The mandate for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) recently came up at the U.N. Security Council a few weeks ago. This is an opportune time to reflect on the past performances of its representative in Iraq, Martin Kobler. Despite what he has claimed in his testimony, the fact remains each of UNAMI’s prescribed major objectives has failed to be achieved. Previously as German Ambassador to Iraq and now as U.N. Ambassador he continually sacrificed humanity for the sake of building German business relationships with both Iraq and Iran.
His behavior has caused several prominent Iraqi political leaders to demand his removal from Iraq. His recent briefing to the European Union resulted in him being directly confronted by Parliamentarians in open hearing. He has also been the specific subject of a U.S. Congressional hearing.
Ambassador Kobler’s most blatant act against humanity concerns the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK), the primary opposition to the religious fundamentalists controlling the government of Iran. Trapped in Iraq by the U.S.-led invasion and consolidated at Camp Ashraf, these 3,200 people worked for six years with American forces until 2009 when their control and security were turned over to the pro-Iranian government of Iraq.
Built up from the barren desert of Iraq by the MeK, Camp Ashraf became an oasis of technology and agriculture. This beautiful camp became the envy of the Iraqi government. The annihilation of its populace became the obsession of the Iranian government. Martin Kobler proved himself very capable of supporting both ambitions.
As the U.N. representative in Iraq, he brokered and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding the transfer of the residents of Camp Ashraf to a former U.S. Army compound near Baghdad called Camp Liberty. He deceived the international community on the conditions in Camp Liberty by showing doctored photographs. Kobler promised the residents safety and protection in this new place. The camp was also promised to be a temporary location pending quick resettlement to safer parts of the world. Each of Kobler’s empty promises proved to be parts of a giant hoax.
Camp Liberty has been hit by rockets twice by Iranian Qods and Iraqi military forces working together. Since the transfer of the residents from Ashraf to Liberty, no less than 10 have been killed and 170 wounded. There can be no doubt that Kobler paved the way for the February 9th and June 15th, 2013 massacres at Camp Liberty. The daily life of the residents has been one of continual psychological torment, harassment by Iraqi military, and living in the harshest of conditions.
“Liberty” has now been described as a prison by the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City, said it best as he recently addressed a crowd of some 100,000 people who came to Paris to show support for the Iranian resistance: “Liberty was a concentration camp to begin with. It has been turned into a killing field.”
Ambassador Kobler did not start out trying to do the right thing, only to have the situation turn bad. From the very beginning, he involved the Iranian regime in the Ashraf and Liberty dossier. Mr. Tahar Boumedra, a senior U.N. official who was in charge of the Ashraf dossier in UNAMI for over three years, resigned in May 2012 in protest to Kobler’s biased actions and his involvement of the Iranian regime in this file.
Boumedra testified to this under oath before the U.S. Congress on September 13, 2012. He stated that from November 2011 until the beginning of 2012, he was present in Kobler’s meetings with the Iranian regime’s ambassador, who is also commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard’s Qods Force. On each occasion, the primary item on the agenda was MeK.
The U.N. Security Council needs to stop accepting the lies and twisted truths of Martin Kobler. Kobler needs to be completely removed from U.N. service. It is time to start correcting the problems he has created throughout Iraq. Specifically for the residents of Liberty, it is time for immediate and complete transfer to safe countries. It’s long past time to close out this despicable chapter in U.N. history.
U.S. Army Colonel (Retired) Wes Martin served as based Commander of Camp Ashraf
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