Press Release by International Committee In Search of Justice (ISJ)
The State Department must not repeat Kobler’s lies against Iranian refugees in Iraq and set the stage for suppression of the residents
Brussels, 30 May 2013 – In recent days, the official media of the totalitarian regime ruling Iran and its affiliated media in Iraq have not been able to hide their happiness regarding recent false statements made by Ms Jones, the acting assistance secretary for Near East affairs, at the Middle East Subcommittee of the U.S. Congress.
The Revolutionary Guards Corps news agency known as Fars wrote on May 26 that: “An American official gave news of the opposition of the leaders of the terrorist Mojahedin-e-Khalq organization to their full departure from Iraqi soil… A U.S. State Department official told the Congress that the group’s leaders were not cooperating on departure of their forces from Iraq.”
Ms Jones had told the Congress: “We have spent A considerable amount of time for instance to open space for the residents of Camp Liberty to move to Albania. Very few have been allowed to move so far. We spent a tremendous amount of time with the MEK leadership to help them understand that they encourage their compatriots to take advantage of these opportunities and for their own reasons they are reluctant to promote this in a transparent way that might be appropriate”.
This is a disgusting repetition of false reports by Martin Kobler, the UN representative in Iraq, whose siding with the Iranian regime and the New Iraq’s dictatorship is well known, and only sets the stage for the fourth massacre of Iranian refugees in Iraq. Also on May 15, Ms Sherman, the undersecretary for Political Affairs said: “There have been offers made by countries like Albania to take many of them…. the leadership of MEK both in Camp Liberty and in Paris have kept the people of Liberty from knowing what their options are, and … I hope the leadership of MEK would allow them to know their options”.
Contrary to these untruthful and dangerous statements, the leadership of Mojahedin and the camp have not only informed all the residents about their resettlement options, but have also made every effort to convince the residents to accept them. What is more appalling is that the two senior State Department officials hid the real truth: the promise of security and safety of the residents at Liberty and their prompt resettlement that Kobler used in order to deceive the residents with the State Department’s support, was a complete lie or has at the very least failed.
Secretary of State John Kerry expressed his concerns during the April 17 hearing at the House of Representatives and said: “I am concerned about the security conditions there; that is why we have tried to expand the level of our efforts to relocate the people. We have contacted countless countries; we have been refused by countless countries.”
We are aware that since the beginning of 2012, the residents’ representatives and Mrs. Rajavi, the President of the Iranian Resistance, have been trying to convince Albania to admit the residents.
After the February 9th deadly missile attack, however, the residents rightfully emphasize that the main issue is their collective safety and that is why they are opposed to incremental re-settlements and are asking for speedy resettlement of everyone. They ask how can they leave their relatives and friends under bombs, missiles and mortars and save only their own lives.
Nevertheless, the leadership of the camp and the residents’ representative in Paris, with their concentrated efforts, have provided the UN and the State Department with the names of 340 people, via 4 lists, for relocation to Albania and have made written commitments that they will cover all their expenses in Albania. But thus far, only 14 people have been transferred to Albania. Moreover, last month, the residents’ representatives officially delivered a list of 100 people who have German refugee documents to the UNHCR for relocation to Germany, but not a single person has been relocated.
Weren’t Ms Jones and Ms Sherman aware of these facts? Therefore, they must immediately correct their statements and not allow them to be an excuse for another attack against the residents, especially because these statements are made while the U.S. has not taken any steps in this regard and not even a single one of the Liberty residents who are refugees in the U.S. has been allowed to return to America. From February 2012, when the residents went to Liberty, until 15th of May of this year, only 8 people were relocated abroad; but during the same time period 8 people were killed due to the February 9th attack and 6 people lost their lives due to lack of medical services.
The International Committee In Search of Justice (ISJ) calls for an end to such untruthful statements by the State Department officials, which can be abused by the Iraqi government and the Iranian regime to pave the way for another massacre.
Alejo Vidal Quadras
Vice-President, European Parliament
President, International Committee In Search of Justice (ISJ)
About ISJ:
In 2008, several senior Euro MPs initiated the International Committee In Search of Justice (ISJ) which brought together prominent international politicians and jurists to challenge the unjust blacklisting of the PMOI in Europe. We successfully won the courts in UK and in Luxembourg and justice was done to PMOI in Europe when they were de-listed from both British and EU blacklists in 2008 and 2009 respectively. The PMOI (MEK) was finally removed from the USA black list on 28 September 2012.
ISJ enjoys the support of over 4000 parliamentarians on both sides of the Atlantic.