UN-Iraq Agreement on Camp Ashraf

The UN and the Iraqi government today signed an agreement to temporarily relocate several thousand Iranian exiles, members of Mojahedeen Khalq Organization (MKO) who are living at Camp Ashraf near the Iranian border, to Camp Liberty, a former US military base near Baghdad International Airport. The arrangement would allow the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to conduct interviews and to determine the refugee status of the camp residents as the first steps to relocate them to other countries. The agreement will prevent a near-certain humanitarian catastrophe that would have awaited the MKO members at Camp Ashraf by 31 December, the deadline set by the Iraqi government for the exiles to vacate Ashraf.

Iran Demands UN Probe into Assassination of Nuclear Scientist

Iran submitted a letter to the UN Human Rights Commission demanding an investigation into the killing last Saturday of an Iranian nuclear scientist. Javad Larijani, the secretary general of Iran's High Council of Human Rights, blamed Israel and the West for the assassination of Daryoush Rezayienejad, who was gunned down outside his home in Tehran.

“The UN Security Council issues a resolution and makes a list of our scientists, then some terrorists who receive money from the CIA and the Mossad kill them. This is a very clear game and strong action should be taken about it," said Larijani in the letter [Fars News Agency, 27 July].

In the letter, addressed to Navi Pillay, the director of UNHCR, Larijani demanded an investigation into the killing of the scientist.

Larijani’s letter to UNHCR confirms the initial reports out of Tehran that the late Rezayienejad was indeed one of country’s nuclear scientists. On Sunday, Iran’s intelligence minister had denied Rezayienejad had any links to the country’s nuclear program and raised serious doubts that his assassination was the work of any foreign intelligence agencies.

UN: Death Toll at Camp Ashraf at 34

The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) today confirmed the reports that the Iraqi Army has massacred 34 Iranian exiles, all members of the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (MKO or MEK), during a raid on Camp Ashraf in Iraq. This is the first independent report on the death toll resulting from the 8 April attack. MKO had always maintained that more then 30 of the Camp residents were killed in the raid. The Iraqi government had first put the death toll at 3, then raised it to 12.

UNHRC Spokesman Rupert Colville said in Geneva that a team of UN observers saw 28 bodies still at the camp during a Wednesday visit to the compound in eastern Diyala province. Most of the bodies appeared to have been shot and some were women, he said. Three of the bodies appeared to have been crushed to death, likely from being run over by a vehicle.

"It's clearly a very serious incident and we are trying to get more information," Colville said. He said six bodies are elsewhere but did not clarify where, although observers said those bodies were at a nearby morgue.

The Iraqi army and police have blocked access to the camp for more than a year, following a similar raid in July 2009.

UN to Name Human Rights Investigator for Iran

The UN Human Rights Council agreed today to establish a UN human rights investigator for Iran. The 47-member Geneva-based council approved the resolution by 22 votes in favor, 7 against, and 14 abstentions. The council voiced concern at Iran's crackdown on opposition figures and increased use of the death penalty, and called on the Islamic Republic to cooperate with the UN envoy to be named to the independent post. The Council's predecessor body, the Human Rights Commission, named a special rapporteurs on Iran in 1984, who was withdrawn in 2002 during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami.