Last Remaining Iranian PMOI Members Leave
Camp Liberty for Albania
Introduction
First the relocationof PMOI members from Iraq to Europe, second the
revelation regarding massacre
of more than 30 thousand political prisoners in the summer of 1988. Following
is the full article.
On Friday, 9
September, the remaining Camp Liberty residents were relocated from Iraq to
Europe.
On Friday, the remaining 280 members ofthe Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) — also known as the People’s Mujahedin Organization
of Iran (PMOI) — who were stationed in Camp Liberty (Hurriya) in Iraq were
relocated to Albania, officially closing the camp which was a place of refuge
for the dissidents against the Iranian regime since the 1980s.
Albania has a history of accepting
refugees. During the Holocaust, the country took in many Jews seeking refuge
from the massacre targeting them by the Third Reich.
The MEK renounced violence in 2001 and
in 2012, the State Department, under Hillary Clinton, delisted them as a
terrorist organization. They were initially placed on the list under President
Bill Clinton in 1997; a move that some suggested was highly politicized by the
administration in an attempt to garner favor with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
MEK has been credited with
revealing Iran’s nuclear program in 2002.
Upon news of the relocation of the
Iranians, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) and Ranking
Member Eliot Engel (D-NY) issued a joint statement on the occasion, noting,
“the safety and security of the residents has always been our primary concern,
and they have now been effectively placed beyond the immediate reach of Iran
and its terrorist proxies operating in Iraq.”
The relocation was also welcomed by 28
top former U.S. officials, which included Amb. John Bolton, Newt Gingrich,
Lincoln P. Bloomfield, Jr., Frances Townsend, Joseph Lieberman, Tom
Ridge, Howard Dean, Marc
Ginsberg, and Rudy Giuliani.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) expressed that
he will “continue to stand with the people of Iran and the Iranian-American
community who yearn for a free Iran.”
The spokesman for UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-Moon also issued a statement thanking
member states and international organizations for “the successful resolution of
this humanitarian issue.”
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