Lawyers fear massacre if Iranians in Iraq handed over

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States risks a Srebrenica-style massacre if its forces in Iraq hand over responsibility for more than 3,000 exiled opposition Iranians to Iraqi authorities, an international lawyers' group has said.

The International Committee of Jurists in Defense of Ashraf said the Iranians would be in danger as pro-Shi'ite elements of Iraq's government close to Tehran could expel them to Iran.

Camp Ashraf, 70 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, has housed Iranian refugees and the exiled opposition People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI) for two decades. U.S. forces who toppled President Saddam Hussein have protected it since 2003.

But the residents' fate hangs in the balance as U.S. forces negotiate the transfer of territory to Iraq's government, which says PMOI is a terrorist group, the Paris-based committee said.

"We fear we will end up with a situation like Srebrenica," said Marc Henzelin, a committee member who visited Ashraf last month, told a news briefing on Thursday.

"It is like putting foxes in charge of protecting the chicken coop. We don't want to have a massacre which is foretold," the Swiss lawyer added.

He was referring to the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica, where Bosnian Serbs killed 8,000 Muslim men and boys in 1995.

"PROTECTED PERSONS"

Amnesty International has urged Iraq and the United States to treat the PMOI as "protected persons" under the Fourth Geneva Convention, and not deport them to Iran. The 1949 pact bans extradition or forced repatriation of people who could face torture or persecution.

Expelling the Iranian rebel group, also known as Mujahadeen e-Khalq (MEK), has been one of Tehran's main demands.

Iraqi authorities want to "eradicate, to disband this resistance movement to the Iranian regime" and were "slowly taking control of Ashraf camp like a python", Henzelin said.

On Monday, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh announced Baghdad's "intention to impose its full sovereignty in the Ashraf camp area in Diyala province, which includes elements of the Khalq Iranian organization".

Iraq would work with humanitarian agencies to resolve their fate, he said. It did not plan to force Ashraf residents out of Iraq but did want them to leave the country.

The residents' families have protested outside the United Nations in Geneva all week, demanding humanitarian groups' help.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited Ashraf in August for the first time since 2003, reminding all sides of the principle of no forced returns, a spokeswoman said.