ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
By IDA MOJADAD / STAFF WRITER
Irvine resident Masoud Dolati was holding out hope Friday that his cousin is still alive and unharmed after Iranian militants launched rockets Thursday at her resistance group’s camp in Iraq.
The 42-year-old woman, whose name Dolati didn’t disclose for fear of her safety, attended the University of Texas 20 years ago before joining the exiled Iranian opposition group Mujahadeen-e-Khlaq (MEK) to fight the country’s religious regime. She and her husband ended up at Camp Liberty in Iraq, but communication with the United States has been cut off, Dolati said.
He and other Iranian-Americans are demanding U.S. action after the attack that killed about two dozen people, most being Iranian dissidents.
“People here are depressed,” said Dolati, an engineer who was born in Iran. “We’re trying to encourage each other to put energy into words for these innocent people.”
Iran-backed Shiite militia Mukhtar Army claimed responsibility Friday for launching rockets at Camp Liberty, home to about 2,200 MEK members, near Baghdad International Airport. Iraqi police said 30 members were wounded in the latest attack, according to The New York Times.
Camp Liberty residents once lived in Camp Ashraf, which the MEK developed into “Ashraf City.” Despite fortifications, it also faced deadly attacks until the United Nations convinced them to relocate to smaller Camp Liberty, a former U.S. base, as a temporary quarters before the U.N. could resettle them in the U.S. and Europe.
After the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, American officials signed written agreements under the 4th Geneva Convention to protect residents of Camp Ashraf if they disarmed themselves. Without American troops, their protection has been transferred to Iraqi forces since 2009, which many Iranians are displeased with.
“The Iraqi government is not capable or willing to protect these people,” said Nasser Sharif, a Newport Beach resident and president of California Society of Democracy in Iran. “Because (attacks) just keep happening.”
Politicians and advocacy groups, like United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Amnesty International, also spoke out, while Secretary of State John Kerry promised consultation with Iraqi authorities to look into the attack.
Orange County’s Rep. Ed Royce, R-Fullerton, chairman of the House of Foreign Affairs Committee, immediately issued a statement condemning the attack.
“Today’s reported attack, yet another deadly assault on civilians in Camp Liberty, is deeply troubling,” Royce said Thursday. “The Iraqi government made an international commitment to protect the Camp’s residents.”
An emergency rally, attended by about 100 Southland Iranian-Americans and their supporters, was called Friday at the Iraqi Consulate General in Los Angeles.
“All these politicians have condemned it, but don’t take action,” Dolati said.
“If nobody’s going to protect them, allow them to protect themselves,” he said of the exiles. “They’re sitting ducks.”