TEHRAN, Sep. 17 (MNA) Another group of the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) based at a camp near Baghdad have been transferred to Albania.Previously, 159 members of the group had been relocated to Albania, at a refugee camp in Tirana, as part of efforts by the United Nations to move the around 3,000 MKO members at a former U.S. military base in northeastern Baghdad known as Camp Liberty, outside of Iraq.The last remaining dissidents who were still residing in Camp Ashraf were transferred to Camp Liberty in Baghdad last week pending resettlement abroad, the United Nations said on Thursday, less than two weeks after a bout of violence that killed 52 people there.
The MKO fought on Saddams side during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war and was given a camp by the strongman who was toppled by the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.
Fifty two dissidents were killed in violence at Camp Ashraf on September 1, which the MKO blamed on Iraqi army and special forces. Baghdad said the accusation was baseless and that it would investigate what had happened.
The ... events of 1st September ... were a somber reminder of the necessity to conclude the final phase of the relocation process without further delay, acting UN envoy to Iraq Gyorgy Busztin said in a statement.
Resettlement outside Iraq is now the priority, and it is urgent that countries ready to host the residents come forward to accept them, providing them a safe future outside Iraq.
Before the violence there were about 100 members at Camp Ashraf. Most of its inhabitants were relocated last year to Camp Liberty.
The U.S. State Department removed the MKO from its list of terrorist organizations last year.
By Mehr News Agency
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