StopFundamentalism.COM
This morning, Saturday February 9, about 40 rockets hit a small Iranian refugee camp near Baghdad known as Camp Liberty, killing at least 6 refugees and wounding near a hundred. The deaths and injuries are direct responsibility of UNAMI’s Martin Kobler as he is the instigator and the force behind the eviction of former Camp Ashraf residents, cramping them into this camp with hardly half square kilometers space.
The refugees, 3100 members of the Iranian Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization, MEK or PMOI, were transferred to Camp Liberty, promising a swift refugee determination process by the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR.
In a vague statement released by UNAMI this morning, the ‘attack’ on the camp is smeared to be “explosions.” The statement also highlights some unsupported and unconfirmed reports of “Iraqi policemen” being “also injured.” That surely changes the harm that has come to the residents and all the lives lost from being a direct responsibility of UNAMI and Martin Kobler personally, to be a simple misfortunate incident that could not have been prevented.
It is over a year since the very first refugees transferred to Liberty and since then only 7 people have been resettled outside Iraq by the UNHCR. That is in spite of Martin Kobler’s emphasis that Camp Liberty is a “Temporary Transit Location” meaning it is supposed to act as a short-term stay for the refugees on passage to other countries. And by UNHCR definition, the TTL short-stay ranges from few days to at most six months.
That surly has not been the case. In fact the refugees predict many years of wait before they are all resettled, if ever.
The camp was never suited to hold this many refugees. It never had the infrastructure. In fact a recent document leaked shows that Kobler forged a UN document trying to convince the former Camp Ashraf residents and the international community that the camp was suitable and had the infrastructure ready to act as a Temporary Transit Location for 3100 refugees.
Now in light of an attack by 40 rockets, killing the defenseless refugees, Kobler again tries to misrepresent and distort the facts to cover up for his own conduct and responsibility in putting this many Iranian refugees in certain danger of losing their lives. The threat of an attack has always loomed since the transfer to Liberty and Kobler has surely been warned repeatedly by the refugees and by their supporters outside Iraq.
And to finish up, Kobler again asks the government of Iraq to investigate the explosion. The residents are still waiting for the investigation that was supposed to be conducted on attacks of 2009 and 2011, killing near 50 residents and injuring over a thousand.
Surely time has come for UN Secretary General to consider replacing Martin Kobler with someone who cares about people and lives and takes responsibility for his own conduct. In fact Kobler’s disgraceful conduct has brought shame for the United Nations and he should be dealt with accordingly.