US embassy cable - 05BAGHDAD4145

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 004145 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
THIS CABLE IS SENSITIVE, ALBEIT UNCLASSIFIED, AND IS NOT 
SUITABLE FOR INTERNET DISTRUBUTION. 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: MOPS, PHUM, PTER, XF, GR 
SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR GERMAN ASSISTANCE IN TWO HUMANITARIAN 
REPATRIATIONS 
 
REF: BERLIN 3707 04 
 
1.  (SBU) Post requests that the Department ask 
Embassy Berlin to approach the German MFA regarding a 
request for assistance from two German residents 
currently attempting to return to Germany from Iraq. 
(Post first contacted Embassy Berlin through the 
Department regarding these cases in the summer of 
2004, but has heard of no new developments since 
Reftel, sent November 2004). All information included 
below may be passed to German government officials. 
 
2.  (SBU) SAID SEDAGHATI, DPOB 27 September 1983, 
Madrid, Spain: Mr. Sedaghati is the holder of expired 
German travel document No. 0683117, issued 13 May 
1997. He arrived in Germany via France in 1990 at the 
age of six, and was placed in a private orphanage run 
by members of the US-designated foreign terrorist 
organization the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MeK). He was 
later transferred to a German government orphanage in 
Koln, run - to the best of his recollection - by a 
"Christopher Meertens", in association with the 
"I.R.F.K." agency. MeK representatives had, according 
to Mr. Sedaghati, ongoing access to this facility. 
 
At the age of sixteen, in 1999, Mr. Meertens was 
removed from the Koln orphanage and sent by MeK 
leadership in Germany to Camp Ashraf, the MeK's 
headquarters in Diyala Province, Iraq. Upon arrival, 
his travel documents were confiscated, and he was told 
he would not be permitted to leave. (Camp Ashraf is 
isolated in desert which was at the time patrolled by 
Saddam's security forces, who were friendly with MeK 
leadership. It appears that Mr. Sedaghati, as a non- 
Arabic-speaking minor without documents or money, may 
have had no reasonable outlet of escape.) 
 
Soon after the arrival of Coalition Forces at Camp 
Ashraf, Mr. Sedaghati approached Coalition Forces and 
asked for their assistance in his return to Germany, 
and for their protection against MeK leadership. He is 
extremely critical of the MeK organization, and blames 
it for his involuntary removal from Germany. He has 
had no contact with the organization since his appeal 
to Coalition forces in 2004. 
 
For more than a year, Mr. Sedaghati has been living in 
a fenced camp, the Temporary Interview and Protection 
Facility (TIPF), set up by Coalition Forces for non- 
MeK members attempting to depart Camp Ashraf. 
Screening has not uncovered any evidence of his 
participation in criminal or violent activity, and he 
is not wanted for prosecution. He is free to depart 
Iraq at any time; Coalition Forces have retrieved his 
expired travel document, and can transmit a scanned 
copy upon request. 
 
Mr. Sedaghati now shares an air-conditioned tent 
inside a razor-wire compound with several other men in 
his situation; Coalition Forces provide part-time paid 
employment, food, medical care, and some entertainment 
(satellite television, movie nights). Residents of the 
TIPF are not, for reasons of their own safety, allowed 
to exit the perimeter of the camp without military 
escort. Mr. Sedaghati has asked that we pass on his 
request for immediate German assistance to alleviate 
his situation, on humanitarian grounds. 
 
3.  (SBU) AZADEH BOUSTANI, DPOB 23 April 1977, 
Zandijan, Iran. Ms. Boustani is the holder of expired 
German travel document No. 0684057, issued 11 March 
1997 and renewed 11 March 1999. She was smuggled by 
her mother out of Iran through Turkey as a small 
child, following the execution of several family 
members and the torture of both parents in Iranian 
prisons. She arrived in Germany in 1991, at the age of 
fourteen, and took up residence in Koln. 
 
In 1999, at the age of twenty-two, Ms. Boustani 
departed Germany in order to visit her brother at the 
MeK headquarters at Camp Ashraf, Iraq. According to 
Ms. Boustani, she was not aware of the organization's 
para-military nature, and planned only a short visit. 
However, her travel documents were confiscated upon 
arrival, and she was not permitted to leave. Ms. 
Boustani's claim that Ashraf residents found planning 
to depart were punished and threatened with death is 
corroborated by numerous former residents. 
Shortly after the arrival of Coalition Forces, Ms. 
Boustani and another female Ashraf resident stole a 
water truck and escaped the camp. Both approached 
Coalition Forces voluntarily, handed over the keys, 
and asked for assistance in returning to their 
respective countries of residence. Both denounced the 
MeK, indicated they had been held against their will, 
and requested that they have no further contact with 
the organization. 
 
Since last summer, Ms. Boustani has lived alongside 
the TIPF in a fenced adjunct compound reserved for 
female residents. She is employed during business 
hours by Coalition Forces as a telephone operator, and 
has some savings. Like Mr. Sedaghati, she is fluent in 
German, does not speak Arabic, and has no knowledge of 
Iraq outside the borders of Camp Ashraf. 
 
Ms. Boustani is a secular and, in her words, "modern" 
woman who is fearful for her treatment in an Iran she 
has not seen since she was a young child; she has 
repeatedly requested assistance in returning to 
Germany. She is free to depart Iraq at any time; 
Coalition Forces have retrieved her expired travel 
document, and can transmit a scanned copy upon request. 
 
4. (SBU) Post and Coalition Forces have effected the 
repatriation of a number of citizens and former legal 
residents of Camp Ashraf to Sweden, Canada, Pakistan, 
and elsewhere. We work closely with ICRC with regard 
to onwards transportation, and are able to move both 
candidates securely from Camp Ashraf to Baghdad 
International Airport on short notice in coordination 
with ICRC if requested. 
 
5. (SBU) We understand the natural reluctance of many 
governments to consider the repatriation or return of 
citizens or residents associated with FTOs. However, 
we hope the German MFA will give serious consideration 
to the situation of the two young German residents 
described above, whose association with the MeK 
appears to have been involuntary, who are not believed 
to have committed violent acts, who have taken the 
earliest opportunity to dissociate themselves from the 
MeK, and whose living conditions for the past year 
(tents in a fenced desert compound) have posed an 
extreme hardship. 
Khalilzad