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.