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.
Stratfor.com
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.
The Mujaheddin-e Khalq, or MEK, on Tuesday denied Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie’s allegation that it was planning an attack. Rubaie, who made the charge Monday during a visit to Tehran, offered no evidence to back up his assertion.
The fate of the MEK has long been an irritant in relations between the government of Iraq, which has built close ties with Iran, and the U.S. government. The MEK received support from Saddam Hussein’s government and has been designated a terrorist organization by the State Department, but the U.S. military has protected the group’s base in Iraq, known as Camp Ashraf, since the 2003 invasion. U.S. officials credit the MEK with providing information about Iran’s nuclear program.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki wants to expel the MEK. Iraqi officials have said the group’s continued presence has a destabilizing effect and hinders relations between Iran and Iraq.
The United States handed nominal control of the outer perimeter of the camp to the Iraqi government Jan. 1, when a new security agreement between the United States and Iraq came into effect. The agreement gives Iraq greater say in security matters, but U.S. officials said they intend to keep a military contingent at the camp to help the Iraqi government honor its commitments to treat the group’s members humanely.
In 2003, the U.S. military reached an agreement with the group that offered its members protection in exchange for their disarmament.
Rubaie told reporters Monday in the Iranian capital that”the Iraqi government has made a serious decision to expel”the 3,500 MEK members who remain at Camp Ashraf, according to a report on the Tehran Times Web site.
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.
Maj. Neal Fisher, a spokesman for the U.S. command that has soldiers stationed at Ashraf, referred questions about the alleged plot to the Iraqi government.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran, the MEK’s political wing, called the allegation a”blatant fabrication”that was part of a”conspiracy”between the Iranian and Iraqi governments to build a stronger case for the expulsion of the group.
Maliki reiterated his intension to shut down Camp Ashraf during a speech Jan. 1, saying the group’s continued presence is a violation of the Iraqi constitution and troubles Iraq’s neighbors.
The MEK was formed in the 1960s to oppose Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the autocratic ruler who fled a 1979 revolution led by Shiite clerics. In the 1980s, many MEK leaders moved to Iraq, where they were welcomed by Hussein, who mobilized them in his war with Iran.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, three Iraqis were killed and two U.S. soldiers wounded in an explosion in Mansour, a district in eastern Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement. An Iraqi police official said the explosion was caused by a car bomb that was detonated as U.S. soldiers were leaving a meeting at a government building. The U.S. military, citing”intelligence sources,”accused the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq of carrying out the attack.
Earlier in the day, two Iraqis were killed in Karrada, in southern Baghdad, after a roadside bomb exploded near a convoy transporting officials from the Education Ministry.
By Ernesto Londoño
The office of Mr. Movafagh Al Rabiee, Iraq’s National Security Advisor, has issued a statement. 
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 source this resident of Ashraf camp (MKO base) gave himself up and is now being kept in secure and safe conditions.
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”.
According to the statement of the office of Iraq’s National Security Advisor, “the aim of this suicide attack has been to put pressure on the security forces of Iraq, to entangle them in this because it is this new force that has taken over the security of Ashraf camp from January 01, 2009”
The statement says it is believed that this was to be used in the media in the Arab world as well as the western media by MKO and its supporters. It also has the aim of making the disaffected members inside the camp afraid of giving themselves up to the Iraqi forces.
The statement adds that every effort is being made to either repatriate him voluntarily or find another country to transfer him. The Iraqi government wishes to announce that while the government of Iraq is committed to all its international obligations, including any promises made to the United State administration, that: “the security forces of Iraq are aware and conscious of the fruitless activities of Mojahedin Khalq Organisation in creating disturbances in Iraqi society and have been briefed to be able to carry out their duties”.
Buratha News in Baghdad, January 19, 2009
http://burathanews.net/news_article_58139.html
Noshin Bashiri was twelve years old when she learned that she had a mother in Iraq
She lives in the countryside outside Notodden center with her partner and cat. Noshin Bashiri (21) is free from the job that hjelpepleier the day Klassekampen will visit. She offers a treat of coffee and chocolate biscuits in the bright apartment, which is one of several in an old våningshus. We have a good time, for it is a long story she has to tell us. She has not told it to many, and never to journalists before. She seems a little surprised by our interest in it.
– Do you think that it will help? Do you think the mother will come back?
Noshin Bashiri’s mother is one of 3,400 members of the opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), or People’s Mujahedin, who live in Ashraf camp in Iraq. MEK operated under Saddam Hussein’s protection for many years. When his regime was toppled and Iraq was occupied by Americans, the camp was disarmed. MEK aims to overthrow the regime in Iran. But now maybe nearly 30 years of armed actions and terrorist are coming to the end. When Obama’s withdrawal plan from Iraq is set out in fact, the base will probably be left to the Iraqi authorities, who say they will shut down the base. Iranian Press TV reported on Tuesday of this week that Iraq had already taken over the responsibility. But what will happen to residents in the camp?
Bashiri hopes that her mother will come to Norway. But she has her doubts. She has been in Ashraf three times to try to get back her mother. Each time her mother remained in the base.
Bashiri thinks it is because she is brainwashed.
– First, you want her, but after talking with leaders in the camp, she ombestemmer him. They are in a way held there. If they had wanted to be there, it would be okay. But there are some who are forced to be there, and it is completely wrong”, said Bashiri and looks at the fresh snow that has fallen on the white fields outside
Three weeks earlier in an office in Teheran our curiosity was sparked when the name "Bashiri" was mentioned along with "Norway". Klassekampen was reporting from Tehran and the office of Islamic law, which follows the foreign journalists, said it would be happy that we met the Nejat non-governmental organization, composed of defectors from the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK).
Nejat means "salvation" and aims to help those who wish to get out of Ashraf-camp. In 2004, Iranian authorities gave amnesty to members of the organization who wanted to return to Iran. In cooperation with, among others, the Red Cross Nejat has now helped 800 to leave the camp and establish a new life. 500 have established themselves in Iran in spite of the many Iranians who regard them as traitors, because of cooperation with Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war and going on to attack Iran. They have also killed several civilians in acts of terrorism, including 26 pilgrims who were killed when MEK blew a bomb in the Imam Reza holy shrine of the 8th Imam in the holy city of Mashad.
Nejat is concerned with reconciliation and that those who come out of the camp get psychological follow-up. They also advise families in how they can be a support for ex-members. Since some have lived as long as 22 years in isolation, they have missed the important mental development and sense of community around them. According to the organization Human Rights Watch there has been serious human rights violations inside the Ashraf-camp. In a report from 2005, partly based on interviews with dissidents, HRW uncovered cases of total isolation, cruelty, verbal and psychological abuse, threats of execution and torture, which in two cases led to death. The report was met with sharp criticism of the Mujahedin when it was launched. Among other things because the interviews were conducted by telephone. As a result of the criticism Human Rights Watch carried out a further report, this time directly with the dissidents, and they came to the same conclusion.
Ebrahim Khodebandeh, spokesperson for Nejat, mentions Noshin Bashiri and her father as an example to illustrate that the MEK recently have been more reluctant when it comes to allowing their members to come in contact with the family. Nejat assisted the Bashiri-family and two other families from Iran and Canada in January 2007. They waited for several weeks in Baghdad before they had contact with the base, located near the town of al-Khalis, north of Baghdad. When they finally came into Ashraf, Noshin and Alireza Bashiri met members of the MEK, but they did not meet her mother and his former wife. Strains from the trip had been so tough that the young woman suffered a late miscarriage.
We are in Notodden to check the history of Nejat against Noshin Bashiris history, and the young woman confirming everything together. Also, about her miscarriage.
– I do not know if it was because of the strain, or whether it would have happened anyway. But to be taken care of by the Iraqi hospital was a terrible experience", said Bashiri.
An important additional piece of information she has, nevertheless, which Nejat did not have from her.
– I was talking to mom in five minutes. She saw me in the camp and pulled me into a tent where we were talking a little" said Bashiri.
Her mother had made it clear to Noshin that she would not join her in Norway. She had been agitated and had said that she did not have as much time to talk, because she had to work.
Repeatedly, there was a man who disturbed them and insisted they should take a picture together.
After this last trip to Ashraf was Noshin tired.
– I cannot be bothered to get there more. I get so tired. Also, it is not easy to take time off for five weeks as we had last time. It is not only just to travel in Iraq, "said Noshin.
She has much to tell, and wonder if we can take a break so she gathers herself together somewhat.
Noshin Bashiri was twelve years old when she learned that she had a mother in Iraq. It was his father’s new wife, who said that she was not her biological mother. She first came into the picture when Noshin was seven.
– Dad married again so that I would have a mother, "said Noshin.
But after Noshin was informed that she was not her biological mother, the relationship between them deteriorated. Today the father Alireza is divorced. It is only Noshin and her father Alireza Bashiri which represents the family in Norway, as it was when they were re-united when Noshin was four.
She remembers nothing from the first three years of life when she was with the mother. What she knows is primarily based on what her father told her.
– Mom and Dad were married when they lived in Iran, then they moved together to Germany where they had me. In Germany, they were familiar with some of the Mujahedin who advertised for the organization and urged them to travel to Iraq to join the resistance movement. They left when I was three months old. But after two years was dad regretted it. He knew that [the struggle] there was not serious. He insisted on leaving and came to Pakistan, and so my mum and I were left, "says Bashiri.
She says that the main reason why her father was upset was that he could not be with his family.
– When we got there, there were many who were married and had kids. But then all had to distinguish themselves, because they should be soldiers. That was when Dad did not accept anymore. He did not see me more than once a week. It seemed he was difficult. It was not why he had gone to Iraq. He quarrelled with the leaders of the camp to come home every night to where mom and I were so he could see me. Finally he accepted no more. He also hoped that I could come to a country where I could have a better life. Dad thought so, but not my mom. She thought that I could be OK there" said Noshin.
How was it not? When Saddam Hussain invaded Kuwait in 1990, it was decided that there would be no young children in Ashraf-camp.
– They sent out all the young kids because there was a war. Those who did not have family abroad, were sent to foster families. I came to a foster family in Syria first. When dad found me there, he contacted the Mujahedin in Oslo, and so I was sent to Norway" she says.
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.
– We got a room where we would share a double bed. We were almost never alone. The people came to us the whole time. We could not be alone much and talk together. Mom awoke early every day and went out and worked. They made food, arranged the garden, washed clothes. It was work from morning to evening, and at night they switched over to guard duty. For me, it seemed as if they had so much work so that they should not be alone much and think. If you think too much you’ll see that they have no life. There are so many who have been there for too long, so they almost do not know how it is to live outside of Ashraf" said Noshin.
Noshin tried from the beginning to get her mother to consider a life outside the camp.
– She said only that she could not go because she could not abandon the work for their country. She said she did it for me, and that Iran would become a free country and throughout the regulations where, say Noshin.
After two days of persuasion from her daughter, the mother began to slide.
– She began to say that maybe she should come to Norway and have contact with the Mujahedin from there, for she would not break with them. She would not have the reputation for that.
The third day the mother said that she would ask the leaders if she could go.
– She came back to let me know that it was okay. She would get the trip. She only had to complete some things first.
The agreement was that she would come after six months. But she didn’t turn up. When a year had passed Alireza Bashiri went there alone. He did meet her for ten tough minutes.
– She had surrendered herself to them completely. Now she would not travel at all. She stood and cursed at Dad and said he cooperated with Iran and that he was a shame for their country. After a long outpouring she just left without saying goodbye to him, said Noshin.
The following year they travelled down again. It was on this last trip they had assistance from the organization Nejat. After several weeks of waiting Noshin and her father and the other families as well as representative from Nejat managed to get into the camp. They sat in a small room for three hours and waiting for clearance from the leaders to meet their family members. Noshin felt sick with the heat in the room and went out to get fresh air. It was then that she saw her mother.
– She saw me and dragged me into a tent only a few meters away.
Noshin recounts the conversation with her mother for us. They could only speak for five minutes. The whole time the mother couldn’t concentrate and broke her thread of thought and was concerned about a man who repeatedly came in and nagged them to take pictures.
– Come here, so we take pictures together" she said.
– Can we not sit and talk a little, I have not seen you for so long. Why have you not come? You promised that the last time.
– No, I changed my mind. There is nothing for me to do in Norway.
– But I need my mother.
– No, you do not. You are an adult. You are 20 years old, so you do not need a mom" she says and starts to laugh.
– What are you doing here? Asked Noshin.
– Do you think you are the only kid without a mother? There are hundreds of thousands who have no mamma. You are not the only one here.
Noshin shakes his head.
– She was like so rude too.
– Are you mad at your mother?
– In a way I am. Nothing is more important than your kid, I think. But Mom said that her country was more important than me. She said that there were many kids who had it as hard as me. I was not the only one. So it was cool really. I should just be glad that I do not still live with a foster family, but that I lived with Dad" she said.
It has been impossible to determine how many children of Mujahedin members have grown up without their parents, but it is a known issue that women in Ashraf-camp sent their children away.
In 1999, a women’s magazine printed a report on Ashraf-camp by the British journalist Christine Aziz. Her approach was feminist and in the report, we meet the tough female soldiers who operate weapons training. The women also speak as victims of what they have done, that they have to live in seclusion, and that they have to give up children so that they don’t get hurt.
– I had to give up my kids, and they now live in the Netherlands, says Zahra in the report: "Her face is black with oil and sand, and her hands are red and sore after the effort to maneuver the heavy vehicle. She looks up at the gun during speaking:
– I love my tank, "she says, smiling and slapping it.
After Noshin and father had come back to Norway after this last visit to Ashraf base, the mother was put on a programme on the Mujahedin’s TV,(they also have a satellite channel).
– She said that Dad had fooled me so that I had been a shame, because I worked with Iran. She claimed that I had been deceived by my father and that it was unfortunate that some had a child like me.
Noshin shakes his head.
– I have also seen the film of members of the Mujahedin who set fire to themselves in response to the arrest of their leader. They are quite brainwashed" she says.
Noshin’s father should have told the mother that she has been subjected to threats.
– They have said that if she travels with me, they will get their people in Oslo to send someone to kill me. I do not think anything of it, but she is terrified, and dare not say anything against them" said Noshin.
She thinks it’s strange to think that she is now as old as the mother was when she went to Ashraf-camp. We’re shown a picture of her just before she left Iran.
The photographers want us to go outside to take their pictures of Noshin. After the photographer has finished, we ask:
– What do you think when you see the pictures?
– I think that it is my mother.
Åse brand vold, Klasse kampen, January 20, 2009
http://www.klassekampen.no/
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.
Some 3,400 members of the militant group the Mujahedin-e-Khalq — the People’s Mujahadeen of Iran, or MeK — have lived at Camp Ashraf, a 14-square-mile base north of Baghdad, since Saddam Hussein invited them there in 1986.
But the current Iraqi government, which took control of national security on New Year’s Day, has made it clear that it wants the MeK out. The government is unmoved by a sustained international campaign by the group that has included demonstrations and sit-ins in Washington and Geneva, Switzerland.
The MeK was founded in Iran in the 1960s, when it organized as a group opposed to the rule of the Shah. For more than two decades, it carried out a campaign of bombing and sabotage against the Iranian government, including the killing of U.S. citizens working in Iran in the 1970s, which led it to be designated an international terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.
The MeK cooperated briefly with the clerical regime that overthrew the Shah in the Islamic Revolution, but then it turned against the nation’s new religious leadership, as well.
Despite its history of violence and its official designation as a terrorist group, some U.S. officials have been sympathetic toward the MeK because of the potential that it could be used as a card against Iran. But 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.
On Jan. 1, during a visit to Iran, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki re-stated his government’s position:
"Iraq is determined to put an end to this organization because it is affecting relations between Iran and Iraq. This organization participated in many operations that harmed Iranian and Iraqi civilians under the Saddam regime."
Al-Maliki was referring to evidence that the MeK collaborated with the government of Saddam Hussein, particularly during the Kurdish uprising in 1991 when thousands of Kurds were massacred. The MeK denies involvement in the repression and cites supporting statements from, among others, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
Hopes had risen among MeK members and their overseas supporters that they had found a means of remaining in Iraq when the U.S. Embassy said on Dec. 27 that American forces would "maintain a presence at Camp Ashraf … to assist the government of Iraq in carrying out its assurances of humane treatment of the residents."
"It means the United States has recognized its responsibility to ensure the safety and security of our people in Ashraf," said Ali Safavi, an official of NCRI, political wing of the MeK.
But the U.S. government no longer considers MeK members in Iraq to have the protected-persons status the U.S. gave them in 2003, and is privately supportive of Iraqi government efforts to encourage the residents to leave.
The U.S. also doesn’t have the final say, as the Iraqi government assumed responsibility for all detainees on Jan. 1 under the terms of the Security Agreement.
The MeK once had the finest tank division in Iraq and harbored hopes of leading a resistance army back into Iran to topple the Tehran government. But it was disarmed in 2003 by Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno, then of the 4th Infantry Division, who put U.S. guards on the gate.
By then, the MeK had many enemies in Iraq as well as in Iran.
Nabaz Rasheed Ahmed, 61, a commander of the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in 1991, said MeK forces attacked his battalion in Chiman, Kirkuk province, in 1991.
"Mujahideen fighters who were backed by Iraqi army helicopters and tanks attacked my battalion in March 29, 1991. They killed many of my Peshmergas and wounded a lot, including me," he said.
The military architect of that uprising was Neywshirwan Mustafa, 64, who now is chairman of the powerful Kurdish media group Wusha Corporation. When told that the MeK denied helping Saddam in his crackdown on the Kurds, Mustafa said:
"That is not true. They were working in cooperation with the Iraqi Army…. They attacked many bases belonging to the PUK.
"They occupied the road from Kanar to Kirkuk. They occupied a hospital in Kanar. They killed a doctor and many other civilian people. Saddam Hussein was protecting them in Iraq".
Abdullah Safir, 59, a Kurdish English teacher who lives in Kifri, in Kirkuk Province, says he was there when the MeK mobilized against his town in 1991.
"I knew they were opponents of the Iranian regime at the time. I did not expect them to intimidate people in a country in which they were guests, and to interfere in internal issues."
Safir recalled how the MeK shelled Kurdish towns "at random," took locals hostage, and in one incident attacked a busload of young people from Kifri, killing all 20. He remembers seeing some of the bodies when they were brought home and said that one or two had been run over by MeK tanks.
Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group, which analyzes the causes of conflict, has also investigated the MeK’s role in Iraq.
"The MEK has yet to own up to its intimate relationship with the Saddam regime, which protected it and deployed it against its enemies when this served its purpose," Hiltermann said. "It thus acquired its reputation as the ruthless tool of a thuggish regime."
Shorsh Haji, a researcher on Kurdish issues who lives in the United Kingdom, escaped from Iraq after the 1991 uprising with many Iraqi secret police documents and worked with New York-based Human Rights Watch to analyze the content. He said the mukhabarat — a branch of Saddam’s intelligence service — wrote in their reports that the MeK "heroically resisted the rebels and traitors who wanted to occupy Kirkuk."
The intelligence the MeK had on Iran made them most useful to Saddam — and later, to the United States, Haji said. And that, he said, accounts for the protection the U.S. gave them at Camp Ashraf.
One MeK member told FOX News that the group gave the U.S. the names of "32,000 Iranian agents working inside Iraq." She also mentioned MeK’s purported role in revealing the extent of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, though subsequent reports support the view that Israel actually provided the information for the MeK to release.
Iraq has told the residents of Camp Ashraf that they must be gone by March of this year. It has promised they will not be forcibly repatriated to Iran, but it is not clear where else they could go.
Sources told FOX News that the Iranian government has a list of 50 "most wanted" MeK members, around 20 of whom are believed to live at the camp.
In recent years Iran has made much of a new policy of humanely "readmitting" former MeK members into Iranian society, with the help of a group of ex-members called the Nejat Society, which means "Rescue."
Behzad Saffari, legal adviser for the MeK, told FOX News: "Anyone who repents or remorses the past are welcomed by the Iranian regime and can be used against the MeK. They are a useful commodity. But anyone who goes back to Iran and still keeps the ideas of the MeK — they will be executed."
Approximately half of the residents of Camp Ashraf are under 30 years old, too young to have been part of the MeK’s fighting past.
But this may partly explain why the MeK has outlived its usefulness. A Western diplomat told FOX News: "There’s nothing we lose from Camp Ashraf except a huge headache and taxpayer dollars."
Qassim Khidhir Hamad contributed to this report
By Anita McNaught
Iraqi govt won’t forcibly evict Iranians
The Iraqi government has promised it won’t forcibly evict an Iranian opposition group based in Iraq since Saddam Hussein’s era, the U.S. ambassador said in a television interview broadcast Saturday.
The People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, also known as the Mujahedeen Khalq, fears Iran is pressuring Iraq to expel its members and force them back to Iran.
Iraq’s government has taken over national security from the Americans under a new agreement. But the U.S. Embassy has said American forces remain at the group’s base known as Camp Ashraf.
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."We’ve discussed this issue intensively with the Iraqi government," he told the U.S.-funded Alhurra television station. "They have provided assurances that none of these individuals will be forcibly sent to a third country where they have reason to fear for their safety or well-being, and we know those assurances will be respected."
Iraq’s deputy Foreign Minister Labid Abbawi said the government has been working with international agencies to try to find an acceptable way to remove the group, perhaps by finding other countries willing to take them.
"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," he told The Associated Press.
"We do not want to put their lives at stake," Abbawi said. "Even for those who wish to return to Iran, we have already gained assurances from Iranian officials that they will face no danger and we have ongoing talks regarding this issue with Tehran."
The People’s Mujahedeen, which allied with Saddam during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, has about 3,500 people at Camp Ashraf. When U.S.-led troops overthrew the regime, they demilitarized the group and confined its fighters to the compound northeast of Baghdad, under the protection of the multinational forces.
"Clearly, Iraq would like to see an organization that they too consider a terrorist organization no longer on their soil," Crocker said. "At the same time, like a responsible democracy, they have recognized that these individuals have basic humans rights, and they have provided assurances to uphold them."
The U.S. Embassy said in December that American troops would remain at Camp Ashraf "to assist the government of Iraq in carrying out its assurances of humane treatment of the residents" after the transition to the new security agreement, which took effect on Jan. 1.
By SAMEER N. YACOUB
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Thursday that he would expel an Iranian armed opposition group from the country after taking over their base from US forces. 
"Based on taking over everything and in accordance with our constitution and our policies of opening up to our neighbours… our forces are going to take full control of the camp where the People’s Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) live," Maliki said.
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. We will not force them to go back (to Iran) but we will give them the opportunity to either go home, or to another country," he added.
"(Staying in) Iraq will not be an alternative for them," Maliki said.
Maliki, who was speaking ahead of a visit Saturday to Tehran, told Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in March that he would take steps to ensure that Iraq was not used by "terrorists" from Al-Qaeda, or from Iranian rebel groups.
Last month the White House said it received assurances from Baghdad that the rebel group will not be expelled to a country where they may be persecuted, apparently excluding their return to Iran.
US forces confiscated the organisation’s weapons following the March 2003 US-led invasion, taking away some 300 tanks, many of which were subsequently given to the Iraqi armed forces.
Two years ago Iraq decided to restrict the movements of the estimated 3,500 PMOI members to their base at Camp Ashraf, near the Iranian border, where they have been held under a kind of US-supervised house arrest.
Described as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, the PMOI, which was founded in 1965, has many supporters in the US Congress and British parliament.
Group members fought alongside Iraqi forces in the 1980-1988 war between Iraq and Iran and then settled in Iraq.
Base was used in sabotage and assassination sorties 
US fostered sect as tool for regime change in Tehran
Iraq plans to close a camp for Iranian dissidents who used to cross into Iran to mount assassinations and sabotage – a decision that has sharpened political differences between Baghdad and Washington.
Camp Ashraf, about 80 miles north of Baghdad, came under Iraqi control yesterday in a broad security handover that forms part of the US withdrawal agreement concluded late last year.
Iraq’s national security adviser, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, led a delegation of defence and interior ministry officials to the camp last weekend, warning its 2,500 male and 1,000 female inmates that "staying in Iraq is not an option". The Iraqi government said it "is keen to execute its plans to close the camp and send its inhabitants to their country or other countries in a non-forcible manner".
US troops disarmed the opposition group known as the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) after the 2003 invasion. They removed hundreds of armoured vehicles donated by Saddam Hussein but kept the camp intact because some Bush administration officials allegedly saw the MEK as a potential tool for regime change in Iran.
The Shia-led government in Baghdad has forged close relations with fellow Shias in Tehran and rejects such ambitions. It insisted that the US/Iraq security agreement contain a promise that Iraq would not be used for attacks on Iran or any other country.
Under the security deal Iraq yesterday took over the Green Zone and Saddam’s former presidential palace. The prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, declared a national holiday, saying it amounted to the moment when sovereignty was restored.
The MEK helped to bring the Shah’s overthrow but soon clashed with Ayatollah Khomeini and his drive to put clerics in charge of the country.
It now describes itself as "democratic and secular". Insisting the camp’s inmates have conducted no armed operations in Iran since 2001, Nasser Razii, a London spokesman for the group’s political arm, said: "Camp Ashraf provides hope to the Iranian nation and keeps the flame of resistance burning. We want to keep it on the doorstep of our homeland."
The US and EU placed the MEK on their lists of terrorist organisations after 9/11. Last year Europe’s court of first instance ruled it should be removed from the EU list on the grounds it had not carried out terrorist activities for years. Lord Corbett, a Labour peer who has long supported the movement, and other British parliamentarians last month signed a letter to the Iraqi government urging it not to close Camp Ashraf. MPs in other European countries have made similar appeals.
Former members claim the MEK is a cult that forces members to break ties with their families, orders married couples to separate and demands they devote themselves totally to the movement. Closing the camp will restore members’ human rights and allow them to decide whether to resume normal life, they say. But MEK members fear they will be deported to Iran, a fear Baghdad says is groundless.
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.
In spite of MEK claims that returnees face arrest and imprisonment or have been offered unfair inducements by the Iranian authorities, the ICRC is continuing the repatriation programme. "If we had any allegations of ill-treatment of people who have returned to Iran we would follow up with the authorities in Tehran," said Dorothea Krimitsas, ICRC spokesperson for the Middle East.
Jonathan Steele
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/02/camp-ashraf-closure-baghdad-iran
IRAQ PLANS to close a camp for Iranian dissidents who used to cross into Iran to mount assassinations and sabotage – a decision that has sharpened political differences between Baghdad and Washington.
Camp Ashraf, about 130km north of Baghdad, came under Iraqi control yesterday in a broad security handover that forms part of the US withdrawal agreement concluded late last year.
Iraq’s national security adviser, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, led a delegation of defence and interior ministry officials to the camp last weekend, warning its 2,500 male and 1,000 female inmates that “staying in Iraq is not an option”.
The Iraqi government said it was “keen to execute its plans to close the camp and send its inhabitants to their country or other countries in a non-forcible manner”.
US troops disarmed the opposition group known as the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) after the 2003 invasion. They removed hundreds of armoured vehicles donated by Saddam Hussein but kept the camp intact because some Bush administration officials allegedly saw the MEK as a potential tool for regime change in Iran.
The Shia-led government in Baghdad has forged close relations with fellow Shias in Tehran and rejects such ambitions. It insisted that the US/Iraq security agreement contains a promise that Iraq would not be used for attacks on Iran or any other country.
Under the security deal, Iraq yesterday took over the Green Zone and Saddam’s former presidential palace. Prime minister Nouri al- Maliki declared a national holiday, saying it amounted to the moment when sovereignty was restored.
The MEK helped to bring the shah’s overthrow but soon clashed with Ayatollah Khomeini and his drive to put clerics in charge of the country. Like almost every other political party and group that had created the revolution, it lost hundreds of members to torture and execution in the early 1980s.
It now describes itself as “democratic and secular”. Insisting the camp’s inmates have conducted no armed operations in Iran since 2001, Nasser Razii, a London spokesman for the group’s political arm, said: “Camp Ashraf provides hope to the Iranian nation and keeps the flame of resistance burning. We want to keep it on the doorstep of our homeland.”
The US and EU placed the MEK on their lists of terrorist organisations after the September 11th attacks. Last year, Europe’s court of first instance ruled it should be removed from the EU list on the grounds it has not carried out terrorist activities for years.
Lord Corbett, a Labour peer who has long supported the movement, and other British parliamentarians last month signed a letter to the Iraqi government urging it not to close Camp Ashraf. MPs in other European countries have made similar appeals.
Former members claim the MEK is a cult that forces members to break ties with their families, orders married couples to separate and demands total devotion. Closing the camp will restore members’ human rights, they say. MEK members though fear they will be deported to Iran, a fear Baghdad says is groundless.
The International Committee for the Red Cross has helped more than 250 to cross the border to Iran after conducting private interviews with each to ensure they are going voluntarily. – (Guardian service)
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0102/1230842350664.html
