September 20-2013
The last 42 members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq remaining at Camp Ashraf moved out last Wednesday and joined their 3,100 compatriots in Camp Hurriya near Baghdad.
The peaceful transfer marks the end of a years-long effort by Iraqi authorities to evict all the Iranians from Camp Ashraf.
A shooting September 1 left 52 of the Ashraf residents dead and seven missing.
The group blames Iraqi security forces for the killings. Iraqi officials deny involvement and say an internal dispute within the Mojahedin-e Khalq is to blame.
United Nations officials visited the camp shortly after the shooting, but they have not reported any findings as to who was responsible.
Maj. Gen. Jamil al-Shimmari, the police chief of Diyala province, where the camp is located, and the mayor of the nearby town of Khalis, Oday al-Khadran, told The Associated Press that a convoy carrying the residents and their belongings left the camp last Wednesday evening.
“This took a lot of patience. We dealt with them according to the law,” al-Shimmari said. None of the Iraqi officials reported any incidents of violence during the transfer.
The residents were searched by Iraqi forces before departing and were allowed to visit the graves of fellow members who are buried at a cemetery inside the compound, al-Shimmari said. The residents initially refused to leave, but were eventually persuaded after representatives from the UN intervened, he said.
Authorities have prevented journalists from getting near the camp since the shooting this month.
Representatives of the Mojahedin in Paris later confirmed the departure.
Mohammed Mohaddessin, chairman of the group’s foreign affairs committee, said in an interview that co-leader Maryam Rajavi urged the remaining residents to leave over the past few days.
“The ultimate reason … was the safety and security of the residents,” he said.
He said an explosion went off near a bus carrying the group’s members as it went through Khalis, but no injuries were reported. He said the group had to leave behind much of its property, including cars and the many buildings constructed since they took over the base in 1985.
In Baghdad, the acting UN envoy to Iraq said the killing of the 52 men and women should be “a wake-up call” to the international community. He spoke up to press countries to do more to find them homes abroad.
Acting UN envoy Gyorgy Busztin said the bloodshed highlights the need to protect the residents.
“What has happened at Camp Ashraf on the first of September is a game changer. It should be a wake-up call to all countries who are in a position to help to come forward,” he told The Associated Press. “Resettlement is the ultimate guarantee of their security.”
Busztin said the Baghdad camp, a former US military base known as Camp Hurriya, should offer them better security than Camp Ashraf. It is physically closer to UN offices in the Iraqi capital, making it easier to monitor, he said.
Camp Hurriya, however, has itself been hit by rocket attacks claimed by Iranian-backed Shiite militants.
“These are human beings. Whatever the government of Iraq says about their past, these are people in need of protection, and we take that very seriously,” Busztin said.
The resettlement process has moved slowly because the UN is struggling to find countries willing to take them. UN officials also say that many of the group’s members have been uncooperative, complicating the relocation effort.
A total of 210 residents have left for other countries so far, according to figures provided Saturday by the UN refugee agency.
Most of them went to Albania, which has offered to take 210 in total. Germany has said it would accept about 100. No other country has offered to take anyone except those with close relatives who are citizens.
Busztin said, “I’m optimistic more countries will come forward and the numbers in the camps will be gradually reduced. But, for the length of the process, I cannot give you a reasonable estimate.”