Tuesday, December 30, 2008
AFP , Geneva, Dec 29, 2008 (excerpts) – Supporters of an Iranian Opposition group considered terrorists by the EU and the US said Monday they had ended a 126-day protest outside the UN after guarantees its members would be protected in Iraq.
On Sunday, the US embassy in Iraq said the “US forces will maintain a presence at Camp Ashraf” north of Baghdad where members of the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (PMOI) are located, thereby ensuring residents there would be given “humane treatment,” Bezhad Naziri said on behalf of the protest group.
Washington also said earlier this month it received assurances from Baghdad that members of the group would not be expelled to a country where they may be persecuted — apparently excluding their return to Iran.
As of January 1 the camp will revert to Iraqi control.
Militants at the camp, under US military protection since the US-led invasion of Iraq, last month sent an open letter to US President George W. Bush about their situation.
The opposition PMOI was founded in 1965 with the aim of replacing first the former shah and then the clerical regime in Iran, and has in the past operated an army inside Iran.
After being thrown out of Iran in the 1980s, its members sought refuge abroad, notably in Iraq where they established the military Camp Ashraf in Diyala province.
Several dozen protestors have gathered daily at the Place des Nations in front of the UN’s European headquarters here since August 25, calling noisily for the 3,500 people in Camp Ashraf to be granted formal protection by the world body.
