Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Camp Liberty: A Safe Haven Or A Prison Camp

Mehran Bahramian | 23.02.2012 17:58 | Anti-racism | Other Press | Repression | World

UN representative has accepted to send 3400 Iranians to a camp, which has turned out to be a high security prison, where the minimum essentials of life are missing.

On January 31, 2012 Ambassador Martin Kobler, Special Representative of the Secretary General of the UN, claimed that Camp Liberty is ready and meets International humanitarian standards and urged residents of Camp Ashraf to move to their new temporary home, as a transit location before being settled in third countries.
On 18 February 2012, he welcomed the safe relocation and claimed that it was in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on 25 December 2011 between the United Nations and the Government of Iraq.
Mr. Kobler and other UN officials who were responsible for certifying this camp, visited the Camp and were aware of the facts before approving it. Yet, not only they remained silent about the situation of the camp but Mr. Kobler, in fact, provided “nice” pictures of the Camp to the residents telling them everything is fine.
Three days after the relocation of a group 400 Ashraf residents to Camp Liberty, it has become clear that contrary to the January 31st statement of the UNAMI and the Special Representative of the Secretary General as well as the shoddy report of a shelter expert on January 30th, the conditions of the camp are far from international humanitarian standards. There is little doubt left that the relocation of residents to this camp was a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
The fact is that the camp does not have drinking water and even service water, does not have proper electricity, there is no sewage system and thus the place is not hygienic, in fact the place is full of dirt and not inhabitable. Most restrooms are broken and unusable. Many of them have no water or the pipelines are out of order. Contrary to what had been shown in photos provided by the UNAMI, the accommodation area does not meet minimum necessities by any means.
Apart from all these the Iraqi armed forces are present everywhere in Camp Liberty. There is a police headquarters right adjacent to one section of Camp Liberty which houses the residents, and there are many armed forces personnel stationed there.
There is a police station in the northern gate, one in the southern gate, and another in the northeast of Camp Liberty, each with five armed Iraqi forces. Additionally, on the way to the dining facility there is a control point with three armed policemen. This is all in a little over a half a square kilometer area of the camp.
Realities in Camp Liberty proved that reports claiming its readiness were a deliberate fabrication to hide the truth. The pictures from Camp Liberty show a prison in horrible conditions.
It is now clear why the residents’ request to see the Camp before moving there was vehemently rejected.
It is for Mr. Kobler to answer why he presented such reports and photos on behalf of the UNAMI and why they were so different from the realities? Who is responsible for that and what goals did such false reports pursue?
One more question which remains unsolved is that in fact is Mr. Kobler representing UNAMI and all the international humanitarian values and standards for which he was supposed to be devoted for or is he representing the Iraqi Government and their desires? (I think instead of signing his articles “Secretary General’s Special Representative”, he should sign them “Nouri Al-Maliki’s Special Representative”.)
The certain conclusion one can obtain after gathering the facts is that at least there has been a deliberate move to hide the truth and mislead the world.


Mehran Bahramian

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech