Open letter from Mr. Mohammad Hossein Sobhani to the leaders of the main political Parties of Britain
January 6, 2006
Rt. Honourable Tony Blair
Rt. Honourable David Cameron
Rt. Honourable Charles Kennedy
The document published by the US Department of State on October 11, 2005 emphasised that the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation (aka MEK, MKO, NCR, NLA, …) has been assigned to the permanent list of terrorist organisations. As you are aware, the British government and the European Union have also continued to acknowledge the Mojahedin organisation as a terrorist entity.
This, on one side, should be celebrated as yet another victory for peace and for non-violent means to achieve political aims, and from the other side as a defeat for violence, terrorism and the “strategy of armed struggle” of the Mojahedin organisation. It is noticeable that inclusion of the Mojahedin in the lists of terrorist entities has been a decisive factor in preventing this organisation from pursuing its armed, violent activities, at least on the surface; although it is clear that they still believe in violent, armed struggle and would follow this path in the future.
Honourable leaders of the three major political parties of Great Britain.
On the 5th January 2006, some of the websites dependent on the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation issued a statement in Persian claiming it to be a “joint statement by members of both Houses of Parliament” (websites Iran Liberty and Hambastegimeli).
The writing, as well as the culture behind the writing, shows no respect for the usual political standards associated with the members of the British parliament. For me, as an ex member of the Central Committee of the Mojahedin who has had close association with this organisation for more than 30 years, there is no doubt that this so called “statement” has been fabricated (or at best meddled with) by the organisation.
It is worth noting that the statement has no date and no name or signatures with it.
Why?
Could we accept that a member of parliament would not actually sign a statement when they claim to support it? If not, then why would such statement not have any names, date or signatures?
Of course this is only one of many reasons which indicate clearly that the statement has been fabricated by the Mojahedin Khalq organisation. And of course, this is one of the reasons I am writing this letter to your good selves as there are no names to respond to.
Dear leaders of the major political parties of Great Britain,
During the time since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime and the forced disarmament of the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation by the American army, the Mojahedin have been trying to put a mask on their violent, terrorist faces in Europe and America in a bid to remove the organisation from the list of terrorist entities in US, EU and Canada and ….
But due to pressure from the political and diplomatic activities of disaffected members of Mojahedin and also the report ‘No Exit’ published on 18 May 2005 by Human Rights Watch on human rights abuses inside the Mojahedin, the efforts of the Mojahedin cult to be removed from the lists, faced stiff resistance. In fact, the main reason the Mojahedin started their new wave of attacks and intimidation against ex members was more than anything, the publication of the ‘No Exit’ report by Human Rights Watch, partly based on the testimony of these victims.
After the fall of Saddam and the forced disarmament of the Mojahedin, it was clear for the leaders of the organisation that they would have to cover up their strategy of “arms and terrorism” and slogans such as “Long Live the National Liberation Army”. Instead, they would have to adopt a mask and hide behind slogans like “democratic change” and/or “the third way” in front of western personalities and members of western parliaments, as well as western governments, if their bid to come out of the lists were to have any chance of success. It is not an exaggeration to say that they have spent hundreds of millions of dollars and have dedicated all their human resources in the cult to this issue and have still, fortunately, not been successful.
Dear friends,
The MEK claims that a few members of British parliament together with Mr. Paolo Casaca (MEP from Portugal) who are all core supporters of the organisation travelled to Iraq in the second half of 2005 in order to ‘prove’ to HRW that during 1990 to 2002 there have been no prisons and or torture chambers in the Mojahedin organisation.
In the so called “joint statement by the members of both Houses of Parliament” on their websites, the MEK have claimed that:
“… The report by HRW has failed to acknowledge the fact that the American officials in Camp Ashraf have rejected any claim that people are being forced not to leave the camp. On March 19, 2005, the Night Ridder news agency reported from Ashraf that : ‘the American army has investigated allegations that the Mojahedin are preventing people from leaving the camp and has not found any strong evidence.’ The same news agency also quotes from a high ranking official of the American army that: ‘they are not prisoners. They are physically and logically free to leave the place…’.”
Another part of the so called “statement” quotes members of the British Parliament:
“… on August 2002 the Mojahedin revealed a confidential document from the intelligence ministry of Iran that shows that one of the key witnesses used in the HRW report, Mohammed Hussein Sobhani is a team leader and a long serving agent of the intelligence ministry of Iran. It has also been shown that most of the people interviewed by HRW have been sent to Europe with the specific aim of making an evil image for the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation…”
Dear leaders of the main political parties in Britain,
Considering the abovementioned points, may I put forward the following points for your and your colleagues’ information.
The witnesses interviewed by HRW, including myself who spent over 8 years in solitary confinement in Mojahedin prisons, have never claimed that we were imprisoned after the fall of Saddam or at any time during 2002 and 2005, but have testified that during the years 1990 and 2002 we have been variously imprisoned in Mojahedin as well as in Abu Ghraib prisons in Iraq.
Why is it that the “statement” published by the MEK under the title “joint statement by members of both Houses of Parliament” is trying to prove that after the intervention of the US Armed Forces, the Mojahedin have no prisons in Camp Ashraf? Are they trying to dismiss the HRW report with this argument?
It is clear that any dictator or torturer, including the Rajavis, after the fall of Saddam brought a new wind of freedom, had the experience and sense to strategically change the use of their prisons and torture chambers.
A month after the fall of Saddam many who had been in these prisons from one month up to 8 years raised the alarm that Rajavi is changing the use of these places. I should say that the Mojahedin’s supporters were perhaps a little bit tardy in coming to camp Ashraf!
All the MEK’s supporters should be reminded that the victims interviewed by HRW are available in Europe and are ready to testify to and be examined by them. Why did they have to go to Iraq?
I should remind you that the Mojahedin Khalq terrorist organization claims to have daily meetings in the buildings of the Houses of Parliament in Britain. Putting aside the exaggerations and propaganda for which the MEK is famous, are you, as leaders of the main political parties, aware of the presence of this terrorist organisation in the Houses of Parliament?
I ask you for the sake of peace and rejection of violence to interfere and stop admitting this terrorist organisation into the British Parliament.
Myself and my other colleagues are always ready to present ourselves to Parliament and/or your Party offices to inform about the serious human rights abuses inside the Mojahedin during the years of cooperation between Rajavi and Saddam Hussein,
Mohammad Hossein Sobhani