UN must stop relocation operation until horrible conditions change in Camp Liberty
The trend of Ashraf residents’ relocation and conditions in Liberty prove that the pre-announced concerns regarding the fact that Liberty will be a prison camp were a precise estimate and the official gratitude to the Iraqi government expressed by the Iranian regime’s foreign ministry spokesman unfortunately leaves no doubt that this relocation plan was requested and directed by the Iranian regime.
The Iranian regime foreign ministry spokesman said: “Regarding the transfer of the Mojahedin from Camp Ashraf to the temporary camp Liberty for their final departure from Iraq, we welcomed this step taken by the Iraqi people and the Iraqi government’s will and we support it … This is the will of the Iranian people (read Iranian regime), the demand of the Iraqi government for them to leave the region and the country of Iraq.” He continued, “We also welcome assistance provided by the UN and the UNHCR regarding the expulsion of the Mojahedin from Iraq. We will support these measures in all forms.”
During the transfer, many articles of the signed memorandum of understanding between the UN and the Iraqi government were breached. The residents were only permitted to take 10 of their at least 150 vehicles. They were also banned from transferring many of their basic daily items such as beds, blankets, mattresses, dressers, water heaters, generators and office supplies such ax Xerox machines and printers, and some of their belongings were stolen during the unusual and humiliating 12-hour inspection.
The high number of police forces present inside the small camp, one large and four secondary police stations – including at the entrance of the dining facility, the management of this operation by elements who are under prosecution by the Spanish National Court for massacring the residents in 2009 and 2011, the installation of numerous cameras (7 devices in one flank) and eavesdropping devices are all indications of a prison, to which the filthiness, non-functional status of the electricity, water and sewage systems and the camp’s inappropriate living condition must be added.
We had rejected the relocation of Ashraf residents from the beginning and we viewed them as benefiting from refugee rights in Iraq, however, this relocation had no reasoning whatsoever, even for transfer to third countries. Nonetheless, the Iraqi government by averting the work of the UNHCR in Ashraf paved the grounds for this relocation to carry out these harassing measures. The UN must stop the relocation operation until conditions change. The necessary conditions include: preventing the presence of Iranian regime representatives and elements inside Liberty or its vicinity; guaranteeing the residents’ safety and security; no transfer to any other location; freedom of movement and the right to have visits with lawyers and human rights organization representatives and reporters and foreign delegations; and the residents’ access to medical services in Iraq. The UN stands before important tests and the responsibility of all consequences of this relocation is on the shoulders of the UN and the Secretary General’s Special Representative to Iraq who provided a golden image of the conditions in Liberty.

Heidar al-Mulla
Iraqiya Coalition Official Spokesman
Iraqi Parliament Human Rights Commission Rapporteur
23 February 2011