An Iranian exile group attacked in Iraq this month has moved from terrorism lists to international good graces, but Baghdad wants it out over its opposition to Iran’s rulers and ties to Saddam Hussein.
On February 9, mortar rounds and rockets slammed into Camp Liberty, a former US military base near Baghdad that now houses some 3,000 members of the People’s Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), killing five people, according to Iraqi security officials.
The attack triggered condemnation from the United States and United Nations, but in Iraq officials are eager to see the group depart.
The PMOI’s "presence in Iraq is illegal and illegitimate," Ali Mussawi, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s spokesman, told AFP. "Their presence is rejected."
Iraqi political analyst Ihsan al-Shammari said the "nature of the relationship between the (Iraqi) Shiite political powers and Iran," Baghdad’s Shiite neighbour to the east with which it has close ties, is a key factor in Iraq’s insistence on the PMOI’s ouster.
Shammari also noted other factors including the PMOI’s links to executed dictator Saddam, under whose rule Iraq’s now-empowered Shiite majority was oppressed.
Saddam allowed the PMOI to establish a base called Camp Ashraf northeast of Baghdad after he launched the 1980-88 war with Iran, in which the group fought alongside his forces.
According to the US State Department, Saddam armed the group with "heavy military equipment and deployed thousands of (PMOI) fighters in suicidal, mass wave attacks against Iranian forces" near the end of the war.
Following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, the PMOI turned over "2,000 tanks, armoured personnel carriers, and heavy artillery," the State Department said.
The group was also allegedly involved in Saddam’s violent suppression of 1991 Shiite and Kurdish uprisings in Iraq.
"The former regime used (the PMOI) to carry out repression" in Iraq, said Dr Adnan al-Saraj, who has written books about the group.
Saddam gave the PMOI four bases in Iraq, buildings in central Baghdad and other perks including Iraqi passports and free petrol, Saraj said.
Almost all PMOI members in Iraq have moved to Camp Liberty from Camp Ashraf, the last of their bases, as part of a UN-backed process that aims to see them resettled outside the country.
But after this month’s attack, the PMOI complained about the slow pace of the process, which has dragged on as few countries have come forward with concrete offers of resettlement.
The PMOI has not taken the move from Camp Ashraf, where some members have lived for decades, quietly, alleging Baghdad is acting at Tehran’s behest.
It has also criticised the UN’s assertion that the camp meets minimum humanitarian standards and complained about a variety of alleged shortcomings including restrictions on using forklift trucks, which it said amounted to "torture".
While not accepted in Iraq, the PMOI has made strides internationally.
The group, which was founded in the 1960s to oppose the shah of Iran but took up arms against the country’s new clerical rulers after the 1979 Islamic revolution, successfully campaigned for its removal from US and EU terrorism lists.
The PMOI said it renounced violence in 2001 after carrying out attacks in Iran and elsewhere for decades. It now issues deluges of statements to the media and has enlisted well-known western politicians and officials as advocates.
The language of the official US condemnation of the attack on Camp Liberty also indicates the progress made by the PMOI, which was listed as a "terrorist organisation" by Washington until last year and by the EU until 2009.
The US State Department condemned it as a "terrorist attack," and also referred to the attack as a "tragedy".
Although the PMOI has gained international acceptance, Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert and senior associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the same is not true within Iran.
"They’re widely viewed as a backward and intolerant cult by their opposition peers in Iran," Sadjadpour said.
By W.G. Dunlop – Dailystar.com
THE US has rejected calls for Iranian exiles housed in a camp near Baghdad that came under mortar and rocket attack to be sent back to their former base near the Iranian border.
The death toll from Saturday’s assault on Camp Liberty, which houses about 3000 members of the opposition People’s Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK), has risen to seven, the group said.
Iraqi authorities are now investigating who was behind the attack, but the MEK and its supporters have called for the group to be allowed to return to their old base dating back to the 1980s – Camp Ashraf near the Iranian border.
"The answer for the individuals at (Camp Liberty) is not to relocate back to Ashraf, in our view," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
"The only peaceful and durable solution for these individuals is resettlement outside Iraq, and that should continue to be the focus of everybody involved in this effort."
The camp residents were reluctantly and finally moved from Camp Ashraf last year, on Iraq’s insistence, as part of deal negotiated via the United Nations.
They are now in the process of being resettled, and it is understood the United States and several European countries have agreed to take them in.
Nuland said the United States has still not made any decisions on whether to accept any of the residents.
"We are now in the process of evaluating some of the referrals that UNHCR has sent our way, and we’re strongly, as I said, encouraging others to do the same," Nuland said.
The MEK was founded in the 1960s to oppose the shah of Iran and took up arms against Iran’s clerical rulers after the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the shah.
The group says it has now laid down its arms and is working to overthrow the Islamic regime in Tehran by peaceful means.
Britain struck the group off its terror list in June 2008, followed by the European Union in 2009 and the United States in September.
France expressed support over transferring members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization outside Iraq, underlining its readiness to take part in coordination with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Iranian Fars news agency quoted French Foreign Ministry Spokesman Philippe Lalliot as saying that his country supports the UN plan to move the MKO to a third country.
Head of an Iraqi human rights group had said that Iraq seeks to try in absentia the members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as the MEK, NCR and PMOI) in Iraq.
He said the people of Tuz Khurmato, who are victims of the MKO and the trial is going to be held in their city, expressed happiness and satisfaction over the issue.
Six people were killed and more than 50 were wounded on Saturday when several dozen mortar shells fell on a refugee camp for members of an Iranian opposition group, according to an Iraqi police official.
The camp, on the site of a former American military base near the Baghdad airport known as Camp Liberty, is home to about 3,400 Iranian exiles who are members of Mujahedeen Khalq, or M.E.K., a militant organization. It was removed from the State Department’s terrorist list in September after years of intensive lobbying from prominent American politicians and former military officers, who viewed the group as a legitimate democratic alternative to the Iranian government.
In an e-mail sent to news media outlets in Iraq, the military wing of Hezbollah in Iraq, a militant organization believed to have connections to the main Lebanese group and to Iran, claimed responsibility for the attack and warned that others would follow.
Although Hezbollah in Iraq was active during the American military presence there, attacks by the group died down after the Americans left, and its leaders said they would lay down arms and join the political process. But in an ominous sign that a recent spate of deadly sectarian conflicts in Iraq might escalate, the group announced at a recent news conference that it was establishing a militia to fight Sunni groups that had been attacking Shiites. Camp Liberty is meant to be a temporary residence for the Iranian refugees while the United Nations works to find host countries for them. In a statement issued from Geneva, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, António Guterres, called the attack “a despicable act of violence” and said the residents of the camp were asylum seekers entitled to international protection.
In a statement, the M.E.K. accused the Iranian government and Iraqi forces of being behind the attack, and said the Iraqi government had recently removed the blast walls surrounding the camp, leaving the refugees unsafe. The group said that more than 100 had been injured in the shelling and that its demands to return to its previous location in Iraq, Camp Ashraf, had been ignored.
“The residents and their representatives have warned about a massacre by the Iranian regime and the Iraqi forces,” the statement said, “and demanded several times from the secretary general of the United Nations and U.S. officials to return to Camp Ashraf, where concrete buildings and shelters are available.”
Ali al-Moussawi, an Iraqi government spokesman, denied that Baghdad was involved, saying the accusation from the M.E.K. “is not the first time when they blame us for everything.”
The United Nations demanded that the Iraqi government open an investigation, saying in a statement that Martin Kobler, the United Nations special representative for Iraq, “called on the Iraqi authorities to immediately ensure medical care for the wounded.”
The M.E.K. had long resisted leaving Camp Ashraf, on land that had been set aside by Saddam Hussein, the toppled Iraqi dictator, and did so only because the United States made it a condition of dropping the group’s terrorist designation. An American official said in August that the M.E.K. had been using Camp Ashraf for paramilitary training.
The group carried out bombings in Iran in the 1970s against the shah’s government and later against the Islamic government, causing the death of several Americans, but by most accounts it has not engaged in terrorism in recent years. But Iraq’s current government, a close ally of Iran, views the M.E.K. as a terrorist group and wants it out of the country.
By YASIR GHAZI
Expressing disapprobation of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq group’s presence in Iraq, head of the Iraqi 
parliamentary committee on martyrs and political prisoners said that, if compelled, they would extradite MKO members to Iran.
“The United Nations should expedite the process of their expulsion from Iraq,” Muhammad al-Hindawi said, as quoted by FNA, Habilian Association reported.
“One day we may be forced to hand the MKO elements over to the government of Iran,” he said, adding that nobody in Iraq thinks about aggression against MKO members held in the country, but they have to leave Iraqi soil.
The Iraqi MP finally concluded that the government of Iraq is not responsible for the lives of these people, as it has not granted them political asylum.
Earlier this week, the temporary home of some 3000 MKO members came under mortar attack, leaving 6 dead and dozens injured.
In an e-mail sent to news media outlets in Iraq, the military wing of Hezbollah in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attack and warned that others would follow, NY times reported.
The High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres expresses his shock about this 
morning’s mortar attack on Camp Liberty in Iraq that reportedly killed six and wounded dozens.
"I strongly condemn this attack," Mr. Guterres said, noting that the residents of Camp Liberty are asylum seekers undergoing the refugee status determination process and thus entitled to international protection. "This is a despicable act of violence."
"I call on the Iraqi Government to do everything it can to guarantee security to the residents," he said. "The perpetrators must be found and brought to justice without delay," he said.
The High Commissioner also calls on all countries to help find urgent solutions for the Camp Liberty residents.
Mr. Guterres expresses his deep condolences to the families of the victims.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today strongly condemned a mortar attack on an Iranian exile camp near Iraq’s 
capital, Baghdad, which reportedly killed six people and injured several others.
According to media reports, the Hurriya camp, formerly known as Camp Liberty, was attacked this morning while most of the residents were sleeping. Iraqi police officers were among the wounded.
The camp serves as a transit facility for more than 3,000 exiles, most of them members of a group known as the People’s Mojahedeen of Iran, where a process to determine their refugee status is being carried out by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Camp residents were previously situated at Camp Ashraf in eastern Iraq, but were relocated last year, in line with an agreement signed in December 2011 between the UN and the Iraqi Government.
“The Secretary-General calls on the Government of Iraq, which is responsible for the safety and security of residents of both Camp Liberty and Camp Ashraf, to promptly and fully investigate the incident and bring perpetrators to justice,” said Mr. Ban’s spokesperson in a statement. “He has repeatedly stated that violence and provocation are unacceptable.”
Mr. Ban also reiterated the UN’s strong commitment to continue its long-standing efforts to facilitate a peaceful and durable solution for residents of both camps.
The High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, expressed his shock about the attack calling it “a despicable act of violence.”
“I call on the Iraqi Government to do everything it can to guarantee security to the residents,” he said. “The perpetrators must be found and brought to justice without delay.”
In a news release, the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said it is closely liaising with the Government on the response to the incident, including medical assistance to the wounded.
Mr. Ban’s Special Representative in the country, Martin Kobler, has also asked Iraqi authorities to promptly conduct an investigation into the mortar explosions.
Head of an Iraqi human rights group says Iraq seeks to try in absentia the members of the terrorist Mujahedin-e 
Khalq organization (MKO, a.k.a. MEK and PMOI) in Iraq.
“The silence of the Iraqi government, international organizations, and the mass media regarding the martyrs and victims of Munafeqin (hypocrites, a term used in Iran and Iraq for the members of MKO) grouplet made us request the hearing in the absence of the Munafeqin,” head of the Association of Justice to Defend Iraqi Victims of MKO, Dr. Nafe al-Isa, told Habilian Association in an interview on Thursday.
He said the people of Tuz Khurmato, who are victims of the MKO and the trial is going to be held in their city, expressed happiness and satisfaction over the issue.
He added that the trial will be held as coordinated with the judicial system, and the witnesses will be heard in the first session.
Dr. Nafe al-Isa also called on Iranian media to cover the sessions, the first of which will be held on February 18, 2013.
We dont have security here!!!!!!
Five deaths reported after mortars and rockets hit new transit camp housing members of opposition MEK 
group.
Dozens of mortars and rockets fired on a camp housing Iranian dissidents near Baghdad have killed five members of the opposition group, Iraqi security officials say.
Five members of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) were killed in Saturday’s attack involving the mortars and rockets, two Iraqi security officials said on condition of anonymity.
Between 39 and 40 members of the group were wounded, along with three Iraqi policemen.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on the transit camp, a former American military base known as Camp Liberty.
The United Nations called for an immediate investigation and said monitors were following up on the deaths, the first confirmed fatalities as a result of violence at the group’s new camp since they moved there last year.
The MEK, whose leadership is based in Paris, said in a statement that six people were killed and 50 wounded.
One Iraqi security official said around 40 rockets and mortars were fired into the camp, while the MEK said 35 were launched.
The UN said Martin Kobler, its special envoy, had asked Iraqi authorities to "promptly conduct an investigation into this," and added: "We have our monitors on the ground to follow up".
‘Hospitalised immediately’
Eliana Nabaa, spokeswoman for the UN mission in the country, said Iraqi officials had told the UN that "all those who were injured were hospitalised immediately".
Camp Liberty is home to about 3,000 residents from the MEK who were moved last year, on Iraq’s insistence, from their historic paramilitary camp of the 1980s – Camp Ashraf.
The MEK was founded in the 1960s to oppose the Shah of Iran, and after the 1979 Islamic revolution that overthrew him it took up arms against Iran’s rulers.
It says it has now laid down its arms and is working to overthrow the government in Tehran through peaceful means.
Britain struck the group off its terror list in June 2008, followed by the European Union in 2009 and the US in September 2012.
The US state department holds the group responsible, however, for the deaths of Iranians as well as US soldiers and civilians from the 1970s into 2001.
The MEK has no support in Iran, and no connection to domestic opposition groups.