Iran: Forcefully Relocating Refugees to Inhuman Conditions

The residents of camp ashraf are being forcefully relocated. No matter what it is called, the fact is that they are being forcefully relocated to a prison camp with inhuman conditions. This however, is not the worst side of the story. The worst side is when a crime is committed and the victim is blamed for the crime; When you steal a man’s wallet, and then have him arrested for the theft committed. This is just what is happening in the case of Iranian dissidents. The Iranian dissidents are denied water and electricity, and they are blamed for t he shortcomings. The Iraqi officials blame them saying that they deliberately damaged the power generator, and have deliberately used too much water and left the taps open.

In the midst of all the inhuman conditions, the Iranian dissidents in camp ashraf have become the victim. Worst is that the world has remained quiet amid the lobbies run by the Iranian rulers against their democratic opponents, and the mullahs in Iran are having it their way.

The international events including the presidential elections in the USA, are working in favour of the Iranian rulers.No presidential administration wants a crisis in an election year, yet 2012 finds the Obama administration careening headlong into a major showdown with Iran.

Tehran just announced it has started enriching uranium at an underground site in Ferdow, near Qom, an ominous sign of nuclear weapons production. After threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz and choke off the world's supply of oil, Tehran announced yet another military manoeuvre is planned for the Persian Gulf. And, among other provocations, a former U.S. Marine of Iranian descent was sentenced to execution on espionage charges.

The United States has responded with tightening economic sanctions on Iran, targeting the central bank. The European countries are contemplating an oil embargo that seemed far-fetched six months ago.

Sanctions by themselves are clearly not enough and Tehran is having it exactly its way. The objective of the sanctions is to increase internal pressure on Tehran's rulers to change course. But Tehran will not back down, as it is using all the resources available to its allies: Syria and Iraq. Short of an allied invasion, which in the wake of Iraq is neither practical nor affordable, what options remain?

This is what General Phillips, the American commander in Iraq and responsible for the camp Ashraf, during the Iraq war, had to say on the matter in a conference on February 11th:

“In Iran, there were opposition groups that struggled against the Shah and then the Islamist regime. The most effective and organized of these groups is the Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MEK. It is an ideal force for all world democracies in changing the totalitarian regime in Teheran. Unfortunately, in 1997, as a goodwill gesture to the regime in Iran, the United States designated this group of dissidents as terrorists.

I lived with the people of Camp Ashraf for well more than a year. I worked with them for many more. Few people know them better. My information is firsthand, from personal observation and experience, and it is untainted by politics, propaganda, hearsay and lies. Ever the Army military policeman I was for more than three decades, the facts tell me the people of Camp Ashraf are not terrorists.

Ashraf residents are doctors, lawyers, artists, writers, and musicians. They count among their alma maters UCLA, Ohio State, Michigan State, Kent State and Florida State. A third of the residents of Ashraf studied abroad. Another third were imprisoned under the shah and then the Ayatollah Khomeini. They do not come from the unemployed disgruntled groups of people who have no cause. The people of Camp Ashraf have a cause: freedom, democracy, tolerance and equality. Their leader, Maryam Rajavi, is firm in her belief in a secular, non-nuclear Iran.”

ENDS

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