The International Victims of Terrorism Conference in Paris is largely a forum for nations to make others aware of terrorist efforts to subvert their state.
This year family members of people killed by the People’s Mojaheddin Organization of Iran, known as the MKO, were invited to testify about the suffering wrought by a group that aims to overthrow the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The MKO are almost universally denounced by Iranians around the world and are regarded as a terrorist group by Iranian, American and other national and international governments.
The group’s headquarters are in Ashraf, Iraq, where they aided Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq War and then went on to take part in his deadly operations against Kurds and as well as Iraqi Shia.
As a result of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 the MKO tried to relocate their headquarters to France. But then-Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy approved a raid of the group’s compound outside Paris, saying that the MKO was trying to turn French soil into an international terrorist base. 10 MKO supporters then set themselves on fire in protest, shocking Europe.
In recent years, the MKO has undertaken a massive propaganda campaign to rebrand themselves as a human rights group. The tens of thousands of victims of the MKO and their families strongly disagree.
Speaking to heads of state, ambassadors, and other international leaders, the victims of the MKO were given a major platform to discuss their suffering. They urged listeners to continue to regard the MKO as a threat and to oppose their efforts to rewrite history.
Download Families of MKO targets at Int’l Victims of Terrorism Conference
Is’ThinkProgress the groups organizing the demonstration said at least two thousand people were there, though the estimate seemed high.
