The following is the text of the letter of the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State to Mrs. Maryam Rajavi regarding current situation at Camp Ashraf and Mrs Rajavi’s reply to that letter:
United States Department of State
Assistant Secretary of State for
Near Eastern Affairs
Washington, D.C. 20520•6258
September 6, 2013
Dear Madame Rajavi:
I am writing on behalf of Secretary Kerry regarding the current situation at Camp Ashraf in Iraq. The United States condemns in the strongest terms the horrific attack that took place at Camp Ashraf on September 1 and express our condolences to the friends and families of the victims.
We support the United Nations Assistance Mission (UNAMI) and its efforts to conduct an independent fact finding investigation of this terrible event and document what happened. We have called on the Government of Iraq to fully support those efforts. We insist that the perpetrators of this barbarous act be brought to justice and that everything possible be done to find those who are missing. In this regard, we take note of the troubling statements issued by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) praising the attack, and call on the Government of Iran to use whatever influence it might have with groups that may be holding the missing to secure their immediate release. We further call on the Government of Iraq to conduct a full investigation and help find those who are missing.
Regarding the immediate situation at Camp Ashraf, we urge you to accept the UNAMI plan whereby the surviving residents can be safely and without delay relocated under UN supervision, and on UN armored buses, as soon as possible. It is imperative to the safety of those survivors that they accept this plan and agree to relocate immediately. This is an urgent and critical matter.
If you accept this approach, the United Nations will help facilitate the safeguarding of the property at Ashraf through your retention of a trusted local security firm. The U.S. Embassy will do its utmost to support these efforts.
We finally take note of the Government of Iraq’s agreement with UNAMI to install large T-walls pursuant to a UNAMI-provided security plan, as well as additional measures. These measures would be taken simultaneously with the safe and secure move from Ashraf, under UNAMI oversight, and we will do our utmost to support this process. We will also enhance our efforts to find safe and secure resettlement locations outside of Iraq. The State Department has just appointed a senior official to oversee this process on a full-time basis.
In the immediate term, we ask for your full acceptance of this UNAMI process, to achieve our common goal of protecting the lives of the Ashraf survivors and to ensuring the safe and timely departure from Iraq of all former Ashraf residents.
Sincerely,
Beth Jones
Acting
cc:
Gyorgy Busztin, Acting Director
UNAMI
Mrs. Rajavi’s reply
September 7, 2013
Honorable Beth Jones
Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20520
Dear Ms. Jones,
I received you letter and the message by Secretary Kerry on September 6 and thank you for your efforts and those of the Secretary as well as your interest to save lives at Camp Ashraf.
I will do my utmost to achieve our common goal. Please facilitate a visit by officials from the U.S. embassy together with Mr. Gyorgy Basztin to Camp Liberty as soon as possible to discuss the details on the implementing this plan with the Camp Leadership, as well as the residents’ representatives and legal advisors.
Before all else, I want to draw your attention to the need for the expeditious provision of security needs for the relocation of the residents of Ashraf to Liberty. You are particularly aware that in view of the situation in Syria, as soon as the residents of Ashraf are relocated to Liberty, the Iranian regime will focus on continuing its attacks on Camp Liberty and their defenseless residents. In this regard, the most important issue is to return 17,500 four-meter-tall T-Walls, the transfer of urgent medical equipment, helmets and protective vests for 3,000 residents from Ashraf to Liberty.
From the very outset, the litmus test of the Iraqi government’s seriousness to save lives is contingent upon implementing these arrangements. If you agree, I prefer that they be undertaken tomorrow at our expense and before relocating the remaining Ashraf residents to Liberty. After these steps are taken, all Ashraf residents will go to Liberty.
They will take all their belongings with them, including, among others, all documents on moveable and immoveable properties in Ashraf, books, computers, and funds as well as personal security, medical and all communications equipment.
Our urgent remaining requests, which I hope you can simultaneously help in their provision with the assistance the US embassy and the United Nations are as follows:
1. Arranging for the immediate release of the seven hostages;
2. Stationing a unit of UN Blue Helmets and the presence of a U.S. monitoring team inside Camp Liberty on a 24/7 basis;
3. Providing urgent protection requirements at Liberty by the Iraqi government, including the urgent need for double-layered roofs for the trailers according to the list of requirements on June 18, 2013 drafted after the third rocket attack on Liberty. (The list is attached). This includes returning the T-Walls, 150 2-by-2 m concrete bunkers that are left-over from the commitment made during the first rocket attack in February 2013, the right to construction at Liberty and allowing the entry of sufficient and necessary sandbags;
4. As you have written in your letter, we agree to the arrangements for the sale of the moveable and immoveable property in Ashraf. But we request that it be implemented under the supervision of Senator Robert Torricelli as the legal representative of the residents. In addition, we would like the Iraqi government, the US, the UN and Senator Torricelli to notorize the list of property. Henceforth, the Iraqi government must not impose restrictions on the sale of moveable assets to Iraqi businessmen and prospective buyers because the residents need the money for their expenses at Liberty and for resettlement.
5. The arrangements to implement the consolidation of the moveable assets in a small area to facilitate their sale must be agreed to at Ashraf in talks between the representatives of the Iraqi government and the residents. Nevertheless, the residents will take with them all the items and their needs left over from the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th convoys to Liberty, including 17 truck-loads of personal property, five power generators, 12 water and sewage tankers as well as forklifts to move around heavy loads around Ashraf.
Very respectfully,
Maryam Rajavi
cc:
– Mr. Gyorgy Basztin, Acting Director, United Nations Assistant Mission to Iraq