Iranian resistance leader Maryam Rajavi calls for urgent action to safeguard Camp Liberty

Maryam Rajavi, leader of the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI) and a prominent voice calling for regime change in Tehran, has urged the international community to safeguard Camp Liberty, Iraq, until all its residents have left Iraq. 

Camp Liberty became the primary home for members of the PMOI (also known as MEK), the main branch of the NCRI, after its expulsion from Camp Ashraf in 2012. It has since faced continued bombing attacks against its unarmed population. 

The most recent of these attacks, which occurred on July 4, injured 40 and caused major destruction in the camp. Prior to the attack, Iraqi security forces had blockaded Camp Liberty for eight days (the blockade is still in place). The attack was the fifth in four years. 

Following the attacks, Mrs Rajavi called for quick and decisive action to protect the camp’s residents, who are highly vulnerable to another attack. She urged the international community to uphold its promises to protect Camp Liberty inhabitants. She specifically called on the United States and United Nations to step up their efforts to protect the beleaguered area. 

Amnesty International has also issued a statement about the attacks, saying Wednesday that members of the PMOI should be protected as civilians from any future attacks. It called for an independent and prompt investigation into the July 4 attack. 

“I was just finishing up eating when I heard the first explosion”, said one woman to Amnesty International. “I got out of the food hall together with my friends, and we started running. A rocket exploded about three meters away from me. From the impact, I fell on the ground on my face. I had blood all over my face and nose.” 

Another woman said that she felt that she was being “buried alive” by smoke and debris as she hid in a hole in the ground which Camp Liberty residents had dug out in case of attacks. 

The PMOI is a political party that was banned in Iran shortly after the Iranian Revolution. Many of its members were imprisoned; tens of thousands were executed.  After expulsion from France, at the request of the Iranian regime,  a base at Camp Ashraf, Iraq was established in 1986. It was subject to extensive air attacks during the 2003 invasion of Iraq due to its classification by the Iraqi government as a terrorist group. Investigations by several US agencies showed that the group had never engaged in terrorist acts. The US granted them protected civilian status under the Geneva Convention. In 2009, the U.S. transferred control of the camp to the Iraqi security forces. A series of attacks on Camp Ashraf residents by Iraqi security forces occurred, and eventually the roughly 3,100 PMOI members who were at Camp Ashraf were transferred to Camp Liberty. Major attacks against Camp Liberty occurred in 2013 and again in 2015.

The PMOI is part of the umbrella group of the NCRI, which is a form of parliament-in-exile that seeks regime change in Iran. In the event of the collapse of Iran’s current government, the group would be ready to implement a transitional six-month provisionary government while free and democratic elections are conducted in Iran. As part of its “Ten-Point Plan”, the group seeks to establish democratic government, abolish the death penalty, expand civil liberties, implement gender equality, establish a modern judicial system, hold Iran to international human rights conventions, recognize private property, create a peaceful foreign policy, and ensure a non-nuclear Iran. 

The group’s leader since 1993 is Maryam Rajavi. She is a leading figure in the movement for a tolerant and democratic form of Islam and is active in the fight against religious fundamentalism. Mrs Rajavi and the NCRI seek to draw global attention to Iran’s continued human rights abuses, political repression, and use of execution. They also seek to highlight that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s stated reformist stance belies a dismal record on most social, political, and economic issues in Iran. 

While the group has been embattled with legal, political, and humanitarian issues, it has remained a resilient force pushing for democratic government in Tehran. The group revealed the existence of Iran’s nuclear programme in 2002, and has worked consistently to document human rights abuses and political repression in Iran.