‘ font-size: 10pt”>MEPs intrigued by accounts of newly arrived escapees from Camp Ashraf
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Discussion of the Mojahedin-e Khalq/National Council of Resistance and its activities in the EU Parliament
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‘ font-size: 10pt”>On Tuesday 9 September a meeting was held by the Delegation for Relations with Iran in the European Parliament. The meeting focused on ‘Discussion of the Mojahedin-e Khalq/National Council of Resistance and its activities in an exchange of views with:
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Ms Anne Singleton expert on the MKO
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Representative of the NCR (declined invitation)
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Three Residents of Ashraf Refugee Camp who arrived from Iraq in the last couple of weeks: Ms. Ebrahimi, Mr. Hassan Piransar and Mr. Hamid Siah Mansoori.
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Also present were former MKO members Karim Haggi, Mohammad Sobhani, Hadi Shams Haeri and Ali Ghashghavi, who accompanied the new arrivals to provide support to these vulnerable people.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Ms Angelika Beer, President of the Iran Delegation (Greens/EFA), began by describing the MKO and its activities up to the present time.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Anne Singleton briefly described her own involvement with the MKO for over twenty years.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Asserting that the MKO will not give up the use of violence to achieve its aims, Ms Singleton went on to explain why, in spite of that, she believes that the MKO has currently little to do with the Iranian political scene, but that precisely because it is a cult, its danger is that it interferes in parliamentary democracy in western countries in ways that may even involve criminal activity.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Whilst agreeing that the MKO’s platform of ‘total regime change’ in Iran could be attractive to some politicians in the west, Ms Singleton challenged the delegates to consider whether the MKO would be able to achieve its stated aim – ‘will it do what it says on the tin’? Since its last major offensive against Iran in 1988, the MKO has achieved little to further its aims. She told delegates that they should also consider the possibility that, even if they believe the MKO has changed tactic and intends to pursue its aims only through political opposition, the MKO may not actually be ‘fit for purpose’ She urged them to consider the evidence of the three former residents of Camp Ashraf who have arrived in Europe from Iraq only in the past few weeks, and who would speak later in the meeting about conditions inside the MKO.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Ms Singleton asserted that Iranian people – as those delegates who have visited Iran are aware – are not waiting to be rescued by the MKO and are capable of opposing their own government. Iranian women are not waiting to be taught about feminism by Maryam Rajavi who leads an organisation which – as Batul Ebrahimi will testify – badly abuses women members.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Then Ms Singleton described the current situation of the MKO in Iraq. Control of Camp Ashraf, the MKO’s headquarters, has been transferred from the American military to the Iraqi military. Ms Singleton said that Iraqi government officials are angry at reports which suggest that the MKO would be ‘massacred’ if the Americans handed over Camp Ashraf.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Instead, the people inside the camp are facing a humanitarian crisis because they are not allowed even basic freedoms such as the right to enjoy contact and visits from their families. A rumour has arisen that the Americans have removed around 300 of those captive in Camp Ashraf and left the others. Ms Singleton said that if this is the case then she would consider the remaining 3000 individuals in Camp Ashraf to be ex-members of the MKO. They should be brought to western countries as soon as possible.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Finally, Ms Singleton presented delegates with one solution to the crisis at Camp Ashraf, remove the MKO from the European terrorist list and bring ALL 3,300 residents to Europe where those who are mentally, physically and emotionally sick would be able to receive help.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Ms Singleton finished by reminding delegates that continuing support for the MKO would, of course, mean that the European Parliament accepted to have a cult operating in its midst and continuing to interfere in parliamentary democracy. However, if that is the decision to be made, then so be it.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Ms Beer thanked Anne Singleton for her contribution and asked the three recently arrived, former Camp Ashraf residents to speak.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Ms Ebrahimi (speaking in Farsi) told delegates that she had gone to Camp Ashraf when she was sixteen years old and although she quickly realised she wanted to leave, she was captive there for another ten years. She described conditions for women in the camp. Not only does the MKO not allow women to marry, women are made to work in the scorching sun for hours at a time so their complexions are ruined and they become ugly. This is so they do not develop the vanity to think they could be attractive to a man, she told delegates.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>In order to remove hope from the women of ever having a family, they are being sent under surgery for spurious medical conditions to have their wombs removed [hysterectomy] and around ten percent of women in Camp Ashraf have now undergone this surgery. When they tried to impose it on her, Ms Ebrahimi ran away. She begged delegates to take doctors to Camp Ashraf to check the veracity of what she was telling them.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>The MKO told her that if she left the camp and went with the American soldiers, they would rape her. For this reason it took two years before she was able to have the courage to escape.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Ms Ebrahimi said she saw Mr Paulo Casaca when he visited Camp Ashraf. We were not allowed to approach him and speak to him, she explained to delegates. If they had somewhere to go, she told delegates, without doubt ninety-nine percent of the people in Camp Ashraf would leave the camp and the MKO.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Mr Hamid Siah Mansoori (speaking English) told delegates he had been in the MKO for over twenty five years. He described how he had gone to Iraq from Canada. He had a good education, and a good life in Canada and had his own business before leaving everything behind in the mid 1980s to go to Iraq. He then described the MKO’s attitude to family. He said no one is allowed to contact their family, except in a few cases where people were told to contact their family to get money from them. He said the MKO told his family he was dead. They came to look for him five years ago – at the beginning of the American occupation – but were told he was dead.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Mr Hamid Siah Mansoori said he had arrived only a week ago, but had lost any contact details for his family. Nevertheless, his first priority now was to make contact with his parents and the rest of his family.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Ms Beer asked delegates if they had questions. One delegate asked how the MKO continued to be financed which allowed them to continue to undertake such expensive campaigns in parliament and elsewhere. Another delegate asked for more detail about the role of the Americans in supporting Camp Ashraf when the US State Department so strongly describes them as a terrorist group.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Anne Singleton answered these questions, pointing out that during the reign of Saddam Hussein the MKO had received almost unlimited finance from Saddam Hussein, as well as from Saudi Arabia and some western governments from behind the scene. Now, however, although it is clear that MKO finances are dwindling somewhat, it was unclear how the MKO could continue to spend so much money, and the only people to answer that are the MKO themselves.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Ms Singleton pointed out a five year rift in policy toward the MKO between the US State Department – which has a very thorough knowledge of the MKO – and the US Defense Department under Donald Rumsfeld. Some in the US Administration wanted to use the MKO in confronting Iran and therefore Camp Ashraf has been protected by the US military in Iraq for five years. Ms Singleton conceded that this protection was beneficial in keeping the MKO out of danger in the midst of a war zone. But that the Americans had also flouted the UN Fourth Geneva protocol by not allowing MKO to meet their families and not enabling them to leave the situation.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Ms Beer then introduced Mr Mohammad Sobhani who had previously addressed the Delegation. Following that meeting he had been the subject of unfounded accusations of having attacked MKO members in Paris. Instead, Mr Sobhani was the victim of a violent attack when some fifty MKO supporters ambushed a meeting at which Mr Sobhani was a speaker.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Following this, Mr Hadi Shams Haeri briefly pleaded with delegates to help him have contact with his children whom he has not been allowed to see for eighteen years. He asked that Mr Paulo Casaca accompany him to Camp Ashraf and help him meet with them again.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>At the end of the meeting Ms Beer expressed her appreciation for the speakers and said it had been a valuable meeting. One which, given the ongoing situation at Camp Ashraf, might soon be repeated.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>After the meeting, several of the attendees stopped to talk to the visitors – in particular the three who had just arrived from Iraq – and asked them to keep them informed of developments.
‘ font-size: 10pt”>Reported from EU Parliament,
From the other side Andrew McKinley, an MKO supporter in the British Parliament, via a letter to the State Department, asked the US to guarantee the protection of Ashraf city, stating his deep concern over the case. Besides, twelve European parliamentarians asked the international Red Cross to protect Ashraf residents. It is obvious that these current challenges originated from the deep fear of MKO and its supporter. They don’t try to hide their fear. There is a question: why don’t they ask for Iranian people’s support that they have always claimed to enjoy. Masud Rajavi who has always fantasized to have the position of a political party is not able to show Iranian’s significant support for MKO in the tumult of declining days. Instead of seeking the help of the United States’ authorities and Human Right Communities, why don’t they call for Iranians’ support? If the MKO supporters believe in the lies they repeat every day, about the situation of the group in Iran, they can write a letter to Iranian people and ask them to do something for the cult of Rajavi! They can also ask MKO leaders not to save the support of Iranians for after the military invasion to Iran. Spend it now that you are drowning in your strategy of moving along with American policy. 
shift in its terrorist conducts. The global reaction against the attacks and a shown decisiveness to combat against the abominable phenomena of terrorism made MKO to denounce armed activity if not in nature but provisionally in words. 
” These children were taken from the cult due to the risk of abuse. Marissa Conzales spokeswoman for the State children ‘s Protective Services agency said: ” it is not the normal practice to allow parents to accompany the child when an abuse allegation is made.” According to Jenniffer Donaber and Michael Graczyk, the Associated Press correspondents, the state is accusing the sect of physically and sexually abusing the youngsters and wants to strip their parents of custody. 
The parents in the sect are accused of being manipulated as it is normal in all sects such as MKO where after the Ideological Revolution the spouses were indoctrinated manipulated and eventually forced to divorce and in 1990 during the first Gulf War, they were forced to leave their children under the care of the organization. But there is no protective service agency to care for MEK members’ children who were transferred to Europe where they live in group houses in a very poor condition, and every morning they should hail to Uncle Masud and Aunt Maryam ( since they do not have any idea of Mother, Father and Family) As Elizabeth Rubin quoted from Nadereh Afshari MKO’s former member in her article ‘’ the Cult of Rajavi’’: ”Every morning and night, the kids, beginning as young as 1 and 2, had to stand before a poster of Massoud and Maryam, salute them and shout praises to them… They saw these kids as the next generation’s soldiers. They wanted to brainwash them and control them.” Where are the judges, juries, attorneys and lawyers to defend the case of MKO members’ children whose parents have no idea of where they live. The children are forced to participate in fund raising propaganda of the organization soliciting European citizens with their poor appearance. Is it a normal practice to see children living a difficult life in the modern European cities. The democratic cover of MKO activities have hidden their anti – human behavior towards their members especially children who are considered as the future militia by MKO. So what is called children’s rights abuse? Isn’t it the abuse of a child’s life to prevent him from living a normal life within his family, enjoying education in a free school of a free country? Batul Soltani is a mother whose children were taken of her in the organization. Now that she has left MKO, she is looking for her beloved children whose photos were hidden in her clothes during the dark years of living behind the bars of Rajavi’s cult. She will hopefully find her children someday but who can return those grieving years of missing her children? The years when she was not even allowed to think about them.
aimed at preventing the MKO leaders from falling into the hands of Iraq’s government. Earlier in August, Iraqi army took control of MKO’s Camp Ashraf in Diyala province, 60 kilometers north of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Iraqi government officials believe the MKO is playing a significant role in fueling violence and insecurity in the country and have announced plans to activate judiciary petitions against the members of the terrorist cell. The foreign ministry official added that the MKO members, currently residing in the camp, are those who have been deceived to join the terrorist cell and are considering leaving the organization. "Therefore these members are not helpful for the American forces to achieve their goals," the source said. The group has so far claimed responsibility for several terrorist attacks inside Iran and it cooperated with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the massacre of Iraqi civilians. The cell has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by many countries including Iraq, Iraq, Canada, the United States, and the European Union. 
twenty–three–year experience of witnessing MKO, addressed the families:” the security contract between Iraq and the US, in which the future of Camp Ashraf in defined, has terrified Rajavi’s Cult which is worried for the defection of the forces due to the transfers made between US and Iraq.” He also added:” the MKO Cult sees the families as its main threat and is sure that if the members could contact their origins and routs, they would leave their organizational identity and would associate with the society and family as a true human being.” As an ex-member who served in the highest ranks of MKO in Europe and Iraq – under Saddam Hussein’s rule- addressed the families:” we should be concerned about the recent decision made by the UK because they paved the way for the instrumental use of your children in a new phase and such an action is considered as the reproduction of terrorism and it will take victims out of your children.” Mr. Sametipur, the responsible for foreign relations of Nejat Society, who has a long experience of living in the MKO in the US or Iraq, was another speaker at the gathering. He gave a report on his recent visits with the Red Cross representatives, British diplomats and parliamentarians and also Swiss and Iraqi parliament members. He distributed some forms among families to fill out to state their petition against 
MKO asking for visiting their children. Mrs. Shalchi and Mrs. Malek who have precious experiences of living in MKO and are completely aware of the manipulation techniques used by MKO answered the audience’s questions on various subjects. The sort of questions asked by the families notifies the fact that they are really eager to achieve a mechanism for the rescue of their beloved ones. The gathering was covered by AlAlam TV channel, Press TV and the local mass media of the Province of Mozandaran.