UNAMI worried over Camp Ashraf incidents
BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq has expressed concern over the recent incidents that took place in northeast Iraq’s Camp Ashraf that hosts the Iranian opposition group Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) refugees. “UNAMI has been on continuous contact with the Iraqi authorities regarding the incidents in Camp Ashraf on April 7-8,” according to a UNAMI press release as received by IraqiNews.com news agency. The statement reiterated the need to continue helping the Iraqi government find a solution to the issue based on the international human rights law. It pointed out that UNAMI, after a visit to observe the conditions in Camp Ashraf on Wednesday, April 13, had held a meeting with the Iraqi authorities to inform them about the outcome of the death of 34 persons and the injury of dozens others. It noted that UNAMI had over and again demanded the Iraqi government to refrain from using force, hoping that a fact-finding committee formed by the Iraqi government would be independent and start its work immediately. 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. UNAMI also expressed readiness to furnish accurate information about the outcome of its visit to Camp Ashraf and to continue helping the Iraqi government to look for a stable solution for the problems in the Camp. Iraq’s Minister of State and the Spokesman of the Iraqi Government, Ali Al-Dabbagh, had stated on 8/4/2011 that the Iraqi security forces, in charge of protecting Camp Ashraf imposed security and order, after an attack by MEK elements, who pelted the Iraqi security forces with stones, wounding five of them and causing chaos. SKH (TI)/AmR 947