In August 2013, Mladenov replaced Martin Kobler who had angered several groups in Iraq with what they saw as his toadying to thug Nouri al-Maliki at the expense of the many victims of Nouri's targeting. Criticism also came from outside of Iraq and the most vocal group outside of Iraq would have been the MEK which saw the Ashraf community struggling to survive.
Many members of the Ashraf community remain in Iraq.
As of September 2013, Camp Ashraf in Iraq is empty. All remaining members of the
community were moved to Camp Hurriya (also known as Camp Liberty).
Camp Ashraf housed a group of Iranian dissidents who were welcomed to
Iraq by Saddam Hussein in 1986 and he gave them Camp
Ashraf and six other parcels that they could utilize. In 2003, the US
invaded Iraq.The US government had the US military lead negotiations
with the residents of Camp Ashraf. The US government wanted the
residents to disarm and the US promised protections to the point that
US actions turned the residents of Camp Ashraf into protected person
under the Geneva Conventions. This is key and demands the US defend the
Ashraf community in Iraq from attacks. The Bully Boy Bush
administration grasped that -- they were ignorant of every other law on
the books but they grasped that one. As 2008 drew to a close, the Bush
administration was given assurances from the Iraqi government that they
would protect the residents. Yet Nouri al-Maliki ordered the camp
repeatedly attacked after Barack Obama was sworn in as US President. July 28, 2009
Nouri launched an attack (while then-US Secretary of Defense Robert
Gates was on the ground in Iraq). In a report released in the summer of 2013 entitled "Iraqi government must respect and protect rights of Camp Ashraf residents,"
Amnesty International described this assault, "Barely a month later,
on 28-29 July 2009, Iraqi security forces stormed into the camp; at
least nine residents were killed and many more were injured. Thirty-six
residents who were detained were allegedly tortured and beaten. They
were eventually released on 7 October 2009; by then they were in poor
health after going on hunger strike." April 8, 2011,
Nouri again ordered an assault on Camp Ashraf (then-US Secretary of
Defense Robert Gates was again on the ground in Iraq when the assault
took place). Amnesty International described the assault this way,
"Earlier this year, on 8 April, Iraqi troops took up positions within
the camp using excessive, including lethal, force against residents who
tried to resist them. Troops used live ammunition and by the end of
the operation some 36 residents, including eight women, were dead and
more than 300 others had been wounded. Following international and
other protests, the Iraqi government announced that it had appointed a
committee to investigate the attack and the killings; however, as on
other occasions when the government has announced investigations into
allegations of serious human rights violations by its forces, the
authorities have yet to disclose the outcome, prompting questions
whether any investigation was, in fact, carried out." Those weren't
the last attacks. They were the last attacks while the residents were
labeled as terrorists by the US State Dept. (September 28, 2012, the designation was changed.) In spite of this labeling, Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) observed that "since 2004, the United States has considered the residents of
Camp Ashraf 'noncombatants' and 'protected persons' under the Geneva
Conventions." So the US has an obligation to protect the residents.
3,300 are no longer at Camp Ashraf. They have moved to Camp Hurriyah
for the most part. A tiny number has received asylum in other
countries. Approximately 100 were still at Camp Ashraf when it was
attacked Sunday. That was the second attack this year alone. February 9, 2013, the Ashraf residents were again attacked, this time the ones who had been relocated to Camp Hurriyah. Trend News Agency counted 10 dead and over one hundred injured. Prensa Latina reported, " A rain of self-propelled Katyusha missiles hit a provisional camp of
Iraqi opposition Mujahedin-e Khalk, an organization Tehran calls
terrorists, causing seven fatalities plus 50 wounded, according to an
Iraqi official release." They were attacked again September 1,2013. Adam Schreck (AP) reported
that the United Nations was able to confirm the deaths of 52 Ashraf
residents. In addition, 7 Ashraf residents were taken in the assault. November 2013, in response to questions from US House Rep Sheila Jackson Lee,
the State Dept's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Iraq and Iran Bureau of
Near Eastern Affairs, Brett McGurk, stated, "The seven are not in Iraq."
The MEK were very unhappy with Martin Kobler.
But the reality is things are pretty much worse for the Ashraf community today.
Very few homes outside of Iraq have been found for these members. The head of Iraq's Ministry of Human Rights publicly loathes them and insults them constantly -- and insults them publicly. They're prisoners at Camp Hurriyah which really does not meet legal requirements for refugee housing.
And Mladenov has been of no help to the Ashraf community.
So while Mladenov's departure is needed, we shouldn't act like the MEK and foolishly believe that a new Iraq representative is going to mean good news.
Failing in Iraq led to Mladenov's promotion. As did a series of meetings over the last five weeks that Ban Ki-moon had with various present and former European parliamentarians who complained about Mladenov's record of no success in Iraq.
The Secretary-General defended Mladenov and noted that he did many important symbolic things such as on interfaith issues (culminating in the speech he gave days ago). Mladenov's most recent Tweet is on that aspect of his work:
Justice for all, democracy, end sectarianism- some of the messages from @UNIraq meeting on national unity in #Basrah
When Ban Ki-moon raised that symbolic work, it was countered that symbolic might be good for another post but Iraq needed someone on the ground working with rolled up sleeves to address the issues.
Ban Ki-moon is said to be considering 3 people for the post Mladenov is leaving.
Meanwhile, we've noted the reaction of the Jordanian kingdom to an execution carried out by the Islamic State.
Were we not covering the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in yesterday's snapshot, we would have noted the idiot CNN featured as an 'expert' who insisted Jordan was kicking ass and it was a good thing. Today, they feature someone a lot smarter, Lina Khatib of the Carnegie Middle East Center who explains:
All this is playing into the hands of
ISIS, which has been calculating its moves carefully -- the Jordanian
pilot had been executed weeks before, Jordanian authorities believe,
during which time it had been fooling the Jordanian government by
demanding the release of Sajida al-Rishawi, in a build-up towards the
final planned humiliation that came with the release of evidence of
al-Kassasbeh's murder.
Jordan's
revenge, then, marks a major shift in the war against the Islamic State.
It is a shift that is likely to change the nature of the actors in the
Syrian conflict as ISIS and al-Nusra move closer to one another. It is
also a shift that will trigger wider regional repercussions, and drag
members of the anti-ISIS coalition into an open-ended confrontation on a
wider scale than before. In the midst of all this, the moderate Syrian
opposition risks becoming extinct.
The
international coalition therefore simply cannot afford to continue to
act in the Syrian conflict without having in place a harmonized,
long-term, and proactive strategy that takes into account the urgent
need to end the conflict through a political-military plan rather than a
reactive one based on irrational retaliation and limited military
activity.
The following community sites -- plus the Guardian, Chocolate City and Black Agenda Report -- updated:
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
