Nejat Bloggers

Historic deal is working despite MKO-AIPAC- led obstructions

The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday suspended some of its sanctions against Iran, after the Islamic Republic began halting some of its nuclear activity as part of the historic deal with P5+1. Historic deal is working despite MKO-AIPAC- led obstructions

The U.S. Treasury said hours following news of the Iranian move that it has suspended sanctions on foreigners engaged in transactions related to Iran’s oil exports, and some trade in gold and precious metals.

As nuclear deal takes effect easing international sanctions in exchange for slowing Iran’s nuclear work, and buying time for a more comprehensive deal seems to be a horrible nightmare for the pro-Israel group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and the Mujahedin Khalq terror cult that have been lobbying members of Congress to keep the pressure on Iran. Attempting to make them pass extra sanctions against Islamic Republic their ultimate aim is definitely a violent regime change in Tehran.

Maryam Rajavi the self-claimed president of the National Council of Resistance the propaganda wing of the MKO, visiting a few French sponsors of the group blamed the West for its "erroneous policies" towards Islamic Republic. "They must compel the mullahs to shut down their nuclear sites completely", she said.

The MKO and Israel as well as Arabic states of the Persian Gulf claim that the nuclear deal with Iran will not work. Indeed, these Middle Eastern allies of the West are mostly worried about the opposite effect of the nuclear accord; they panic it might work!

Regarding the MKO, its role in the relations and equations between Iran and the West is so trivial that the cult leader strives hard to create tension between the two sides more and more in order to achieve the least support they can gain. The MKO’s only means to survive is to convince the West that the proverb "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" is symbolized in supporting a cult of personality with the darkest and dirtiest background of violence and crime against Iranian nation.

The MKO’s anti-Iranian substance is also demonstrated in the large-scale well-funded lobbying by the group in the US Congress to increase sanctions against Iranian people who are already suffering the outcome of the previously imposed sanctions. Senator Robert Menendez was the key MKO lobbyist in US Congress to pass legislation that as stated in Menendez’s press release its goal was “the complete and verifiable termination of Iran’s illicit nuclear weapons program”.

The MKO’s lobbying efforts to launch another war against Iran was seen as a deal-breaker by the Obama administration. Although the group’s efforts to undermine improvements in Iran-West relations do not seem to be influential, one thing is verified, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization is never the representative of the Iranian nation but its true enemy.

Mazda Parsi

January 26, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

The threat of MKO in Balkan

The relocation of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization from Iraqi has been a problematic issue from the very start phase. Although the process started near a year ago it has been rather slowly and it has faced different frustrations whether by the group leaders or by the host countries. Leaders of the MKO seek to relocate the group as a whole body in order to prevent the collapse of the cult-like structure of the group while third countries hesitate to accept a crowd of 3000 militants with a dark background of violent acts and cult-like attitudes.

Albania was the first country in the Southeast Europe that accepted to receive 210 residents of Camp Liberty. The United States welcomed the Government of Albania’s "generous offer". However, the move has not been accomplished yet. [1]

Germany was another European country to accept members of the MKO but it did not agree to accept more than 97 individuals. German authorities ordered to relocate 77 of these people in Koln but the decision was disputed by the officials of the city, according to German newspaper, Kolner Stadt –Anzeiger. [2]

The United States is now planning to move 3000 members of the MKO from Iraq to Romania — again in Balkan region. According to the Romanian Foreign Ministry employees the U.S. State Secretary and the Romanian Foreign Minister discussed the issue of militants’ migration during the meeting in Brussels in early December. This time the US seems to seek to compactly resettle the group members near the city of Craiova. [3]

Ilya Kharlamov of the Voice of Russia believes that by such mass relocation "Washington may turn Romania into a hotbed of tension, which will prove quite a headache both to Romania proper and the neighboring countries." The VOR’s correspondent suggests that the action on the US plan is fraught with danger quoting an expert with the Moscow-based Institute for Strategic Studies and Analysis, Sergei Demidenko: "A transfer of a large group of people, drilled ideologically and militarily, to an unstable European area will clearly add no quiet to the area."[4]

Besides, another Russian expert in Oriental Studies Boris Dolgov considers the US plan as inappropriate. He told VOR," If the Romanian leaders have certain doubts, and they will certainly question the correctness of the decision, then they should stiffly oppose the move." Pointing to terrorist history of the MKO he added, ”The US plan is at variance with the recent trend towards improving relations between Washington and Tehran.” [5]

The author of the VOR article puts the responsibility on the Romanian Government that is free to accept or refuse to persecute the US plan and warns on the risk of the presence of "well-trained fighters" of the MKO in the unstable situation of the neighboring Ukrain.

Anna MIKHAILENKO’s piece on the new US plan to move "the Cult of Rajavi” to Balkan was translated from Russian by the ORIENTAL REVIEW. She also criticized the US for delisting the MKO in 2012 and "trying to move militants from this group out of Iraq and closer to sites that are being readied for future armed hostilities."[6]

"It is obvious that the Mojahedin-e-Khalq is not a peaceful organization" she writes. "In fact, it would be better compared to the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, or Jubhat al-Nusrah, other groups which also enjoyed the tacit support of the United States until they became too unruly." [7]

MIKHAILENKO warns on the threat of "this army of 3,000 militants" at the door of an tensed region. "Harboring so many fighters so close to Ukraine, a country that has been afflicted with EuroMaidan fever for the past month and a half, could pave the way for any number of coercive scenarios for regime change", she suggests. [8]

Is it really worth to maintain the supremacy of a cult like terrorist group by risking the peace in an already-tensioned area? Will Romania buy the danger of receiving "Saddam’s Private Army" the MKO to the cost of appeasing the US?

By: Mazda Parsi

References:

[1] Psaki, Jen, Thirty MEK Camp Hurriya Residents Depart Iraq for Relocation to Albania, US Press Statement, June 3, 2013

[2]https://www.nejatngo.org/en/posts/5423

[3]Martov, Delyan, U.S. to move 3000 MKO terrorists to Romania, Sofia, December25,2013

[4] Voice of Russia, US to flood Romania with terrorists, January 10, 2014

[5]ibid

[6]MIKHAILENKO , Anna , Is the US preparing to stash 3,000 terrorists near the Ukrainian border? ,Orientalreview, January 11,2014

[7]ibid

[8]ibid

January 20, 2014 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

Rajavi’s absurd claim of equality !

Maryam Rajavi’s claim for promotion of equality in her cult is absurd and ludicrous.

Many argue that the hijab is oppressive to women and removing it would enhance women’s equality and freedom. They argue that veiling prevents and limits women’s activities in public. On the other hand, Muslim believers of hijab argue that It not only makes a woman feel confident and liberated, but encourages society not to see women as sex objects. They believe that Islam promotes sexual equality, and Hijab allows women to be an instrumental part of the society without being discriminated and looked down. Hijab can also prevent men from ogling look. What about Maryam Rajavi, the leader of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization, the MKO as an Islamic Marxist group? What is her stance about hijab?

Actually, Maryam Rajavi’s idea about hijab is very controversial. She claims in her so-called “ten point plan for future of Iran” that women “will enjoy the right to freely choose their clothing”. However, evidences on what is really going on inside her group indicates that there is no freedom of clothing in the MKO camps.

Perhaps, Elizabeth Rubin the New York Times correspondent, was the first to reveal the cult-like atmosphere ruling the MKO camps including uniform clothing of members, in 2003 after she visited Camp Ashraf. Rubin titled the MKO as “The Cult of Rajavi”. “As you pass the checkpoints and dragons’-teeth tire crunchers into the tidy military town, you feel you’ve entered a fictional world of female worker bees. Of course, there are men around; about 50 percent of the soldiers are male”, she recounts. “But everywhere I turned, I saw women dressed in khaki uniforms and mud-colored head scarves, driving back and forth along the avenues in white pickups or army-green trucks, staring ahead, slightly dazed, or walking purposefully, a slight march to their gaits as at a factory in Maoist China.”

Following the collapse of Iraqi dictatorship and the main financial supporter of the MKO in 2003, the US forces disarmed the MKO. Camp Ashraf was since then guarded by the American army. Having been disarmed and guarded by the MKO’s former enemy the US, members started doubting the group’s ideology. Moreover, the group’s leader Masssoud Rajavi was disappeared. The process of defection of members began.

Disassociated members of the MKO –hundreds of individuals—including female members disclosed shocking realities about the life inside MKO camps. They revealed cult-like and suppressive practices of the MKO authorities. The testimonies of women who had left the group exposed cases of forced divorce, forced celibacy, forced hysterectomy surgeries to make female members barren and particularly sexual abuse by Massoud Rajavi.

Among such abusive treatment against female members of the MKO, forced clothing might be very trivial but it certainly proves the invalidity of Maryam Rajavi’s claims about freedom of choosing clothes in future of Iran. Zahra Sadat Mirbaqeri is a defector of the group who was a member of the second layer of the group’s Elite Council. She was a candidate to marry Massoud Rajavi. She was given the famous necklace with the portrait of Massoud. Fortunately she managed to escape the Cult of Rajavi before she was raped by Massoud.

Mirbaqer challenges Maryam Rajavi’s promise to let Iranian women “enjoy the right to freely choose their clothing’’. She recites her firsthand account of living under regulations and obligations of Rajavi’s cult of personality:

“I was a member of this destructive cult for 23 years. I was not allowed to wear any clothes except the khaki uniform and the green head scarf. Forced hijab was ruled everywhere even in places that only belonged to female members…

“In the cult, women are not allowed to use any kind of hijab except green, khaki and red scarves. However, red and khaki scarves are allowed only for special occasions. You would be punished if you wore your red or khaki scarf in occasions other than the group’s propaganda ceremonies and marches.”

Zahra Sadat Mirbaqeri criticizes Maryam Rajavi’s propaganda for freedom of women quoting a renowned sentence that female rank and files of the MKO were always told:” Scarf is the official uniform of the organization.”

Mazda Parsi

January 14, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

British MPs consider the MKO terrorist

Former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who was heading a parliamentary delegation during a three-day visit to Iran, had a press conference in the Iranian capital on Wednesday, January 8. Jack Straw confirmed that the UK government condemned any form of terrorism

To answer a question on the support for the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO) and its terror acts by the British Government, Jack Straw said that when in 2009 he was the UK Justice Minister, he passed legislation based on which the MKO was outlawed in Britain and was considered a terrorist entity.

”The MKO is a terrorist organization", he added. After the MKO was listed as a terrorist group in 2009, the group petitioned its case to the appeal court and ultimately the court ordered its delisting.

The UK delegation also visited a number of families of terror victims killed by terrorist groups, such as Mujahedin khalq on Thursday. The son of one of the victims of the MKO asked the UK officials to return the MKO to the list of terrorist groups.

Families of assassinated nuclear scientists asked the British MPs to tie bans on trafficking of the MKO terrorists in Europe.

Jack Straw confirmed that the UK government condemned any form of terrorism. "The British government has condemned the assassination of the Iranian nuclear scientists", he said.

Ben wallace another member of the UK parliamentarian delegation spoke of the probability of relisting of the MKO as a terror group.

The Britain-Iran Parliamentary Friendship Group seeks better relations with Iran. The delegates met with counterparts from the Iranian Majlis.

January 11, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

The 40-year-old MKO’s New Year Resolution: Regime Change!

It’s been near 4 decades that the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO) embraces the Regime The 40-year-old MKO's New Year Resolution: Regime Change! Change Option against the Iranian government. The group names every New Year –whether according to Iranian calendar or the Christian calendar – as "the year of the overthrow of the regime".

In order to accomplish its so-called objective – the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran—the MKO has had various bed fellows including Saddam Hussein the deposed Iraqi dictator. The group was Iraqi Baath’s intelligence and military aid during the eight years of a destructive war between Iran and Iraq. They perpetrated countless random terror acts to assassinate Iranian officials and civilians.

Immediately after the cease fire was signed by Iran and Iraq, the MKO leaders launched the notorious "Eternal Light Operation" ( Forough e Javidan) across Iranian borders in the vain hope of reaching Tehran in three days– Massoud Rajavi the leader of the MKO had planned a three-day operation to seize Tehran and change the Regime!

The operation was like a mass suicide. A large number of the group members were killed. The group was harshly defeated and forced back in the arms of its Iraqi landlord Saddam Hussein. Then, in 1991, the MKO continued offering services to the land lord by aiding him with suppressing Kurdish uprising and Shiite Intifada in Iraq where most former members of the group recall the infamous Maryam Rajavi’s quote "Take the Kurds under the tanks and save your bullets for the Iranian soldiers."!

However, the MKO’s long time loyalty to the enemy of Iranian people did not accomplish anything at the end. Following the American led invasion of Iraq, the Iraqi dictator fell off power. The MKO was disarmed by the American army. The group leaders now had to answer a large number of questions in the mind of the rank and files who were promised an armed –violent— regime change in Iran.

Faced with an ambiguous dreadful fate in camps in Iraq members of "the cult of Rajavi" witnessed the collapse of the mirage –Regime Change in Iran– the Rajavis had painted for them in many years. Defection from the group was on the rise and Iraqi newly established government didn’t want Saddam’s mercenaries on its territory.

The leaders of the MKO strived to make new allies in the region ranging from Saudi Arabia to Israel. The new mutual teamwork included terrorist and spying operations against Iran in exchange for receiving financial, military, and intelligence support. Meanwhile the group’s propaganda played its leading part in derailing the West’s diplomatic efforts to engage in negotiations with the Iranian government.

Conversely, despite the MKO’s hard work to gain the world’s support for its so-called desire for regime change in Iran the situation of the group as a cult of personality deteriorated , day after day. The process of the group’s expulsion from Iraq has started and is ongoing although a bit slowly. There is an increasing growth in the number of defectors from the group’s cult-like structure. Therefore, today the main issue for the group leaders is to maintain the structure of the cult which guarantees its survival.

At least during the past decade, the MKO has resorted to different powers in the world not for the sake of regime change but for its own survival. "Regime Change" is not a promise anymore; it has been reduced to a New Year resolution on the MKO propaganda websites even if it is repeated three times.

By Mazda Parsi

January 9, 2014 0 comments

Nejat Publications

Pars Brief – Issue No. 76

Inside this Issue:

Iran dissidents ‘killed in Iraq missile attack’
Notes on the Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (MEK) and Americans in Paris
Iraq says no success tracing killers of Iranian dissidents
U.S. to move 3000 MKO terrorists to Romania
Mojahedin Khalq spending spree suffers backlash in Washington
Derailing diplomacy: MEK weighs in on Iran nuke talks & Tom Ridge interview
MEK Purchases 27 US Senate Votes for War With Iran
Iran dissidents ‘killed in Iraq missile attack’

Download Pars Brief – Issue No. 76
Download Pars Brief – Issue No. 76

January 8, 2014 0 comments

Camp Liberty

Who is to blame for the killing of Liberty residents ?

Iraq has experienced countless religiously or politically motivated attacks since Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. The country has witnessed numerous bloody days. The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) says that more than 5,200 people were killed between April and the end of September this year. The escalating violence caused Iraq to be an insecure region for the residents. The Mujahedin Khalq members as unwanted guests are no exception.
Camp Liberty, the temporary transit location of Mujahedin Khalq was hit by rockets on Thursday December 26, with three people dead and several others seriously injured, Reuters cited the camp’s spokesperson as saying.
This is the fourth rocket attack this year against the camp where 3000 members of Mujahedin reside.
Mujahedin Khalq is the Iraqi dictator’s accomplice in suppressing Shiite and Kurds uprisings who after the fall of Saddam continued its provocative practices. The Iraqi people have deep seated hatred towards the MKO since their hands stained with the blood of their countrymen and beloved ones. Iraqi authorities have issued 148 arrest warrants for MEK members for crimes against Iraqis since 1991 but none have been arrested, according to officials.
Reuters reports that Wathiq al-Batat, the commander of the al-Mukhtar Army militia, took responsibility for the attack on the MKO camp accusing the group of communicating with Sunni and Shi’ite politicians he said were linked to al Qaeda.Al-Batat said :” “We’ve asked (the government) to expel them from the country many times, but they are still here,”
So the Iraqi soil is no more safe for the Mujahedin members.
After the attack on Camp Liberty EU, US, UN and some other International bodies condemned the attack in strong terms as it claimed the lives of Camp residents and urged the Iraqi government to step up security measures around the Camp and called on Iraq to launch investigation into the incident.
The Iraqi authorities have repeatedly reiterated that they have problem in providing security for their own people let alone for the members of an unwanted terrorist organization.
This process has been the case after each attack on both Camps Ashraf and Liberty, bearing no fruit.
Every time Iraq reiterates its unwillingness to let MKO stay on their soil, International bodies’ duty seems to be just condemning the attacks. The cult leaders on their turn try to take advantage of the incidents and shedding of members’ bloods.
The leaders and high ranking members of the organization who are residing in safe places do not care about the safety and well being of the rank and file members being trapped in the cul de sac of Iraq.
The Cult leaders won’t put into danger their cultic structure by letting members out individually, rather they want to relocate members as a unit. They strive to survive their cult by putting its members under missiles and bullets. The power-thirsty leaders of the group just look at the members as tools to promote their ambitions.
Still the only voiceless victims of the incidents are Camp residents who are both ignored by international society as well as their own leaders. Liberty residents are the plaything of political equations between their leaders and the leaders’ masters .
Really, who is to be blamed and who is to be making accountable for the lives of the 3000+ trapped residents of the Temporary Transit Location ?!
A. Sepinoud

January 4, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

MKO & AIPAC lobbies to promote endless wars in the Mideast

Very soon after the US administration was starting to admit that the military option could not be on the table any more, the MKO and AIPAC lobbies came up with a new Iran sanctions bill designed to frustrate MKO & AIPAC lobbies to promote endless wars in the Mideast the historic agreement reached by Iran and the West in Geneva. And, once that bill is passed, it provides automatic U.S military backing for Israel if its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decides to attack Iran.

Three top senators, including two Democrats, have begun circulating a draft of a new Iran sanctions bill that critics say could violate the terms of an agreement struck between Iran and the United States in Geneva last month, reported Ali Gharib of Foreign Policy. The resolution was introduced by Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Mark Kirk(R-IL) of which the goal is “the complete and verifiable termination of Iran’s illicit nuclear weapons program”.[1]

Two of AIPAC’s favorite senators from both parties, Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Mark Kirk(R-IL), are at this moment actively working with AIPAC to push for new sanctions, notwithstanding the warnings by the Obama administration that additional sanctions will violate the interim accord and put the entire diplomatic process at risk. [2]Senator Robert Menendez is also an ardent advocate of the MKO in the US Congress.

Menhendez backs the MKO operatives to the extent that he told Wendy Sherman the US State Department’s third person that the MEK should be invited to relocate to the United States. [3]

Earlier this year the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Senator Menendez, said there is still time for diplomacy, but the United States needs to look closely at enhancing “military pressure” on Iran. [4]Once the diplomatic solution started working in Geneva, Bob Menendez said a briefing by Secretary of State John Kerry and others Wednesday failed to convince him that a proposed deal with Iran to loosen sanctions in exchange for a temporary freeze of the country’s nuclear program was worth pursuing on November 15. [Cheered by the MKO that published it on its propaganda website by the title "Menendez joins GOP in slamming Iran briefing"]

Jim White of the Emptywheel website confirms AIPAC’s part to pass the legislation against Iran but he also notifies the part of the MKO in the "warmongering aspects" of the bill. He writes," the work (and funding money) of MEK, which advocates for (in my opinion, violent) regime change in Iran, seems to be just as likely, if not more likely, to be behind this hideous piece of legislation." [5]

Although White gives too much credit to the cult of Rajavi, he accurately warns about the MKO’s crisis mongering propaganda to obstruct the Geneva deal in which Iran insisted on its right to low level enrichment to produce fuel for nuclear power plants. " Since that is seen as a deal-breaker for Iran, it is precisely what the MEK now sets as the determinant of whether sanctions that will certainly lead to war are enacted", he states. "What they want is a war to change the regime in Iran, not a diplomatic solution that prevents nuclear weapons being developed by Iran."[6]

Regarding the MKO as a cult-like group that had been on the FTO list until recently, the support it enjoys in the Congress is mostly linked to the financial donations it makes to its advocates rather than any deep loyalty to the group’s agenda. However, the support for the MKO agenda to violently overthrow the Islamic Republic is now paired with the long time efforts of AIPAC to drive the United States into a war with Iran.

The true fact about the MKO and AIPAC is that both are well connected with the Israeli intelligence Mossad. "Recently declassified FBI files reveal how Israeli government officials first orchestrated public relations and policies through the U.S. lobby," reported Granth Smith of the Antiwar. "Counter-espionage investigations of proto-AIPAC’s first coordinating meetings with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the head of Mossad provide a timely and useful framework for understanding how AIPAC continues to localize and market Israeli government policies in America."[7]

Concerning the MKO the relation with Mossad is mostly operational rather than political. US officials told NBC News in 2012 that Mossad has recruited and trained MKO operative for sabotage operations in Iran. [8]

Despite the hard work by war mongers’ parties and lobbies to launch another war in the Middle East, the White House has assured to veto any bills calling for new sanctions since they clearly violate the P5+1 agreement. Let’s hope that diplomacy will win over war this time.

Mazda Parsi

[1]Gharib, Ali, Exclusive: Top Senate Democrats Break with White House and Circulate New Iran Sanctions Bill, Foreign Policy, December 18, 2013

[2]Payvand Iran News, Top Jewish Non-Profit Heads Leading Iran Sanctions Call, December 21, 2013

[3] NIAC Staff, State Department Advises Senate to Hold off Iran Sanctions Until After Negotiations, October 4, 2013

[4] NIAC Staff, Congress Debates War, Sanctions, Diplomacy and MEK with Top Obama Officials, May 16, 2013

[5] White, Jim, MEK Purchases 27 US Senate Votes for War with Iran, Emptywheel, December 20, 2013

[6] ibid

[7] Smith, Grant, The Mossad Has Long Given Marching Orders to AIPAC, Antiwar.com, February 28, 2012

[8] Engel, Richard & Windrem, Robert, Israel teams with terror group to kill Iran’s nuclear scientists, U.S. officials tell NBC News, NBC News, Feb 9, 2012

December 30, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

The legacy of Mandela is none of the MKO’s business

Nelson Mandela’s legacy is nobody’s exclusive property. The legacy of non-violence and forgiveness of the anti-apartheid South African President lives on in the hearts of all freedom loving human beings who desire to make a difference in the world of injustice and discrimination. His legacy is in no way living on in the cult-like terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization –even though the group’s leader Maryam Rajavi makes efforts to take the gesture of a freedom loving democratic charismatic leader.

This is Mayam Rajavi’s twit following the passing away of the honorable Mandela: My respects to Nelson Mandela who said: I am prepared to die for a free society with equal opportunities. She offers condolences to "people of South Africa who strive for freedom".

As an exiled opposition leader, Rajavi has always enjoyed a much better condition –tied with the interests of foreign countries that provided her with financial and military support– than a opposition leader at home like Nelson Mandela –who served 27 years in prison for his aspirations for freedom and equality. For leaders like Mandela, the task was to move people, to win the hearts of people, and to ultimately isolate the hard opposition. How about the MKO? To what extent did they win the hearts of the Iranian people?

As an Iranian living in Iran, I eyewitness that the people here hardly ever remember the MKO, even those who remember them, do not claim any significant support for them because of their horrific terrorist acts against the Iranian civilians and officials. This true fact is confirmed in many international documents and articles. Being embraced by more and more people in society Nelson Mandela enjoys a relevant advantage that Maryam Rajavi has never enjoyed.

In his struggle against racism and discrimination, Mandela viewed Palestine with the same charitable ideas he had for the people of his own country. Nelson Mandela expressed his solidarity with the Palestinian struggle in simple but compelling terms. In a letter to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in 2010, the former South African president wrote, “The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not just an issue of military occupation and Israel is not a country that was established ‘normally’ and happened to occupy another country in 1967. Palestinians are not struggling for a ‘state’ but for freedom, liberation and equality, just like we were struggling for freedom in South Africa.”

Allied with Israel, today the MKO-run websites and officials do not even cover the news of the Palestinian sufferings. Serving their new sponsor the Israeli Mossad, the group is not going to risk its survival by advocating the Palestinians’ desire for freedom.

Today, Desmond Tutu the Archbishop of South Africa actively supports Palestinians. In the article he wrote in the Guardian in 2002 he expresses the deep pain he feels seeing the apartheid in the Holy Land. "I’ve been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa" he writes. "I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about."

The ironic point is that today Desmond Tutu’s Daughter Naomi Nontombi Tutu is seen among supporters of the MKO. Seemingly the MKO’s skilled manipulative propaganda system succeeded to gain the support of such a person by wearing the mask of Mandela loving. In the early December Naomi Tutu attended an event organized by the MKO in Paris where she visited Maryam Rajavi taking photos in front of a large image of Nelson Mandela –put there in his so-called memory . In this way the MKO is trying to link itself with Nelson Mandela. However, as Iran- Interlink puts, "Several writers have pointed out that until only a few weeks ago the MEK was vehement in its rants against Mandela, and contrast this with the sudden change of tune after his death." The MKO previously attacked him for visiting Iran including a visit with the then President Khatami.

The Noble Peace Prize winner, Nelson Mandela and his admirable history has nothing to do with the MKO cult of personality that deprives its own members of their most basic human rights. In a deep contrast with Mandela, when in June 2003 Mryam Rajavi was arrested and jailed by the French Police only for a few days the Cult officials ordered sympathizers and members to set themselves on fire in European capitals. The outcome was the death of two women and the paralyzing of others.

Mandela wanted the popular culture to embrace him but the MKO’s attitude during the three past decades has definitely made the popular culture detest them.

By Mazda Parsi

December 25, 2013 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

Human Rights Declaration; MKO Version

The Mujahedin Khalq ringleaders are desperate to use any means possible to gain the support and favor of the West. They stage rallies, hold conferences and events and hire prominent political figures as paid speakers to speak out on their behalf.

The latest show of MKO was held on the eve of Human Rights Day in Paris, in which Maryam Rajavi marked the Human Rights Day and also tried to link its group to Nelson Mandela as his funeral and commemoration of his life and legacy was coincided with the HR Day. Needless to say that Mandela was a global symbol for the struggle for Human Rights.

The sight of Maryam Rajavi offering condolences for the passing away of Nelson Mandela was disturbing, considering that her husband as the fugitive leader of her group actively opposed and criticized Mandela’s legacy.

Unlike Mandela, who earned profound international respect, Rajavis cannot claim that they have sought to establish policy and practice in order to protect fundamental Human Rights.

Despite concrete evidences and most shocking examples of the group’s callous disregard for Human Rights, the deceitful cult leaders claim charming support for democracy and Human Rights.

On MKO website under the title of “NCRI position on Human rights” the third Agenda is: [the NCRI] “Promotes and adheres to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”. [1]

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948 at Palais de Chaillot, Paris. The Declaration represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled. [2]

This UDHR is proclaimed as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive to promote respect for the rights and freedoms entitled and enlisted in the 30 articles of the declaration.[3]

Based on the agenda inserted on its website, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization aka MKO/MEK/NCRI has obliged itself to respect the Human Rights declaration. Thus the group should implement it within its own organization as a sample society of the bigger it wishes to create and govern. Yet the group doesn’t apply even one out of 30 articles of the Declaration. U.N. envoy Martin Kobler accused the leaders of Mujahedin Khalq of human rights abuses. Kobler told the Security Council:" Of increasing concern are the human rights abuses in Camp Hurriya itself by the camp leadership,…Hundreds of daily monitoring reports suggest that the lives of Camp Hurriya members are tightly controlled."[4]

A glance at the Declaration’s articles shows that none of them are being applied by the group.

To name some; the third article of the HR declaration reads: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” The forth articles reads:” No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.” And the fifth Article reads:”No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”[5]

Yet according to Human Rights watch report the former MKO members reported abuses ranging from detention and persecution of ordinary members wishing to leave the organization, to lengthy solitary confinements, severe beatings, and torture of dissident members.[6]

The MKO violates the Article 9, which urges no unfair detainment.

According to Human Rights Watch report the MKO held dissidents in its internal prisons during the 1990s and later turned over many of them to Iraqi authorities, who held them in Abu Quraib. One of the former MKO members interviewed, according to the report, recalled that during the mid-1990s a prisoner died after an intense beating. Two other former MEK members said they were held in solitary confinement for extensive periods of time, one for five years, and the other for eight and a half years.[7]

The MKO violates the article 12, which insists on the right to privacy. Nonetheless, authoritarian control, confiscation of assets, sexual control (including mandatory divorce and celibacy), emotional isolation, forced labor, sleep deprivation, physical abuse, and limited exit options are examples of the group’s leaders abusing the followers. [8]

The MKO violates the Article13, which urges the freedom to move and take residency.

According to the RAND report, to prevent MEK/MKO members from departing the camps, almost all MEK/MKO recruits were obliged to turn over their identity documents to the MKO for “safekeeping”. By bringing members into Iraq illegally and then confiscating their identity documents, the MKO was able to trap them. [9] Among the numerous references to the Mujahaddin e-Khalq (MEK) revealed by Wikileaks were cases of forced detention at Ashraf:"The MEK was also violating human rights by holding residents at Ashraf against their will." [10]

The MKO violates the Article 14, which asserts the right to seek a safe place to live.

The deadly incidents in Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty caused all concerned individuals to be worried about the fate and life of MKO members to be worried about their fate. All parties concerned have reached to the consensus that the only way to resolve situation of Camp Liberty residents is to relocate them somewhere out of Iraq. António Guterres, UNHCR chief insisted: “The residents of Camp Hurriya urgently need solutions to relocate out of Iraq".[11] Still the leaders of the group are reluctant to let members relocate to third countries as this way they will lost their cultic hegemony on members.

Martin Kobler, the former Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq, several times deplored the lack of cooperation of the residents and of their leadership with the UNHCR and UN monitors. In an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad Kobler said that “residents of an Iranian dissident camp are denied freedom of movement by the exile group.”[12]

Wendy Sherman, the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs also noted that the MEK’s leadership in Paris was obstructing the process to resettle MEK members.[13]

The MKO violates the article 16 which avows the right of marriage and family.

Cult leaders instructed members not just to move into gender-segregated housing but also to divorce their spouses, maintain complete celibacy, and even cut off communication with friends and family, both within and beyond MeK compounds. Love for the Rajavis was to replace love for spouses and family. Martin Kobler former UN envoy in Iraq addressing the UN Security Council on July 2013 said that Camp Liberty residents are not free to “contact family members outside Iraq, or to have contact with other relatives even within the camp itself “ [14]

The MKO violates the article 18 which insists on the freedom of thought.

MKO members are required to keep daily records of their thoughts and nighttime dreams, as well as observations about their fellow members. They must submit their journals to their supervisors. The leadership requires members to study MKO ideology and to participate in indoctrination sessions that are characterized by a mix of propaganda and fear tactics. Group members are required to watch films of the Rajavis’ speeches. They are allowed to listen and watch only the group’s own broadcasts. The members are allowed to read only internal reports and Bulletins. Violators are punished. [15] The increasing number of defections and those willing to leave the Camp Liberty has caused the leaders to push more pressure on members implementing constant bombardment of indoctrination and manipulation cult methods.

The MKO violates the article 19 which avers the freedom of expression.

Former MKO members say that punishment is frequently meted out for such offenses as expressing or fomenting disagreement with the political or military strategy of the MeK or sharing individual political views with other members.[16]

All mentioned above are just instances of harsh human rights abuses taking place within the affairs of the Mujahedin Khalq Cult. This is why the people being trapped within the double prison of MKO camp risk everything to run away. In one case for example, Zahra Bagheri crawled combat-style over a kilometer for hours in the dark to escape Camp Ashraf. Her body was so lacerated and bleeding that the Iraqi soldiers who found her were shocked and shed tears by seeing her deplorable condition.[17]

The defectors testimonies point to deteriorating Human Rights conditions in Camp Liberty. Still the Camp residents have no voice. Nobody takes care about their fates and their sufferings. The MKO Cult leaders on their turn have been “actively obstructive, indeed provocative, toward those wishing to investigate and alleviate this suffering” as Ann Singleton put it correctly. [18]

By: A.Sepinoud

References:

[1] Nejat bloggers are either former MKO members or have a family member who is currently held in Camp Ashraf. They have suffered deeply because of Massoud Rajavi’s crimes. While the Nejat Bloggers recognize that citing sources of information is essential ,we, as a society feel so strongly against the MKO that we have agreed to not include the group’s websites or links in our articles because we consider it as kind of publicity for the cult.

[2] Universal Declaration of Human Rights ,Wikipedia

[3] The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,UN.org,

[4] Charbonneau, Louis, Iran dissidents in Iraq, accused of rights abuses, slam UN envoy, Reuters News, July16,2013

[5] The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,UN.org,

[6]Human Rights Watch, NO Exit, May2005

[7]ibid

[8] Goulka, Jeremiah, Hansell, Lydia, Wilke, Elizabeth, Larson, Judith, The Mujahedin-e Khalq in Iraq, A Policy Conundrum, RAND, August2009

[9]ibid

[10] WikiLeaks Releases involving Mujahaddin e-Khalq (MEK) , National Iranian American Council (NIAC),September 9,2011

[11] Bobb, Donn, UNHCR welcomes Albanian offer to Hurriya residents, unmultimedia.org, March 2013

[12] SCHRECK, ADAM, AP Interview: UN Iraq rep Martin Kobler urges exile cooperation, Associated Press, June 27, 2013

[13] NIAC, MEK leader in Paris obstructing the process to resettle members, October 4, 2013

[14] Charbonneau, Louis, Iran dissidents in Iraq, accused of rights abuses, slam UN envoy, Reuters News, July16,2013

[15] Goulka, Jeremiah, Hansell, Lydia, Wilke, Elizabeth, Larson, Judith, The Mujahedin-e Khalq in Iraq, A Policy Conundrum, RAND, August2009

[16] ibid

[17]Singleton,Ann, Silencing the victims of the MeK to promote Maryam Rajavi’s phoney feminism,March7,2013

[18] Singleton, Anne & Khodabandeh ,Massoud, The Life of Camp Ashraf – Mojahedin-e Khalq, Victims of Many Masters, September 2011

December 18, 2013 0 comments

Newer Posts

Older Posts