran; the group has also been linked to Hussein’s violent suppression of Iraqi Shiites and Kurds, according to the Council on Foreign Relations…The Obama administration has won Iraqi agreement for a plan that could avoid these outcomes. Overseen by the U.N. envoy to Iraq, it calls for the MEK members to be moved to the United States’ former Camp Liberty base..
The ICRC is prepared to visit anyone from Camp Ashraf whom the Iraqi authorities may detain. We would assess their conditions of detention and treatment, and would help them restore contact with their relatives, through Red Cross messages for instance. The ICRC is already making regular visits to detainees in Iraq, and we would assist any detained persons from Ashraf Camp in the same way. In 2009, the ICRC visited 36 Ashraf residents detained by the Iraqi authorities. ..
.. they are standing beside the grave of their former torturer. Both men were sent to Abu Ghraib political prison by Massoud Rajavi after extensive imprisonment, isolation and torture inside the MEK’s own prisons failed to force them to submit to Rajavi. Rafi’ee Nejad frequently visited them even when they were in Abu Ghraib. They were released during the fall of Saddam in 2003. There were over 50 registered ex-MEK prisoners in Abu Ghraib ..
“The residents of Camp Ashraf (the Camp of New Iraq) have caused a great deal of controversy here (Iraq) and in the United States. I would like to see this complex issue resolved peacefully and with the help of the UN.””The camp’s residents are classified as a terrorist organization by many countries and thus have no legal basis to remain in Iraq,”Maliki added…”No country would accept the presence of foreign insurgents on its soil, but we will work hard to find a peaceful solution
Azerbaijan and a number of other countries have agreed to receive nearly 900 members of the terrorist group of Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization.“Necessary measures are being taken through the cooperation of the Red Cross and Iraqi officials to transfer these individuals,” Mohammad Majid al-Sheikh …“The decision to expel MKO aka MEK/PMOI from Iraq is irreversible, and non-extendable,”..
Family members of one of the defectors were among the picketing families.He said that he had heard his sister’s voice via loudspeakers and had recognized her. Thus he was encouraged to endanger his life and ran away. “Thank God, I could release myself” he said. He hugged and kissed his brother and sister. The three escapees were warmly welcomed by the families who had tears of happiness in their eyes.
Both sides should allow the more than 3,200 Iranians at Camp Ashraf, in Iraq, to move to a protected location under UN supervision before the Iraqi government’s December 31, 2011 deadline for closing the camp, Human Rights Watch said. And both should allow the UN refugee agency sufficient time to conduct private and confidential interviews with each person to assess their refugee claims. “With each tick of the clock, the danger to camp residents grows..
Massoud Khodabandeh, from Middle East Strategy Consultants introduced the book ‘The Life of Camp Ashraf – Mojahedin-e Khalq Victims of Many Masters’ to the Conference. The book places the MEK in the context of its foreign ownership and concludes that these owners have invested heavily in the MEK’s ability to commit acts of violence and terrorism, and that this is the reason for western resistance to closing the camp..