Several members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, from both sides of the aisle, were in attendance. Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) addressed those gathered, as did ranking member Eliot Engel (D-NY). They were joined by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Ted Poe (R-TX), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Brad Sherman (D-CA) among others.
A pro-Iran Shiite militia group, the Mukhtar Army, claimed responsibility for the attack on Camp Liberty, where approximately 2,200 members of the Iranian dissident group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) reside. The attack marks the seventh attack on the MEK since 2009. In total, the attacks have claimed the lives of 140 dissidents and wounded 1,400 more.
Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen expressed her condolences, noting that the outcome was nothing but predictable, and that the United Nations and Iraqi government should be held accountable. .
Many former senior U.S. officials, and other world leaders have called on the U.S. and the UN to ensure the protection of the MEK members in Camp Liberty, as they had promised to do. To date, however, those commitments have not been kept. The dissident group, once an armed resistance organization at war with Iran’s theocratic government, renounced violence in 2001 and disarmed in 2003, following the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Now, thousands of their members are trapped in Baghdad, near the international airport. With no way to defend themselves, they are at the mercy of the Iraqi government, which itself is increasingly falling under the control of the MEK’s arch-nemesis, the theocracy of Iran. While Iraq has repeatedly promised to protect the unarmed dissidents, evidence implicates the Iraqi government in several past attacks.
Unless something is done, more attacks could occur in the future. With conditions worsening in Iraq and Iran’s influence growing, the MEK is finding itself in an increasingly perilous situation. One potential solution for providing protection for the refugees in Camp Liberty is to extend the United States air cover from the nearby Baghdad airport to cover the camp.
Speaking at the event, former secretary of Home Land Security Tom Ridge urged the United States to “take the first step in protecting the survivors of Camp Liberty and Ashraf. And that first step would be to expand the air perimeter around the airport to make sure that this camp is not subject to further attack by artillery or mortars.”
These sentiments echo comments made by Senator John McCain, who had previously called for air cover to be expanded in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, as well as Congressmen Ted Poe (R-TX) and Brad Sherman (D-CA). As of yet, neither the military nor the Secretary of State has responded to these calls.
Further, the State Department has not yet investigated the attack, and likely won’t, even though the U.S. Embassy is located near Camp Liberty. Apparently, the State Department views the camp as too dangerous to even visit, prompting criticism from both the residents of the camp, as well as politicians.
“If it’s too dangerous for the State Department to investigate it, don’t you think it might be too dangerous for the folks in Camp Liberty to be there?” Rep. Poe said, calling on the United States to speed up the resettlement process.”
Indeed, resettlement may be the only long-term solution for securing the safety of the residents in the camp. The Mukhtar Army has promised to continue carrying out attacks so long as the dissidents remain in Iraq.
So far, Albania has agreed to resettle some of the dissidents, though the residents have had to pay for all of the cost so far. The resettlement process has been slow, such that at the current pace, it will take until 2021 before everyone is relocated outside of Iraq.
With Europe being overwhelmed by a flood of refugees from Syria and Iraq, it’s unlikely that many European countries will be willing to open their doors to the dissidents. Meanwhile, the United States has made resettlement predicated on the residents disavowing their affiliation with the MEK, something that many have described as being unwarranted and unethical.
