March 2011- A group of human rights activists and separated members of MKO, Mr. Ebrahimi ,Mr. Sepehri ,Mr. Naseri and Mr. Kohzadi attended the meeting where they were congratulated for their release form Camp Ashraf prison.
During the meeting that lasted a few hours, MKO former members, spoke of human rights violations and various psychological pressures imposed on MKO members in Camp Ashraf.
In a meeting held in Koln, Germany in March 2011, Ms. Batoul Soltani ,former member of MKO’s leadership Council congratulated three recently separated members of Mujahedin Khalq living in Germany, Mr. Mehrdad Sagharchi, Mr. Rouhollah Tajbakhsh, Mr. Mehdi Sojoudi for their new life in free world. She also congratulated the international Woman’s Day, hoping the release of women captured in the cult of Rajavi.
UK Government confirms – MKO leaders deny families’ access to their captive relatives inside Camp Ashraf
House of Lords – Written Answers
Wednesday 23 March 2011
Asked by Lord Corbett of Castle Vale
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Howell of Guildford on 9 March (WA 410), whether they will ask the United Kingdom ambassador to Iraq to establish the purpose of 200 loudspeakers put around the perimeter of Camp Ashraf.[HL7641]
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Howell of Guildford):
We are aware of reports that loudspeakers are being used outside the Camp Ashraf entrance. The Government of Iraq have publicly stated that the purpose of the loudspeakers is to allow family members to communicate with residents inside Camp Ashraf, as they have apparently been forbidden any contact by the camp’s leadership.
On 20 February 2011, our representatives met UN representatives and the Iraqi Government’s Ashraf Committee to discuss the situation at Camp Ashraf.
We urged the Iraqi Government to ensure the residents’ human rights are respected and we continue to encourage both sides to engage in constructive dialogue leading to a lasting, and peaceful, resolution.
Asked by Lord Corbett of Castle Vale
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Howell of Guildford on 9 March (WA 410), what is the proper title, purpose, membership and position within government of the government of Iraq’s Ashraf Committee. [HL7642]
Lord Howell of Guildford:
We understand that the Iraqi Government’s Ashraf Committee is composed of members from the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Human Rights, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Immigration and Displaced People. The Ashraf Committee reports directly to the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri Al-Maliki. The Ashraf Committee is responsible for implementing the Iraqi Government’s policies regarding Camp Ashraf.
There is no doubt that today hypocrisy has become a part of US policy towards Tehran. The overt double standard in the attitude of some of US former politicians has been observed in their recent speeches at MEK’s propaganda campaigns where paid politicians offered their support to a terrorist designated group.
Paul R. Pillar of The National Interests suggests that the motivation to advocate a terrorist cult originates from "a combination of pecuniary interests and scant knowledge about the nature of the group" and also "a destructively simplistic, Zero-sum attitude regarding policy toward Iran". He believes that even the enemies of the United States have enemies that are terrorist groups.[1]
Former congressman, Lee Hamilton is one of those prominent figures who admitted having received a "substantial amount" to appear on the panel in favor of MEK last month. He told the journalists that he was not aware of the cult-like nature of the group, according to Barbara Slavin of IPS. "They presented me with a platform that was thoroughly democratic" Hamilton said. "Were they misleading me? You always can be misled."[2]
For those US policy makers who make efforts to invest on MKO as a tool against Islamic Republic, the group seems to be a potential means to advance US policy regarding Iran. "To think of the MEK as some kind of policy tool to use against Tehran is both foolish and bizarre," Paul Pillar writes. He reminds them that MKO has "virtually no support within Iran". [3]But US warmongers seem to be very choosy about their allies.
In its turn, MKO propaganda machine works hard to present the cult as a democratic organization and repeatedly claims that it has renounced violence. Indeed, whether or not MKO has left violence or poses any threat to the West, it is a harmful policy to harbor a destructive cult that always poses a potential threat to Iran-US relations. The group is absolutely resented by the Iranian public and those alive in the 1980’s never forget the group’s chaotically partnership with Saddam Hussein.
That’s why Pillar concludes his article by suggesting that " any favor done to the MEK would not only needlessly complicate any possibilities for reaching understandings with Tehran, on nuclear program or anything else, but also needlessly antagonize many members of the Iranian public. " [4]
Getting in bed with a terrorist destructive cult with no support from its country fellow men is like getting in bed with your worst enemy.
By Mazda Parsi
References:
[1] R.Pillar, The National Interest, consorting with a Cult, March16, 2011
[2] Slavin, Barabra,IPS, US: Iranian Terrorist Group courts Friends in high Places,March1,2011
[3] R.Pillar, The National Interest, consorting with a Cult, March16, 2011
[4]ibid
One of the most persistent, and mysteriously supported, campaigns in support of a really reprehensible organization has been waged on behalf of the Iranian cult-cum-terrorist-group known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq. The campaign appears to have been stepped up lately, with the immediate objective being to get the MEK taken off the official U.S. list of foreign terrorist 
organizations. Panels have been organized in Washington at which some big-name figures have given paid speeches endorsing the group—such as former Congressman Lee Hamilton, who says he was paid a “substantial amount” to appear on such a panel last month. A combination of pecuniary interests and scant knowledge about the nature of the group may explain some of the support for delisting. A destructively simplistic, zero-sum attitude regarding policy toward Iran explains some more of it. Representative Brad Sherman (D-CA), one of the members of Congress who favors removing the MEK from the list, says that the group should not be considered a terrorist organization because “they are enemies of enemies of the United States.” No, Congressman, even enemies of the United States have enemies that are terrorist groups.
One should recall the main features of the MEK’s record. It began its terrorist history during the 1970s when, in the course of trying to undermine the shah’s regime, it assassinated six U.S. citizens. It supported the takeover of the U.S. embassy and the holding hostage of U.S. diplomats, The group broke with the revolutionary regime only after it lost a struggle for power. It subsequently threw in its lot with Saddam Hussein and in effect became an arm of Saddam’s security forces. Its members live today at a camp in Iraq where, according to journalists, human rights organizations, and foreign diplomats, its cult-like habits are readily apparent. Members who have managed to exit the group tell of being brainwashed and being held in the camp for years against their will. It is hard to identify what this group, whose ideology always has been a strange mixture of Marxism and Islamic fundamentalism, stands for other than the group leaders’ continued control over its members.
To think of the MEK as some kind of policy tool to use against Tehran is both foolish and bizarre. Any positive move toward the group would do absolutely nothing to advance any conceivable U.S. objective regarding Iran. The MEK has virtually no support within Iran, mostly because of its operating on behalf of Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War and not just because of the terrorist attacks it has conducted within Iran since the war. [..]
Any favor done to the MEK would not only needlessly complicate any possibilities for reaching understandings with Tehran, on nuclear programs or anything else, but also needlessly antagonize many members of the Iranian public. It would present the United States as a blatantly inconsistent hypocrite on matters of counterterrorism and human rights. Anyone who allows himself to get mixed up in a campaign to legitimize the MEK deserves to be embarrassed.
The National Interest – By Paul R. Pillar
Paul R. Pillar is director of graduate studies at Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program and a former national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia. He is a contributing editor to The National Interest where he writes a daily blog.
In a meeting held in Koln, Germany in March 2011, Ms. Batoul Soltani ,former member of MKO’s leadership Council congratulated three recently separated members of Mujahedin Khalq living in Germany, Mr. Mehrdad Sagharchi, Mr. Rouhollah Tajbakhsh, Mr. Mehdi Sojoudi for their new life in free world.
The three ex-members told the audience some of their bitter experiences in MKO. They mentioned the group’s tricks and deceitful approaches to recruit members. They spoke of the suffocating, closed atmosphere of inside the cult where members are not allowed to marry, to contact their family, to watch TV or to read newspapers. They just have to work so hard that they could not find any opportunity to think.Although the atmosphere of Camp Ashraf is terribly oppressive, escaping the cult is not impossible, according to former members; people should only decide to save themselves from the bars of Ashraf. They also suggested their preparedness to help their ex-friends in Camp Ashraf.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has reportedly turned down repeated requests and demands by the few advocates of the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) in the European parliament for increased support for the terrorist group and military aggression 
against Iran.
According to a report published by the website of the Habilian association – a human rights group formed of the family members and relatives of the Iranian victims of terrorism – some few proponents of the MKO in the European parliament have attempted to persuade Ashton to agree with military intervention in Iran under the pretext of the EU parliament’s new report on human rights conditions in Iran, but to no avail.
Ashton also rejected the pro-MKO EU parliamentarians’ demand for taking a confrontational position against the gathering of the families of the MKO’s dissident members, who have gathered in front of the MKO’s main training camp, the Camp of New Iraq (formerly known as Camp Ashraf) in Iraq’s Northern province of Diyala, since long ago to call for the freedom of their beloved ones from the camp.
The few MKO proponents in the EU parliament had even demanded Ashton to cut EU’s financial supports for the Iraqi government in a move to resolve MKO’s aforementioned problems in Iraq.
According to the Habilian website, Ashton has been reluctant in responding the MKO advocates’ call for the EU’s increased support for the terrorist group and turned down their repeated demands.
The family members and relatives of the members of the MKO have gathered outside the terrorist group’s main training camp in Iraq for more than a year now.
The MKO ringleaders have already adopted numerous measures to confront those relatives who have camped outside the Camp of New Iraq (formerly known as Camp Ashraf) in Iraq’s Northern province of Diyala.
The MKO ringleaders have not allowed a visit between the group’s members and their families.
The report said despite all the suppressive moves made by the MKO, the yearlong protests by the families have yielded good results as families insist on their demand for the release of their beloved ones who are said to be held inside the camp against their will.
Defection and escape of a number of MKO members from the camp, increased support of the Iraqi people for the families and demonstration of the Iraqi people outside the Camp of New Iraq are among the positive outcomes of the families’ continued protests, the report continued.
Meantime, different groups of the Iraqi people have on various occasions gathered outside the main training center of the MKO in Iraq and called for the expulsion of the terrorist group from the country’s soil.
Iranian relatives of some MKO members also joined the protesters.
The MKO has been in Iraq’s Diyala province since the 1980s.
The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.
Before an overture by the EU, the MKO was on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze. Yet, the MKO puppet leader, Maryam Rajavi, who has residency in France, regularly visited Brussels and despite the ban enjoyed full freedom in Europe.
The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of EU parliamentarians said in a recent letter in which they slammed a British court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list. The EU officials also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).
Many of the MKO members abandoned the terrorist organization while most of those still remaining in the camp are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so.
A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report accused the MKO of running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations.
According to the Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.
The group, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and Western targets.
The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.
The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.
The terrorist group joined Saddam’s army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.
Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.
Iraqi security forces took control of the training base of the MKO at Camp Ashraf – about 60km (37 miles) north of Baghdad – last year and detained dozens of the members of the terrorist group.
The Iraqi authority also changed the name of the military center from Camp Ashraf to the Camp of New Iraq.
In a meeting held in Koln, Germany in March 2011, Ms. Batoul Soltani ,former member of MKO’s leadership Council congratulated three recently separated members of Mujahedin Khalq living in Germany, Mr. Mehrdad Sagharchi, Mr. Rouhollah Tajbakhsh, Mr. Mehdi Sojoudi for their new life in free world. She also congratulated the international Woman’s Day, hoping the release of women captured in the cult of Rajavi.
The three ex-members told the audience some of their bitter experiences in MKO. They mentioned the group’s tricks and deceitful approaches to recruit members.
They spoke of the suffocating, closed atmosphere of inside the cult where members are not allowed to marry, to contact their family, to watch TV or to read newspapers. They just have to work so hard that they could not find any opportunity to think.
Although the atmosphere of Camp Ashraf is terribly oppressive, escaping the cult is not impossible, according to former members; people should only decide to save themselves from the bars of Ashraf. They also suggested their preparedness to help their ex-friends in Camp Ashraf.
At the end, Ms. Soltani promised salvation of captives of Ashraf in near future, promoted by families picketing at Ashraf gates.
Translated by Nejat Society
Iran’s Envoy to the UN Human Rights Council Seyed Mohammad Reza Sajjadi requested the Council to launch a probe into the relations between certain western countries and the anti-Iran terrorist groups, including the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), PJAK and Jundollah.
Sajjadi raised the issue during a meeting of the UNHRC in Geneva, elaborating on the criminal actions taken by the terrorist groups in Iran in recent years, including hostage-taking, massacre of the people and bomb blasts, specially by the terrorist Jundollah group.
He also blasted the EU for striking off the name of the MKO from the list of the terrorist groups and sheltering its members, and said the West should account for the blood of those innocent people spilled by these terrorist groups.
After Iran’s security forces arrested Jundollah’s No 1 and 2 and its other high-ranking and influential leaders in the last few months, an increasing number of Jundollah members surrendered themselves to the Iranian authorities, but western spy agencies took several measures to reorganize and revitalize the group.
The Pakistani based Jundollah terrorist group, directly sponsored and supported by Washington, is responsible for several terrorist operations which have killed tens of citizens, officials and security forces in Southeastern Iran.
Abdolmalek Rigi, the ringleader of the terrorist group, confessed after his arrest in February 2010 that his group was assisted and supported by the US and disclosed that he was on route to Bishkek to meet a high-ranking US official at a nearby military base when he was arrested by Iranian security forces.
Rigi also said that he and the US official were going to discuss new terrorist attacks on Iranian territory.
Rigi on June 2 admitted receiving assistance from the MKO, but relations between the two anti-Iran terrorist groups had surfaced a long time ago when US started plans to coordinate anti-Islamic Republic moves.
In August 2009, the Jundollah terrorist group warned the Baghdad government that it would retaliate against the closure of a main camp of MKO by the Iraqi forces.
"…the Iraqi government should know that its hostile measures against the residents of Camp Ashraf who are Iranian immigrants in this city are not and will not be in the interest of the Iraqi government," Jundollah warned in a statement issued in Iraq last August.
The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, has been in the country’s Diyala province since the 1980s.
Six years after toppling Saddam Hussein’s government in 2003, the country’s security forces took control of the training base of the MKO at Camp Ashraf – about 60km (37 miles) north of Baghdad and changed the name of the military center from Camp Ashraf to the Camp of New Iraq.
The Iraqi government and parliament have both voiced strong determination for expelling the group from the country.
The MKO started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.
The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of EU parliamentarians said in a recent letter in which they slammed a British court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list. The EU officials also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).
Many of the MKO members abandoned the terrorist organization while most of those still remaining in the camp are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so.
A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report accused the MKO of running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations.
According to the Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.
The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.
The terrorist group joined Saddam’s army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.
Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.
Why are the human rights abuses taking place inside Mojahedin Khalq (Rajavi cult) Camp Ashraf not being investigated?
Since February 2010, the families of Mojahedin-e Khalq members inside Camp Ashraf have been encamped at the front gate of the camp demanding to have news and visits with their long-lost relatives. From elderly parents to the children, grandchildren, sisters and brothers of MEK members, all are seeking information about their relatives. They call out from the front of the camp hoping their voices will be heard by the people inside. They stand on dirt embankments around the perimeter of the camp to call out to their relatives.
The Mojahedin response has been sadly predictable and in line with the cult nature of the group. From the outset they have refused all contact between the members in the camp with the outside world, not only with the families but also human rights agencies and other independent observers.
As the MEK leaders withdrew the rank and file into the centre of the camp so they would not be within sight or sound of the families, the families used loudspeakers to try to project their voices to reach their relatives.
They played music and even the sound of children’s laughter to penetrate the stultifying atmosphere inside Camp Ashraf. In response, the MEK brought its own loudspeakers to prevent the families’ voices reaching the inner parts of the camp. After a while excruciating parasite noise began to be broadcast from American supplied equipment, harmful to all who are exposed to it.
The families have no choice but to sit it out and wait and hope. Where at first the MEK were sent to the gate to shout insults and reject the families, they are no longer brought in view of the outside world. The MEK now are made to shout ‘Death to the Dictator’ from inside the depths of the camp and their voices projected by loudspeaker to the outside of the camp where the families wait and weep for their lost ones.
One young woman in a white ‘Chanel’ headscarf weeps for her lost father. He has been, she explains, in Camp Ashraf for23 years. He was captured as a POW in Iraq 25 years ago and after two years was among those transferred to the MEK camp where he has been ever since. She hasn’t seen him for 25 years. She wants him to come home with her, and, she says, she will not leave until she can take him out of the camp.
Still the families wait and call out to their long-lost relatives in the hope of reaching them. Although the gates of Camp Ashraf are now open, there is still no access to the people held hostage inside. The MEK have simply withdrawn into a smaller circle, surrounding themselves with barbed wire, embankments and barriers. They have stationed trucks to hide their broadcasting equipment, and covered others with sacking to pretend they do not exist. But worst of all is that now, Massoud Rajavi’s special suppressive forces are patrolling the perimeter of the camp and aggressively engaging with and attacking the families, swearing at them, throwing stones and even catapulting metal missiles at the defenceless families. Several of them have been hit and hurt by these missiles.
The MEK’s backers in Europe and North America continue to raise false alarms and problems concerning the camp and to introduce false information in their various parliaments. In response, government officials have continued to put the record straight. The MEK are not protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention. The UNHCR has not granted them refugee status in Iraq. The camp continues to be monitored weekly by UNAMI with a separate American presence.
The Iraqi authorities are ensuring that the camp is safe and secure and that the MEK inside receive regular supplies of food, medicine and other essentials, while preventing non-essentials such as barbed wire and weapons being imported into the camp.
But what no one can explain, whether MEK backers or government officials, is why these families are not being helped and why the MEK continue to be allowed to hold 3500 people hostage inside the camp with no recourse to help or rescue. Why are the human rights abuses taking place inside Camp Ashraf not being investigated?
