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Big commotion for nothing

41st repetitious and hollow draft in 7 months for enchaining the Iranian opposition in Liberty prison; The latest souvenir of Martin Kobler under the banner of a Road Map On July 22, Mr. Martin Kobler while requesting a meeting with Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, wrote: We are in contact with the Iraqi government on a roadmap to relocate camp Ashraf . On the following day, he sent another email under the title of "DRAFT Road map July 23 July". On July 24 with a big clamor, it was announced that: " The United Nations mission in Iraq today presented a roadmap to the Government suggesting a series of steps to complete the peaceful relocation of Iranian exiles from Camp Ashraf to Camp Hurriya". Mr. Kobler added in his statement: "To facilitate the remaining moves that will lead to the closure of Camp Ashraf, UNAMI called on the residents to start the preparations for the next move without delay, and asked the Government of Iraq to be generous when it comes to the humanitarian needs of the residents and to continue to seek a peaceful solution to this issue under any circumstances.

1- The residents of Ashraf and their representatives, as usual, are unaware of the negotiations of the facilitator with the Iraqi government about their fate and final version of the road map, because the Iraqi government has never accepted the idea of dialogue with their representatives outside Iraq, since the Government of Iraq prefers negotiations with the gun pointed at the counterparts with threatening them to be arrested( Refer to statement by ICJDA statement on June 2, 2012) Last December Mrs Rajavi announced her readiness to travel to Baghdad and talk with the Government of Iraq but the Government of Iraq did not accept it( NCRI December 21, 2012 statement ). On January 2, 2012, Mrs Rajavi warned about the full-fledged attempts for the failure of the peaceful solution, and while reminding the previous call by Ban Ki-moon to the United Nations member states to support and facilitate the implementation of any arrangement that is acceptable to the Government of Iraq and the camp residents in order to find a peaceful and mutually acceptable solution she suggested a special conference in Paris or Brussels or Geneva, chaired by Special Representative of the UN Secretary General (SRSG) and in her presence or presence of the representatives of Ashraf residents and decision making Iraqi officials and other relevant parties. (NCRI statement January 2, 2012 statement) - Mrs. Rajavi once again emphasized the necessity of holding an international conference headed by the UN Secretary Generals Special Representative with representatives of Ashraf residents, the governments of Iraq and the United States, European Union, UNHCR and European Parliament taking part to save the peaceful solution"(NCRI Statement-January 9, 2012). But again GoI and SRSG did not accept.

2- The draft Road map of July 23, which has been sent to the representatives of the residents, is totally unacceptable by the residents and contains nothing new. This is the final sample of dozens of drafts and letters which has been circulating between Mr Kobler and the representatives of the residents over the past seven month , the number of which exceeds 40. It is a gradual and attrition process which has started since December 18 , during which Martin Kobler step by step has either omitted the fundamental rights of the residents or has "wear them thin" as far as possible so that the patience of the Iraqi government would not wear thinner. 3-Immediately upon receiving the road map of July 23, the representatives of the residents replied: "This document was nothing but the presentation of the programs and aims of the GoI and Iranian regime by UNAMI particularly that you also wrote in your letter of 22 July, "We are in contact with the government on a roadmap to relocate camp ashraf". He added "Without implementation of the minimum requirements that have not been implemented, the ones that have been mentioned in NCRI July 15 statement (8 Points of the 10 minimum humanitarian requirements for the departure of other groups from Ashraf to Liberty, no further move from Ashraf to Liberty is possible". 4- In this Road map, similar to previous ones, all the humanitarian requirements of the residents like water, electricity, and utility and personal vehicles and forklifts have been postponed to an unspecific and unclear arrangement. The experience has shown that they would never be implemented. Also in other drafts, there is an unabated and futile repetition that the Iraqi government agrees with the sale of the properties or transfer of power generators from Ashraf to Liberty, according to the need, but in practice GoI refrains from implementing all commitments and agreements, but at the same time has gained the thanks and appreciation of the SRSG in the Security Council. For example:

In the previous drafts Libertys water should have been connected to the city water before the month of
Ramadan (starting July20), but in the Road map there is no mention of a specific date. In the Road map it has been written: A technical committee will meet Tuesday, July 24, 2012 in CL with participation of UNAMI to discuss equipment and engineering details of the future water system". However, on Tuesday July 24, in spite of the regrettable situation of water, UNAMI informed Liberty representatives that the meeting of the relevant committee was not held and the Water Ministry technicians who met the UN monitors for almost 10 minutes the day before said that in the best case they would need three months to set up the structure to pump water from a nearby river as demanded by residents. In the roadmap, there is no mention of the six main generators of Ashraf, the ownership documents of which were presented to Mr Kobler and Iraqi officials 4 months ago. There would be impossible to generate electricity and pump water without transferring these six generators. After seven months, until now Ashraf residents have not been able to sell even one dollar of their properties due to the fact that merchants and purchasers are barred to enter Ashraf and yet the roadmap mentions nothing about removing this prohibition. This is while the residents have spent more than $2 million dollars over the past five months only for generators fuel since the Government of Iraq has not allowed them to

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purchase fuel from Iraqi market since four years ago and they are forced to import fuel from other countries with prices several times as much. 5. This roadmap is a clear attempt for forcing the residents to give up even their very minimum humanitarian needs. Altogether 2000 residents have relocated in five groups one after the other without their minimum humanitarian needs been provided only based on written and oral promises that these minimums would be provided with the next group. Now with this roadmap, Mr. Kobler is repeating once again the same scenario in order to evict and relocate the remaining residents to Liberty prison only based on hollow promises without provision of the humanitarian minimums. In practice, this is the same plan of the Iranian regime and its Iraqi proxies to compel the Iranian opposition to submit and surrender. 6. This roadmap is the outcome of the bilateral agreement of the SRSG and the Iraqi side whereas any roadmap should come out of trilateral talks and agreed on by both residents and the Government of Iraq as announced on several occasions by the Secretary General. What a strange roadmap which has no precise arrangements and time line for resolving the most essential matters such as water, electricity, selling of the residents' movable and immovable properties and arrangements and prerequisites for evacuating Ashraf and its inspection? Why there is no mention of the fundamental issues like prohibiting the Iranian regime's involvement, legal status of Liberty residents, their rights and a time limit for the process of refugee status determination in a closed location known as Temporary Transit Location (TTL) which should have lasted only for several days, weeks or months? Why there is no mention of an end to the cruel siege of 4 years which has been a grave violation of all international laws? Why the residents have been denied of their right to profit-making activities and freedom of movement? It seems that this roadmap is only aiming at evacuating Ashraf at any price and cramming the residents into Liberty prison no matter what later consequences it might have. As stated in his report to the Security Council and also in his yesterday's statement, Kobler is only pinning hopes on "Iraq's generosity". International laws, refugee law, International Humanitarian Law, international human rights law, all the known principles of the United Nations and the UNHCR and the RtoP which has so much been underscored by the Secretary General are all ignored and victimized. 7. Instant use of this roadmap for the "generous" Government of Iraq has been that immediately after it was issued the GoI openly threatened that it would act if the residents did not yield to it. (AFP, July 24) 8. Irrespective of the inaccuracies in numbers and figures, this roadmap has a spirit of shocking deceptions, fallacies and inverted claims. The roadmap that should indeed look to future boasts in the beginning by highlighting the transfer of 300 air conditioners and 10 generators and what was left from convoys 4 and 5, which should have been done two and a half months ago, in order to conclude that major part of the demands of the residents have been met.

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It sounds as if the generous Government of Iraq, which has so far plundered tens of millions of the MeK properties and crushed 22 residents of Ashraf by Humvee armored vehicles, has made a donation out of the 382 generators and thousands of air conditioners that in fact belong entirely to the residents. If Mr. Kobler had not expect even this much of generosity from the Government of Iraq, then before all, it must be acknowledged that there is no rule of law in the country but rather run by law of jungle and banditry. Instead of emphasizing the right of construction and constructing necessary facilities and green area that it was stipulated in the MOU and the letters of the SRSG, it stated: "-Housing is ready -Hotels are ready". Regarding the issue of water, it depicts as though the Government of Iraq is now providing 200 liters of water per day per person and states: "The GOI continues to guarantee 200 ltrs per day per person in CH. UN monitors will report daily on water provision" It deliberately ignores the fact the residents are forced to bring water to Liberty by accepting huge cost and by waiting hours in a long queue at 55 degrees Celsius from 12 Kilometer away and face tremendous problems to this effect. 9- Mr Kobler receives the daily reports regularly. As an example; the report of July 24 regarding water and other humanitarian requirements is quite explanatory: "-In the past 24 hours, with the breakdown of another pumping station in the airport area, water tankers from other sections of the airport area stormed into the pumping station that is used by residents. Therefore, in the hours of 2 to 4 a.m. of today, that it was thought residents could use the uncongested condition at the point to bring water into the camp, they were faced with 16 to 20 other water tankers in the queue line. Besides the deadly waiting at the pump, today, the water tanker drivers were forced to wait from one to one and a half hours at 1 p.m. which is the hottest time of the day at the camp checkpoint to get permission to leave and get an escort. Of they also had to wait 8 hours at the water outlet to fill up their tankers. All this was while the temperature was over 56 degrees Celsius and drivers are fasting in observance of religious ritual of this month". -Today, UNAMI monitors informed representative of residents that Sadeq from the prime ministry Committee has completely rejected the plan for containers porches that prevents dust from getting into the containers of the elderly and particularly patients with asthma. He has asked residents to make another model for him to see and decide on. Hence, after almost four months past the date that the plan for the porch was given to the GoI representative and all the coming and going and change of plan and building a prototype just like all other plans presented by residents to the Committee and Sadeq, this plan too is now at point zero and Sadeq, as always, is playing with everyone.

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-Since last Thursday that residents requested forklifts for moving the heavy consignments that have come in 28 trucks from Ashraf, still the prime ministry Committee has not given any forklifts to the residents. This is while according to documents distributed by UNAMI all over the world, that the GoI has already made available two forklifts to be operated by Iraqi drivers. The drivers can be provided any time from 8.00 to 18.00hrs. The GoI will provide a third forklift if needed". It is obvious that all these hollow promises and commitments are to whitewash GoIs opposition to the transfer of five forklifts from Ashraf to Camp Liberty by the residents. Now, in this unbearable heat, residents are compelled to transfer heavy items that have come from Ashraf, such as AC units, with bare hands from one place to another and this work has caused physical harm to a number of residents up to this point. -Today is the sixth day that Sadeqs plainclothes agents are holding up the vegetable seeds bought by residents at the checkpoint, refusing to release them. This is while vegetable seeds pose no security problem and have no dual use and it is unclear why the seeds are being held. Residents have time and again requested from the Committee to present a list of forbidden items to the residents so that they know beforehand; however, each time upon various pretexts, the Committee refuses to give such a list to residents so that it can arbitrarily prohibit entry of items whenever it wishes. -Today was the 127th day that engineer Bardia Amir Mostofian has passed away and GoI refused to hand over his body to his relatives for burial".

10- On July 23, in two separate letters to the UN Secretary General of the United Nations, the residents of Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty once more reiterate the minimum humanitarian requirements for continuation of transfer from Ashraf to Camp Liberty (NCRI Statement on July 24). The minimum requirements are only part of the reasonable and legitimate demands of Ashraf residents which the residents and their representative have been urging their implementation since December. Upon the requests by SRSG and the US Department of State's Special Representative, the residents waivered some of their rights. However, no road map is acceptable without the minimum requirements being implemented and secured. Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran July 25, 2012

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