Countdown for MKO Departure from Iraq

EU to offer €22 million aid for MKO members’ resettlement

The European Union plans to provide 20 million euros in aid for the relocation of Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK, a.k.a. MKO) members outside Iraq.

According to the A EU to offer €22 million aid for MKO members’ resettlement rabic-language website Voice of Russia, in her meeting with the Iraqi minister of Human Rights, head of the European Union Delegation in Iraq Ambassador Jana Hybáškova, said the EU plans to allocate 22 million euros for the relocation of MKO members outside Iraq in order to respond to Iraq’s requests.

The Iraqi Minister of Human Rights said the GOI has been seriously obligated to the agreement signed with the United Nations.

The United Nations and the Government of Iraq signed on December 25, 2011, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a humanitarian and peaceful resolution of the situation of the MKO members in Iraq.

Mohammed Shia al-Sudani criticized as “irresponsible” the countries who are constantly expressing concern over the condition of MKO members in Iraq, but refuse to accept them in their countries.

A number of other representatives of diplomatic delegations in Iraq were also present at the meeting.

Germany’s ambassador to Iraq referred to his country’s readiness to accept 100 members of the MKO, adding “87 of them had been living in Germany.”

Voice of Russian, arabic – translated by Habilian Association

February 2, 2014 0 comments

Iraq

Maliki: Gov’t Struggling to Accelerate MKO’s Expulsion from Iraq

Iraqi Prime Minsiter Nuri al-Maliki underlined his government’s resolve to speed up efforts to expel the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as MEK, NCRI or PMOI) members from Iraq.

Speaking in a joint press conference with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Baghdad, Maliki blamed the UN f Maliki: Gov’t Struggling to Accelerate MKO’s Expulsion from Iraq or prolonging the presence of the MKO members in Iraq.

“We have again repeated our demand from the UN on the necessity for transferring the members of the MKO from Iraq since their remaining entails huge costs for Iraq,” he said.

“The presence of the MKO members is illegal based on all criteria and standards and the Iraqi people are dissatisfied with their presence,” Maliki underlined.

On Sunday, Ban Ki-moon appointed a former US Homeland Security Undersecretary as his special advisor for relocation of the MKO members from Camp Liberty in Iraq.

According to Habilian Association, Jane Holl Lute’s appointment came after two years of quite fruitless painstaking efforts of the UN’s refugee agency and UN Assistance Mission for Iraq for the resettlement of MKO members in third countries.

“Holl Lute will work with a wide range of stakeholders, in particular the (UN) Member States, to assist in relocating the camp residents,” read a statement from Mr. Ban’s spokesperson, adding that she will also collaborate with Nickolay Mladenov, the UN representative in Iraq.

Earlier last week, the UNHCR said 1,400 MKO members in Iraq are ready for relocation to third countries.

Former UN Special Representative had formerly asserted that finding homes for the MKO members “is the most difficult part of the story.”

The last group of MKO terrorists at Camp Ashraf, now called Camp New Iraq, was evicted by the Iraqi government on September 11 to join other members of the terrorist group in the former US-held Camp Liberty, now called Camp Hurriya, near Baghdad International Airport where they are awaiting relocation to other countries.

The MKO, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and western targets.

The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly-established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by the MKO members in 1981.

The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.

The terrorist group joined Saddam’s army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.

Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who eventually took the MKO off the US terror list.

The US formally removed the MKO from its list of terror organizations in early September 2012, one week after the then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, sent the US Congress a classified communication about the move. The decision made by Clinton enabled the group to have its assets under the US jurisdiction unfrozen and do business with the American entities, the State Department said in a statement at the time.

January 15, 2014 0 comments

USA

McGurk talks directly with Mojahedin Khalq in Iraq

[…]The U.S. Embassy also said McGurk visited Friday with members of Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, the militant wing of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, whose camp outside Baghdad came under rocket attack last month. The statement said the U.S. diplomat stressed the urgency of relocating the residents of Camp Hurriya to another country.

The dissident group, which opposes Iran’s clerical regime, joined forces with Saddam Hussein’s forces during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, and several thousand of its members were given sanctuary in Iraq. It renounced violence in 2001, and was removed from a U.S. terrorist list last year.

Iraq’s current Shiite-led government, which has strong ties with neighboring Shiite powerhouse Iran, considers the MEK’s presence in Iraq illegal and is eager to get rid of them. The refugee camp is home to about 3,100 people.

January 13, 2014 0 comments

UN to evacuate MKO terrorists from Iraq

The United Nations has announced that it will be relocating members of anti-Iran terrorist organization, the Mujahedin-e Khalq, from Iraq to other countries. The U-N chief says that a former Deputy U-S Secretary of Homeland Security will be in charge of the MKO relocation.

The Mujahe UN to evacuate MKO terrorists from Iraq din-e Khalq Organization (MKO) was declared by the US state department to be a designated foreign terrorist organization in 1997. For decades the group has committed acts of terrorism against Iranians both inside Iran and around the world. During the Iraq-Iran war, the group aligned with former dictator Saddam Hussein, and with Iraqi support, slaughtered countless Iranian civilians. According to Human Rights Watch, the MKO is known to torture people, often dragging its victims by ropes from tied around their necks.

The group is currently operating from bases in Iraq. Sunday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced that the world body would help MKO members to relocated to other countries, and that former deputy of the US department of homeland security, Jane Holl Lute, would be in charge of the operation. Sara Flounders says the US support for MKO terrorists shows the hypocrisy of America’s foreign policy. The group has a long record of carrying out terrorist attacks. Still, many prominent figures in US politics are speaking on MKO’s behalf, ignoring their crimes, referring to them as "victims" and "dissidents." Former New York City Mayor is one of many US officials who has worked closely with MKO terrorists in the last several years. Many US elected officials have received tens of thousands of dollars for speaking on MKO’s behalf, some even being investigated for it by the FBI. As the UN prepares to move MKO members out of Iraq, questions continue to be being raised about why the United Nations and the United States government are working so hard to protect a group with such a horrible human rights record.

January 8, 2014 0 comments

Ban appoints Holl Lute to aid relocation of Liberty residents

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Jane Holl Lute as his Special Adviser for Relocation of Camp Hurriya Residents Outside of Iraq. Ban appoints Holl Lute to aid relocation of Liberty residents

Camp Hurriya, located near the Baghdad airport, is home to some 3,200 Iranian exiles, many of them members of a group known as the People’s Mojahedeen of Iran who have been in Iraq since the 1980s.

Since 2011, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) together with the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), has been trying to find relocation opportunities outside Iraq for all camp residents. So far, the international community has secured relocation to third countries for only 311 residents.

In her new role, Ms. Holl Lute, a citizen of the United States, will work with a wide range of stakeholders, in particular Member States, to assist in relocating the camp residents, according to a statement from Mr. Ban’s spokesperson.

Among her previous roles, Ms. Holl Lute served as the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support and Assistant Secretary-General for Mission Support in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO).

Ms. Holl Lute most recently held the post of US Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. She was also the Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer of the UN Foundation and the Better World Fund, among other positions.

The newly appointed UN official will work with Mr. Ban’s Special Representative in Iraq and UNAMI head, Nickolay Mladenov, who last week reiterated that the Iraqi Government bears the responsibility for protecting the camp’s residents, as part of an agreement it signed with the UN in 2011.

Camp Hurriya, as well as Camp New Iraq (formerly Ashraf) which had previously housed the group, have been targeted for violent attacks.

January 6, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

U.S. to move 3000 MKO terrorists to Romania

As it became known from the Romanian Foreign Ministry employees dialogue in a social network “WordPress” http://danamarca70.wordpress.com/2013/12/18/48875763/

Currently the U.S. and the Romanian government are negotiating the deployment about 3 thousand representatives of the terrorist organization “Mojahedin-e Khalq” (MEK) on the territory of Romania. It is assumed that in the case of the Romanian leadership consent members of the group will be compactly settled near the city of Craiova.

According to Ioana Raiciu and Dana Marca, 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. John Kerry’s adviser Jonathan Weiner who deals with the problem of MEK migration is to arrive in Romania with the same purpose.

I turned to the Romanian Foreign Ministry press service for confirmation of these data by phone using the telephone numbers listed on the ministry’s website, but they refused to give any comments, saying this is a too sensitive issue.

Indeed, the disclosure of the information about moving about 3 thousand terrorists to the country is sure to cause a violent public backlash against the government. At the same time, the information leak to the Internet possibly means that Romanian authorities are trying to test the waters before making official statements.

So what sort of an organization the “Mujahedin-e Khalq” is?

“Mojahedin-e Khalq” is an Iranian Islamist terrorist organization in exile, which advocates the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Since its inception in the mid 60s, this group has made numerous assassination attempts on the Iranian leadership, murdered the U.S. military personnel and civilians, supported the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 calling for the execution of embassy staff.

In 1981 MEK members killed 70 Iranian officials including the prime minister, the president and the head of the judiciary. A decade later, they organized a coordinated attack on the Iranian embassies in 13 countries. During the Iran-Iraq War, 1980-88, the group fought against Iran on the side of Saddam Hussein. In total the organization killed more than 50 thousand people in different countries.

In 1997, the U.S. State Department put the MEK into a list of terrorist organizations. And in 2002, the European Union did the same, but in 2009 the EU crossed it out of the list. And in 2012, the United States followed the example. At the same time, the organization is still considered a terrorist one in Iran and Iraq.

One can hardly say that the MEK has completely abandoned the ideas of terror. According to the American TV channel NBC and other media reports, the MEK played its role in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists. According to other data, the organization was also involved in the murder of Mojtaba Ahmadi, the IRGC cybersecurity service commander, as well as in a serious accident at the factory for the production of heavy water in Arak in autumn 2013.

According to the American TV channel CNN, a terrorist organization has a strict military structure. The MEK headquarters is based in the so-called Ashraf “refugee camp” in Iraq .

https://dlb.nejatngo.org/Media/Report/CNN-MEK-201312.mp4

to download the video file click here

You can see a straight column in blue and white uniform marching on a spacious area framed by the lion sculptures. According to Michael Ware, the author of the video, back in 2007 Camp Ashraf numbered about 4,000 fighters and was one of the best military bases in Iraq. The MEK has more than 2,000 tanks, artillery, armored personnel carriers and air defense means. The territory is a small town with shopping malls and hospitals, blooming gardens, monuments and fountains, which is totally unexpected in war-torn Iraq.

Moreover the Iranian Mujahideen are considered to be involved in undermining the bus with Israeli tourists in the Bulgarian resort of Burgas in summer 2012. The Bulgarian secret services allegedly accused Lebanese Hezbollah but the group rejects all charges despite the fact that it took the responsibility for many terrorist attacks previously.

The terms of an agreement are still unknown. However, the U.S. is likely to use all available means and methods of pressure and persuasion to make Traian Basescu take the right decision. It is obvious that the United States doesn’t really care about the interests of Romania and its people as well as the security in the Balkans.

Delyan Martov, Sofia

December 26, 2013 0 comments

Jordan

Source: MKO seeking to camp in Jordan

Jordanian informed sources confirmed that the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, a.k.a. MKO seeking to camp in Jordan MEK and NCRI) has called on the Jordanian government to let the group camp inside the Arab country.

According to Habilian, informed sources in the Jordan’s parliament was quoted by Erem News Agency yesterday as saying that MKO has urged the Jordanian government, through a number of Parliamentarians, to permit the group to erect a camp in the deserts of this country.

“MKO has proposed to carry out the relocation of individuals from Camp Liberty in several groups,” the sources said, adding that MKO has also offered to pay all the costs of relocation as well as all the costs associated with building a camp providing Jordanian security forces.

In response, they have promised to give the camp to the government of Jordan with all facilities.

Earlier in 2012, Maryam Rajavi struggled to persuade the US officials to let them establish a camp at Jordan borders. Then, the official sources in Jordan announced that the country’s interior ministry has voiced firm opposition to the establishment of a camp to shelter the members of the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) along their borders.

December 26, 2013 0 comments

Iraqi Authorities' stance on the MEK

Iraqi PM urges MKO supporters to allow in members

A Senior Iraqi lawmaker says the supporters of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) must relocate the group’s members to their own countries.

Abbas al-Bayati told Fars News Agency given the crimes committed by the MKO against the Iraqi people, the continuation of their presence in Iraq was unacceptable.

Referring to the support of a number of European states for the MKO, al-Bayati urged them to relocate the members of the terrorist group to their own countries.

The European Union removed the MKO from its list of terrorist organizations in 2009 after the group filed a petition against the blacklisting in 2008.

The Iraqi lawmaker noted there was no difference between the MKO and al-Qaeda or the terrorist group of “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The MKO is not different from al-Qaeda and the ISIL and other terrorist groups that have killed the innocent people of Iraq, al-Bayati added.

He said some of the group’s members, who face prosecution for the crimes they have committed in several Iraqi cities, such as Karbala, Khanaqin and Tuz Khormato, must stand trial in the country’s courts.

The MKO fled to Iraq in the 1980s, where it received the support of executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and set up Camp Ashraf in the eastern province of Diyala, near the Iranian border.

The group also cooperated with Saddam in the massacres of Iraqi Kurds and in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq.

The MKO is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community and has committed numerous terrorist acts against Iranians and Iraqis.

In December 2011, the United Nations and Baghdad agreed to relocate some 3,000 MKO members from Camp New Iraq (formerly known as Camp Ashraf) to Camp Liberty.

The last group of MKO terrorists was evicted by the Iraqi government on September 11 to join the other members of the terrorist group at Camp Liberty near Baghdad International Airport and await relocation to other countries.

November 18, 2013 0 comments

USA

US donates $1mn for resettlement of Mojahedin Khalq in Iraq

The United States plans to provide 1-million dollars for the UN Trust Fund. The fund is tasked with re-settling elements of Mujahedin-e Khalq organization -the M-K-O- who are currently residing at Camp Liberty in Iraq.

The U-S state Department says America hopes other countries will also support the effort. But the Iraqi government as well as many other countries that consider MKO as a terrorist group, say there are no legal grounds for the presence of the M-K-O in Iraq.

Several attacks on Ashraf camp where about 100 members of the anti-Iran terrorist group still live, left 52 dead in September.

The Iraqi government is currently providing protection to the Camp Liberty in Baghdad. The camp hosts some 3,000 of MKO members who were forced to leave camp Ashraf last year.

The Mojahedin-e-Khalq is a terrorist group which was founded in 1960s in Iran. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the MKO took up arms against the Iranian government. The group is responsible for thousands of acts of terrorism and sabotage against Iran. The group also aided former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran.Albania has so far received more than 100 of the MKO members, and Germany is planning to accept about 100 of them. The Iraqi government meanwhile, has called on other countries to contribute for the resettlement program in order to end MKO presence in Iraq.

October 29, 2013 0 comments

The MEK Expulsion from Iraq

Baghdad Renews Determination to Expel All MKO Members

Iraqi Ambassador to the US Lukman Faily stressed that his country is determined to put an end to the presence of the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) members in line with an agreement reached between Iraq and the UN. The envoy said the Iraqi government is committed to coming up with a plan to relocate the remaining members of the terrorist organization out of Iraq.

He said his country is going to discuss the issue with the United Nations representatives and European countries, according to Nahrainnet.

Faily’s comments come after the notorious Camp Ashraf, which in its heyday used to house thousands of MKO terrorists in eastern Iraq, was fully evacuated from its few dozen residents by the Iraqi authorities on September 11.

The official end of MKO terrorist group’s activities in Camp Ashraf came less than two weeks after clashes in the camp left at least 50 of its members dead.

The remaining members of MKO terrorists were transferred from Camp Ashraf (now the Camp of New Iraq) to Camp Liberty, near Baghdad airport.

The MKO — listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community — fled Iran in 1986 for Iraq, was armed and funded by its regime and fought on the side of Saddam Hussein during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-88).

The group has been behind numerous acts of terror against Iranian civilians and officials, and was involved in the 1991 bloody repression of Shiite Muslims in southern Iraq, and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds in the country’s north.

The Iraqi government planned to close the camp at the end of December 2011, but the US pressure forced it to delay the closure.

Based on an agreement reached between the Iraqi government and the UN, almost 3,000 MKO terrorists, now residing in Liberty Base in the vicinity of Baghdad, should be swiftly transferred out of Iraq.

October 22, 2013 0 comments

Newer Posts

Older Posts