Region | Iraq

Iranian refugees face uncertain future

The US risks a Srebrenica-style massacre if its forces in Iraq hand over responsibility for more than 3,000 exiled opposition Iranians to Iraqi authorities, an international lawyers' group has said.

  • Reuters
  • Published: 23:12 September 5, 2008
  • Gulf News

Geneva: The US risks a Srebrenica-style massacre if its forces in Iraq hand over responsibility for more than 3,000 exiled opposition Iranians to Iraqi authorities, an international lawyers' group has said.

The International Committee of Jurists in Defence of Ashraf said the Iranians would be in danger as pro-Shiite elements of Iraq's government close to Tehran could expel them to Iran.

Camp Ashraf, 70km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, has housed Iranian refugees and the exiled members of the opposition People's Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) for two decades. US forces, who toppled President Saddam Hussain, have protected the camp since 2003.

However, the residents' fate hangs in the balance as US forces negotiate the transfer of territory to Iraq's government, which says PMOI is a terrorist group, the Paris-based body said.

"We fear we will end up with a situation like Srebrenica," said Marc Henzelin, a committee member who visited Ashraf last month, on Thursday.

Avoiding a massacre

"It is like putting foxes in charge of protecting the chicken coop. We don't want to have a massacre which is foretold," the Swiss lawyer added. He was referring to the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica, where Bosnian Serbs killed 8,000 Muslim men and boys in 1995.

Expelling the Iranian rebel group, also known as Mujahideen-e-Khalq, has been one of Tehran's main demands.

On Monday, Iraqi government spokesman Ali Al Dabbagh announced Baghdad's "intention to impose its full sovereignty in the Ashraf camp area in Diyala province.

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