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400 Iranian dissidents in Iraq to relocate
Published: Dec. 29, 2011 at 9:57 AM
PARIS, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Hundreds of Iranian dissidents at Camp Ashraf in Iraq's Diyala province are ready to move to a facility near Baghdad, a dissident leader said.
The United Nations and Iraqi leaders last weekend signed a memorandum of understanding to relocate residents at Camp Ashraf to a temporary location at Camp Liberty, a former U.S. military base near Baghdad International Airport.
The MOU calls on the U.N. High Commission for Refugees to determine the refugee status of Ashraf residents to eventually resettle them in third countries.
Maryam Rajavi, who considers herself the head of an Iranian government in exile, said 400 residents at Ashraf were ready to voluntarily relocate to Camp Liberty. There are an estimated 4,000 people living at Camp Ashraf.
In a statement, Rajavi called on residents at Ashraf to "count on and trust" the mechanisms outlined for the exiles by members of the international community. She said this trust should come despite rockets fired at the Ashraf complex early this week.
Rajavi lamented that the memorandum was brokered without representatives from Ashraf or their legal representatives.
"The relocation of the first group of residents is, at the same time, a test of the Iraqi government's attitude toward the commitments it has given to the United Nations and the United States," she said in a statement.
Camp Ashraf houses members of the People's Mujahedin of Iran. Members of the PMOI were used as a paramilitary force by Saddam Hussein but surrendered to invading U.S. forces in 2003.
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Published: Dec. 29, 2011 at 9:57 AM
PARIS, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Hundreds of Iranian dissidents at Camp Ashraf in Iraq's Diyala province are ready to move to a facility near Baghdad, a dissident leader said.
The United Nations and Iraqi leaders last weekend signed a memorandum of understanding to relocate residents at Camp Ashraf to a temporary location at Camp Liberty, a former U.S. military base near Baghdad International Airport.
The MOU calls on the U.N. High Commission for Refugees to determine the refugee status of Ashraf residents to eventually resettle them in third countries.
Maryam Rajavi, who considers herself the head of an Iranian government in exile, said 400 residents at Ashraf were ready to voluntarily relocate to Camp Liberty. There are an estimated 4,000 people living at Camp Ashraf.
In a statement, Rajavi called on residents at Ashraf to "count on and trust" the mechanisms outlined for the exiles by members of the international community. She said this trust should come despite rockets fired at the Ashraf complex early this week.
Rajavi lamented that the memorandum was brokered without representatives from Ashraf or their legal representatives.
"The relocation of the first group of residents is, at the same time, a test of the Iraqi government's attitude toward the commitments it has given to the United Nations and the United States," she said in a statement.
Camp Ashraf houses members of the People's Mujahedin of Iran. Members of the PMOI were used as a paramilitary force by Saddam Hussein but surrendered to invading U.S. forces in 2003.
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