The
regrettable lack of human rights and humanitarian standards in Camp Liberty and
making it a prison as well as the inaction of UNAMI and Special Representative
of the UN Secretary General (SRSG) and providing a fictitious picture of
Liberty have raised international outrage. Yet, UNAMI's fact sheet of August 23, 2012 and the
remarks of a UN spokesperson on the same day, are intended to once again
provide a twisted picture of the realities and to depict Liberty prison as a
five star hotel.
The fact
sheet states: "The GoI allows Hurriya residents to make their own
arrangements for the provision of … the maintenance and rehabilitation of
equipment…Residents are free to undertake renovation projects with the approval
of camp management. They have completed a range of landscaping initiatives and
refurbishment of buildings. They are also free to bring in external contractors
to implement these projects, with the agreement of camp management … The camp has a dining
facility with an industrial kitchen, a fully equipped gym, a mosque, several
community centres, and numerous recreational spaces… Bottled drinking water is
imported by the residents. In addition, each resident has at least 200L of
water per day for hygiene and other uses… A water pumping and purification
plant is being installed in the camp. Electricity is currently provided by 19
generators, half of which operate at any given time to ensure that electricity
is provided 24 hours a day."
This is an
obvious attempt to cover up the situation in Liberty and whitewash the UNAMI
and Special Representative's actions on this issue and at the same time an
encouragement for the Iranian regime and its puppets in Iraq for exerting further
pressure and suppression of Ashraf and Liberty residents. This fact sheet fails
to mention many facts, has twisted many others and has shown them reversely or
has tried to credit the GoI and UNAMI for some progress that have been achieved
solely due the residents' hard work and their huge costs.
1. The Memorandum
of Understanding (MoU) that the SRSG had signed with the GoI without the
agreement and knowledge of the residents and did not include even many minimums
required by them, has constantly been violated by the GoI. Yet, the UNAMI has
always, including in this fact sheet, kept silent over these flagrant
violations. Even worse, by praising the GoI practically it has emboldened the
GoI in violating the rights of Ashraf and Liberty residents.
2. The MoU underscores
that human rights and humanitarian standards must be adhered to at Camp
Liberty. But UNAMI always keeps silent over the violation of human rights
standards at Liberty. In this fact sheet and all other UNAMI's statements, there
have been no objection to the lack of freedom of movement of the residents and their
lack of permission to have access to lawyers. Aren't these among the basic
human rights principles? Is it not that the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) in its numerous statements including the ones issued on February
1, March 1 and 28, 2012 stipulated on the necessity of the freedom of movement for Liberty residents?
3. The SRSG and
UNAMI have deliberately forgotten the report
by the UN Working Group for the Arbitrary Detention, which stated Liberty
is a prison. This report, published on
July 17, 2012, stipulated that “The conditions in Camp Liberty are
synonymous with those in a detention centre..., there is no legal justification
for holding the above-mentioned persons and other individuals in Camp Liberty,
and that such detention is not in conformity with the standards and principles
of international human rights law (Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights and articles 9 and 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights). The Working Group
requested the Government of Iraq “to take the necessary steps to bring
conditions in Liberty into conformity with the standards and principles set
forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.” It demanded “immediate release and
lifting of all restraints on the free movement,” as well as an enforceable
right “to compensation, in accordance with article 9, paragraph 5, of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”
4. UN’s mission
is to promote the living standards of the of the asylum seekers and refugees.
No one can dispute the irrefutable fact
that the living standards in Liberty are egregiously lower than that in Ashraf.
The description provided in UNAMI’s fact sheet, even if it is completely accurate,
which it is not, might had been acceptable for asylum seekers who have recently
escaped their country. But not for those
who turned a barren piece of arid land into a modern city with their own energy
and at their own cost over the past 26
years. UNAMI does not offer any explanation on why it condones such a dreadful
degradation in the living standards? The residents of Ashraf were only given
the choice between being attacked and massacred or moving to Liberty prison.
This is tantamount to forcible relocation. In particular when the residents
expressed their readiness to be relocated to third countries, relocation within
Iraq was irrelevant and so far has only
delayed the relocation to the third countries . The US Congress, the European
Parliament and scores of international human rights bodies , on numerous
occasions had demanded that the asylum application be processed and transfer to
third countries be conducted from Ashraf. The U.S. Congress in the resolution
that it ratified on November 2, 2012 called for "...delaying the
camp(Ashraf) closure until the U.N. High Commission for Refugees can resettle
the residents in another country." (Associated Press, November2, 2011)
5. Quite contrary
to what UNAMI has claimed, eight months after signing of the MoU and six months
after the arrival of the residents at Liberty, despite numerous requests and
correspondents by the residents and their representatives to representatives of
UNAMI, the GoI, and the US Government, the committee for suppressing Ashraf and
Liberty residents at Prime Minister's Office has not authorized any permission
for construction at Liberty. No renovation or even repairs has taken place and
contractors have not received the permission to enter Liberty. No permission for construction of ramps,
special rooms for disabled residents, canopies, porches, asphalt or cement path
ways has been issued. As such, the residents, including the disabled and
elderly residents should walk in rocky roads. The contractors who exceptionally
were able to enter to Liberty, were so much harassed by Iraqi forces that have
given up working at Liberty.
6. The fact sheet
states that "residents are free to undertake renovation projects with the
approval of camp management." Yet it covers up the reality that the camp
management is Mohammad Sadeq, an agent of the terrorist Qods Force of the IRGC
and the main culprit in two massacres of July 2009 and April 2011. He is under
investigation by the court in Spain and while he had traveled to Brussels as a
member of the GoI official delegation, he was barred from entering the European
Parliament and was arrested in France charged with complicity in torture. One
would wonder whether according to the SRSG
this management is line with human rights and humanitarian standards?
7. The fact that
the residents by their creativity, hard work, and utilizing the most
rudimentary equipments have planted flowers, have constructed some public
areas, or have turned obsolete warehouses and
trailers into sporting areas, has nothing to do with GoI or UNAMI. The
GoI has gone out of its way to prevent the improvement of living conditions at
Liberty. To that end, and in order to make the living conditions even harsher,
it prevents the transfer of equipments such as personal vehicles, cranes,
forklifts, construction and technical equipments to Liberty. These are equipments
that are fundamentally needed for daily life of a community of several thousand
people.
8. Negotiations
and correspondents of the residents and their representatives with the
representatives of UN and the US Government throughout the past six months for
the transfer of only five forklifts with lower capacity (out of dozens of
forklifts) have been futile. As a result the residents have been forced to
carry heavy loads on their backs or with their hands. This has resulted in
multitude cases of serious physical ailment. On the same token, in spite of the
agreement with the SRSG, the GoI prevents the transfer of one personal vehicle
for every 40 residents (in total only five percent of the vehicles of the
residents). These vehicles are a necessity for transportation in extremely hot
weather, in particular for ill and disabled residents. "Making the living conditions
intolerable" is the stated policy of the GoI. It was announced by the
National Security Advisor of Maliki of the time, immediately following the transfer of Ashraf
protection to the GoI.
9. Not only the issue of water shortage, but the approach of the
UNAMI and the Special Representative to that is very disappointing. At first it
was pretended as though there was no shortage of water at Liberty and pictures
of running tap water were sent to the residents. However, it was later
determined that not only Liberty had no drinking water but there was no running
water in the camp either.
On daily
basis, close to a number of 100 residents at great costs of their own try to
transport water to Liberty from 12 kilometers away. Preventing the transfer of
the residents' own water tankers from Ashraf to Liberty, the GoI makes the
supplying of water even more difficult. In spite of all these efforts, the water
level does not suffice the residents on many days since a significant portion
of it is used for cooling worn out generators.
The SRSG has
repeatedly promised the residents that camp Liberty would be connected to the
city water pipe. In a letter dated April
24, he wrote to the residents' representative that the initial work had started
and camp Liberty would soon be connected to the city main water line. On May 28
and 31, the SRSG informed the residents that the camp would be connected to the
city water pipe before Ramadan. But then in June he informed the residents that
the project was not feasible. On July 26, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi subsequently
introduced a plan to the SRSG in which the residents could pump water from a
nearby river to camp Liberty and purify it inside the camp. This plan would
have cost $ 2,550000 which the residents had agreed to pay in full and if it
wasn’t for the GoI’s obstructions, it would have already been completed.
Despite the fact that the costs have been paid by the residents and the
equipments have been purchased, the plan is progressing slowly and with great
difficulty due to the obstructions caused by the GoI.
10. Contrary to what was claimed on the fact sheet, electricity
remains to be a serious problem at
Liberty. The GoI is preventing the transfer of the six 1.5 Megawatt generators
from Ashraf to camp Liberty. These generators can play an important role in
supplying power at camp Liberty. They were purchased and installed at the time
when the camp was under the control of the U.S. forces and their purchase
documents were given by the residents to the SRSG, UNAMI and the U.S.
authorities. The 19 generators referred to by UNAMI are totally worn out, and
some of them are completely inoperable. Therefore, they consume a lot of fuel
in a way that the residents had to spend about 2.5 million dollars in 6 months
on fuel. The GoI does not permit the residents to purchase fuel from the Iraqi
market and therefore they have to import fuel from out of Iraq for ten times as
much in price.
11. In a recent assessment of these generators in late July, the
British Cummins Company pointed out, "Work hour of these generators as of
right now is between 12000 to18000 hours, usually you have to have the engine
and alternator overhaul when the work hours get at this point which has not
been done for these generators, this might cause problems and it could make a
generator out of order any time.
We inspected
14 generators, 5 generators has engine problems or missing some parts are out
of order and cannot be used, seven generator need to have engine over haul and
their efficiency and potency is very low, most of them with less than 50%
potency although their fuel and oil usage is very high, two generator because
of radiator problem can be used only in some hours of a day or night.
This
generator water temperature goes very high beside high usage of fuel and oil
burning adding hot weather condition and system has to be cool done by pouring
water on radiator, the amount of water needed for cooling all these generators
is at least 12000 LT. per day.
Due to lack
of proper hourly, monthly services fuel usage of these generators are very
high.
Financially
the cost for repair these generators would be very high and considering the
restriction and limitations of part in Iraq it would take some time before the
repair be completed.
Finally after
all the repairs and fixing all the generators each section has to have a
generator as a back up to be sure."
The UNAMI and
US officials were informed of the above document on August 14.
12- If according to the fact sheet and the UN spokesperson,
international standards and the minimum humanitarian needs are met at Liberty,
why the GoI does not allow the families, lawyers, parliamentarians, human
rights advocates or even the US military officers who were in charge of
protecting Ashraf in the past and have now requested to visit Camp Liberty to
enter the camp? Why the gates of Liberty are closed to these people? And why
UNAMI has not supported their attempts to visit camp Liberty?
Baseless
claims on the conditions at camp Liberty and publishing false reports as well
as selected and doctored photos are nothing new and unfortunately have been the
norm by UNAMI and the SRSG over this period. UNAMI’s description of the area of
the camp allocated to the residents which was reduced from 40 sq. kilometers to
600,000 sq. meters, the condition of the
trailers, water and sewage system and the establishments for the disabled etc
all have been astronomically far from the truth.
Rather than
continue to try to provide an unreal picture of the situation at Liberty, the United Nations must hold the GoI
committed to providing the conditions to meet the humanitarian and human rights
standards, and must attempt to open the doors of Camp Liberty to the lawyers,
parliamentarians and human rights advocates and report the continuous
violations by the GoI to the UN Security Council asking the UNSC to intervene
to safeguard the security and protection of the residents.
Secretariat of the National Council
of Resistance of Iran
August 25, 2012