Nobody knows how many people are in Camp Ashraf, because nobody can go inside. The residents are also suspected to be well armed. There could be as many as 3,200 people there, according to the State Department. If they are evicted from the camp, some will voluntarily go back to Iran and some will go to other countries. Others still may not actually be MEK aka MKO/PMOI members but could be living there for their own reason,..
On Wednesday, Iraqi spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the government had worked out a plan to move up to 800 of the residents to a new facility in Baghdad by the end of December. That facility is a former American military base called Camp Liberty. Al-Dabbagh said the rest of the residents would be relocated as soon as possible in January. Once they have all moved, Camp Ashraf would be closed.He said all the camp’s residents would then be relocated outside of Iraq by no later than April..
The 25-year-old Camp Ashraf, home to the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran, or PMOI, an Iranian opposition group that the United States and Iran officially consider a terrorist group, is some 65 km (40 miles) from Baghdad.Iraq’s Premier Nuri al-Maliki said he had agreed to extend the deadline on condition the U.N. transfer about 400-800 residents to other countries before the end of this year…
Recent MEK defectors from the camp interviewed by the Monitor say further dramatic acts may take place, as the deadline nears.”It’s clear to me, [Mr. Rajavi] wants people to get killed, and send it to the media,”argues Shahram Heydari, who left the camp two months ago. When the April clashes took place with Iraqi troops, he claims,”I clearly saw they [MEK aka MKO/PMOI] were pushing people forward”into the line of fire..
The fate of Camp Ashraf is one of the main unresolved issues left over after U.S. forces withdrew from Iraq this month. Residents of the camp have long said they fear for their safety at the hands of Iraqi authorities without U.S. protection…The leader of the group said on Tuesday it would agree to a United Nations plan to move residents of a dissident camp in Iraq to a new location, depending on certain conditions and guarantees…
U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said Tuesday that the top U.N. envoy in Iraq, has made helping the Iraqi authorities and camp residents find a workable solution”a top priority.””The U.N.’s role here is to facilitate, to help the Iraqi government and the camp residents,”..ultimately it is the responsibility of the Iraqi authorities to work to find a peaceful way out of this, and for the residents of the camp likewise to shoulder their responsibility.”
U.S. officials fear that unless MEK leader Maryam Rajavi gives her approval, there will be a bloodbath at Camp Ashraf, an MEK base 56 kilometers north of Baghdad that Iraqi leaders insist must close by Dec. 31. There are particular concerns that MEK members will clash with Iraqi security forces or commit mass suicide.. Experts on the MEK accuse its leaders of holding its own members hostage to efforts to get the organisation removed from the U.S. State Department’s list of FTOs.
“It will not in effect be an MEK-run facility, this is an Iraqi facility,”the official said, while stressing there would be U.N. monitors present to assure the facility does”not exist in the dark.”A second administration official described the facility as one with a good deal of”infrastructure,”and at a site that is”well known”to the United States. Neither official would confirm or deny whether the proposed facility is a former U.S. military base..
Labid Majid Abbawi said the residents of Camp Ashraf in Iraq will be transferred to another camp until the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) completes the necessary paperwork so that the Iranian refugees”can be sent to any country of their desire.”He said they would also have the opportunity to return to Iran.”For those who would like to go back to their own country, to Iran,..
And Maliki also said that Iraq’s decision to close Camp Ashraf, which is occupied by the opposition People’s Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), is final.”The decision we made is irreversible,”Maliki said. He said that a United Nations representative was not permitted to visit Camp Ashraf, and that the PMOI aka MKO/MEK had also refused to implement a UN plan to shut down the camp, saying that this reinforced Iraq’s decision. ..