Memory

Memoirs of Ms. Zahra Mirbaqeri; MKO ex-member

I am Zahra Sadat Mirbaqeri. I was supposed to be a member of MKO leadership Council [she was a member of Experimental Leadership Council] before my I left the MKO’s Camp Ashraf. During the few past years, I had been practicing to leave the organization and finally my last plan worked. I could manage to hide in the new Iraqi hospital on the western gate of the Camp Ashraf and then I succeeded to release myself.

I can’t include my whole story in this interview because I am not able to sit down or stand up for a long time due to long-term, terrible physical torture I endured in Camp Ashraf. My medical documents confirmed by Iraqi specialists and doctors, based on my poor health condition are available.

I briefly notice a few issues:

1. Firstly I’d like to notify an important issue to public opinion. Camp Ashraf leaders have taken my brother Alireza and my two sisters as hostages. They don’t allow them to leave the camp and come to see me and my mother who is suffering heart disease and waiting to see her children. I seriously ask all human right bodies, UN, ICRC, European Parliament and particularly Iraqi government for help.

Naturally, after the release of my testimony, Ashraf leaders will force my siblings to make TV interviews against me by threatening and torturing them. So I already warn about it.

2. The second issue is about torture of patients in Camp Ashraf. I personally received my death sentence that was handed over to me by Zohreh Qaemi (because they were informed of my decision to leave the group) I am one of those tortured patients in the organization. I shortly describe the medieval tortures I suffered personally.

It’s not possible to describe or even number the tortures I bore in here. It requires me to write a book in the future in order to tell the story of my grieves:

After three meetings that were held as my trials _ in which a hundred people attended_ they took me to my forth trial while I was sick in bed. They pulled me all the way on the floor beating me off to the meeting where other members were ready to insult me, impose peer pressure on me under the command of Faeze Mohabatkar. They verbally and physically abused me for seven hours.

They pulled my hands towards floor, forcing me to sit down while I could hardly ever sit down because of my painful waist and neck. They took off my neck pain necklace so that I suffered a worse condition. I exclude an other maltreatment they practiced to recall because it even caused e other women participating the meeting to complaint against their act.
They violently shouted in my left ear that was badly infectious due to previous tortures. They said: “what sort of patient are you who can resist so much?”

…in another occasion they attacked me while I was in bed in Ashraf’s internal hospital. They beat my neck, right shoulder and arm. The pain lasted for months but they didn’t take me to doctors [outside the Camp] because it was a scandal for them.

3. They refused to give me urgent medications so that I would die soon.

4. They refused to inject medications for infections like anti-biotic for my ear. They refused to give me medications to stop my dizziness.

5. Despite I felt terribly dizzy due to my infectious ear; they forced me to attend their long organizational meetings in order to make me die sooner.

6. They refused to let me have x-ray test that was prescribed for me by a doctor. My knees were painful because of long-time standing on feet during ideological meetings.
At the end, once more I appeal public opinion and human right activists to help hostages held in Camp Ashraf release and aid them to take refuge in European countries.
I myself have to travel to European country to get treatment and surgery. I appreciate all friends who help me with my problems, in advance.

Thank you
Translated by Nejat Society

July 25, 2011 0 comment

Former members of the MEK

Ali Einakian; Joining and leaving Mujahedin – Part3

Rajavi’s Cult and the Mirage of Toppling Iranian Government

A mirage is a naturally occurring optical phenomenon in which high rays are bent to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. You may be thirsty wandering in a hot dry desert and then you think you are seeing water in a farther area so you use all your efforts to reach the water but after walking a very long way, you finally figure out that you saw a mirage. This is the exact story of defectors of Rajavi’s Cult.

The MKO members captured in camp Ashraf are shown that mirage every day. They survive with the hope of a better future but sooner or later they realize that all they are told in the group is just like a mirage thus they start thinking of a way to release themselves but they find no way.

Regarding your personality you will realize the truth sooner or later.The mirage world is actually made by Massoud Rajavi and that’s the near overthrow of Islamic Republic. He first used this tactic in 1980. Forces who had joined MKO were mostly honest Idealists who trusted the organization, so they were simply manipulated by Rajavi. They accepted all his analysis and theories. They never hesitated to think about them. However, such mechanism had limits. The more members waited for the overthrow of regime, the less they trusted the leader. So they began doubting the promises of their leader.

The above-mentioned tactic is still used in MKO. Massoud Rajavi still assigns deadline and members are planned to stay hopeful until that mentioned date. The last deadline Massoud Rajavi was speaking of before my defection was October 7th, 2010 when Iraqi new government was supposed to be appointed.

Rajavi was hopeful that Iyad Alavi would be the new Iraqi Prime Minister thinking that he would resolve the group’s complicated situation in Iraq. All MKO activities were focused on that hope. They tried to gain support of foreign politicians for Alavi. No matter how Rajavi’s support for Alavi benefited or harmed Alavi’s fame!

This was the mirage Rajavi painted for members: Alavi would achieve power, Ashraf gates would be open for him, he would come to Ashraf so we would be able to take our arms back and we would restart operations against Iran.

Such a theory succeeded to influence members extensively and removed a lot of tensions in the group.

As usual his last promise didn’t come true. Now he has to think of a new mirage to show his forces in order to maintain them. That is the bitter reality of my life and the lives of Ashraf residents.

Since the argument of "overthrow" seems to be charming to forces, MKO leaders serve all arguments with the Sauce of Overthrow! For example to justify the divorce and marriage of Maryam Rajavi and the so-called Ideological Revolution, public forced divorces of members … they portrayed the mirage of overthrowing the regime so they became able to make long-life slaves out of members.

Today Massoud Rajavi’s old tactic doesn’t work anymore. I ask my ex-comrades not to get in to his trap. I advise them to be courageous, to remove the bars Rajavi put on their minds and to step in free world. I promise you that everything MKO leaders tell you about outside world is pure lie.

Believe me! You will not morph into pigs! You will not be arrested by IRI intelligence agents! You will be capable to decide for your fate!
Translated by Nejat Society

January 27, 2011 0 comment

Former members of the MEK

Abdi talks about his bitter experiences in MKO affairs

Mr. Ali Abdi succeeded to escape Rajavi’s Cult last week. He joined the families who are on strike at Ashraf gates. Sahar Family Foundation interviewed Mr. Abdi who was taken as a war prisoner by Iraqi forces in 1985 when he was a service-man of Iranian army. In 1988 he was recruited by MKO agent, Mehdi Abrishamchi . Since he was sick and tired of hard life in Iraqi prisons, he was deceived by MKO’s propaganda and entered Camp Ashraf.

Two years ago, Mr. Abdi had declared his defection to the group leaders and had insisted on his departure for the last ten months but the cult leaders had told him:

"since families are at Ashraf gates now, your departure signifies a red line. You are not a Mujahed anymore and not a member of the organization but you have to be present in our relations and attend our gatherings. The situation is not appropriate now because of Iraqi election. If we send you out right now, your name will be used as a political trump against us."

Ali Abdi notified for SFF, "families presence at Ashraf gates has enormously impressed members but the group heads have completely blocked any runaway way."

He also clarified the true atmosphere in the cult of Rajavi;

"There is a logic in MKO and that is the entire world is limited to Camp Ashraf which has been created by Massoud Rajavi. In fact, there is an outside reality that Ashraf captives should be let know."

He described the sever controlling system over the risk of members’ runaway from Camp Ashraf,

"Previously we had no patrolling post in our units, but nowadays ,there are 6 of the most loyal members who always patrol the units and a duty officer supervises them . The members have lost their entire confidence to the group and their minds face a lot of contradictions. They should report their contradictory thoughts every day so the leaders doubt every one and fear their escape. "

About the loudspeakers via which families try to encourage their children to visit them, he says ,

"the sound of loudspeakers have made the group leaders really nervous. They try hard to keep members away from loud speakers. If you seem to be listening to their voice, you will be punished."

Translated by Nejat Society

January 16, 2011 0 comment

Former members of the MEK

Ali Einakian;Joining and leaving Mujahedin – Part 2

Rajavi’s Cult and his self-made prison

When I was released from Rajavi’s prison and found myself in free world, I was still mentally captured by Rajavi’s indoctrinations so all the timeI was challenging myself on the decision I had made. After some time when I saw Iraqis’ warm behavior, I changed my mind that had been manipulated by Rajavi for years.

I figured out that although I was physically released, my mind was still involved with the group's indoctrinations.

MKO leader had always tried to make a terrible enemy out of Iraqi new government. Despite my expectations, they offered me all facilities in the hotel including a cell phone that I had never seen during my 25- year period of membership in MKO. I was shocked just like a caveman from ancient time.

After the so-called Ideological Revolution in the group and the consequent forced divorces, we had to attend brainwashing sessions where members had to report their sexual thoughts. I always wondered why such meetings? I couldn’t solve the contradiction of those meetings where members were deeply involved in sexual thoughts. I often tried not to listen to the others’ reports otherwise I was sexually aroused.

Definitely Rajavi has a particular objective of these meetings. He wants to keep members minds busy in order to distract them from thinking about their main problem (slavery in the cult).

Rajavi had killed the whole emotions I might have felt for my parents. Immediately after my escape, I was not willing to contact my family because I was still mentally captured by the organization’s indoctrinations. I hesitated to ask them for finding my home’s phone number but after the first phone call my heart started defrosting. Affections of my family made me find my human aspect to the extent that now I am much eager to see them helping my mother cope with the entire grieve she tolerated in those years of separation.

When you are in MKO, You are never allowed to write a letter or to make a phone call to your family. If there is any contact, it should be along with the organization’s political or financial benefits. Rajavi wants everything for his own interest. He cites from Lenin that he is able to wear skirt in order to achieve his goals. He actually believes in the logic, "The Ends Justify the Means."

I’m thankful to God for my release from Rajavi’s prison. Now I am able to realize what is really going on in the world. It’s true that Rajavi stole 25 years of my life and now I’m not young anymore but I can use my experience as a guide for those who are still imprisoned behind the bars of Rajavi-made mental prison. I can warn those who are at risk of being manipulated and recruited by the cult.

The fearmongers of MKO always terrify the members of leaving the group . When I was in Camp Ashraf I also thought of committing suicide since I was so frightened from my future either inside or outside the camp.

I was absolutely courageous that I dared to make up my mind to run away.

In brainwashing sessions, Rajavi uses all kinds of tricks and lies to control members. For example he says: "If you leave the organization, you will be morphed into pigs and go to nowhere land then you will disappear!" As an eye- witness who was in MKO for 25 years, I’m ready to present my testimonies in any court.

We were told that Iraqi hotels were centers of corruption but when I entered the hotel I was shocked to see none of those lies came true.

I wondered why Rajavi’s words and thoughts were still occupying my mind. After thinking a lot, I figured out that although I was physically released, my mind was still involved with the group’s indoctrinations. Thus, I tried to break those bars of my mind. By observing more realities, I could manage to face my new life. I don’t let any other person to decide for my fate.
Translated by Nejat Society

January 11, 2011 0 comment

Former members of the MEK

Memoirs of Ms. Soltani ex- Member of PMOI’s Leadership Council

Ms. Batoul Soltani former member of the leadership Council of People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI, MKO, MEK) was released after two decades of being captive in the cult of Rajavi …during those years she lost her kids and her warm family center. The life of Ms. Batoul Soltani is mostly like a tragic drama that seems like an incredible fate. She is now stepping in a way to rejoin her missing husband and children.

To be a Mujahed
I‘m a woman escaped from MKO camp
Behind the smiles of the captives in Ashraf
Unsaid stories on a castle called Ashraf
Mujahedin’s Machiavellian approach towards the US administration
The SYSTEMATIC CONTROL within MKO
Manipulating Cult Techniques to exploit the insiders
Imposing maximum pressure for laboring, to leave no time for thinking
Saints of MKO Leadership Council
Rajavi:You shouldn’t get arrested alive
Mujahedin’s struggle principals
MKO instrumental misuse of individuals
Regime change in Iraq resulted dramatic changes for Rajavi
Why did Rajavi create his so-called Leadership Council?
A phenomenon called the “Leadership Council”
Masud Rajavi is the fixed axis of the organization
Masud Rajavi’s Marriages
On MKO’s Ideological Revolution
MKO key Formula: Why Maryam … Because Masud
Rajavi and The Leadership Council
Masud Rajavi Married every woman of the Leadership Council
No member of Leadership council dares to tell his personal problems
Massoud asked arrogantly:”Does anyone claim to have a husband other than me?”
Rajavi’s passion for women and his ambition for leadership

September 8, 2009 0 comment

Former members of the MEK

Rajavi’s passion for women and his ambition for leadership

Memoirs of Ms. Batoul Soltani – Final Part

When the so called detachment between women and Rajavi was removed, they were completely comfortable to speak about any sort of problem in the meetings. In fact, the ease in the Rajavi's passion for women and his ambition for leadership relationships was the outcome of those arguments made by Maryam about “traditional woman “or “woman in quotation marks”. Massoud Rajavi never limited himself to present any sort of problem. Even before marrying every woman in the leadership council, he was always relaxed to ask his questions or to convey his arguments in a manner he desired.

Even where there were some reports on immoral relationships in various levels of the organization, he simply asked detailed questions to know what he needed to know. He asked our opinion and what we knew about that immoral relationship. He never felt shameful among the members in every level of MKO to seek the details. He was totally open in his relations and behaviors.

Among the members, there were some people who left meetings after such cases were presented. It is worth knowing that Massoud’s reaction was so humiliating. He called them "peasants" or “mullahs”. Maryam also accused them of being superficial or reactionary.

Despite these reactions there were others who stood up and asked why they are saying so and that was not their problem. Thus they faced the case from a superior position. After some time gradually those so called "peasants" became relaxed in the meetings due to the process the leaders used in order to despise them.

As a matter of fact, those justification meetings lasted for around a hundred hours in order to achieve the desired result. The problem cannot be solved in a short-term meeting.

During the meetings some of the members protest, they leave the hall to think outside, and then they get back saying that they were wrong. They explain their reaction towards that case. The leader asks them what their problem is. They confess that they got angry regarding the discussed case.

To justify their reaction, Rajavi says that these thoughts are the remaining of the reactionary traditional thoughts of Mullahs. He relates the protests to different things and finally accuses the person of being under the influence of her ex-husband and then he concludes that “she hasn’t actually divorced her husband; her divorce is not a real one! She is basically problematic and that is why she doesn’t attend the meeting. She has to start from the beginning.” Such arguments sometimes last one to two hundred hours.

I think Rajavi stands on two virtual legs: One is his passion for women and the other is his ambition for leadership. These traits lead him to a totalitarian, power seeking personality.
I think he is able to achieve his ambitions using these two aspects of his personality. He is definitely capable of using them. I’ve already explained that he cannot bear the presence of a man among his so called leadership council. This certifies that he has a psychological problem. In a wide echelon (the leadership council) he gathers his passion for women with his ambition for leadership to accomplish what he wants.

Rajavi believes that a woman works more obediently than a man. He thinks that when he orders a man to do a job, he may ask why, but a woman never asks questions about the demands, she would immediately execute the order. And that’s exactly what Rajavi wants. This is the potential that he cannot see in his male members. What matters to him is that who the best to achieve his goals is. Comparing men with women, Rajavi believes that women are different phenomena whom he can invest on.

I think this approach has a very basic role and makes good tools to achieve further objectives.

Translated by Nejat Society

September 2, 2009 0 comment

Former members of the MEK

Massoud asked arrogantly:”Does anyone claim to have a husband other than me?”

Memoirs of Ms. Batoul Soltani – Part 22

The members of the Leadership Council were convinced to marry the leader with the reasoning Massoud asked arrogantly: "Does anyone claim to have a husband other than me?" and logics that Maryam and Massoud gave them. They may simply be convinced due to the way Maryam viewed them. She had already spoken to the members in a humiliating manner in order to make sure that they would be persuaded that “ideological marriages are superior to normal marriages”!

This reasoning recalls Surdell’s dialectic that says:” to escape from humbleness, the individuals have to shelter before the one who humiliates them. Therefore, the relationship between leaders and members was managed in a way that the justifications were easily accepted. I would like to note some justifications Maryam and Massoud made to convince us.

Maryam accused us of having a reactionary mind that motivated us to feel a distance between Massoud and ourselves In order to convince us to marry him, Massoud Rajavi said in a meeting: “if the peak of sexual marriage is 10, then the peak of ideological marriage will be one thousand. Imagine that you are in a hall with a very high ceiling, if you are under a table, the top side of the table will be the peak of an ordinary marriage which signifies a wife-husband relationship, but the ceiling of the hall will be the peak of an ideological ideal relationship. Your mind is filled with old thoughts; you think that I am stranger to you, so you are not comfortable with me. Now that we want to remove this obstacle and we want to remove the quotation marks from the women, we use this scheme.” According to the leaders of MKO, “Women in quotation marks” (cult jargon) signifies women who have grown up in an ordinary society with normal regulations ruling it. They meant the traditional weak women.

Maryam Rajavi tried to degrade the traditional women who “are always owned by their husband.” She insisted that we were still in that situation and we didn’t pass over those old thoughts.

Naturally, we tried to remove that humiliating view from ourselves. The leaders looked dawn on us so we accepted everything they said. They always tried to make us doubt our individuality. If we were not able to present a case about one of our minor colleagues, Maryam would punish us. She accused us of distancing ourselves from Massoud. Then she concluded that the problem comes from our thinking. I could never convince myself to accept their justification from the bottom of my heart.

Maryam accused us of having a reactionary mind that motivated us to feel a distance between Massoud and ourselves. Then she concluded that in order to remove this distance, we should marry him. She made us believe that we never had the right to have another husband. Then in the meeting Massoud asked us arrogantly: "Does anyone claim to have a husband other than me?"

Then he added “if anyone feels she belongs to her ex-husband for the least part, she should get out of the room.”

In fact, with his reasoning, Massoud convinced the members that he sacrificed himself to release the women from the old, traditional, reactionary thoughts that always exploited women in the history.

In MEK, the leaders try to make you believe that Massoud Rajavi is the only one who is always ready for change and revolution; the only one who scarifies himself to solve others’ contradictions; he is the only one who accepts every responsibility. Therefore he is not an ordinary man! This is what the organization makes us to believe.

August 25, 2009 0 comment

Former members of the MEK

No member of Leadership council dares to tell his personal problems

Memoirs of Batoul Soltani –Part 21

The affairs of the Leadership Council including marrying Masud are never revealed to lower ranks, due to the fact that Maryam and Masud believe :”the lower ranks will not understand it because the pupils of their eyes are sexual.”

“Pupils of the eyes are sexual” is a jargon expression in the organization which is used for those who allegedly judge the affairs sexually. In their opinion the case of such marriages is something that the others are not able to realize.
No member of Leadership council dares to tell his personal problems
I don’t think that anyone in lower ranks know about the marriage agreement announced for women of the Leadership Council and Masud Rajavi. As a high ranking member who was responsible for meetings of lower ranks,

I don’t remember (at least as far as I was involved) the case of marriages was presented. Maryam and Masud insist that there is no need to present such a case in lower ranking meetings and also they do not have the capacity to realize it. They said:” we set such an arrangement to solve a historical problem. For me and other members of the Leadership Council, everything presented by Rajavi was acceptable. We had to discuss the most detailed problems of our minor members for Rajavi, For example we talked about their health problems or other problems, based on the content of reports of weekly cleansing meetings (cult jargon) for male members. The reports included their sexual problems or many other problems that no one dare to propose.

Of course, the men’s problems were never presented in front of us (as female members). Their contradictions were not told directly to us. At first, they were presented in men’s meetings, under particular regulations because these contradictions shouldn’t be presented in public meetings unless it was a public case. If the contradiction was sexual, it should be written to the male superior. The latter would add the names. The name had to be written on a separate paper and attached to the report [The name of the female member whom he had emotional or sexual feelings for]. If a man wrote the name of a woman in his report, he would be punished.

At the end of the day, the male superior handed the reports to the female in charge and ultimately the reports were handed over to the highest ranking member in the highest level. There, the reports were investigated and the names were read. Then they immediately changed the position of that female member and moved her to another unit. So, even the lowest ranking members could guess that she had some problem.

Sometimes the problem had happen between two male members. Then the superiors organized both to change their positions. After the changes were done, the two men became subjects of a series of meetings. They had to deal with a project with its specific outcomes.

There is no female member under the supervision of a male member. All women of course were only under the supervision of a single man, Massoud Rajavi. Before the evolutions in the leadership Council, the meetings were held with the presence of both men and women, but later Rajavi said that he didn’t want any female member to be under the responsibility of a male member. He believed that men’s hegemony upon women would definitely end in sexual problems. The relations were managed in a way that all reports were presented and discussed with Rajavi in daily meetings. For example the members reported that such and such person had emotional and sexual thoughts about such and such person.

Before marrying Massoud, none of the female members had the nerve to present such cases in the meetings with Massoud or Maryam. Therefore marrying Massoud was proposed. They told us:”You are all Massoud’s wives, so you could easily speak of everything to get the solution.” If someone didn’t accept the marriage, she would automatically drop from that level.

August 19, 2009 0 comment

Former members of the MEK

Masud Rajavi Married every woman of the Leadership Council

Memoirs of Batoul Soltani – Part 20

As I explained previously about Masud and Maryam’s Marriage, it was a solution to remove the last obstacle between the leader and Maryam since no obstacle is accepted in this relationship. In the case of the leadership Council of which the members are all women, there was also the same legal, moral and religious contradiction that has to be removed.

Any woman who wants to enter the Leadership Council should obey the article B of the Ideological Revolution, which was actually related to “Joining the leader”. In this article the women are told to marry Masud Rajavi as soon as they are accepted in the Leadership Council.

As a matter of fact this article is mentioned just after the person has become a member of the Leadership Council. I remember Maryam discussing the argument for us saying: ”Now you are exclusively considered as Msaud’s wives”. Therefore the contradiction was removed. And only Masud could hold meetings for women of the Leadership Council since in his opinion when a woman is a member of the Leadership Council her relationship with the leader is totally different from the other members.

Thus, through a series of long-term meetings, the members of the Leadership council are convinced that the extent of their relation with the leader has changed due to their presence in the Leadership Council. Distinctively after that Masud is their husband. Then, he introduced a marriage certificate for each member of the Council.

It is worth informing that there were official ceremonies specifically held for the above mentioned marriages and I was present in one of them. Before the start of the ceremony, Maryam explained the article B again discussing its differences for a man and for a woman.

They presented some arguments on the issue but unfortunately I don’t remember them in details since they are related back to 1999. In fact the bottom line of those arguments was as Maryam said: ”you are not a divorced or abandoned woman any more … You are Msaud’s ideological wives”. She meant that this type of marriage is not ordinary but it is spiritual.

About the formation of the ceremony, Maryam herself was the one who hold the meeting. The scenario was like this “At the beginning Maryam asked Masud to enter the meeting and Masud refused at first and pretended that he was forced to come in. Apparently, Masud wasn’t willing to attend the meeting and Maryam insisted him to do so.

Even Maryam told the members of the Leadership Council that she was doing so to remove their contradictions. She said: ”Your minds are still bounded with legal and traditional restrictions and this might cause problems in the future”. She emphasized that marrying Masud would close their minds to any other man. Finally Masud got into the meeting and he himself announced the marriage agreement and each member said “I do”.

For the ceremony, after Masud went into the meeting, he gave a break. Then everyone made wudhu (ablution) and came back, Masud himself announced the agreement and the women said “I do” one by one. Apparently, they were not forced to say so.

It was a routine ceremony which was held for each group of the leadership Council members who were replaced. I myself attended the forth ceremony.

Before the ceremony, the meetings were completely different; members didn’t talk about anything; but after the marriage ceremony, the atmosphere was so different that the women could talk about their most personal and sexual problems.

Once, I remember a woman who didn’t say “I do” in the marriage ceremony. Then I saw that she was automatically excluded from our meetings. We never saw her in the meetings in that level anymore.

SFF – Translated by Nejat Society

August 8, 2009 0 comment

Former members of the MEK

Mujahedin’s Eternal Light Operation

The following is a part of Hadi Shabani’s interview with FNA. He was the advisor of Mozhgan Parsaiee (the chief commandant of MKO at the time) during the operation Eternal Light (Forough-e-Javidan). He spent twenty years of his fifty year-old life in the group until he could escape out of MKO camp in 2005.

In his denouncing interview, he retold his memories of the Eternal Light.

FNA: how was the military invasion ordered to you?

H.Sh: Immediately after the ceasefire between Iran and Iraq, Masud Rajavi held a meeting where he said that we should attack Iran in a week since the acceptance of the 598 resolution by Iran notified the weakness of Iranian forces in the fronts. He said that it was our fault that Iran accepted the resolution because when in the previous operation (Chelcheragh) we seized Mehran [a city near Iranian border] and we chanted the slogan “Today Mehran, Tomorrow Tehran.”, the Iranian regime were afraid of our arrival in Tehran and immediately accepted the ceasefire. Following such a speech the new brigades and battalions were organized. Later Masud [Rajavi] told that according to an organized plan with Iraqi army, they (Iraqi forces) were supposed to attack Iran from the Southern borders so as we could go ahead in the Western borders.

Hadi Shabani

FNA: did you participate the “justification meeting for Light” or “the Goodbye meeting”?

H.Sh: yes, all the forces were there. Masud addressed a long speech and told that we should start tomorrow and said to Mahdi Abrishamchi (the commandant of Tehran Axis): “when you arrive in Tehran, prepare my former office on Alavi street, Tehran, for me to settle down there.” he addressed the forces.”After you arrive in Tehran, you can do anything you like for 48 hours, kill anyone you like until I come to grant public amnesty.”

How did the forces hope to win in the operation?

All of us thought that the plan was really practical.

Maud said: “the Iranian forces have no motive to fight and the people are tired and waiting for a spark to revolt against the government.” Even when we told him that we had some shortages in the units, he said:” don’t worry. As soon as we arrive in the first city, the people will join us and cover our shortages.’’

From the other side, it was the last opportunity for us who had joined the organization to struggle. According to the indoctrinations of MKO, we had to fight or kill or die.

-But meanwhile, the Iranian forces could defeat the Iraqi forces in the South. Didn’t you wonder how a country, which was allegedly weakened, could do such a thing?

-You should know that as the MKO members, our mind didn’t work tactically. We couldn’t understand it. We were the same as a skier who slips over the snow of the emotions. We were not able to analyze, we even couldn’t work on the map. The commandant told us to go straight ahead until you get Kermanshah and then Hamedan where you go to Zanjan, Saveh and Tehran. And we accepted. Now that I see, I figure out that the operation was a failure from the beginning. Moving in a line on tanks in an asphalted road had no possibility to success but nobody knew that at the time.

The proceeding night, Masud convinced the members so well that they wanted to start the operation the same night. Some members worked hard, they slept only two hours a day, and then during the Eternal Light Operation, some members were so exhausted that they overslept.

Did you receive special trainings for the operation?

The trainings were so few and only for those who had just come from the Europe two or three days ago. They were only trained to shoot with Kalashnikov and colt. Those who arrived while the operation didn’t even received that short training. They were only given an arm to go fight. MKO told them falsely that we were for example in Kermanshah and they should go there. Some members who were in Europe had left their children to their neighbors in order to reach the operation. Those who couldn’t recognize their right hand from their left hand. The forces who participated in the operation included three parts:

The old members of the organization who were trained.

The members who had just come from the other countries.

The war prisoners of the organization.

Explain more about the two last parts, please.

The forces who hadn’t received training and participated the operation to take a use of such a large chaos!! They were hopeful to change Iranian regime and get a position or rank in the new regime but most of them were killed. The situation of the prisoners was even worse.

How come?

Some of the prisoners were the Iranian prisoners who were in Iraqi prisons where they were treated so badly. Some of them accepted to fight in the hope that they can escape during the operation. They were about 300 people. Most of them were from the army forces that were captured in Sardasht or Fakeh. Also some of them were taken as war prisoners in Chelcheragh operation. All of them were held in Camp called Debes in Kirkuk.

When the operation started, the organization had to use the maximum use of its forces, so they looked for the war prisoners. Some of the prisoners whose number was small declared their preparation to participate. The rest were jailed in a room where some food and water were left for them. They were told:” after the victory we will come back to you.

One of the MKO officials, ”Ahmad Vaqef said:”the following day we went to the room to tell them that we could seize Kermanshah and anyone who wants to come, can come. A number of them were tricked and came and the others were imprisoned again.” Therefore the organization could force about 40 people of them, to participate the operation and most of them could escape from the scene. The organization knew that but they said that they had no way except increasing the number of the forces. However Karand was besieged by the Iranian forces so the organization forces were surrounded in Islam Abad.

During the operation, in which unit were you serving?

I was working in artillery, our commandant was Mahin Rezaiee who was called Azar.

The first day, two sets of Ayfa were delivered to us. We were four people. We had no important problem until we reached Islam Abad where 122 small fights happened but any way we could open the way. Then the real fight began. I was injured then taken to Islam Abad. The injured fighters were a lot. We were taken to Bagdad hospital by Iraqi helicopters. The hospital was dedicated to MKO injured members due to their large number.

Your friends, did they tell you anything about the fights?

One of them described his memory which I’d like to retell it now that you see that MKO and Masud’s emotion and kindness! MKO’s strategy in the Eternal light was the “Military Flag” Strategy. It means: kill anyone who is against you and this “anyone” means “revolutionary guard’’.

A friend of mine explained:”we captured some of revolutionary guards during Eternal Light operation and kept them in a place with tied hands. The weather was very hot, and they were very thirsty. One of the members went before the commandant “Afshin” and asked him what to do with the captive ones. Afshin who liked colt very much took out his colt and killed all of them, put their bodies on each other and took pictures of them. The picture was shown repeatedly in MKO’s meeting as one of the most important achievements of Eternal Light.

What was the reflex of the failure of Eternal Light in the organization?

It was so terrible that after a week, Masud declared a public meeting and ordered to bring all the forces, even the injured ones, to the meeting, I was in the hospital at the time but they brought me to the meeting with my bed. The situation was very bad. Most of the forces were discouraged.

What did the organization do to deal with the situation?

During the meeting, Masud began with justifying the failure, the thing he was so good at. However the atmosphere after the operation was very heavy, the organization started to recruit new forces from Europe. They were told to come to Iraq for some military training and then they are free to stay or to go. Masud said that they were preparing for the operation “Eternal 2”

But it was of no use. The condition lasted until the American invasion to Iraq and then it reached its summit.

Translated by Nejat Society

July 23, 2009 0 comment

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