Concentration Camp: No Choice for Iranians Wanting Democracy

The Iranians struggling for a democratic and non-nuclear Iran, are being put under more pressure by the day. More than 120,000 Iranians who stood against the mullahs’ dictatorship, have been executed over the past 3 decades. The government, although very weak, has managed to hold on to power by continuously cracking down on its opposition. A similar situation is being seen in Syria today, while it might be said that the brutality shown in Iran by the mullahs has been even more severe due to its theoretical nature. Yet, ironically, Iran is the main country giving full support to the Syrian regime.

Today, the Arab Spring is moving fast and it is not far-fetched to expect it reach Iran very soon either. The events in Iran have gone through many turning points during the past 20 years, and there have been many uprisings and many brutal crack downs in the country. What is certain is that the situation in the country is expected to explode in the foreseeable future.

The Iranian dissidents have been frequently catching the headlines over the past week, as Tehran is trying to suppress its opponents, even when they are outside the frontiers. Supporters of Iran’s main opposition were forced to leave the country and live in refuge in a camp in Iraq. They were forced to leave Iran after more than 30,000 political prisoners were executed in only one month in 1988. However, frightened of its internal situation, Iranian rulers found that they could not accept their opposition even outside Iran. The camp was attacked in April 2011 by the Iraqi army, following the request made by the Iranian supreme leader.

In the event, dozens were killed and hundreds were injured. Many were run over by military vehicles. Following the brutal massacre, which brought swift international condemnations, Iraq quickly announced a deadline to shut down Camp Ashraf by 31 December 2011. The residents had no option but to leave the country, Iraq said.

Since last September, UN's refugee body (UNHCR) has been ready to start the Refugee Status Determination process of the over 3000 "asylum-seekers" at Camp Ashraf. The process, however, never started as Iraq barred UNHCR from doing interviews inside or even nearby Ashraf.

It later emerged that Iraq had no intention of speeding up departure of the dissidents to other countries. Instead, it was implementing Tehran's instructions for setting impossible conditions to obtain another excuse to launch attacks on the camp, when the deadline would expire.

The residents were told they had to leave to a new location, Camp Liberty, which used to be a base for American soldiers. They were told that the new camp was large enough to locate the 3400 dissidents. This was despite the fact that the base was a desert-like place hardly suitable for men and women civilians. This information however, was soon proved to be wrong and the Iraqi government decided to force the men and women in the camp to a much smaller place. The first information was that the camp was of an area of 40 sq km. However, they were later told that only 0.6 sq km of the new camp will be available to them and four meter walls will be put around the camp. No-one would be allowed to leave or enter the camp either. This reminded everyone of the concentration camps used by the Nazi regime for its opponents.

Looking at the history of the term concentration camp, one cannot help noticing the resemblances which exist. At the time, Hitler ordered to have his opponents physically concentrated in one place, and that is where the word concentration camp came from. One can also read in the history books that the term concentration camp referred to a camp in which people were detained without regard to legal norms that are acceptable in a constitutional democracy.

Sadly, these are the very conditions that the Iranian dissidents have been subjected to and the conditions have continuously become worse during the past year. The residents in Camp Ashraf are in fact intellectuals who have decided to stand up against the fundamentalist regime in Iran for democracy and freedom. But the fact is that they are receiving a harsh treatment from the international institutions, which are supposed to defend their rights.

Worst of all is that the UN representative, who is following the events on behalf of the United Nations Secretary General, is not helping the matter either. During a press conference in Brussels on 2 February, Mr. Martin Kobler again reiterated his proposal. "It requires a voluntary decision by Camp Ashraf residents to relocate from Camp Ashraf to Liberty.""There are two options for camp Ashraf residents: To stay in Ashraf...but this is an option which might lead to violence!..Or to use the offer of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to go to Camp Liberty," he concluded.

As many humanitarian figures, including the archbishop of Wales have re-iterated: “This is totally unacceptable. How could 3,400 people, including 1,000 women, be located in such a small area?”

The new camp is about 40 times smaller that the area that the dissidents have lived in up until now, and the issue has thus become one that can easily lead to another act of genocide. It is certainly not exaggerating to say that the new Camp Liberty is no more than a concentration camp and the UN representative has helped the Iranian mullahs achieve their goal.

ENDS

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