Liberty – No. 37

Confiscation of equipment for building sunshades at Camp Liberty by plainclothes officers another outrageous example of Iraqi government’s breach of its commitments. Temperatures reach 133° F at Camp Liberty

Contrary to earlier agreements with the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the United Nations on building sunshades at Camp Liberty, to which UNAMI Chief Martin Kobler has referred in his June 12 monitoring report, on Tuesday, June 19, 2012, plainclothes offices of the suppressive committee in the Iraqi Prime Minister’s office seized and confiscated the equipment necessary to build the sunshades as Iraqi contractors attempted to enter Liberty.
In the June 12 meeting in the presence of six UNAMI and UNHCR representatives, the Iraqi side agreed that there was no ban on building sunshades and that the residents of Liberty can bring in contractors at their own expense. Less than a week later, however, Iraqis confiscated steel rods and the raw material that is necessary to build the sunshades in breach of that agreement.
The plainclothes officers did not even allow the Iraqi contractor to return the material he had brought with him. Instead they said that all the material is going to be confiscated. The Iraqi agents then broke the locks on a container belonging to the residents of Liberty and placed the seized material there and locked the container again. This action is reminiscent of what the Iraqis did with containers and the seized material at Camp Ashraf in order to set the stage for stealing them.
Based on the Memorandum of Understanding signed between Mr. Kobler and Iraqi National Security Advisor, the protection and security of the residents must be “insured by officers who are being trained with the help of the United Nations.”
The interference of plainclothes officers and the prevention of building sunshades in 133° F heat at Liberty, where water and green areas are lacking, is another outrageous example of violating the rights of the residents of Liberty in so far as their minimum needs in their daily livelihood are concerned. It also demonstrates repeated breach of commitments and agreements by the Iraqi government. These make it abundantly clear that Mr. Kobler’s promises and reports are not backed up by action.
In another development, information obtained by the Iranian Resistance from within the clerical regime indicate that Qassem Suleimani, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards’ Qods Force Commander, who acts as the de facto authority in Iraq, has ordered the Iraqi National Security Advisor that in the event he has to provide minor concessions to the residents to facilitate the transfer of subsequent convoys from Ashraf, he must refrain from providing the Liberty residents’ basic needs on the pretext that the Camp is a temporary transit location.
 
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
June 20, 2012