Communiqué no 3 (6 September 2008) In the past two statements, it was emphasized that the families of the members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) captured in the Ashraf military camp are demanding an urgent meeting with their beloved ones in a place other than the Ashraf camp and without the presence of any person but the members of the family and for adequate duration. They also urged the Iraqi government to fulfill its resolution on the MKO. The text of the 6 article resolution which is the last resolution ratified by the Iraqi administration is as below: In the Name of God Resolution ratified by the Iraqi Administration Number: 216, Year: 2008 The Iraqi Administration, in its 27th ordinary session held on 17th June 2008, ratified the followings: To approve the binding measures described below regarding terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO): 1. Emphasizing on past resolutions regarding the MKO as a terrorist organization and its expulsion from Iraq. 2. Putting the MKO, currently on Iraqi territory, under full control of the Iraqi government until they are expelled from the country. In this respect any interaction with them must be done according to the Iraqi laws. 3. Any interaction with the terrorist MKO by any organization or party or establishment or entity (whether Iraqi or foreigner) inside Iraq is forbidden and anyone having any interaction with them (breaching the law) is liable of being prosecuted according to the terrorist acts of the country. 4. It is essential that the multinational forces to give up the organization and hand over all check points and points of observation to the responsible Iraqi authorities. 5. Activating the judicial sentences issued against the terrorist MKO elements who have committed crimes against the Iraqi people. 6. Cooperating with the ICRC in order to find basic real solutions for the problem of the presence of the MKO in the Iraqi territory and to activate the past resolutions about their expulsion from Iraq. Ali Mohsin Ismail The General Secretary of the Iraqi Administration
Sahar Family Website
The Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO or MEK) is known to be used by some elements in Pentagon and in the CIA against Iran. These elements consider the terrorists on their side good or useful terrorists. The MKO has always offered its terrorist skills to be used against Iran. After the fall of the former dictator of Iraq they have tried to draw the attention of the US as a substituted in the west for Saddam Hussein.
In an article in the NEWSTATESMAN by John Pilger dated 29 May 2008, it is shown that the MKO is being used by the Bush administration against Iran for terrorist activities, even though the organization has been designation as a terrorist group by the State Department.
Those who would suffer most from such usage of terrorists are the families of the members of the MKO trapped in their base in Iraq called the Ashraf camp. These families’ beloved ones have been used for so long by Saddam Hussein and now they have to see them to be victims again this time by the US.
Sahar Family Foundation certainly denounces such utilization of the mentally and even physically captives in the Ashraf camp and calls all international humanitarian organizations to make sure that the prime victims of a destructive cult (the MKO) are not used again to expand terrorism.
North America
After Bobby Kennedy
John Pilger
Published 29 May 2008
http://www.newstatesman.com/north-america/2008/05/obama-pilger-mccain-kennedy
Piracies and dangers
America’s war on Iran has already begun. In December, Bush secretly authorised support for two guerrilla armies inside Iran, one of which, the military arm of Mujahedin-e Khalq, is described by the state department as terrorist.
Sahar Foundation, Baghdad
Recommendations to Mojahedin Khalq Organisation leader Massoud Rajavi (by Soltani, an Ex leadership Council member of MKO)
From Batool Soltani, ex-Leadership Council member
To Massoud Rajavi, the leader of Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (MKO)
Since my separation from your organization and stepping into the free world one and a half years ago, I have concluded, through a variety of studies, that your organization is definitely a cult with all scientifically recognized cult characteristics and you are known to be a cult leader that has made, and makes use of psychological approaches and brainwashing techniques to recruit and control your forces.
It is typical of cult leaders to take nobody’s advice and it is a vain attempt to change them. But since I have wasted twenty of my best years in your organization and have lost my dearest things, the most precious of whom are my family and children, I feel obligated to give you pieces of advice hoping that there are ears to listen.
A study of cults and their leaders indicate that cults have all come to a bad fate and the leaders’ inhuman methods to have members under total control have misfired. The leaders have wildly perverted any means to accumulate wealth and assume power but the path they have taken leads to nowhere.
I am sure, and please you also come to believe that, that Camp Ashraf in Iraq will have no better ending than David Koresh’s Mount Carmel complex outside of Waco in Texas or the Peoples Temple’s Jonestown located in Guyana in South America. Nobody has ever succeeded to assume power by exploiting mind control techniques and psychological enchaining of people; any achievement of remarkable concern has lasted but a short period and ebbed soon.
To impose their mind control on the members, cults need to brag about groundless victories. I ask you, with regard to your present ongoing struggle, what have been the achievements for you and your organization? For instance, I want to know how it can turn to be a success if the organization is removed from the terror list and where it may lead you to. And have you ever considered it a defeat following the proscription of the organization as a terrorist group?
I suggest you open your eyes and see lots of people you have enslaved, the many families you have disintegrated, and the numerous people who are lamenting the loss of fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, children and husbands.
Mr. Rajavi,
You will profit greatly if you consider my recommendation and consider the following issues:
1. Let the Camp Ashraf residents have permission to use satellite aired programs, telephones, cellophanes, TV and radio programs, internet, books and the press.
2. Let the Camp Ashraf residents have permission to have direct and uninterrupted contacts and visits, of course unaccompained by the organization’s agents, with their families.
3. End imposed mind control techniques, including the inhuman and unethical weekly cleansing sessions, immediately and grant the forces the possibility of free thinking.
4. Excuse the members that old age has debilitated from the heavy physical labor enforced on the members only to keep them busy as a contrived technique to restrain them from thinking.
5. And finally, confer on the captive members in Camp Ashraf the free will of deciding for their own destiny.
You would probably say that these all mean and will lead to the disintegration of Camp Ashraf and your ouster as the leader, which I believe is a privilege and at least will lessen the burden of the sin and oppression you have done to these people for nothing. May God forgive you! The prime victims of a cult are its followers. Let them free before it is too late.
My concluding advice, resign if you ever think of the organization and the members so more qualified persons with matured, novel ideas may assume to lead the organization as a political force.
Batool Soltani
Baghdad
Sahar Family Foundation, Baghdad, Translated by Mojahedin.ws, July 22, 2008
http://www.mojahedin.ws/article/show_en.php?id=2818
Link to the original letter (Persian):
http://saharngo.com/
or:
http://iran-interlink.org/fa/?mod=view&id=4863
from Arbil, Sulymanyeh and Dahuk in Iraqi Kurdistan
On May 2nd the American army run Temporary International Persons Facility (TIPF) at Camp Ashraf was closed completely, ending a process which had begun in December 2007. The TIPF was situated adjacent to the military base of the terrorist Rajavi cult in Khales, Diyali province, in Iraq. TIPF had been established in 2003 to give refuge to survivors of the cult who had rejected the group and managed to escape. Around 3,300 members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (aka Rajavi cult) are still being held as ‘protected’ prisoners by the American military.
After the removal of several of the survivors of the cult in December 2007 and the establishment of Sahar Family Foundation with the help of the Iraqi Government, Iraqi and international human rights organizations, as well as the families of the victims and survivors, the remaining people who did not wish to leave the protection of the American army were transferred on May 2, to Dahuk in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Ms. Batool Soltani, an ex-member of the Leadership Council of MKO who managed to escape from Camp Ashraf about 4 months ago, is now representing Sahar Family Foundation in Iraq and Turkey. Following a visit to Istanbul in May, she has now visited Arbil, Sulymanyeh and Dahuk in the Kurdish region of Iraq to assess the situation of the survivors who are now accommodated temporarily in these places until they find a way to settle in safer places.
Ms. Soltani also met with officials from the Kurdish Regional Government, various NGO offices in these cities, and officials from the US army in Kurdistan. These meetings will continue over the next few days and a full report will be published in this respect.
The statistics and situation currently pertaining to the survivors in Kurdistan are:
At this moment in time there are 12 people in Arbil, 2 in Sulymanyeh and out of the 85 people who were transferred from TIPF to Dahuk, 65 are still present (others have left to reach neighboring and European countries). The American army personnel who have been accommodating the people in Dahuk have now begun transferring them to Arbil. These will be accommodated with the other 12 people who live in 2 houses, and a new house which has been hired by UNHCR. The 12 who were there and the new arrivals are all under the protection of UNHCR and are given shelter (in houses) and food rations. They are free in respect of movement and are accepted by the Kurdish Regional Government (special thanks to PM Shirvan Barezani).
In recent days MKO members have been contacting these people (the group has hired (bought) one of the survivors as its agent in Kurdistan whose name, place and contact numbers and other information including his contacts in the terrorist organization are available for interested official bodies if needed) and has offered 1300 US dollars and 250,000 Iraqi Dinars (about 200 US dollars) altogether 1500 US dollars to whoever signs papers to say that the MKO has treated them well and includes all the usual cultish claims associated with forced confessions. We must stress that some of the people who are being approached are in such a desperate situation that have not had any fruit or vegetables for over 2 months and have survived on only grains and pulses.
Many people have refused to sign these papers and receive the money but Ms. Batool Soltani who is being accompanied by Mr. Massoud Khodabandeh from Iran-Interlink asked all the survivors to sign the papers (which are not worth the paper written on) and take the money which is desperately needed in this situation. Massoud Khodabandeh explained to the survivors that the signatures which the Rajavi cult gets from people in need (or by force in the cult’s terrorist camp or in their terror HQ in the suburbs of Paris), is part of a psychological war with those people who have been subjected to cult manipulation for years. Khodabandeh emphasized that when the survivors reach free countries in Europe and elsewhere, they will be able to talk freely about what has happened to them and that these kinds of signature (and video confessions) obtained by the cult using deception and coercion, will not negate the truth, and people in free countries would not criticize you for accepting to sign bogus papers in order to rescue yourselves.
Some of the survivors told us that Rajavi’s representative in Kurdistan (the same bought agent) has told them that “SAHAR Family Foundation activities have increased your price [that is, the value of the people there] and we pay this money to see that if they can match what we can offer [that is, if Sahar can pay more to buy the people that Rajavi thinks he has bought for 1500 dollars].
Khodabandeh and Soltani in response announced that first Rajavi should understand that a single hair of any of these people is worth more than the combined leadership of the cult, and the rest of the money stolen from these people by the cult leaders will be taken back through European courts in future (it is interesting that already Rajavi is offering 5,000 US dollars in Turkey and 20,000 US dollars in European countries to silence these survivors for a short time, and we believe they should take the money and sign whatever is given as this is only a small percentage of their own money stolen by the cult leaders).
In a meeting with some of the survivors in Dahuk, Ms. Soltani gave a brief report on her meetings with various officials and said that the representative of the US Army in Camp Ashraf has clearly announced that, contrary to the propaganda of MKO, for the people trapped in the camp, anyone who approaches the US army personnel would be taken under the protection of the army and under no circumstances would the person seeking protection be handed back to the cult leaders inside the camp.
These people would be transferred to the protection of UNHCR in Kurdistan and join the other survivors already there. The official from the US army also emphasized that again contrary to what MKO is publicizing, there is not a grain of sympathy with this terrorist organization among Americans, or for that matter Iraqis, and the US army is already seriously concerned about what is called the Exit part (MKO has apparently arranged accommodation inside Camp Ashraf for disaffected members and is keeping them there by force) and is investigating. He emphasized that these kinds of activities by the Mojahedin-e Khalq terrorists inside the camp is as illegal as it is immoral.
According to eye witnesses in Kurdistan, the survivors in Kurdistan (as well as the ones in Turkey and other countries reaching Europe) have been told by MKO agents that if they accept to sit in front of a camera and announce that "… I am at this moment in good health etc… and announce that MKO has been overly humanitarian etc and it is my fault that I have left them because I am weak etc,… and if in future you see me saying things against MKO I say from now that it would only happen under the pressure of the Intelligence Ministry of Iran …." they would receive a sum substantially more that the 1500 US dollars they can receive now for signing in their favour.
Considering the various cases of kidnapping, missing people and the reports about killing people inside the various camps of MKO terrorists in Ashraf (Iraq) and Auvers-sur-Oise (France), Khodabandeh reminded the survivors that if these conditions involve their presence in the HQ of Rajavi cult or their safe houses in Iraq, Turkey or European countries, they should not take the risk until after obtaining their legal status as refugees from a democratic countries and to not do so without the full knowledge of the law enforcement agencies of these countries.
The survivors are also reporting that the agents of MKO have announced that for any information as to the whereabouts of the families who are trying to visit Camp Ashraf (under protection of the US army) to see their relatives (which should be encouraged by the occupying forces according the Fourth Geneva Convention), and especially information as to the whereabouts of Ms. Soltani and Mr. Khodabandeh, MKO would pay a lavish price – enough to provide a good capital for the informer to start a new life in a western country of his or her choice.
Ms. Soltani in response said that the man (Rajavi) has always been a subject for jokes and laughter from day one. She said that in the last telephone conversation between the Leadership Council of MKO terrorists in Camp Ashraf and Massoud Rajavi (the cult guru-in-hiding who has not surfaced in the last 5 years), practically all the Leadership Council were making jokes about his daft approach to any situation. “Now I can see that he can not confine his approach to inside the cult and is amusing the survivors and us” said Ms Soltani.
She said in her message to Rajavi: "the day that you manage to kill me and my body falls in blood and dust, is the day that I have been honored to give my life in the path of rescuing my friends and countrymen. And of course that is the day that hundreds of Soltanis will arise to bring you and your nasty cult down". She added: "After my successful escape do you think that there is even one person in your Leadership Council whom you will ever be able to trust? I don’t think so".
Link to a video conversation between Ms. Soltani and one of the survivors in Arbil in Farsi.
Nowruzi family plead for justice to the Iraqi judicial authorities against the MKO about the mysterious murder of late Sa’id Nowruzi in camp Ashraf
Nowruzi sisters (Elham, Susan, Simin, and Soheyla) urge the Iraqi authorities to investigate on suspicious death of their brother in camp Ahsraf in Iraq
Honourable judicial authority of the Republic of Iraq Late Sa’id Nowruzi son of Taqi was born on 1965 in Tehran, Iran. He left Iran at the beginning of 1984 and went to Holland to continue his studying and he was recruited by the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation (MKO) in that country. His brothers Majid and Hmid were arrested and then executed in Iran for their activities with the MKO. His sisters were also jailed in this regard for many years. Sa’id’s father died when he learned about his death and his mother died some time after.
On July 1985 Sa’id moved to Paris in relation to his activities with the MKO and on 1986 he was taken to Iraq. On the year 1990 when compulsory divorce inside the organisation was introduced to him he rejected the idea. He was not married but he could not accept cultic ideas of the leadership. On June 2003 his sisters who were in constant contact with the organisation were informed about her death. He was 38 when he died. Many individuals both inside and outside Iran have observed that Sa’id was dissatisfied inside the organisation and how he was murdered. Mr Javad Firuzmand, a defected veteran member of the MKO, is one example. He is one of the persons who saw Sa’id’s body with one bullet on his chest and the other on his head. But his body was burned later and they said his car was on fire.
They first informed his sisters that he was killed as the result of bombings during the second gulf war and this was what they published in their weekly and called him a martyr. Then they said that he was killed during clashes with Iranian forces. But later they claimed that one agent of the Iranian regime who had infiltrated into the organisation hit him from the back and escaped. They even once mentioned committing suicide.
He used to send letters to his family covertly and let them know that he wants to dispatch from the MKO and sought help and of course he did not want this to be disclosed since he knew that the organisation would harass him. The letters of Sa’id Nowruzi are available and could be presented anytime anywhere. Sa’id was once sent to Europe on a task from Ashraf camp on 1994 where he managed to send some letters to his family and seek their help but he was sent back to Iraq immediately. Once he had packed his case to leave but he was threatened that if he goes his family in Iran would be killed so he changed his mind.
Once they claimed that a manual missile launcher called RPG7 was aimed to his car and his body had totally been burned and another time they said that he was lying in his car when an infiltrated person from the Iranian services shot at him and killed him. Many stories have been told about his death but his body or a picture of his body has never been shown to his family. Eyewitnesses say that the person who shot at him escaped towards inside Iraq. If he was an Iranian agent he must have fled towards the Iranian border.
According to information obtained from eyewitnesses Sa’id was murdered by direct order of his commander Zohreh Qa’emi since he was opposing the organisation. She had ordered to burn Sa’id’s body in a car. In one occasion Zohreh Qa’emi had expressed her view that it would be right to leave Sa’id’s body in the desert for the hyenas to eat. Some say that when Zohreh Qa’emi was asked about Sa’id she responded that on one should talk about him and more. He was threatened to death many times. He was imprisoned and tortured several times. They say that he had plans to escape from there.
Witnesses say that Mozhgan Parsa’i and Fahimeh Arvani with the help of some others have put Sa’id under enormous psychological pressure through inhuman sessions called”current operation”until he changed his mind about deciding to leave the organisation. Apparently Mas’ud and Maryam Rajavi were following Sa’id’s case personally and they directly ordered confining, interrogating, torturing and eventually murdering him.
His family are demanding to be able to go to his grave in Ashraf camp and take whatever left from his body to his home country to be buried. They also request that full investigation be carried out about his suspicious death.
Sahar Family Foundation, May 01, 2008
Asghar Farzin, Reza Sadeghi, and Ali Biglary, former members of the MKO, plead for justice against the organisation to the Iraqi judicial authorities and urge them to deal with the situation in Ashraf camp
I Asghar Farzin was born on 1965 in Abadan, Iran. On 1987 I moved to Turkey to continue my studying in that country. I was acquainted with the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation (MKO) in the university. They spoke about freedom and justice and also Islam and recruited me into their organisation. The same year, that is December 1987, I was sent to Iraq for a short visit and I returned back to Turkey. The following year I was asked to go to Turkey for a short visit again and I accepted. But this time my passport was taken away from me and they did not let me go back to Turkey. I had to stay in Ashraf camp until the year 2003.
When the coalition and American forces occupied Iraq, I took refuge with the Americans and on February 2004 I moved to a camp called TIPF. On March 2005 I went to Iran to my family in Bushehr on my own request. Now I have come back to Iraq to file a lawsuit against the MKO in Iraqi judicial system.
Consequently 17 years of my life has been wasted and I was kept in Iraq against my will with no contact with my family and if the Americans had not occupied Iraq, God knows how long I had to stay in Ashraf camp. The leaders claim that the entry door of the organisation is closed but the exit is always open. They seduced me and it appeared that they take me to Iraq for a short period but then they said that the exit is only open to the Abu-Ghraib prison in Iraq. Many discontented members had been sent to Abu-Ghraib, therefore I chose to stay in the organisation.
During this period anytime I demanded to contact my family in Iran or I requested to leave the organisation they put me under severe psychological pressure to the point that I would withdraw my request.
The MKO has used seduction as well as compulsion to take away many years of my life when I was young and made me to do forced unpaid labour all through these years. Could a value be estimated for many years of my lost life and my poor heath state at the moment? I urge the Iraqi authorities to deal with the case of the inhabitants of Ashraf camp too who are subject to constant brainwashing and who have no contact with the outside world. I request that the leaders of the MKO face trial since they have abused the basic human rights of their own members.
————–
I Gholam-Reza Sadeqhi Jebeli was born on 1961 in Esfahan, Iran. On 1986 I left Iran to Pakistan and then to Canada and I stayed in Toronto. I married there and I have a son called Arian. After the first Gulf war I was recruited into the MKO and I used to participate in their meetings. On March 1994 I started to work with the organisation fulltime and I used to do street collection and recruiting other people. Then the organisation sent me to the USA and I was a fulltime member over there too. Then I was asked to go to Iraq for a short visit. I travelled to Iraq from New York on September 1997. But in Iraq they took my passport and did not let me go back to Canada again. So I had to stay there against my will until April 2006 when I left the organisation and moved to TIPF. There I realised that my son who had been taken to Iran by a friend when I was going to Iraq is still in Iran and his mother is badly missing me and her. She had gone through hard psychological experiences all through these years and she was hospitalised as the result of enormous mental pressure since she had no trace of either me or our son. The organisation never let me have any sort of contact with them.
Then I decided to go to Iran voluntarily since my son was there. I managed to send him back to Canada to his mother. Now although I can go to Canada myself but I decided to come to Iraq to file a lawsuit against the MKO for wasted many years of my life and my shattered family. The fact is that the organisation seduced me to go to Iraq and forced me to stay there and did not let me to have any contacts with my family in Canada or in Iran. I should also add that when I announced inside the organisation that I would definitely want to despatch from the MKO and the psychological pressure had no use, they assaulted me physically which left me a broken finger which is still noticeable.
—————–
I Ali Biglari was born on 1969 in Kermanshah, Iran. During the Iran-Iraq war I was arrested by the Iraqi forces. On October 1989 the MKO people including Mehdi Abrishamchi came to the camp of the prisoners of war in Iraq and recruited me telling many lies and giving false promises. On the year 2000 I announced that I wanted to dispatch the organisation and consequently they put me in solitary confinement. The condition to get out of the jail was to announce that I regretted my previous request to leave the organisation. Eventually they handed me over to the Iraqi security forces and they took me strait to Abu-Ghraib prison under the charge of illegally passing the boarder. In the prison I requested to meet with the ICRC but they paid no attention and there was no trial either. I was a POW and I was registered with the Red Cross and had an ID number, so illegally passing the boarder had no significance with my case, but they used to say openly that I had to either go back to the MKO or stay in prison without any trial. I was in prison up to the second Gulf war when I was handed over to the Iranian officials and I went back to my family on March 2003. Now I have been married for three years and I have a two years old daughter. I have returned to Iraq to claim for 18 years of my life which was wasted in Iraq and the physical and psychological damages that I suffered both inside the organisation and inside Abu-Ghraib prison. Mehdi Abrishamchi and others who came to the camp of PWOs in Iraq seduced me and showed me a false image of the MKO. They first told me that I can leave anytime I wanted to but I ended up in Abu-Ghraib prison. They imprisoned me and tortured me inside the organisation merely because I wanted to depart and they left the rest of the work for Saddam’s security forces. The mental pressure on me was so high that I once committed suicide inside the organisation but fortunately I survived.
I have come to Iraq to urge the Iraqi judicial authorities to deal with many crimes of the MKO in Iraq against its own members and also deal with the situation of those mentally and physically captured in Ashraf camp and help them.
——————
Contact (Iraq):
saharfamily@yahoo.com
Tel: +964 – 7808481650 (Arabic and Farsi)
Contact (outside Iraq):
Sahar
BM 2632
London
WC1N 3XX
U.K.
Tel: +44 – 2076935044 (English only)
Mr Gholam-Reza Sadeghi a former member of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation (MKO) who was in Ashraf Camp from 1997 until 2006 and stayed about 8 months in the camp controlled by the US Forces called TIPF had previously filed a lawsuit against the MKO in the French judicial system. He has complained the MKO for forcing him to stay in Iraq against his will, imposing psychological and physical pressure on him, and beating him so that his thumb was broken in two places. In this regard his French lawyer who is proceeding the case in the French court had asked him in a meeting to provide him his medical record registered in the American hospital in TIPF which proves that he was tortured when he left the Ashraf camp. Therefore Mr Reza Sadeghi travelled to Iraq and approached the camp to gain that medical record. There happened some events relating to his presence which has been described by him to the Sahar Family Foundation as below:
“. . . I approached the TIPF adjacent to the Ashraf Camp to gain my medical record from the American hospital. While I was waiting in the taxi some MKO guards in Ashraf camp in Iraq recognised me and started photographing me that I took no notice of them. Then as I learned later they informed the Iraqi police based outside Ashrf camp that an Afghan national wearing a blast belt is standing outside the America base and he is aiming to do a terrorist action. Thus some Iraqi police personnel took this warning serious and harassed me with arms and arrested me. The police took away all my belongings and started to take me towards their base. While passing the American check point I started to call them and when they saw us they asked the Iraqi police to take me to them. Meanwhile the MKO persons were busy taking photos. They left the place when the Americans warned them to stop it and asked them to go away.
The personnel in the American check point asked the Iraqi police about the case and they explained that the MKO guard has informed them that an Afghan terrorist wearing a blast belt is busy photographing the US Army facilities and is aiming to carry out a terrorist action, and then we took action to arrest him. I fully introduced myself to the US Forces officer based outside Ashraf camp and explained the reason I was there and told them that I do not posses any weapons or ammunition and I do not have a camera or any other device which might worry them. I told them that I had only approached the TIPF to gain my medical record which indicates that I was tortured when I entered there.
The American officer in charge recorded my particulars and after full investigation and taking orders from his superiors realised that they have been deceived by the MKO persons and I have been subject to a conspiracy where the Iraqi police was made to get involved. He asked the Iraqi police personnel to release me and after I finished my job to escort me back to my taxi that was still waiting for me, and do not let the MKO people bother me anymore or harm me. Meanwhile the American colonel talked to me on the line and assured me that there would be no problem for me and he expressed his wishes that I would make a safe return back to Baghdad.
The Iraqi police personnel took me to their base afterward and asked for my pardon. The higher rank officer said repeatedly after kind hospitality that the Ashraf camp persons misinformed us and we thought that a terrorist activity is in progress against the US Forces. This of course resulted to causing such discomfort for you. He pointed out that neither they nor the American forces have any problem with me or any former MKO member. He also expressed that the MKO is causing a lot of trouble in their province and they are really fed up with these sorts of acts as well as their presence in the area. They asked me to stay with them over the night and be escorted to Khalis in the morning and arrange for my return to Baghdad since it was getting dark and the roads were not safe. I did not accept their offer and decided to return after I finished my business there with the taxi which was waiting for me.
It is worth mentioning that Bizhan Qahremani a member of the MKO intelligence and also Farhang and three other individuals were involved in this case and although they managed to waste my time a little but they once again exposed their nature for the Iraqi police as well as the American forces. The Iraqi police assured me that from now on he would brief his forces not to react immediately on misinformation received form the MKO. He said that such mistakes would not happen again and we would not be trapped within their conspiracy any more. He emphasised that now they are sure the MKO has deliberately misguided them and he is happy that his forces did not harm me when they were provoked by the MKO. . .”
Contact (Iraq):
saharfamily@yahoo.com
Tel: +964 – 7808481650 (Arabic and Farsi)
Contact (outside Iraq):
Sahar
BM 2632
London
WC1N 3XX
U.K.
Tel: +44 – 2076935044 (English only)
————
Sahar Foundation, Baghdad, April 03, 2008
Ms Batul Soltani, former member of the MKO, appeals to the Iraqi legal authorities against the organisation based in Camp Ashraf in Iraq:
Honourable Judicial Authority of the Republic of Iraq, My name is Batul Soltani daughter of Morteza. I was born in 1965 in Iran and at the moment I live in Baghdad. I married with Mr Hosein Moradi in 1986 in Iran and then we moved to Pakistan together the same year. We were recruited by the MKO in that country and then we were ordered to go to Iraq a year later in 1987. In 1991 we were separated by the order of the organisation and had to give up our children who were sent to Europe later. At first my husband and I resisted against these demands, but being under enormous psychological pressure, we were forces to yield to their orders and eventually we were separated both from each other and then from our children. My daughter Hajar Moradi was born in 1987 in Pakistan and my son Mi’ad Moradi was born in 1991 in Iraq. In the year 1991 while Hajar was 5 and Mi’ad was only 6 months old they were dispatched from me and sent to Europe. I was not allowed to have any contact with them. I still cannot forget the moment my daughter was badly crying when she was leaving me and I still recall the innocent face of my six months old son. Later I learned that my daughter resided with a family in south of Sweden with the alias name of Setareh Khabbazan and she is now studying in a university in the north of that country. My son who is now known as Milad was taken from Iraq by an Iranian family to Holland and after a while was taken back by the organisation and given to another family. When this family faced some difficulties he was given to an orphan residential place. He is now living in a centre for keeping the youngsters in Holland. I have no contact with my children at all and I even don’t know if they have any idea about me. The MKO would not give me any trace of them. While I was in Iraq the organisation did not let me have any contact with my family in Iran and hence my father who was very upset and frustrated as the result of not knowing anything about me died in sorrow. My mother in Iran is now very ill and is deeply suffering as the result of my absence for such a long time. In 2006 I escaped from Camp Ashraf and sought refuge in the American camp called TIPF. In 14 January 2008 I left the TIPF and moved to Baghdad and I desire to go abroad now, but before doing that I wish to file my complaint against the MKO to the Iraqi legal authorities to be dealt with as soon as possible. I wish to regain my family and also my lost identity. I want to appeal against the MKO for my father’s death, my mother’s illness, the separation of my husband as well as my two children, and the wasted 20 years of my life. The MKO and its leadership are responsible for all these miseries. I would like that the MKO be forced to yield to my just requests and give my children’s addresses and also let my husband to meet me in Baghdad. I wish to thank you for your sincere cooperation in advance.
Sahar Foundation News letter in Arabic
Contact (Iraq):
saharfamily@yahoo.com
Tel: +964 – 7808481650 (Arabic and Farsi)
Contact (outside Iraq):
Sahar
BM 2632
London
WC1N 3XX
U.K. Tel: +44 – 2076935044 (English only)
http://www.saharngo.com/en-index.html
Contact (Iraq):
saharfamily@yahoo.com
Tel: +964 – 7808481650 (Arabic and Farsi)
Contact (outside Iraq):
Sahar
BM 2632
London
WC1N 3XX
U.K.
Tel: +44 – 2076935044 (English only)
SFF: Please describe your political and organisational life briefly. BS: My name is Batul Soltani daughter of Morteza. I was born in 1965 in Iran and at the moment I live in Baghdad. I married Mr Hosein Moradi in Iran in 1986 and then we moved to Pakistan the same year. There we were recruited into the MKO and the next year, which is 1987, we were ordered to go to Iraq. In 1991 we were separated by the order of the organisation and yet again by their order our children were taken away from us and sent to Europe. My husband and I initially resisted these orders and did not wish to either be separated from each other, nor to abandon our children, but we were put under enormous psychological pressure and we were forced to submit to their demands.
My daughter Hajar Moradi was born in Pakistan in 1987 and my son Mi’ad was born in Iraq in 1991. In the year 1991 while Hajar was 5 years old and Mi’ad was 6 months old, they were separated from us – after we were forcibly separated from each other – and they were sent to Europe. They did not allow us to have any contact with them at all. I still remember my daughter crying hard as she was leaving me. And the innocent face of my six months’ old son is always before my eyes. Many years later I found out that my daughter had been given to a family in the south of Sweden with the fake name of Setareh Khabbazan, and she is now studying in a university in the north of that country. My son was taken to Holland by a family and later moved to another family and eventually was left in an orphanage and now he lives in a care centre for youth in Holland. I do not have any further trace of them and do not even know if they know me at all. The MKO would not give me any addresses and I have no means to contact my children. While I was in the organisation in Iraq I had no permission to contact my family in Iran unless it was to ask for money or try to deceive them into joining the organisation. My father died four years ago whilst under severe mental pressure because of my mysterious absence and my mother is ill and lives with the bitterness of being away from me for such long time. I left the organisation last year, which is 2006, while I was a member of the Leadership Council of the MKO. I escaped from Camp Ashraf and moved into TIPF, which is run by the US forces in Iraq. Then on 14 January 2008 I left the TIPF and moved to Baghdad in order to go abroad. I managed to achieve that possibility but I preferred to stay in Iraq since I have complaints against the MKO and I wish for the Iraqi judicial system to deal with my case urgently. SFF: Why didn’t you go to abroad after you left the TIPF and had the possibility to do so? Why did you decide to stay in Iraq?
BS: I stayed in Iraq to save my husband who is the father of my children and also I wish to help other shattered families like that of my own. I will do anything in my capacity for the families and for the dissident members of the MKO. The truth is that the leader of the MKO has committed many atrocities against these families and he must be questioned for all his actions.
SFF: As a wife and as a mother what demands are you following?
BS: You’d better ask ‘as a human being’ what demands am I following. Of course a human being who has lost 20 years of her life and could not be with her father when he was dying and whose mother is badly missing her and who now wants to regain her husband and her children and her crushed life and rebuild everything from scratch. I will strive to attract the attention of all international political bodies as well as the media to the case of the families of MKO members in Iraq and I wish to help them by any means that I can.
SFF: You have obviously experienced the destruction of a family inside a cult. How do you reckon that one could help other families?
BS: I will do anything I can for these families. I would urge international and humanitarian organisations everywhere to help these suffering families – families who in some cases have not seen their beloved ones for nearly 20 years. The members of the MKO are in a sort of captivity which is worse than any ordinary prison.
SFF: Why is the MKO basically opposing the establishment of any family and what is their definition of a family?
BS: In my opinion the MKO is opposing families because the existence of any kind of feelings and emotions in the members and followers is considered as an obstacle in the way of brainwashing them. The essential state needed to control one’s mind is to suppress anything of that sort in that person. Therefore every trace of love and care most be demolished in the mind of the subject in order to make that person successfully obedient of the leader. No other tendency must exist in the heart of the follower than that towards the leader in order to make the person ready to accept any illogical demand of the leader and to fulfil any of his bizarre desires.
SFF: How are the dissidents of the MKO in Iraq living now and what sort of help they can receive?
BS: At the moment the dissidents of the MKO in Iraq need urgent help. On the one hand they face threats from the Rajavi cult since this the rule of cults, that they cannot tolerate their dissidents and they harass them all the time, and on the other hand these people need legal and financial aid to be able to rebuild their destroyed lives where they wish. In this regard the SFF which is a humanitarian foundation and has been established by Iraqi personalities and international bodies as well as some families of the MKO members in Camp Ashraf is aiming to rescue these people as much as possible and help their families.
SFF: What is the demand of the families who come to Iraq and approach the gates of Camp Ashraf?
BS: They have a righteous and just demand. They want to see their beloved ones without any control and observation imposed by the MKO. For many years these people have been indoctrinated within the isolated boundaries of Camp Ashraf, and they have been denied their basic rights, above all of which is the right to choose freely and to enjoy family relationships. They have always been forced to choose what the leaders want them to. The members of a cult are the prime victims of that cult who need urgent help.
SFF: How could the families help their beloved ones and what can they achieve?
BS: In my opinion some important things could be done. Initially they can neutralize the belief imposed on them under the guise of ‘the path to emancipation’ that family relationships are a sin. This is vital in order to bring their beloved ones back to normal ideas and ordinary life so they can choose for themselves. The truth is that family values and relationships are contrary to cult relationships and would surely deactivate it.
SFF: In your opinion why is the MKO so strongly opposed to its members’ free and direct meeting with their families in Baghdad?
BS: Because as soon as some sort of family tie is established, the lost human feeling of love and affection would come to life in them again, something which Rajavi’s cult is so afraid of. The MKO insists that all members’ feelings and emotions be directed towards Maryam Rajavi and through her to Mas’ud Rajavi.
SFF: What are your plans for the future?
BS: From now on I want to live freely and I wish to decide for myself what to do. I do not wish to be a captive in the boundaries of a destructive cult and will not let them decide for me. I am experiencing the outside world again after 20 years and now I have a better understanding of the realities of the misery inside a cult. I wish to help all those still bound within Camp Ashraf and also their awaiting families as much as I can.
In this respect I wish to refer to the touching will of the father of one of those mental captives in Camp Ashraf who wrote: "I do not know for what reason I should not hold the warm hand of my beloved one while my hand is turning cold?’" He passed away without being able to see his child one more time after so many years.
SFF: We do thank you Ms Soltani for the time you provided us and the good work that you are doing and we wish you every success.
BS: I thank you too and I appreciate the efforts of all Iraqi and Iranian associates of the SFF in Iraq. I believe that you do very good work.