THE WASHINGTON POST
Regarding the July 6 front-page article “Iranian exiles attracting attention with supporters”:
Members of the Iranian opposition group Mujaheddin-e Khalq (MEK) have built Camp Ashraf in Iraq into a modern town over the past quarter-century, but they nonetheless heeded the call by the Iranian resistance leader Maryam Rajavi to move to Camp Liberty after Iraq signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton offered personal assurances regarding their safety.
The residents kept their word, with 2,000 already departing; the Iraqi government, on the other hand, has violated its commitments at every turn — with scarcely a word of protest from the United States and United Nations.
It is unconscionable that anyone could question the integrity of a stellar, bipartisan group of U.S. public servants who are calling for safety and security for the dissidents.
The MEK has no lobby or representative in the United States. The State Department has egregiously delayed the removal of the MEK from its list of designated terrorist organizations. Meanwhile, MEK supporters in Iran have been executed, and49 Ashraf residents have been killed in Iraq.
It is dishonorable to say that the defenseless Ashraf residents must either forcibly leave their properties and relocate to “Liberty Prison,” which lacks basic services such as running water and electricity, and equipment for the disabled, or face the prospect of being kept on the terror list and being massacred by Iraq. The United States should support their minimum humanitarian requirements for completing the relocation.
Shahin Gobadi, Paris
The writer is spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran.