Iranian dissidents at Camp Ashraf in Iraq’s Diyala province can transfer to another facility on a voluntary basis, Iraqi military officials said Tuesday..Baghdad plans to relocate the PMOI first to Baghdad and then to another facility in the south of the country.Iraqi Brig. Bassel Hamad added that if the residents defied government efforts to close Camp Ashraf, Baghdad would”find suitable solutions for this.”
People’s Mujahedeen aka MKO/MEK/PMOI representative Mehdi Farahi told Iraqi officials residents would not leave Camp Ashraf, where they were installed by Saddam’s regime 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Baghdad in 1985. “Any attempt to expel us forcibly will lead to the same clashes and confrontations as those of July 28 and 29,” he said, referring to violence at the camp this year in which the group says 11 people were killed.
Iranian dissidents protest the Iraqi government’s orders that they vacate Camp Ashraf, even as Iraqi policemen stood ready at Camp Ashraf in case violence erupted. The government says it intends to take the exiles, members of the Mujaheddin-e Khalq, to camps in the south. (Hadi Mizban/associated Press) Iraqi policemen, at right, stood ready in case violence erupted. The government says it intends to take the exiles, members of the Mujaheddin-e Khalq, to camps in the south.
… the Government would deal with members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization humanely, but at the same time we want the United States to respect our decision and comply with non-interference in the internal affairs and sovereignty over Iraq’s territory, as we do not want to alienate our relations with neighbouring countries …
… This requirement of respect for human rights must also apply to officers of the PMOI which, by all accounts, continues to use practices to intimidate the camp residents. Thus, they would not be free to decide their fate. As you know, France had objected that the PMOI/MKO/MEK, on the list of European terrorist organizations since 2002, was withdrawn in 2008 …
We have, all along, recognized Iraqi sovereignty over the entire territory of Iraq, including the area where Camp Ashraf is located. And as I think we’ve said before, the Government of Iraq has assured us that they would not deport any of these[Camp Ashraf] citizens[MKO/MEK/PMOI members] to any country where they would — if you have a well-rounded fear of being treated inhumanely.So we — I mean, we’re engaging the Government of Iraq. Diplomatically, we respect Iraqi sovereignty..
… The Government has invited the media to attend Camp Ashraf on the fifteenth day of December to cover the transfer of residents to the place allocated to them… The Government of Iraq has decided to move the residents of Camp Ashraf, all of which residents are members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, to another location which has not yet been disclosed. ..The issue of the MKO has been subject to protracted negotiations between the Government of Iraq and the U.S. over the fate of this organization which is classified as a terrorist group by both sides.
Washington respects any Iraqi decision regarding members of the dissident group People’s Mujahedin of Iran but urges caution, the U.S. State Department said.Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said this week that members of the PMOI/MKO/MEK would be relocated from their Camp Ashraf enclave in Diyala province first to Baghdad and then to a desert outpost in the Shiite south of the country.
Iraq will move exiled Iranian dissidents based at a camp close to the border between the two countries to Baghdad, a government spokesman said on Thursday.”We will move residents of Camp Ashraf to buildings in Baghdad on Tuesday,”he said, without giving details. The members of the People’s Mujahedeen have lived at Camp Ashraf, a refugee base in Diyala province north of the Iraqi capital, for more than 20 years.
Iraq plans to uproot an Iranian exile group that has become a headache for the Baghdad government and move the activists to a remote southern area until it can expel them, the prime minister said this week. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed to oust members of the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), an Iranian opposition movement that the United States considers a terrorist organisation, from a camp northeast of Baghdad where they have been living for two decades.