Iranian refugees stationed in camps in the Eastern part of Iraq are sounding the alarm against growing repression from Iraqi forces.
During the weekend, 52 people were killed when Iraqi troops tried to gain access to an Iranian refugee camp where they were allegedly trying to kill off the remaining inhabitants.
The news was published by an organization in Paris that serves as a watchdog group for Iranian refugees, called the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
The Iraqi forces had apparently raided the camp with the trumped up charges that the refugees were making and planting explosives.
The Iraqi forces then proceeded to close off and impede anyone from entering or leaving. They cut off electricity and are said to be preparing to massacre the rest of the refugees in Camp Ashraf.
The watchdog group in Paris is calling for UN assistance to gain entry to the camp to record what has occurred and how many people might have been killed. They even asked for US personnel in Baghdad to assist in the mission to peruse the camp with UN forces.
The violence has already been condemned by the UN refugee agency. Nuri al Maliki, the Prime Minister, has already set up a preliminary inquiry on the matter. One UN team has visited the camp in nearby Diyala province in the border region with Iran.
Iraqi officials are blaming the deaths on disputes or squabbles internally generated at the camp. The camp is inhabited mostly by refugee fighters that had been given refuge during the Iran-Iraq war.
The members of the refugee camps are part of a guerrilla organization called MEK that opposed the shah's rule during the 1960s and that also tried to fight against Iran's clerical theocracy after the 1979 revolution.
Source: France 24/ 9.3.13
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