H. E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon
Secretary-General
United Nations
New York
Rome, July 8, 2012.
Your Excellency,
We at the Italian Committee of Parliamentarians and Citizens for a Free Iran read the text of the special briefing held on July 6 by US Coordinator for Counterterrorism Ambassador Daniel Benjamin and Special Advisor to the Secretary of State on Camp Ashraf Ambassador Daniel Fried, on the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) Designation and the Current Situation at Camp Ashraf.
Regrettably, Ambassador Benjamin reiterated, “The MEK’s relocation will assist the Secretary in determining whether the organization remains invested in its violent past or is committed to leaving that past behind.” However, the relocation from Camp Ashraf should evidently have no connection at all with the issue of delisting: The last is a matter of respecting the American legislation and properly evaluating the facts related to the MEK as an organization; The relocation of asylum seekers from Ashraf, instead, must take place according to International humanitarian law and proper human rights standards for each and all of the concerned individuals. They are two completely different issues – if not for the fact that keeping the MEK in the US FTO’s list has been used as a pretext by both Iranian and Iraqi authorities to act inhumanly against its members.
The MEK have definitely been cleared from any accuse of terrorism by British and European Union
Courts. Having been following their cases for several years and carefully reading all the sentences and
prominent jurists’ analyses, we understand their inclusion in the US FTO’s list has been a merely
political decision aimed to appease the mullahs’ regime, as it had been the case in Europe. A number of
US high level personalities fully share this opinion, and we join them in hoping the State department
will finally delist MEK as soon as possible. However, the international community has now to seek a
peaceful and acceptable solution for the Iranian asylum seekers in Iraq, and we would like to attract
your attention on the reasons why the remaining people in Ashraf are not going to move to Camp
Liberty until their basic needs will not be satisfied.
MEK’s leadership has indeed showed good will and co-operation in dealing with the transfer of the
Ashraf residents to Camp Liberty. 2.000 people have already moved, although the conditions in the
new area are far to be acceptable. Camp Liberty is more a prison than a temporary location for asylum
seekers.
Based on the Memorandum of Understanding which Iraq signed with the United Nations, and which in
a December 25 statement Secretary Clinton supported, the remaining Ashraf residents presented a list
of 10 humanitarian requirements. Such list has been made public by the Vice President of the European
Parliament Alejo Vidal-Quadras, and includes the following points:
1. Transfer of 300 air conditioners from Ashraf to Liberty.
2. Transfer of all the power generators that are currently in Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty.
3. Transfer of 25 trucks, containing the belongings left over from the fourth and fifth convoys and
six utility vehicles about which there had already been an agreement.
4. Transfer of five forklifts from Ashraf to Liberty to move the residents’ belongings.
5. Transfer of three specially-designed vehicles and six specially-designed trailers for the disabled.
6. Transfer of 50 passenger cars, meaning one car for every 40 persons.
7. Permission for construction in Camp Liberty, including the building of pavements, porches,
canopies, ramps, special facilities for the disabled and green areas.
8. Connecting Liberty to Baghdad’s water network or, alternatively, permission for the residents to
hire Iraqi contractors to pump the water into Liberty from a nearby water canal and purify the
water.
9. Allowing merchants or bidders access to Ashraf to negotiate and buy the movable properties as
soon as possible.
10. Start of negotiations between the residents and their financial representatives and the Iraqi
Government to sell the immovable assets and properties, or negotiations with third parties to
sign the necessary agreements.
We consider these requests acceptable and related to basic humanitarian needs, having regard to the
hard climate conditions and current lack of facilities at Camp Liberty and understanding that the
asylum seekers should have the right to keep their properties and to have their dignity respected.
We therefore urge you to recognize the actual good will of the Ashraf residents and of their leadership
to undergo the next moves to Camp Liberty, provided that their humanitarian needs will be met.
