“Christmas Massacre in Camp Liberty”
• Attack on Camp Liberty was Maliki’s souvenir to the residents from his Tehran visit to overshadow the hostage-taking and the great crime against humanity at Camp Ashraf, down payment for Maliki’s third term as Prime Minister and Khamenei’s desperate confrontation against the crisis of overthrow
The President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, paid homage to the three distinguished and veteran cadres of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), Mohammad Javad Saleh Tehrani, Mahmoud Bornafar and Abbas Namvar, slain during the attack on Camp Liberty Thursday night and expressed hope for the recovery of 71 residents injured during the “Christmas massacre” at Liberty.
Commenting on the fourth missile attack on Camp Liberty in 2013, Mrs. Rajavi said: This terrorist missile attack was [Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri] al-Maliki’s souvenir to residents of Liberty following his visit to Tehran and a deliberate act of crisis-mongering to overshadow the hostage-taking and the great and heinous crime against humanity at Camp Ashraf on September 1, which aroused international condemnation, prompted a 108-day hunger strike and trapped Maliki’s National Security Advisor in the Spanish Court.
She added that this attack was another down payment Maliki wanted to pay to the clerical regime in Iran to support his third term as Prime Minister. It also reflected [the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei’s desperate attempts to confront the crisis of overthrow facing the crisis-riddled and vulnerable theocracy. Khamenei is trying to salvage the regime through the massacre of the PMOI members, especially after giving in to the nuclear accord.
Mrs. Rajavi emphasized that had the United States and the United Nations not violated their repeated and written commitments concerning the security and safety of the Mojahedin in Ashraf and Liberty and had they not chosen inaction vis-à-vis the September 1 execution-style massacre and hostage-taking at Camp Ashraf, Maliki would never have dared to perpetrate such heinous crimes. This is particularly the case because the U.S. government, the European Union and the UN were informed of the efforts by the rulers in Baghdad and Tehran in setting the stage for such an attack. The Iranian Resistance had repeatedly warned them about these regimes’ intention of massacring the residents of Liberty.
In conferences on December 4 at the European Parliament, on December 7 in Paris and on December 18 in Rome, Mrs. Rajavi had warned that “the US Government and the UN would be fully responsible for whatever that would happen to the Mojahedin at Liberty.”
Mrs. Rajavi urged the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and the Security Council to take serious practical steps to guarantee the security of the residents at Liberty killing field and added that the only practical and definitive action that would prevent further crimes at Liberty and the massacre of the Iranian refugees was their prompt transfer to a temporary location in the U.S., even on a temporary basis.
She particularly asked the United States, which had committed itself repeatedly to the safety and security of the residents, to refer the issue of Liberty’s protection to the UN Security Council and undertake appropriate measure to compel the Iraqi government to abide by its international obligations regarding the security and protection of Liberty residents and to uphold international humanitarian standards in its treatment of the residents, until the transfer of all residents to the U.S. or other countries.
Mrs. Rajavi stressed that the Security Council must take up the issue of a comprehensive and independent international investigation into the September 1, 2013 massacre at Camp Ashraf and ensure that such a probe would not conclude like the previous bogus investigations into the massacres at Ashraf and Liberty.
Regarding the safety and security of the residents of Liberty, Mrs. Rajavi emphatically called on the U.S. Government, the EU leaders, the UN Security Council, the UN Secretary General and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to obligate the Iraqi government to accept the minimum security requirements at Liberty, in particular the return of 17,500 T-walls and sufficient number of concrete bunkers, as well as the transfer of protective helmets, vests and the medical equipment from Ashraf, and permission to the residents to engage in construction, including building double layer roofs for the trailers and expanding the area of the Liberty, in order to decrease the level of the Camp’s vulnerability.
She noted that had these minimum requirements, raised repeatedly after the first missile attack on Liberty in February 2013 with the U.S., Iraqi and UN officials, been fulfilled, the number of casualties at Liberty would have been much lower.
So far 36 points of missile impact have been identified at Camp Liberty, which has an area of 0.5km2. Four 107mm missiles have not exploded with the ever-present danger of detonation. A number of the missiles are 280mm surface-to-surface missiles, whose destructive power is 20 times greater than the 107mm rockets. Three of eight such missiles hit Liberty and the UN and UNHCR monitors as well as Iraq’s explosive experts have identified their points of impact.
The Iraqi government has prohibited the entry of protective helmets and vest, cloth, sand bags, plant seeds, trees taller than 150 cm and even mobile phones into Liberty, contending that the entry of such items is contrary to that country’s security and sovereignty. Surprisingly, the entry and the launching of 2m-long missiles, each weighing 110 kg, and with the explosive power 20 times greater than 107mm missiles, in the proximity of Baghdad International Airport are not contrary to Iraq’s sovereignty and Maliki’s government has remained silent and refused to protest or take any action in this regard.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
December 27, 2013