Camp Liberty: A Fraud Involving 3000 Lives

“To sin by silence, when they should protest, makes cowards of men.” Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln would have certainly felt proud to see how his words are being upheld by so many high ranking American politicians who have decided to stand up and protest to keep American values and prevent a humanitarian tragedy in Camp Liberty.

Frauds involving wealth are well known to all of us, as we have repeatedly witnessed and heard about them all through our lives. Nevertheless, what is less documented, is a fraud concerning human lives.

But what does a fraud concerning human lives mean? Personally, I only managed to make sense of this when I heard about the story of more than 3000 armless Iranian men and women, living in a Camp called Ashraf in Iraq. They were forced to leave Iran as they did not accept the fundamentalist rule of the mullahs, and protested for democracy.

For my part, I have changed my home several times in my life, each time to move to a slightly better place. Yet, I have never liked moving away from a place I have lived and been attached to for some years. This has always been a nightmare for me.

I could therefore hardly believe that 2000 Iranian dissidents had accepted to be relocated from a place they had built for themselves in 20 years. This was neither logical nor just.

Hence, a hoax concerning human lives started to find meaning in my mind. The matter was even more clarified for me when I saw the state of the place the Iranians were moved to. They have been jammed together in a place some 70 times smaller than the place they used to live in. The Iraqi government, clearly at the behest of the Iranian regime, is preventing any basic items to be moved to Camp Liberty or facilities be established there, even at the expense of the residents themselves.

While the temperature reaches 57° in Camp Liberty under the sun and while according to Iraqi press this year’s Ramadan is the hottest Ramadan of the last 38 years, shortage of water has worsened, the situation in Camp Liberty becomes unbearable.

Water, electricity, proper sanitation, and cooling systems in a 130F heat, while you are willing to pay for it yourself, is not too much to ask for and is certainly not maximalist.

In order to provide water to Liberty, nearly 80 residents have to endeavour from 3am to midnight every day. Water tankers are highly decedent and lack air conditioner. The individuals who go to the pumping station, have to wait from seven to nine straight hours in intolerable heat and many are hit by severe sunstroke.

The problem is not new to neither the US officials nor the UN.Since their arrival at Camp Liberty, the residents have requested the water pipe line to be connected to the city's water network or to pump water from the canal which passes only 150 meters away from the camp. They discussed the matter with the representative of UNAMI and the Iraqi government in details and stated their readiness to transfer necessary equipments for water pumping from Camp Ashraf to Liberty. But their requests have gone unheeded.

Somebody is responsible for this whole matter, especially as the world has been kept fully aware of the situation. Yet, the worst part of the account is that the US State Department is standing on the wrong side in this affair. This has to change and the Iranian dissidents must not be pressured and threatened.

It has to be recognize that the MEK members now forced to live in inhumane conditions in Iraq, are the solution not the cause of the problems in the region. The US State Department would be helping the terror rule in Iran so long as it fails to see this.

ENDS

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