US grants protected status to Iranian opposition forces in Iraq

XINHUA NEWS SERVICE
July 26, 2004

WASHINGTON, July 26 - The United States on Monday confirmed that it had given protected status to 3,800 Iranian rebels at the Ashraf base in Iraq.

The move gives the militants rights under the Geneva Conventions but would not shield them from eventual prosecution on possible terrorism charges, said Adam Ereli, deputy spokesman of the State Department at a regular news briefing.

The rebels, belonging to the People's Mujahedeen Organization ( MKO), is Iran's main armed opposition group.

Ereli claimed that the protected status did not affected the group's designation by Washington as a "terrorist group", and its members in Ashraf were still being vetted to determine what crimes they may have committed.

"Protected status does not mean we are protecting these people.. .It means we have determined that they were not belligerents in this conflict and we are according them the human rights protections consistent with the Geneva Conventions," Ereli said.

It was reported the US decision to grant the MKO members protected status will allow them to have access to the Red Cross and the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees.

The People's Mujahedeen Organization set up base in Iraq in 1986 and carried out regular cross-border raids into Iran, with which Iraq fought a bloody war between 1980 and 1988.

The group also participated in Saddam Hussein's crackdown on an uprising by Shiites and Kurds in 1991.

Several thousand Mujahedeen militiamen were disarmed by US forces following the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003 and barred from undertaking military operations.

Iran regards the MKO fighters in Iraq as one of its biggest external threats and wants the group's members handed over.