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Camp Liberty residents call on UN US to investigate attack, release hostages, provide security

Camp Liberty residents’ collective letter to UN Secretary-General, U.S. Secretary of State and the High Commissioner for Refugees calls for an independent probe by United Nations, release of 7 hostages, and providing minimum security provisions to Camp Liberty

Following the fourth rocket attack on Camp Liberty on Thursday, December 26, all Camp Liberty residents wrote in their collective letter to UN Secretary-General, the U.S. Secretary of State, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees that this attack took place right after Nouri Maliki’s visit to Iran and for the purpose of gaining support from the Iranian regime for his third term as Prime Minister.

During this criminal attack, in addition to eight 280 mm rockets, sixty 107 mm rockets were fired at Camp Liberty. Altogether, 38 impact points were observed and registered by UN officials with three related to the 280 mm rockets that have a destructive power nearly 20 times than the 107 mm rockets.

In their letter, residents wrote: “this attack… killing three residents and injuring and wounding 71 others… in an area, where is highly controlled by the Iraqi government with a very high military and security presence, clearly shows that it was impossible without prior senior level coordination with the government.” They added: “The abovementioned attack takes place at a time when an independent probe has not been conducted into the 1 September massacre and the Iraqi government continues to refuse to release the seven residents abducted from Camp Ashraf.”

In Liberty residents’ letter it is stated: “unfortunately the UN has never held the Iraqi government responsible for the repeated massacres in camps Ashraf and Liberty during the past years, despite all the existing evidence and document. With the UN especially turning its back on the Iraqi government’s role in the 1 September 2013 massacre in Camp Ashraf, this government sees a green light to continue its crimes against the residents.”

In their letter, residents called on United Nations and United States to:

First: Make the necessary preparations for an independent investigation by the UN into the 1 September massacre in Ashraf and the 26 December rocket attack against Liberty.

Second: Strongly call on the Iraqi government to release the 7 hostages abducted from Ashraf as reported by UN Rapporteurs.

Third: Obligate the Iraqi government to not block the procurement of necessary security needs in Liberty.

Residents further stressed that some of these provisions are: “Returning 17,500 T-walls; transferring enough concrete bunkers into the camp; transferring the residents’ protective helmets and vests, and medical equipment and supplies from Ashraf to Liberty; permitting construction in Liberty aimed at erecting buildings that will at least be invulnerable against shrapnel, especially for the ill residents; constructing and installing dual layer roofs for the trailers in Liberty with supplies purchased at our own expense; and increasing the camp’s surface area in order to decrease the population density and lessen the vulnerability ratio. The casualties in Liberty would have been much lower if these minimums, which have been shared with the UN and US and Iraqi government officials hundreds of times ever since the first rocket attack back in February 2013, had been provided for.”

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran

December 31, 2013

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