“The primary and overall responsibility to deal with the situation in Camp Ashraf lies with the government of Iraq within its sovereignty,”Martin Kobler, the UN secretary general’s special representative for Iraq..”In agreement with the government, we are in continuous contact with all parties, including the residents of the camp and the members of the international community to facilitate a peaceful and durable solution,”Kobler said.
Chief of Iraqi foreign policy commission Sheikh Humam Hammudi said inhabitants of Ashraf camp sought refugee status from Europe and Australia… inhabitants of the camp have embarked on high profile interaction with European and Australian ambassadors to Baghdad seeking refugee status from them. Hammudi reiterated that Iraqi state and nation unanimously want to expel MKO/MEK/PMOI members from Iraq ..
The US still labels the anti-Iran Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) as a terrorist group, says U.S. State Department Persian spokesman Alan Eyre.When asked whether the United States considers MKO aka MEK/PMOI a viable opposition group, he said: “No. The U.S. considers the Mujahedin-e Khalq a terrorist organization. That’s it.”
According to a report published by the Kuwaiti Al-Dar daily, the MKO/MEK/PMOI members had all-out cooperation with Saddam forces and were in massive intelligence coordination with former Iraqi regimes’ military and security authorities during the occupation of Kuwait.The MKO members had also participated in checkpoint operations and interrogated Kuwaiti citizens..The daily said that MKO’s main elements were stationed at a hotel near Hawalli square ..
… Sheikh Ali al-Zahiri, head of the support council of the Iraqi city of Khalis, said on Tuesday that the Diyala Province court has ordered the terrorist group to return 5,000 hectares of land located inside Camp Ashraf, where the MKO terrorists are located, to the Iraqi owners, IRIB reported. The outlawed MKO fled to Iraq in the 1980s, where it enjoyed the support of executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and set up Camp Ashraf in the northeastern town of Khalis, Diyala. The court ruling also required the MKO to pay compensation to 150 Iraqi families for the terrorist group’s illegitimate use of the land over the past three decades …
Most of the criticisms of the PMOI today converge on what is perceived to be their pursuit of power. The event in Paris did nothing to dispel such criticisms. It was undoubtedly led and orchestrated by genuine PMOI activists, but it is less certain how convinced the others present were about the gathering – people who had been offered an inclusive free trip to Paris.What they discovered when they got there was that they would not see Paris, but only a huge exhibition hall in Villepinte, with no shops, kiosks or even benches to sit on in the visible vicinity. While remaining sympathetic to the plight of the Iranian people, many seemed disappointed at being used to make up the numbers..
… Rajavi said the US was responsible to protect MKO members in Camp Ashraf and called for the formation of a permanent monitoring team backed by the United States and the European Union to ensure the safety of the terrorist group. In April, the MKO members clashed with the Iraqi security forces who were involved in an operation to reclaim land from the camp and return it to local farmers. The MKO claimed that the Iraqi forces killed 34 of its members in the clashes. But Iraqi officials refuted the allegation, saying the camp residents were killed by the MKO organization itself …
… 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,..
Four other members of the notorious Mujahidin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) have defected from the group and surrendered themselves to the Iraqi forces….In a press conference organized by the Iraqi Defense Ministry, the defected MKO members said since the US led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the leaders of the organization have turned the camp into a prison and the residents of the camp are completely cut off from the outside world.
… Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani says a committee has been formed to shut down a camp belonging to the anti-Iran terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO). “The government of Iraq will do all it can to prevent terrorism. We should attempt to close down MKO terrorists’ Ashraf Camp and we shall remove all those people. Those who are willing will go back to Iran. Others will go wherever they want to,” Talabani said in a speech during an anti-terrorism conference in the Iranian capital, Tehran, on Saturday. Talabani pointed out that the committee was formed by Iran, Iraq and the International Red Cross, reiterating that the camp would be closed by the end of 2011 …