Wifaq movement seeks protection for Camp Ashraf

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s Iraqi National Accord Movement on Saturday urged the government to protect the residents of Camp Ashraf, the headquarters of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI). “Protection should be provided to the residents of Asharf City for human reasons and in accordance with international laws and human rights principles,” the movement said in a statement that was received by IraqiNews.com news agency. “Residents of Ashraf city have been living in Iraq for more than 20 years,” the statement noted, calling on the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to intervene and to prevent a possible deportation of the camp’s residents. PMOI is a militant Islamic Socialist organization that advocates the overthrow of Iran’s current government. Founded in 1965, the PMOI was originally devoted to armed struggle against the Shah of Iran, capitalism, and Western imperialism. The group officially renounced violence in 2001 and today it is the main organization in the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an “umbrella coalition” parliament-in-exile that claims to be dedicated to a democratic, secular and coalition government in Iran. The group has had thousands of its members for many years in bases in Iraq, but “they were disarmed in the wake” of the 2003 US-led invasion and “are said to have adhered to a ceasefire.” The PMOI’s armed wing is, or was, called the National Liberation Army of Iran (NLA). The Iranian government officially refers to the organization as the Monafeqin (literally, “Hypocrites“), maintaining that PMOI is not truly Islamic. The United States, European Union (EU), Canada, Iraq and Iran have designated the PMOI a terrorist organization. Although the European Court of Justice has overturned the EU designation in December 2006, the Council of the EU declared on January 30, 2007 that it would maintain the organization on the blacklist. Camp Ashraf, which lies in the province of Diala, 57 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, exists since the 1980s. The PMOI members in Iraq were collaborating with the former regime of Saddam Hussein during its war with Iran from 1980 to 1988. SS (S) 1