Iraqiya bloc urges UNSC to intervene to protect MEK refugees

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The operation conducted the Iraqi government against the Camp Ashraf hosting the Iranian opposition group Mujahideen-e-Khalq violates international laws and human rights, urging the UN Security Council to intervene to protect MEK refugees. “The al-Iraqiya bloc is following up with utmost concern the Iraqi government’s actions against the Camp Ashraf inhabitants, particularly with reports on deaths and injuries,” according to a statement by al-Iraqiya’s media coordination office as received by IraqiNews.com news agency. “These actions are flagrantly violating international law and human rights that call for the protection of unarmed refugees. Tackling the MEK issue in this way is classified as genocide, which would harm Iraq’s image in the eyes of the civilized world and strip it of respect in the international community,” read the statement. Dhafir al-Aani, a leading member of al-Iraqiya, had called on the Iraqi army to withdraw from Camp Ashraf, denouncing the involvement of the Iraqi army in “escapades that do not serve the national interests.” Earlier, British Foreign Office Minister for Middle East Affairs Alistair Burt deplored Friday’s deaths and injuries in Camp Ashraf, 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. 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. AmR (TI) 942