IRAQI FORCES BLOCKADE CAMP LIBERTY FOLLOWING IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL

Concern is growing for Iranian resistance leaders being held against their will in Iraq’s Camp Liberty – following Tehran’s nuclear deal with the West

Since the agreement was announced on Tuesday morning, Iraqi forces have blockaded the entrance to the Baghdad camp, stopping all fuel, food, water and waste vehicles from entering, and prompting concerns of a growing humanitarian crisis.

Some 2,500 refugees from the main Iranian opposition PMOI-MEK are being held at the site in prison-like conditions and extreme temperatures of up to 50 degrees.

Camp Liberty has been the subject of attacks and constant harassment by Iraqi forces at the behest of Iran.

The Iraqi government has not allowed the camp to be connected to the national electrical grid, meaning all electricity for cooling systems, water pumps, kitchen equipment and sewage units is produced by power generators run by fuel.

Without fuel to provide power and no means of removing human waste, the health of many of the refugees is at risk, particularly as residents are fasting during Ramadan.

Iraqi forces have also started to dump garbage near to perimeter fences at the site, adding to the mounting hygiene problem. 

Gérard Deprez MEP, Chairman of the Friends of a Free Iran group in the European Parliament, said he was outraged by the way the residents were being treated.

“Preventing the entry of food, fuel and life essentials to the camp in such hot weather is inhuman, cruel and a criminal act.

“We call on the EU High Representative Federica Mogherini to step in and put pressure on the Iraqi government to stop these illegal and ruthless measures.

“The EU, as one of the main parties that three years ago urged the Camp Ashraf refugees to leave their homes and move to ‘Liberty’ in order to be resettled in safe countries, has a heavy responsibility for their safety and wellbeing.”

Iraqi forces at Gate Four of Baghdad International Airport said they had received orders from the Office of National Security, run by Faleh Fayaz, not to allow any vehicles into Camp Liberty, which is located adjacent to the airport.

Support vehicle drivers have also been threatened by Iraqi guards.

Since the residents first moved into the camp in 2012, vehicles had entered the camp daily to meet their basic needs.

On Thursday, two vehicles carrying food, five waste vehicles, and two fuel tankers arrived at gate four but were once again turned away.

Commentators believe the Iraqi agents of the religious dictatorship ruling Iran are attempting to create chaos inside Camp Liberty during the Eid al-Fitr holiday season in order to please the Iranian regime.

A spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), said: “These criminal and inhumane measures against the camp residents by the Iraqi governmental committee headed by Fayaz, who takes his orders from Tehran, constitute a crime against humanity and its perpetrators face international prosecution.”

In letters to US and UN officials on June 26, the Iranian Resistance warned that the clerical regime in Iran and its embassy in Baghdad had asked the Government of Iraq, and particularly Fayaz, to intensify their repressive measures against the residents of Camp Liberty.

The Iranian Resistance has now called on the EU, UN and US government, who have repeatedly committed themselves to the wellbeing of the Camp Liberty residents, to take immediate action to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.