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The resolution did not identify a destination. Indeed, a member of the Iraqi National Congress declared, “We don’t care where they’re going to go.” |
The Iraqi Governing Council’s Resolution to Expel the MeK from Iraq
On December 9, 2003, the Iraqi Governing Council complicated the MeK issue by passing a unanimous resolution calling for the expulsion of the MeK from Iraq within six months. 30
The resolution did not identify a destination. Indeed, a member of the Iraqi National Congress declared, “We don’t care where they’re going to go.” 31
However, the growing links between Iraqi Shia parties and the IRI created the suspicion that the interim Iraqi government (IIG) would deport the MeK to Iran when it assumed power at the end of June 2004.
The CPA’s administrator, Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, proposed resettling MeK members in third countries. 32
However, as he and JIATF officials would later learn, no country would accept anyone from the group who did not already have valid rights of residence there. 33
Refugee status was suggested, but the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) would not consider such applications from current or former MeK members because their legal status had not yet been formally resolved.
30. The resolution did not have the force of law because it was not signed by CPA administrator Bremer (interview with a senior CPA official, February 2008).
31. R. Wright and Chandrasekaran, 2003.
32. Tanter and Clawson, 2003.
33. After a great deal of effort, the JIATF was able to repatriate a small number of former MeK members at the internment facility who had current rights of residency in countries other than Iran or Iraq.