UN sec gen urges MKO to leave Camp Ashraf

TEHRAN,Aug.5(MNA) – United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday urged some 1,200 members of the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization to move out of Camp Ashraf in northern Iraq and resettle in a new refugee camp near Baghdad. Ban also urged other countries to give asylum to the group, the Washington Post reported. The group has already moved about 2,000 of its residents from Camp Asraf to a Baghdad refugee camp, Camp Hurriya, a former U.S. military base. But they ignored a July 20 deadline to move the remaining 1,200 members, saying they will not go until they see proof of more water, increased electricity, better facilities for sick and disabled people and other improvements to the base. The UN says the services at Camp Hurriya are already far better than at most other refugee camps worldwide. The MKO started its activities as a terrorist group based in Iraq in the early 1980s. In addition to the assassination of hundreds of Iranian officials and citizens, the group cooperated with Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime in its repression of the Iraqi people. It took refuge at Camp Ashraf, 65 km (40 miles) from Baghdad, during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.