Iraq plans to close down Camp Ashraf, which is the seat of Iranian militant group Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MeK), within two months, Press TV reported Jan. 23, citing Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie. Al-Rubaie added that Iraq would allow MeK members to return to Iran or go to another country.
The Iraqi government this week accused an Iranian opposition group of planning a suicide attack against Iraqi troops, a possible prelude to decisive government action to close the group’s camp in Iraq and expel its members…Rubaie’s statement said a member of the organization had turned himself in to Iraqi security forces and told them that group leaders had instructed him to detonate explosives at the headquarters of the Iraqi security forces. The goal of the reported attack was to embarrass the Iraqi government, the statement said.
The security forces of Iraq have arrested a member of Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (aka: MKO, MEK, PMOI, NCRI, Rajavi cult) after he failed to carry out his suicide mission inside an Iraqi security base…According to the statement this member of Mojahedin Khalq has now complained about the severe exercise of torture and brainwashing techniques employed by the heads of the organisation. According to his written statements, he claims that: “I was sent with a clear and precise plan to perform a suicide mission in this Iraqi base”.
Noshin Bashiri was twelve years old when she learned that she had a mother in Iraq… Thirteen years later, when the United States had occupied Iraq and taken control of the Ashraf base, Noshin’s father Alireza Bashiri travelled to Iraq to meet the woman he is still married to under Iranian law, but the MEK would not let him meet her. The year after, father and daughter travelled together. Alireza still cannot meet her, but Noshin got a foot in the camp. After fifteen years of separation the mother and daughter were together for five days …
An Iranian resistance group that has been living in exile in Iraq for decades is no longer a welcome guest in the country and may have no choice but to return to Iran, where some of its members fear they could be tortured and possibly executed as traitors…now that the Iraqi government wants the MeK to leave Iraq, the group’s designation as a terrorist organization is preventing other countries from offering its members a new home, and they fear they may have no choice but to return to Iran.
U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker pointed out the Americans have designated the People’s Mujahedeen as a terrorist organization, and he understands the Iraqi government wants the group removed from its territory.But he said the Iraqis have promised to respect the human rights of the group’s members…”The Iraqi government’s position is that members of the Mujahedeen Khalq are unwanted here and they should leave Iraq and their camp should be closed, but Iraq will not make them leave forcibly,”Iraq’s deputy Foreign Minister told The Associated Press.
Al-Maliki also announced that there is”no place in Iraq for the terrorist”Mujahidin-e Khalq (MEK/PMOI/MKO) organization. The Iraqi government has taken control of Camp Ashraf, northeast of Baghdad, the terrorist training camp leased by Saddam Hussein to 3500 members of the Iranian MEK cult…In the end, as usual in the Bush administration, Washington gave us the worst compromise possible, declaring MEK a terrorist organization and going on using it for espionage and sabotage in Iran as well as against Iraqi Shiites
Maliki was speaking to reporters on the sideline of a ceremony during which the United States handed over to Iraqi forces security control of the Green Zone, symbol of the American occupation of the country. ..The PMOI”is a terrorist organisation and thus cannot operate in Iraq because it will create a political crisis in contradiction with the constitution,”Maliki said.”We will treat them based on the international laws.
Independent visitors to Camp Ashraf report that the inmates live in segregated barracks-style rooms. The International Committee for the Red Cross says several hundred former MEK members have left Camp Ashraf since 2003. The ICRC has helped more than 250 cross the border to Iran after conducting private interviews with each to ensure they are going voluntarily…