Page 701 – Nejat Society

Iraq will not grant asylum to MKO members

Iraqi Minister of State for National Security Shirwan al-Waeli says Baghdad will not grant asylum to any Iranian living at Camp Ashraf.

Last week, Iraqi security forces stormed the camp that housed members of the terrorist Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) and seized control of it.

The Iraqi government has declared that it wants to close the camp and send its residents to Iran or a third country.

"Iraq will not give asylum (to them) as refugees in its territory and we cannot tolerate groups that cause problems in their countries of origin," Reuters quoted Waeli as saying.

He declined to say when Camp Ashraf would be shut down and its 3,500 residents evicted.

"Our information says there are only 56 wanted by Iranian judicial courts and the others won’t have a problem if they go back to Iran," Waeli said.
"We don’t want problems with our neighbours," the Iraqi minister added.

The MKO was founded in Iran in the 1960s, but its top leadership and members fled the country in the 1980s after carrying out a series of assassinations and bombings inside the country.

The group is especially notorious in Iran because they allied with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

August 5, 2009 0 comments

Iraq

Reuters:Iraq says Iranian exiles not allowed to stay

BAGHDAD – Iraq’s state security minister said on Tuesday that no Iranian exiles living in Camp Ashraf on the border with Iran would be granted asylum in Iraq, including 56 he said were wanted in Iranian courts. Iraq's state security minister said that no Iranian exiles living in Camp Ashraf would be granted asylum in Iraq

Iraqi forces last week took control of the camp on the Iranian border, home to the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI) dissident group for about two decades, sparking confrontations between police and residents who fear eviction. At least seven exiles were killed in the clashes.

Iraq’s Shi’ite-led government has said it wants to close the camp and send residents to Iran or a third country, a proposal they are bitterly resisting. The dissidents fear they will be imprisoned or executed if they are sent home.

Iraqi Minister of State for National Security Shirwan al-Waeli said his country had no qualms about sending them back.

"Iraq will not give asylum (to them) as refugees in its territory and we cannot tolerate groups that cause problems in their countries of origin," Waeli said, but he declined to say when Ashraf would be shut and its 3,500 residents evicted.

Iraq, like Iran and the United States, sees the PMOI as a terrorist organization, although they surrendered most of their weapons to U.S. forces after the 2003 invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.
Iraq took formal charge of Ashraf from the U.S. military in January, under a bilateral security pact.
Some human rights groups and PMOI sympathizers in the West, who have been highly critical of the way Iraq has handled Ashraf, say closing the camp and driving residents out against their will would violate international human rights law.

"Our information says there are only 56 wanted by Iranian judicial courts and the others won’t have a problem if they go back to Iran," Waeli said.

The PMOI was given shelter in Iraq by Saddam, who fought an eight-year war against Iran in the 1980s. Iraq’s government, which includes former Saddam opponents who lived in exile in Iran, has a close relationship with Iran.

"We don’t want problems with our neighbors," Waeli said.
Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Sophie Hares

By Tim Cocks and Muhaned Mohammed

August 5, 2009 0 comments

Pakistan

MKO not to be welcomed in Pakistan

With Iraq determined to rid its soil of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), members of the terrorist group set out to seek political asylum in Pakistan.

MKO Leader Maryam Rajavi has camped-out in most of Europe’s parliaments for the past two years and has managed to gain scattered support from various high-ranking circles.

After the Pakistan-based Jundullah terror group admitted to receiving MKO support and assistance, Iraqi National Security Adviser, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, said the soon-to-be expelled group may decide to move to Pakistan.

The revelations come amid reports that MKO leaders have sought political asylum in Pakistan and have reached out to Jundullah ringleader Abdolmalek Rigi for help.
Pakistani officials, however, have dismissed the reports out of hand, asserting that they would never allow MKO terrorists station themselves in their country and threaten the interests of their neighboring states.

“As part of its efforts to reduce terrorism in the region, Pakistan will not allow MKO refugees set foot on its soil,” said Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit.

In Iran, members of the Mujahiden-e Khalq organizations are regarded as traitors for siding with the Ba’ath regime during the Iraq-imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).
The group became especially notorious after they masterminded a torrent of terrorist operations inside Iran, one of which was the 1981 bombing of the offices of the Islamic Republic Party, in which more than 72 Iranian officials were killed.

The Mujahedin Khalq Organization, which blended elements of Marxism, Stalinism, and Feminism, took refuge in Iraq after they were exiled from Iran in the 1980’s on charges of terrorism.

They resided in Camp Ashraf in northern Baghdad for the past two decades and were lucky enough to receive protected status following the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
However, control of the camp was handed over to Iraqi forces earlier this year and the Baghdad government stepped up efforts to expel the anti-Iran dissidents.
Earlier last week, Iraqi forces engaged in a series of violent clashes with Camp Ashraf residents.
According to Iraqi security forces, 11 MKO members were killed in the two-day raids, while around 300 others were wounded.
The Baghdad government had been warning for months that its patience with the group was wearing thin.

In Iraq, MKO dissidents are seen as “brainwashed cult members from a high-trained terrorist organization” which assisted the Saddam regime to oppress the Iraqi nation.

August 5, 2009 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

U.S. seeks to protect Iran terror group

Iraqis urged to keep camp
The United States is quietly pressing Iraq not to close a camp that holds more than 3,000 members of an Iranian opposition group that served as Saddam Hussein’s shock troops in 1991 when he crushed rebellions after the Gulf War and now is vulnerable to Iraqi and Iranian reprisals.

Last week, Iraqi police stormed Camp Ashraf outside Baghdad, killing at least seven and injuring dozens during clashes with the Mujahedeen-e Khalq, or MEK. At the time, members of a U.S. unit known as Task Force 134, which deals with prisoners of war, were present outside the compound, said two U.S. officials — one in Washington, one in Iraq — who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

A day after the raid, officials at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad met with members of the Iraqi government to urge restraint. The next day, the U.S. Army helped medevac at least two dozen injured members of the MEK, the officials said.

Many Iranians despise the group for siding with Iraq during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. Iraqi Shi’ites have grievances that grow out of the MEK’s participation in crushing an uprising in southern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War.

The U.S. has designated the MEK as a terrorist group for these actions and for the assassinations of six Americans in Iran before the 1979 Iranian revolution. But the U.S. nevertheless has sought to protect Camp Ashraf members — who include women and children — from Iraqi or Iranian attack and forced repatriation.

The camp had been under U.S. protection since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Iraq now seeks to reassert control under the provisions of the Status of Forces Agreement signed with Washington last year.

Iraqi media have reported that the government plans to close Camp Ashraf and disperse its residents to other locations in Iraq. Such a move could make the dissidents more vulnerable to Iranian intelligence and angry Iraqi Shi’ites who lost family members in 1991.

"Embassy officials met with representatives from the Government of Iraq [GOI] on July 29, to stress the importance of the GOI fulfilling its commitment to the United States Government to treat Ashraf’s residents humanely and to propose permitting an assessment of injuries and deaths by U.S. forces," one U.S. official wrote in an e-mail to The Washington Times. "The GOI allowed a U.S. medical assessment team to enter Ashraf and subsequently approved joint U.S.-Iraqi medical assistance to injured MEK Ashraf residents."

A spokesman for the Iraqi government, Ali al-Dabbagh, acknowledged that there had been meetings with Americans about the subject.

"There will be no plans to move [the MEK members] anywhere in the short term," he said, denying the Iraqi media reports. "We are thinking of their security about finding a safer place. But till now, this plan is not yet approved."
By Eli Lake

August 5, 2009 0 comments

Iraq

Maliki Underlines Expulsion of MKO Members from Iraq

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Tuesday stressed his government’s resolve to expel members of the anti-Iran terrorist group, Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), from his country.

Speaking to FNA over the fate of MKO members in Iraq after seizure of the group’s training camp last Tuesday by Iraqi forces, Maliki noted, "We have always had a clear stance on all terrorist groups. They have to leave the Iraqi soil. The government has underlined this stance since the beginning."

Iraqi security forces took control of the training base of the MKO at Camp Ashraf – about 60km (37 miles) north of Baghdad – last Tuesday 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.

Maliki further rejected allegations about mistreatment of the MKO members by the Iraqi security forces, saying, "Our behavior towards their (MKO) members has always been within the framework of the international conventions. We have not mistreated them." The Iraqi government has set a month-long deadline for members of the MKO to leave the country’s soil.

The MKO has been in Iraq’s Diyala province since the 1980s. The Iraqi government and parliament has announced that it would not tolerate the group anymore and is seeking to expel the group from the country in the near future.

The anti-Iran terror group has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by many international entities and countries.

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 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.

The MKO was put on the US terror list in 1997 by the then President, Bill Clinton, but since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group has been strongly backed by the Washington Neocons, who also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.

August 5, 2009 0 comments

Members of the MEK

Iraq governor says detained 36 Iranian exiles

We will deal with Mojahedin Khalq according to the Iraqi law
* Iraqi police detain Iranian exiles on rioting charges
* Detainees will not be returned to Iran
* Status of exiles’ still in doubt after U.S. handover

BAGHDAD, Aug 3 (Reuters) – Iraqi police have arrested 36 Iranian exiles on rioting charges after clashes with Iraqi forces at their camp killed at least seven exiles, but an Iraqi official said on Monday they would not be repatriated to Iran.

Iraqi forces on Tuesday took control of Camp Ashraf on the Iranian border, home to the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) dissident group for two decades, sparking confrontations between police and residents who fear eviction.

Residents said 13 people died in the clashes, many of them shot dead by police, and many others wounded. Iraq’s government said seven died, most of them because they threw themselves under police vehicles.

Abdul Nassir al-Mehdawi, governor of Diyala province, which has jurisdiction over Ashraf, confirmed 36 had been arrested the day after the clashes.
"Their cases are being investigated now. They are being charged with inciting trouble," Mehdawi said. "We will deal with them according to Iraqi law; we won’t send them back to Iran."
Although Iraq, Iran and the United States call the PMOI a terrorist organisation, it enjoyed a degree of protection by the U.S. military after the 2003 invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.
Iraq formally took charge of Camp Ashraf in January.

Some human rights groups and PMOI sympathisers in the West, who have been highly critical of the way Iraq has handled Ashraf, say closing the camp and driving residents out against their will would violate international human rights law.

"The arrested people didn’t commit any crime against anyone," Ashraf spokesman Shahriar Kia said from the camp. "They just picked up some random people. It is just an excuse for their measures against Camp Ashraf. It’s a conspiracy."

He added that the detainees were now on hunger strike.

The PMOI was given shelter in Iraq by Saddam, who fought an eight-year war against Iran in the 1980s.

Iraq’s government, which includes former Saddam opponents who lived in exile in Iran, has a close relationship with Iran.

Mehdawi said some of the 36 would be released but others would have to face trial. "We have two seriously injured Iraqi police. If they die, some of the detainees will go to court to face criminal charges," he said.
Reporting by Suadad al-Salhy and Tim Cocks; editing by Patrick Graham

August 5, 2009 0 comments

Members of the MEK

36 MKO members arrested in Iraq

Iraqi police have arrested 36 members of the Mojahedeen Khalq Organization (MKO) after clashes erupted between MKO operatives and security forces in Camp Ashraf.

The clashes broke out after Iraqi security forces on Tuesday took over the camp which was run by the terrorist group for almost two decades.

The skirmish left seven camp residents dead and many others wounded. Police said the seven were killed after they threw themselves under police vehicles.

The arrests were confirmed by Abdul Nassir al-Mehdawi, governor of Diyala province.

"Their cases are being investigated now. They are being charged with inciting trouble," he said. "We will deal with them according to Iraqi law; we won’t send them back to Iran."
MKO members were under US protection after the 2003 invasion of Iraq but the country formally took control of Camp Ashraf in January.

The organization which is blacklisted as a terrorist group by the US was given shelter by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the 1980s. It actively participated in Saddam’s oppression of Iraqi people, including the Kurdish minority.

The Iraqi government has declared that it would no longer allow MKO members to stay in Iraq and they had to return to Iran or go to a third country.

August 4, 2009 0 comments

Members of the MEK

35 Iranian dissidents sent to Baghdad for questioning

Thirty-five Iranian dissidents arrested by Iraqi security forces during a takeover of their base were transferred to Baghdad for questioning on Sunday, a senior Iraqi official told AFP.

"Today, 35 of the people arrested at Camp Ashraf were moved to Baghdad for questioning," said the official in Diyala province’s security operations centre.

A spokesman for the People’s Mujahedeen group, whose Camp Ashraf base was stormed by Iraqi security forces on Tuesday, said 36 residents had been arrested, of whom 32 had been sent to provincial capital Baquba, with the whereabouts of four still unknown.

Mujahedeen spokesman Shahriar Kia in a statement repeated allegations that Baghdad’s actions were being carried out at Tehran’s behest.

Eleven residents of Camp Ashraf have died since Iraqi forces stormed the site on Tuesday, an Iraqi security official has said, although the Mujahedeen say 12 have been killed. Camp Ashraf, in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, is home to 3,500 People’s Mujahedeen members and their families.

The People’s Mujahedeen, a Marxist and Islamic movement, was founded in 1965 in opposition to the shah of Iran and has subsequently fought to oust the clerical regime which took power in the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The group set up Camp Ashraf in the 1980s — when former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was at war with the Islamic republic — as a base to operate against the Tehran government. Amnesty International, meanwhile, has "called on the Iraqi government to investigate the excessive use of force by its security forces."

August 4, 2009 0 comments

Iraq

Iraqi Politician Hails Seizure of MKO Camp by Baghdad Gov’t

The Iraqi security forces’ move to seize the training camp of the anti-Iran terrorist group, Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), was "legal and accords with the international rules and conventions", an Iraqi politician said Sunday.

"Seizure of Camp Ashraf by the Iraqi army and security forces was a legal move and in accordance with the international rules and conventions," Forat al-Shar, A member of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), told FNA.

"The MKO has conducted illegal acts inside the camp and this is not acceptable to the Iraqi nation," Shar underlined.

Iraqi security forces took control of the training base of the MKO at Camp Ashraf – about 60km (37 miles) north of Baghdad – on Tuesday and detained dozens of the members of the terrorist group.

Earlier on Friday, Political Adviser of the head of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) Mohsen al-Hakim told FNA that UN Security Council’s 1773 and 1816 resolutions as well as other international conventions have underlined the need for the expulsion of the MKO members from Iraq.
Fora’t al-Shar further rejected any extension of the MKO’s stay on the Iraqi, and added, "If MKO members want to stay in Iraq they should not commit acts against the Iraqi nation’s will and the country’s laws."

"If they want to go outside the country or come back to Iran, there are no barriers in this regard," the SIIC official told FNA.
He underlined that the Iraqi nation is unlikely to accept presence of the terrorist group inside the country for a long time, given the crimes committed by them against the Iraqi nation.
The Iraqi government has set a month-long deadline for members of the MKO to leave Iraqi soil.

"Members of the MKO at Camp of New Iraq (Camp Ashraf) have to comply with the one-month time limit to leave Iraq. The organization members should either return to Iran or seek asylum in a third country," Diyala province’s Police Chief Major General Abdulhussein al-Shimari told reporters on Saturday.
The MKO has been in Iraq’s Diyala province since the 1980s. The Iraqi government and parliament has announced that it would not tolerate the group anymore and is seeking to expel the group from the country in the near future.

The anti-Iran terror group has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by many international entities and countries.
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 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.

August 4, 2009 0 comments

Iraq

Iraq right to impose control over territory

The Iraqi government was right to take action against a People’s Mujahideen of Iran (PMOI) camp north of Baghdad, as it did not want to tolerate a group on Iraqi territory operating outside Iraqi Iraq right to impose control over territory control. The left-wing Iranian opposition group has been fighting the Islamic Republic of Iran from several bases in Iraq since the early 1980s, when they were encouraged by the then president Saddam Hussain, who was at war with Iran.

Until the American led invasion in 2001, the PMOI was well armed with a wide range of weaponry including tanks and armoured personnel carriers, and it conducted continual operations against Iran. The PMOI renounced the armed struggle in 2001 and handed over all its arms. Its members then benefited from loose American protection, which lapsed last year when the US handed security control back to Iraq earlier this year.

Once Iraqi control is re-imposed on the camp, it is important for humanitarian reasons that the residents of Camp Ashraf are not deported to Iran, where they would face death for their armed opposition to the regime, or imprisonment . The Iraqi government has made several statements since 2003 that the Mujahideen will be expelled from Iraq, since they see their presence in Iraq as a deep embarrassment and a real hindrance to any improvement of relations between Iraq and Iran.

Deep fears of deportation and concern at losing control of their political fate led the PMOI members to resist the Iraqi forces when they entered the camp to impose Iraqi authority, which led to serious clashes leaving seven of the Iranian dissidents dead. The Iraqi government should come forward with a clear statement on where it thinks these people should go, and make it their responsibility to bring this anomaly to an end.

August 4, 2009 0 comments

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