DAILY MAIL
Would you negotiate with the murderers of your friends and relatives? This is precisely what the Iranian refugees of Camp Ashraf in Iraq are being asked to do. Baghdad appointed Colonel Sadeq Mohammad Kazem to head talks to decide the fate of the 3,400 men and women split between Camp Ashraf and their new so-called home, Camp Liberty, a former US Army base near the capital.
It was this officer who ordered the Ashraf raids of 2009 and 2011, raids that resulted in the death of 49 unarmed residents and the wounding of hundreds. These massacres shocked the world and drew condemnation from all quarters, though sadly the Iraqi government does not seem in the slightest bit repentant.
Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, gave Colonel Kazem the right to determine the conditions the Ashraf residents face when they transfer to Camp Liberty. It is therefore no surprise that Liberty today resembles a cross between a concentration camp and an animal farm, with prisoners – for that is what they are – packed cheek by jowl in living quarters better suited to cattle. For obvious reasons, the residents have refused to be in the same room as this man.
To right-minded individuals, this stance will seem perfectly logical, but not to Martin Kobler. Ambassador Kobler, the United Nations special envoy to Iraq, prefers to accuse the Ashraf residents of stalling tactics. Residents’ representatives have complicated negotiations with the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, Kobler told the UN Security Council earlier this month.
Residents should ensure they do not “provoke” their prison wardens, Kobler said, as if the victims of past murders were to blame for inciting trigger-happy Iraqi guards. It was blatantly obvious from his report that the envoy is not impartial. Worse than biased, he is giving the Iraqi regime just the excuse it needs to set off another brutal round of repression. Given his shameful role in the prolonging of the residents’ suffering, Kobler must be replaced.
Iraq has targeted the residents of Ashraf and Liberty as a favour to the mullahs in Tehran. Since the US military pulled out of Iraq, Iran has filled the power vacuum, reducing al-Maliki and his henchmen to little more than puppets in a much larger power game. Despite the years of persecution and hardship Ashraf residents have undergone, the mullahs actually fear them because they are members of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the main Iranian opposition. For today’s clerical regime these individuals must be disposed of at all costs, and the al-Maliki government has been entrusted with the dirty work.
“The United States must become more invested in dealing with these issues and insisting on better conditions at Camp Liberty,” former State Department Spokesman Phillip J. Crowley told a Washington Senate briefing on July 20. “We should continue to insist on minimal humanitarian conditions… Security, safe shelter and water are not unreasonable demands. Getting the Iraqi government to connect the camp to the Baghdad municipal water system is not an insurmountable task. If authorized, I suspect the residents of Camp Ashraf could do it by themselves,” he told the briefing, which brought together former senior government and military officials.
“I am one of the very few people who has lived both at Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty,” said Brig. Gen. David Phillips (ret), who was in charge of all police operations in Iraq, including the protection of Camp Ashraf. “If you want to solve this problem, have Mr. al-Maliki open Camp Liberty to the outside world and allow in media, international press and interested individuals. If Camp Liberty meets even basic human rights requirements, what is there to hide? Here’s a simple challenge for Mr al-Maliki, from someone who has spent more time battling insurgents in Iraq than he has: I challenge you, Mr Maliki to allow us to come over and visit Camp Liberty and let us see for ourselves your humane conditions”.
Kobler says the Ashraf residents are making unreasonable demands. They are asking for vehicles for the transport of the handicapped among them. Is this going too far? They are asking for Camp Liberty to be connected to the mains water. Is water too much to ask for? And they ask to be allowed to sell the property they have been forced to abandon as part of this unnecessary transfer. Would it be fairer to have the Iraqi government rob them of all their worldly possessions?
The United Nations envoy Martin Kobler is supposed to ensure that the people of Ashraf can live in humane conditions upon arrival at Camp Liberty. This he is clearly incapable of doing. He does dishonor to his institution.
David Amess, a Conservative Member of Parliament from the United Kingdom, is a leading member of the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom.