Iraq: UN seeks independent probe

Amid allegations of mass killings by Iraqi military, UN seeks independent probe

April 17, 2011 - The UN has called on Iraq to conduct an independent investigation into the killings of 34 people at an Iranian opposition base after Iraqi authorities, who authorized a raid on the camp, suggested that the group might have executed its own members.

Wildly conflicting accounts of how the members of the People’s Mujahadeen Organization of Iran (PMOI) were killed have highlighted the dilemma over the last remaining stronghold of the group invited in by Saddam Hussein and disarmed by the United States.

The United Nations statement issued late Saturday said it expected a commission of inquiry pledged by the Iraqi government to be independent. The commission planned by the government, however, will include prime ministry and Iraqi military officials as well as a cross-section of political parties and is unlikely to meet that requirement, according to Iraqi government officials.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali Dubbagh said earlier this week that some of the dead were likely executed by camp leaders trying to prevent them from leaving.

An advisor to Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, Saad al Muttalibi, said forensic tests, which included some by US experts, have been completed on the bodies to determine whether a medical team’s initial findings had been correct.

“They were shot execution-style,” Muttalibi told the Monitor. “The first medical reports indicated they were shot at very close range _ gunpowder was found on the wounds.” {continued}