Iraqi government obstructs Iraqi merchants from entering Camp Liberty and Maliki plans to rid residents of property rights and steal their property as commanded by Iranian regime

For several weeks now Iraqi forces under command of Maliki are preventing Iraqi merchants and buyers from coming to Camp Liberty for the purpose of purchasing the property in Ashraf. This is while UNAMI’s plan for transfer of the 42 residents remaining from the Ashraf massacre, presented to residents in Camp Liberty on September 5 by Deputy Special Representative of Secretary-General for Iraq in presence of representatives from U.S. Embassy, explicitly says: “The GoI shall allow the residents to sell their property at any time.”
Deputy Special Representative of Secretary-General for Iraq sent this plan to residents’ representative writing: “Together with the US Embassy, we have drawn up a document that… is a way forward to solve the property .” Moreover, on September 6, Ms. Elizabeth Jones, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, in her letter to Mrs. Rajavi once again reiterated on this plan.
Nevertheless, on 8 October 2013, the Iraqi Prime Ministry committee charged with suppression of Ashraf residents obstructed entry of four merchants who had come to Camp Liberty to purchase part of Ashraf property. This happened although on October 5, UNAMI had been informed of merchants’ names and on October 7 their time of entry had been reminded to the UNAMI monitoring team and the Iraqi battalion protecting Liberty.
On October 13, once again this committee prevented entry of Iraqi merchants whose names and particulars had been given to the protecting battalion in writing two days in advance and UNAMI had once again been informed. Then again of October 14, Iraqi forces barred entry of another seven Iraqi merchants. Again, names and particulars of the seven had been given to the protecting battalion and UNAMI monitoring team a day in advance. All merchants were returned by Iraqi forces after they were stalled for a while.
Obstructing entry of Iraqi merchants to Camp Liberty is part of Maliki’s plan to deprive residents of their property rights and to steal their property as ordered by mullahs’ regime. Since the end of 2011, Maliki’s forces have obstructed residents’ and their representatives’ extensive efforts to sell their property preventing merchants from entering Ashraf to buy property there while apprehending and battering some of them.
Subsequently, in April 2012, residents signed a contract with an Iraqi company to sell movable and immovable property, but Government of Iraq (GoI) prevented implementation of the contract through threats and enticements. In the next step in September 2012, residents signed a contract with an English company for the sale of all movable and immovable property with the contract confirmed by Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Iraq’s embassy in Britain, and the Arab British Chamber of Commerce. However, by threatening to kill the representative of the company and threatening confiscation of its property, GoI prevented the deal from going through.
Then, at UNAMI’s suggestion, residents designated Senator Torricelli as their legal representative in the issue of properties. At the beginning of January 2013 and in coordination with UNAMI, Senator Torricelli, along with a prominent U.S. jurist came to Baghdad, but GoI refused to conduct any negotiations with them for resolution of the issue of property and also barred them from visiting Ashraf and Liberty.
Iranian Resistance calls on the UN Secretary-General and Security Council, the U.S. government, the European Union, and pertinent international bodies to prevent Maliki’s government from stealing residents’ properties and depriving residents their property rights and to compel GoI to allow sale of residents’ property under supervision of residents’ legal representative Senator Robert Torricelli.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
October 16, 2013