In spite of the totalitarian grip in which the group’s members are held inside Camp Ashraf, we know that many are desperate to escape the cult and win back their freedom. At least two hundred names have been recorded of those inside Camp Ashraf who reject membership of the group but who are prevented by MEK /PMOI/MKO leaders from leaving
The Iraqi government is stepping up efforts to pressure Iranian exiles into leaving the country, pushing an obscure group to the forefront of Baghdad’s relations with Washington and the Obama administration’s overtures to Iran..The Iraqi government says 261 residents were returned to Iran over the last two years and reported no persecution..To outsiders, the MEK/PMOI/MKO may seem a strange cult-like group that bans sex and family life. But both the U.S. and Iran consider it a terrorist organization.
Most of the time there’s nobody outside Camp Ashraf to hear the members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), ..the Iraqi government has made it clear it’s withdrawing the welcome mat extended to the MEK/PMOI/MKO by Saddam Hussein,.. in recent years the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has helped more than 250 members enter Iran from across the Iranian border..former members claim that the MEK is a cult, one that isolates adherents from their families, seeks to control them by limiting access to outside information.
… Daily it is becoming clearer that the ordinary members of the MKO are being denied that freedom of choice and freedom of thought only because American soldiers have been tasked to protect Massoud Rajavi. The MKO leaders are threatening a ‘humanitarian disaster’ – which cult experts translate as acts of mass suicide. If President Obama’s promise of change is to have meaning beyond simply being words on the page, the standoff at Camp Ashraf is an ideal place to start putting words into action…
In an interview with Anne Singleton of Iran-Interlink, Dr. Mowaffak al Rubaie, clarified his approach to the Government of Iraq’s decision to remove the Iranian terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK, aka MKO, PMOI) from the country..Asked what can the UK , European and other western governments do to help resettle the MEK, Dr. al Rubaie replied,”These governments can agree to allow their citizens and others who have status in their country to return.”
… Dr. Mowaffak al Rubaie: We have and will continue to treat the residents of Camp Ashraf humanely and in accordance with Iraqi law and international law and conventions. We will not initiate acts of violence against them. We do expect them to cooperate in our efforts to exercise our sovereignty according to the rule of law. Should they choose extremist acts such as self-immolation, it will be their decision which we would regret…
the organization seeks to force itself on Iraq as recognized refugees with granted rights far beyond those conventionally granted. However, the question is that is it actually possible to grant asylum to MKO members and is the Iraqi government forced under any convention to recognize the group as refugees?..the position takings of Masoud Rajavi and Maryam Azdanlu imply that their main concern is hardly asylum seeking
Rubay’i says about 1,000 of them have US and European passports and resident permits or political asylum status in the United States and in Europe and they can go there, noting that”900 women are in the camp,”and adding that they can return them to Iran, but stressing that”we will not send anyone to Iran against his will.”..
Confessions by two members of the anti-Iran terror group, the Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization, about torturing and mistreatment of members by MKO officials and commanders led to a siege of the group’s headquarters, Camp Ashraf, by Iraqi forces.Camp Ashraf has acted as the MKO’s headquarters …
There are some issues that have attracted the attention of the world toward MKO/PMOI/MEK. The settlement of Mojahedin in Iraqi soil and recently the recent statements made by Nouri Al-Maliki claiming that the Iraqi government refrains to deliver organization members to the Iranian government and seeks their transfer to a third country is another issue. The world is also encountering propaganda blitz of the organization on the position taking of the US in keeping on its control over Camp Ashraf and also the MKO’s petitioning the world to hew to international conventions concerning individual rights of MKO members