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Innocent Iranian Dissidents Forced to Go to Liberty Prison

Innocent Iranian Dissidents Forced to Go to Liberty Prison

Rahim Salimi
February 29, 2012

The Arab Spring is stepping forward and Syria is no doubt going to be the next in the row. Ironically, the Iranian Spring started in 2009, almost a year before the first signs of the Arab Spring. Using its economic elbow however, Tehran managed to brutally crack down on the people’s uprisings for democracy, and the mullahs managed to hold on to power. In fact, they achieved much more too. Using Goebbels' tactic, they managed to blame their main opposition for all the atrocities committed and brought the U.S. and many European countries to shackle their opposition by putting them in the terror list. Tehran is following the same tactics today as well; and to be able to continue the suppression, the Iranian rulers have concentrated on increasing pressure on their opponents.

Today, some 3400 Iranian men and women opposing the mullahs’ dictatorship are facing a threatening situation. Only a month ago, 400 of these innocent men and women accepted to be relocated from the camp they had lived in for 25 years to the place chosen by the Iraqi government: Camp Liberty.

Conditions in this new camp were soon found to be absolutely outrageous. The 400 who were made to leave the homes they had made for themselves were highly worried about what was to be expecting them, as they had already experienced brutal attacks by the Iraqi army, following the request made by Tehran. Yet, they accepted to risk their lives and go the camp after long discussions and only after been promised to be given minimum humanitarian conditions and the camp to have proper infrastructures systems needed for the people living in it. In practice, however, the situation in the camp has turned out to disgraceful. Closed circuit cameras and microphones have been used to put the people in the camp under 24 hour surveillance, while the camp has been turned to be a high security prison. People in the camp have no drinking water and the electric power is provided only during certain hours of the day time. The sewage system does not work and the place is full of vipers and other animals.

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Medicine and medical equipment needed by the residents are not allowed in the camp either. Under those circumstances, the dissidents who were relocated feel that they had been betrayed by the Iraqi government and by the UN who was organizing the move. The world should certainly not allow more people to leave the safety self-made built residences and schools and other facilities at Camp Ashraf to this horrible place called Camp Liberty.

ENDS

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