USA: Outside the United Nations, hundreds rally to demand support and security for Iranian refugees in Iraq

Record ID: 214009

  • Title: USA: Outside the United Nations, hundreds rally to demand support and security for Iranian refugees in Iraq
  • Date: 16th July 2013
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JULY 16, 2013) (REUTERS) DEMONSTRATORS WAVING PERSIAN FLAGS (IRAN'S FLAG BEFORE 1979 REVOLUTION) DEMONSTRATORS AND SIGNS FORMER U.S. CONGRESSMAN PATRICK KENNEDY SPEAKING TO CROWD CROWD (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER U.S. CONGRESSMAN PATRICK KENNEDY, SAYING: "We do not have to question whether there is an intention to continue to try to massacre the refugees of Ashraf and Liberty. We know that there is an intention because we have seen it, not once, not twice, but on three prior occasions, there have been attacks on Liberty. The place that Martin Kobler, the U.N., person in charge, has deemed safe and secure for the people in Camp Liberty." SIGN READING "WE DEMAND PROSECUTION OF KOBLER" KENNEDY SPEAKING CROWD AND FLAGS NONTOMBI NAOMI TUTU WALKING ON STAGE (SOUNDBITE) (English) NONTOMBI NAOMI TUTU, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST AND DAUGHTER OF ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU, SAYING: "Why would people want to stay in a prison camp where there lives are in danger if they were really offered another alternative? And why are we not asking Martin Kobler that question? Why is the U.N. not sending an independent investigative team?" SHIRT READING "VIVA ASHRAF" (SOUNDBITE) (English) NONTOMBI NAOMI TUTU, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST AND DAUGHTER OF ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU, SAYING: "Growing up I would hear about all kinds of debates at the U.N. about what was going on in South Africa. And so very rarely were the voices of South Africans heard in those debates. And I think that we are in the same position now. We have people saying they represent the best interests of the Iranian people and yet the Iranian people are very qualified to speak to their own experience, particularly as it applies to Camps Ashraf and Liberty. And the people in Liberty and Ashraf have asked over and over for independent investigative teams to come and see their conditions and see what is happening on the ground so that the U.N. is hearing from their lips their experience. And that's why I'm here." VARIOUS OF DEMONSTRATORS (SOUNDBITE) (English) NONTOMBI NAOMI TUTU, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST AND DAUGHTER OF ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU, SAYING: "My father always told me to give somebody the benefit of the doubt, so I'm going give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he just has not done his job very well. From the very beginning, as I said, when you have seen pictures of what Liberty looks like, there is no way that anybody can say that that is a safe place for refugees coming from a camp that had already been attacked even with the security that they had there. So then to put them in a place where there is no security, to put them in a place where there is a lack of facilities, to put them in a place where they don't have access to the internet, they don't have access to the kind of equipment that they had at Ashraf... How in human wisdom can we say that is a safe place for people at risk?" PERSIAN FLAG AND UNITED NATIONS BUILDING UNITED NATIONS BUILDING
  • Embargoed: 31st July 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVADWV2MJAAZFHN8WSTFI8W31YED
  • Story Text: About a hundred Iranian-Americans held a rally across the street from the United Nations headquarters in New York on Tuesday (July 16) to call on the U.N. Security Council to protect the more than 3,000 residents of Camps Liberty and Ashraf.
    The rally was held hours before the Security Council was scheduled to meet about Iraq and discuss extending the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq (UNAMI).
    The Iranian dissident group Mujahadin-e-Khalq (MEK) said its camp in Iraq's capital Baghdad has been hit multiple times by mortars and missiles.
    MEK calls for the overthrow of Iran's clerical leaders and fought alongside the forces of former Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
    Also known as the People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI), the group led a guerrilla campaign against the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran during the 1970s that also included attacks on U.S. targets.
    It is now seeking to recast itself as an Iranian opposition force but is no longer welcome in Iraq under the Shi'ite Muslim-led government that came to power after U.S.-led forces invaded and toppled Saddam in 2003.
    MEK's camp is located in the former U.S. military compound "Camp Liberty" in the western part of the capital, where most of the group was relocated by Iraqi authorities last year from a base given to them by Saddam.
    The United Nations intends to process them for refugee status in other countries, but they have complained that the conditions at Camp Liberty are poor and that they have not been permitted to bring many of their personal belongings.
    The MEK has long criticized Ban's envoy in Iraq, Martin Kobler, accusing him of playing down problems with the group's facilities at its new temporary location at Camp Liberty. The United Nations has dismissed the criticism.
    Waving Persian flags and holding signs that read "We demand prosecution of Kobler", about a hundred demonstrators listened to guest speakers including former U.S. Congressman Patrick Kennedy, nephew of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and human rights activist Nontombi Naomi Tutu, the daughter of South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

    "We do not have to question whether there is an intention to continue to try to massacre the refugees of Ashraf and Liberty. We know that there is an intention because we have seen it, not once, not twice, but on three prior occasions, there have been attacks on Liberty. The place that Martin Kobler, the U.N., person in charge, has deemed safe and secure for the people in Camp Liberty," said Kennedy.
    Nontombi Naomi Tutu told Reuters she felt a connection to the Iranian refugees.

    "Growing up I would hear about all kinds of debates at the U.N. about what was going on in South Africa. And so very rarely were the voices of South Africans heard in those debates. And I think that we are in the same position now. We have people saying they represent the best interests of the Iranian people and yet the Iranian people are very qualified to speak to their own experience, particularly as it applies to Camps Ashraf and Liberty. And the people in Liberty and Ashraf have asked over and over for independent investigative teams to come and see their conditions and see what is happening on the ground so that the U.N. is hearing from their lips their experience. And that's why I'm here."
    With regards to Kobler, Tutu said, "My father always told me to give somebody the benefit of the doubt, so I'm going give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he just has not done his job very well."
    In April 2011, 34 people were killed at Camp Ashraf, located in Diyala province, after Iraqi security forces moved against them, according to a U.N. investigation.
    The U.N. Security Council plans to discuss Iraq on Tuesday during its afternoon session.
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