Iraq opens controversial refugee camp to diplomats

(11 Sep 2012) Iraq on Tuesday gave foreign diplomats a rare look at a controversial refugee camp which residents compare to a prison, as Baghdad asked for help resettling them in other countries.
More than two-thousand members of an Iranian exile group known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) are living at Camp Liberty while the United Nations finds a permanent home for them outside Iraq.
Several diplomats offered cautious support to the Iraqi government for trying to accelerate their departure.
As diplomats toured the camp on Tuesday, some residents brandished placards with slogans such as ''There is no freedom here''.
One woman, who went by the name Mariam, said she was previously at a camp called Ashraf, which she compared to a city.
"We had everything in the city. We had a university, we had a park, we had a shopping centre, everything that a city needs," she said, adding that Liberty "is very hot in summertime. Our air conditioning is destroyed.''
Another Iranian in exile, Shahrokh Tavakoli, said: "'We don't have any movement freely out of the camp. They don't even to bring us personal belongings and our good materials from Ashraf to Liberty including simple items - bicycles, heaters or some other materials.''
A top UN official has called it an emotionally charged issue.
The MEK is an opposition group to Tehran's clerical regime and cannot return to Iran.
They were given sanctuary in Iraq by Saddam Hussein decades ago.
However, Baghdad's Shiite-led government considers them an extremist group and has ordered them out of the country.

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