AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

PUBLIC STATEMENT

6 July 2016

Index: MDE

14/4408/2016

Camp Liberty residents must be protected from attacks, said Amnesty International as it called for an independent, impartial and prompt investigation into the 4 July rocket attack on the camp, which is home to Iranian exiles.

At least 23 members of the main Iranian opposition group, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, PMOI (Mujahedin-e Khalq, MEK), were killed on Thursday, October 29, 2015, in a missile attack on Camp Liberty in Iraq.

At least one of the Camp Liberty residents who was killed was a woman.

The United States House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday unanimously approved and referred to the House Floor a bipartisan resolution calling for "safety and security" of the members of the main Iranian opposition group  living in Camp Liberty, Iraq. It was the first resolution of its kind.

British MPs condemn the deadly missile attack on Camp Liberty resulting in death of 20 camp residents. We were just informed that there was yet another rocket attack on Camp Liberty, where members of Iran's democratic opposition, the PMOI, were forced to move in 2012 after assurances of protection by the UN and the US government.And yet we were waiting to see these promises to be fulfilled when this 4th deadly attack on Camp Liberty took place this evening local time, (29 October 2015).

Ms. Fatemeh Abbasi, an elderly mother in Camp Liberty, Iraq, who was active with the Iranian Resistance for the past 34 years, on Tuesday lost her life in the camp's clinic. Ms. Abbasi, 77, had been suffering from cancer and was not approved by doctors with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to be transferred to Albania for treatment.

Iraqi forces stationed in Camp Liberty, which houses thousands of members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in Iraq, On Monday and Tuesday, June 29 and 30, 2015 continued refusing to allow delivery of basic necessities purchased by the residents which have been held at the camp entrance since two weeks ago. Preventing entry of items that include ventilators and Spare parts for camp’s ice-making machines has already created much problem for the residents living in temporarily metal trailer units in the hot summer weather conditions.