Published in Ground Report by; Hesmat Alavi
Thursday night Oct 29, 2015, barrage of rockets landed on Camp Liberty, next to Baghdad International Airport home to members of the main exiled Iranian opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), killing 23 of residents so far, including at least one woman, and injuring dozens more, spokesman for the PMOI in Paris said in a statement. He added at least 80 missiles hit the camp.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry rushed to condemn the attack, expressing in a statement that the U.S. government had been in touch with senior Iraqi officials to ensure they provide ‘all possible medical and emergency assistance to the victims.’ Kerry also urged the Iraqi government to increase security at the camp and find those responsible for the attack.
Condemning the attack is the least could be expected since much fresh blood has been shed, but the tough reality is that the situation today in Camp Liberty could have been avoided if UN and U.S. hadn’t act with cowardice, and had rose up to their commitments to provide protection to the residents.
Warnings on fragile security conditions and vulnerability of the residents have been raised to attention of the parties involved in numerous occasions, since 2012, concurrent with residents’ relocation to Camp Liberty under the platform of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by the Government of Iraq (GoI) and United Nations (UN). Most recently on Oct 06, 2015, in a letter to Deputy US Secretary of State Mr. Anthony Blinken, scores of US politicians brought up the issue and warned that if urgent preventive measures are not taken a tragedy is in the making.
For years Iran has planned for expansion to Iraq. Since early 1980, PMOI has been the main opposition to Tehran Clerical Dictatorship, and mullahs have never fell short to take advantage of any opportunity to strike against their main rival. To exacerbate the situation, U.S. strategic foreign policy mistakes since 2009, has given a higher hand to Iran.
In the current alignment of power in Iraq, the conduct with mullahs’ main opposition, PMOI, sets the metrics to measure the extent of Iran infiltration. To proclaim its leading position in defending moral values and international laws and regulations for protections of refugees, U.S. must fulfill its commitment of protection given to each of the residents in a written letter, and in cooperation with UN work to announce Camp Liberty as a Refugees Camp under direct management of UNHCR. It is already too late for those who have been killed, but we can always act for those who are left.
