Word: ashraf
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Camp Ashraf, some 40 miles north of Baghdad, is the base for the controversial People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran, also known as the MEK. A formerly-armed group that critics say resembles a cult, the MEK helped overturn the Shah in 1979, but in the '80s clashed with former Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini and fled Iran. Saddam Hussein let the exiles set up bases in Iraq - Camp Ashraf is the last standing - and gave the group arms and training to help him fight his war with Iran...
After the fall of Saddam in 2003, U.S. forces were protecting Camp Ashraf's approximately 3,400 inhabitants as part of an agreement in which the MEK traded in their arms in exchange for "protected persons" status under the Geneva Convention. (The U.S. considers the MEK a terrorist organization, though it has reportedly tapped the group for intelligence on Iran's nuclear program). But ever since the U.S. handed sovereignty back to the Iraqis in June, Camp Ashraf no longer feels like a safe haven. On July 28, clashes between camp dwellers and Iraqi forces left 11 Iranians dead, scores...
Hunger strikers in Camp Ashraf - along with those starving themselves in sympathy in Washington D.C., London, Berlin, and Ottawa - are demanding that the U.S. take back protective control of the camp. In the long term, they'd like permanent U.N. protection for the dissidents. Several lawmakers and lawyer groups in Britain are voicing their support. On Sept. 9, London-based law firm Finers Stephens Innocent released a legal opinion calling on Iraq to respect the Geneva Convention in protecting the camp dwellers - and insisting the U.S. ensure their safety. (Full disclosure: Finers Stephens Innocent has represented TIME in the past...
...would be difficult go backward now that the Iraqi government is recovering sovereignty," says Pakzad of the IRIS. "The best they and other humanitarian-minded nations could do would be to accept [the camp dwellers] as refugees." A small patrol of U.S. troops is still stationed at Camp Ashraf, but video footage of the July raid shows they did not interfere - some even withdrew into an SUV and rolled up their windows as Iranians begged them for help...
...middle-aged man speaking breathlessly as he hangs on to a podium to address supporters on his 44th day without food. Someone helps him walk slowly back to his cot, and he lies down again, facing the U.S. embassy. Whether or not the strikers continue to go hungry, Camp Ashraf's fate depends on who has more influence on Iraq: the U.S. or Iran. And that's a contest the U.S. would be loath to lose...