UK minister deplores “loss of life – injury” in Camp Ashraf

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: British Foreign Office Minister for Middle East Affairs Alistair Burt deplored the deaths and injuries in Camp Ashraf that hosts the Iranian opposition group Mujahideen-e-Khalq, on Friday, calling on the UN and Iraqi government to offer information on this issue. “The UK Government is deeply disturbed to read reports that a number of civilian residents have been killed and many more wounded at Camp Ashraf Friday. We absolutely deplore such loss of life and injury. At present the exact circumstances are unclear, and we are pressing the UN and the Iraqi Government for more information,” Burt was quoted in a release by the British embassy in Baghdad as received by IraqiNews.com news agency. “The Iraqi Government has provided us with assurances on several occasions that it will treat individual residents of Camp Ashraf in a humane manner, act in accordance with Iraqi law, the Iraqi Constitution and its international obligations. We urge the Iraqi Government to uphold this commitment,” Burt said. “Our Ambassador in Baghdad has been expressing our concerns to the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the highest levels. We call on the Iraqi Government to cease violent operations in Camp Ashraf immediately and particularly to ensure that the residents have full access to medical care,” he added. “It is important that the Government of Iraq takes immediate steps to calm the situation and ensure that the human rights of the residents are respected. We are aware of a request by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) to send a humanitarian monitoring mission to Camp Ashraf as soon as possible. We fully support this request and therefore urge the Iraqi Government to quickly grant permission. We call on all sides to engage in a constructive dialogue that can lead to a lasting resolution to the situation,” he noted. Iraqi security forces had said on Friday that three Iranian MEK refugees in Camp Ashraf in were killed while the Iraqi security forces were trying to set up a security point inside the camp. “The Iranian group clashed with the Iraqi forces, prompting the Iraqi security to open fire on them, killing three MEK refugees,” an Iraqi security source said. “Two Iranians set themselves alight in front of the Iraqi forces prior to the clashes, while others pelted the Iraqi soldiers with stones, injuring six of them,” he added. However, MEK sources had said on Friday that a Youtube clip showed an Iraqi army force storming Camp Ashraf, leaving 28 people killed and dozens others wounded. The clip, shot by MEK supporters, showed Iraqi forces using armor vehicles in their raid on the camp, which had been under the protection of U.S. forces after they entered Iraq in 2003 prior to transferring the responsibility of its protection to Iraqi security agencies. The Iranian group had announced on its website that nine of its elements were killed in the attack by Iraqi forces. MEK has been based in Camp Ashraf in Diala province, 57 km northeast of Baghdad, since 1980s during the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq war. Several politicians within the Iraqi government have been striving to drive the organization out of the Iraqi territories, claiming that the MEK fighters took part in suppressing the Shiite uprising that broke out in southern Iraq after the second Gulf War in 1991 against the former regime.   The restive province of Diala lies 57 km northeast of Baghdad. AmR (TI)/SR 329