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MKO still designated a FTO in USA

Mojahedin Khalq Organisation still designated a FTO in USA

In the Matter of the Review of the Designation of Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK), and All Designated Aliases, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization Upon Petition Filed Pursuant to Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as Amended

The MEK filed a petition for revocation of its designation as a foreign terrorist organization (the “Petition”). Based upon a review of the Administrative Record assembled in this matter, including the Petition and associated filings by the MEK, pursuant to Section 219(a)(4)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended (8 U.S.C. 1189(a)(4)(B)) (“INA”), and in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury, I conclude that the circumstances that were the basis for the 2003 re-designation of the aforementioned organization as a foreign terrorist organization have not changed in such a manner as to warrant revocation of the designation and that the national security of the United States does not warrant a revocation.

Therefore, I hereby determine that the designation of the aforementioned organization as a foreign terrorist organization, pursuant to Section 219 of the INA (8 U.S.C. 1189), shall be maintained.

This determination shall be published in the Federal Register.

Dated: January 7, 2009.

Condoleezza Rice,

Secretary of State, Department of State.

January 13, 2009 0 comments

Germany

Mrs. Shadram letter to The Ambassador of Germany in Sweden

Honorable Ambassador of Germany in Sweden

Your Excellency!

With regards, I wish to inform you that the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) has released news concerning the trip of Mrs. Maryam Rajavi to Germany in its entire media system.

You surely are aware that the MKO is in the list of terrorist groups in the United States, Canada and the European Union for murdering the people of Iran as well as the people of Iraq. Mrs. Maryam Rajavi also has a legal file open in France for conducting terrorism and organizing crimes as well and fraud and money laundry.

My question is that how such person who is leading a terrorist destructive cult is allowed to freely travel to your democratic country.

I must emphasize that I am a former member of the MKO who is now objecting to supporting a terrorist leader.

My name is Sho’le Shadrm. I am 42 years old, and I am living in Sweden now for 14 years. I unfortunately lost 7 years of my life with the MKO in Iraq. As soon as I criticized the organization and tried to question the cult leader Massoud Rajavi and his wife Maryam, I was subject to all sorts of insults and assaults and I was put under sever mental pressure and I even was jailed. You can imagine that what sort of a place an Iraqi jail under Saddam Hussein can be. I was condemned by the MKO like many others who had criticized the leadership, and we were handed over to the Iraqi security officers to suffer our lives. They hoped that by doing so we would regret and plead for mercy and go back to the MKO again. But most of us resisted against difficulties and I finally managed to come to Sweden. I am now living with my Swedish husband and our four children. But I must point out that I still suffer from the reminiscences of the days I spent with the cult in Iraq.

Your Honor!

Wouldn’t it be appropriate if Mrs. Maryam Rajavi is asked about all the miseries that hundreds of individuals like me had to experience just because they wanted to leave the MKO? For what reason the most basic human rights was deprived of me and many others like me? I suggest you read the report released by the Human Rights Watch on May 2005. You would realize for yourself that how the most preliminary human rights was systematically abused inside the MKO. In this report cases such as solitary confinements, torture, and even murdering the opponents and critics have clearly been mentioned.

Regardless of all political affairs which could perhaps be the main reason for the German support of the MKO and the Rajavis, shouldn’t some attention be paid to the systematic violation of human rights within this organization? Wouldn’t be better if the German parliamentarians asked Mrs. Rajavi about the harsh situation of the children of the members and castrating the women? Shouldn’t she be asked about compulsory divorces, abandoning the children, mind manipulation of the members, and rejecting family members inside the organization? Could political interests be an excuse to close eyes on violation of human rights?

I am anxiously looking forward to receiving a reply from you

Best Wishes

Sho’le Shadram – former member of the MKO – Stockholm

sholesmail-nejat@yahoo.se

Copy to:

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden

The Speaker of the German Parliament

German members of the European Parliament

German Media

Ryan Crocker pointed out US designated the PMOI as terrorists

Iraqi govt won’t forcibly evict Iranians U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker pointed out the Americans have designated the People's Mujahedeen as a terrorist organization

The Iraqi government has promised it won’t forcibly evict an Iranian opposition group based in Iraq since Saddam Hussein’s era, the U.S. ambassador said in a television interview broadcast Saturday.

The People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, also known as the Mujahedeen Khalq, fears Iran is pressuring Iraq to expel its members and force them back to Iran.

Iraq’s government has taken over national security from the Americans under a new agreement. But the U.S. Embassy has said American forces remain at the group’s base known as Camp Ashraf.

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker pointed out the Americans have designated the People’s Mujahedeen as a terrorist organization, and he understands the Iraqi government wants the group removed from its territory.

But he said the Iraqis have promised to respect the human rights of the group’s members."We’ve discussed this issue intensively with the Iraqi government," he told the U.S.-funded Alhurra television station. "They have provided assurances that none of these individuals will be forcibly sent to a third country where they have reason to fear for their safety or well-being, and we know those assurances will be respected."

Iraq’s deputy Foreign Minister Labid Abbawi said the government has been working with international agencies to try to find an acceptable way to remove the group, perhaps by finding other countries willing to take them.

"The Iraqi government’s position is that members of the Mujahedeen Khalq are unwanted here and they should leave Iraq and their camp should be closed, but Iraq will not make them leave forcibly," he told The Associated Press.

"We do not want to put their lives at stake," Abbawi said. "Even for those who wish to return to Iran, we have already gained assurances from Iranian officials that they will face no danger and we have ongoing talks regarding this issue with Tehran."

The People’s Mujahedeen, which allied with Saddam during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, has about 3,500 people at Camp Ashraf. When U.S.-led troops overthrew the regime, they demilitarized the group and confined its fighters to the compound northeast of Baghdad, under the protection of the multinational forces.

"Clearly, Iraq would like to see an organization that they too consider a terrorist organization no longer on their soil," Crocker said. "At the same time, like a responsible democracy, they have recognized that these individuals have basic humans rights, and they have provided assurances to uphold them."

The U.S. Embassy said in December that American troops would remain at Camp Ashraf "to assist the government of Iraq in carrying out its assurances of humane treatment of the residents" after the transition to the new security agreement, which took effect on Jan. 1.

By SAMEER N. YACOUB

January 11, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq 's Function

MKO futile efforts to survive as a Guerrilla force

The armed struggle is mostly defined as Guerilla warfare which is considered as the unconventional warfare in which the guerrilla army uses mobile tactics This shows the importance of Camp Ashraf while MKO has no public support to rely on, no weapon to fight with and no border to launch cross border attacks. (ambushes, raids, etc) to fight a larger army or enemy.

According to Wikipedia this term (guerrilla) means “little war” in Spanish and the concept acknowledges a conflict between armed civilians against a powerful nation state army. Also, as Che Guevara, the Argentine revolutionist, writes in his book “Guerrilla Warfare”:

”the guerrilla band is an armed nucleus, the fighting vanguard of the people. It draws its great force from the mass of the people themselves “

In China, the Maoist Theory of People’s War believes that the guerrilla earns population’s support by distributing propaganda. To answer the question “why does the guerrilla fighter fight?” Ernesto Che Guevara responds:

”the guerrilla fighter is a social reformer that he takes up arms responding to the angry protest of the people against their oppressors.”

Therefore, as the most revolutionary guerrilla leaders believe the support of the population is of great importance to guerrilla fighters to provide shelter, supply, finance and intelligence for them. So having the base of the people guarantees the success of a guerrilla movement and this is what the MKO lacks. Instead they could operate by enjoying the protection of the friendly regime of Saddam Hussein that provided them with funds, weapons, military training and bases, but the support of Baath regime for MKO just made their situation among the masses of Iranian population worst because their cooperation with the enemy of Iran turn these freedom fighters into traitors who have been Saddam’s mercenary forces for 3 decades. The experts think that relationships with civil populations are one of the most important factors in the guerrilla fighters’ success or failure.

MKO lost its public support in three phases. The first phase happened following their use of terror after the Islamic Revolution, when they launched terror operations in civil targets and assassinated a large number of their compatriots. Like the communist forces in the Philippines and Malaysia, these strikes helped turn civilian opinion against the so-called freedom fighters. Such tactics had no result except the withdrawal of the support of Iranians for MKO terrorists.

As mentioned above the second phase of the withdrawal of public support for MKO was after their cooperation with Saddam dictatorship during the eight years of Iran- Iraq war in which the MEK served as Saddam’s private army, provided intelligence for Baathist Intelligence services. MKO bases donated by Saddam Hussein were mostly located near Iranian border of which is an important factor in guerrilla warfare but after the fall of Saddam, their bases were reduced to the one in the Northern part of Baghdad, Camp Ashraf, in Diala province. Thus after the American invasion to Iraq and the take over of Camp Ashraf by the US army, the MEK were restricted to their only remote base, Ashraf.

The third phase of the public hatred toward MKO was as recent as the visits made by the families of captured MKO members in Camp Ashraf. Families of MEK/MKO members were the only people who were considered as sympathizers by MKO leaders but they are also turning to their enemies because they are seriously seeking the visit of their beloved ones who are captives of MKO cult in Camp Ashraf. The best example is their former supporter, Mustafa Muhammadi who has appealed for the arrest of Camp Ashraf leaders who have kept his daughter for years.

Another important element in guerrilla warfare is weapon of which the NLA had plenty of, due to their ex-master Saddam Hussein’s donations .But they had to submit all their weapons to the US army that disarmed the group after the seizure of Camp Ashraf in 2003.

Nowadays the MKO lacks public support ,weapon and also border but their only last resort includes Camp Ashraf that itself is supposed to be handed over to Iraqi Government and eventually to be shut down.

MKO leaders find no way except prolonging their stay in Camp Ashraf, Iraq since their vital need is now awning a location where they can survive as a coercive army.

This shows the importance of Camp Ashraf while MKO has no public support to rely on, no weapon to fight with and no border to launch cross border attacks.

January 5, 2009 0 comments

The MEK Expulsion from Iraq

MEK Terror Group to Leave Iraq

Al-Maliki also announced that there is "no place in Iraq for the terrorist" Mujahidin-e Khalq (MEK) organization. The Iraqi government has taken control Iraq Regains National Sovereignty; Takes Control of Green Zone, Basra Airport;MEK Terror Group to Leave of Camp Ashraf, northeast of Baghdad, the terrorist training camp leased by Saddam Hussein to 3500 members of the Iranian MEK cult. The MEK carried out terrorist attacks inside Iran on behalf of Iraq, as well as spying on, and making false allegations about, Iran’s civilian nuclear energy program. MEK have probably been triple agents, sharing information with and pushing disinformation on Saddam, Israel and the US through various channels. They also served Saddam as an SS, repressing Iraqi dissidents. When the US took Iraq in 2003, the Neoconservatives at the Pentagon wanted to adopt the terrorist group for covert operations against Iran and against the Shiite fundamentalist parties in Iraq that had been hosted in exile by Tehran. The Pentagon/ Neoconservative interest in the MEK appears to have been connected to its secret ties to Israel, and prominent members of the American Israel lobby such as Daniel Pipes and Patrick Clawson went to bat for this motley crew of bombers and saboteurs (ironically, they have been prolific in accusing ordinary Americans of being ‘terrorist supporters’ if they declined to ask ‘how high’ whenever Bibi Netanyahu commanded us to jump). The State Department, in contrast, pushed for listing the MEK as a terrorist organization. In the end, as usual in the Bush administration, Washington gave us the worst compromise possible, declaring MEK a terrorist organization and going on using it for espionage and sabotage in Iran as well as against Iraqi Shiites. In 2005 the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and the Da`wa Party came to power in elections in Baghdad, the very parties against which MEK had been conspiring, and they have repeatedly tried to get rid of the Mojahedin, but were stopped by the Pentagon. The ‘Islamic Marxist’ guerrillas are likely now to be expelled. Al-Maliki said that they would not be forced to return to Iran, and could go to other destinations of their choice, but could not remain in Iraq.

http://www.juancole.com/2009/01/iraq-regains-national-sovereignty-takes.html

The full article:

Iraq Regains National Sovereignty;

Takes Control of Green Zone, Basra Airport;

MEK Terror Group to Leave

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced Thursday that Iraq had "regained its national sovereignty". It could in fact be argued that for the first time since the end of the Gulf War, Iraq is again for most purposes an independent country in international law. It was put under Chapter 7 of the United Nations charter in the early 90s, having been found an aggressor against Kuwait. In some ways, its Chapter 7 status was taken advantage of by the Bush administration in its invasion of Iraq. There are still some things Iraq wants from the UN, and the Russian ambassador there has suggested that some Article 7 provisions will last for a while yet. But the main thing standing between Iraq and sovereignty now is anyway not international law but the large foreign troop presence on Iraqi soil. Still, that presence is underpinned by a bilateral treaty concluded by a sovereign Iraqi parliament with the United States. Cont’d . . .

US troops now need warrants for arrests, though they can detain suspects for 24 hours while they seek to justify it to a judge. Thousands of Iraqis imprisoned by the US will have to be released unless valid legal cases can be built against them.

In a move of the utmost symbolism, Iraqi troops are now taking control of the Green Zone, the few acres in downtown Baghdad, surrounded by blast walls, where US military and diplomatic personnel have worked, and where parliament and many Iraqi government offices are located. US military control of this area has often provoked tensions. Once Marines manhandled a member of parliament from the Sadr Movement who was coming in for a vote, provoking widespread criticism. The nerve center of the US in Iraq and of its Iraqi political allies had to be put behind blast walls because otherwise it would have been constantly bombed and sniped at. The area took a great deal of mortar fire as it was, endangering US State Department personnel who were sleeping in flimsy shelters. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has announced his determination to take down the blast walls. Minister of Defense Abdul Qadir al-`Ubaidi pledged to reopen the road between the Green Zone and the Republic Bridge within days, according to al-Hayat.

Bombings and other violence killed 8 in the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk or their environs on Thursday.

Basra authorities arrested a leader of the "Army of Heaven" millenarian cult that launched attacks last year this time. It is the beginning of the Islamic new year, and apparently the cult is seeking ways of taking power.

Al-Maliki also announced that there is "no place in Iraq for the terrorist" Mujahidin-e Khalq (MEK) organization. The Iraqi government has taken control of Camp Ashraf, northeast of Baghdad, the terrorist training camp leased by Saddam Hussein to 3500 members of the Iranian MEK cult. The MEK carried out terrorist attacks inside Iran on behalf of Iraq, as well as spying on, and making false allegations about, Iran’s civilian nuclear energy program. MEK have probably been triple agents, sharing information with and pushing disinformation on Saddam, Israel and the US through various channels. They also served Saddam as an SS, repressing Iraqi dissidents. When the US took Iraq in 2003, the Neoconservatives at the Pentagon wanted to adopt the terrorist group for covert operations against Iran and against the Shiite fundamentalist parties in Iraq that had been hosted in exile by Tehran. The Pentagon/ Neoconservative interest in the MEK appears to have been connected to its secret ties to Israel, and prominent members of the American Israel lobby such as Daniel Pipes and Patrick Clawson went to bat for this motley crew of bombers and saboteurs (ironically, they have been prolific in accusing ordinary Americans of being ‘terrorist supporters’ if they declined to ask ‘how high’ whenever Bibi Netanyahu commanded us to jump). The State Department, in contrast, pushed for listing the MEK as a terrorist organization. In the end, as usual in the Bush administration, Washington gave us the worst compromise possible, declaring MEK a terrorist organization and going on using it for espionage and sabotage in Iran as well as against Iraqi Shiites. In 2005 the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and the Da`wa Party came to power in elections in Baghdad, the very parties against which MEK had been conspiring, and they have repeatedly tried to get rid of the Mojahedin, but were stopped by the Pentagon. The ‘Islamic Marxist’ guerrillas are likely now to be expelled. Al-Maliki said that they would not be forced to return to Iran, and could go to other destinations of their choice, but could not remain in Iraq.

The British military has handed over the control tower at Basra International Airport to Iraqi authorities. Britain had been using the airport as a military base, but now will withdraw outside it and allow it to function as a civilian, Iraqi facility. This step is a further phase in the British withdrawal from Iraq; the UK once had 40,000 troops in the country, and is now down to about 4,000. They will likely all be out by July 1.

As the foreign troops leave, Iraqis will have to settle their differences themselves. Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani slammed Iraqi Arab leaders for provoking ethnic tensions with Kurds.

Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute

http://www.juancole.com/2009/01/iraq-regains-national-sovereignty-takes.html

January 3, 2009 0 comments

The MEK Expulsion from Iraq

Iraq to expel Iran rebels as it takes over camp from US

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Thursday that he would expel an Iranian armed opposition group from the country after taking over their base from US forces.

"Based on taking over everything and in accordance with our constitution and our policies of opening up to our neighbours… our forces are going to take full control of the camp where the People’s Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) live," Maliki said.

Maliki was speaking to reporters on the sideline of a ceremony during which the United States handed over to Iraqi forces security control of the Green Zone, symbol of the American occupation of the country.

The PMOI "is a terrorist organisation and thus cannot operate in Iraq because it will create a political crisis in contradiction with the constitution," Maliki said.

"We will treat them based on the international laws. We will not force them to go back (to Iran) but we will give them the opportunity to either go home, or to another country," he added.

"(Staying in) Iraq will not be an alternative for them," Maliki said.

Maliki, who was speaking ahead of a visit Saturday to Tehran, told Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in March that he would take steps to ensure that Iraq was not used by "terrorists" from Al-Qaeda, or from Iranian rebel groups.

Last month the White House said it received assurances from Baghdad that the rebel group will not be expelled to a country where they may be persecuted, apparently excluding their return to Iran.

US forces confiscated the organisation’s weapons following the March 2003 US-led invasion, taking away some 300 tanks, many of which were subsequently given to the Iraqi armed forces.

Two years ago Iraq decided to restrict the movements of the estimated 3,500 PMOI members to their base at Camp Ashraf, near the Iranian border, where they have been held under a kind of US-supervised house arrest.

Described as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, the PMOI, which was founded in 1965, has many supporters in the US Congress and British parliament.

Group members fought alongside Iraqi forces in the 1980-1988 war between Iraq and Iran and then settled in Iraq.

January 3, 2009 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Inside view: You have to be totally dedicated

Arash Sametipour, spokesman for a Tehran-funded organisation called Nejat (rescue), which helps the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) defectors, left the MEK in 2001 after being arrested in Tehran when an attempt to kill the city’s police chief went wrong. Sametipour lost his hand while trying to kill himself by exploding a grenade. He spent nearly four years in prison.

"I was recruited by MEK as a student of computer engineering in northern Virginia in 1999," he told the Guardian. "They convinced me that if I wanted to be a fighter for jihad I had to abandon my parents and give up my education."

After months of training he was sent to Jordan and crossed into Iraq to Camp Ashraf.

"I had to watch videos of [MEK leader Massoud] Rajavi and write reports on my feelings. There were also meetings for self-criticism. They said you have to put away any love for belongings and for family.

"At first I resisted but you have no way out. You have no other news. I started to change in the way they wanted me to change.

"Finally in 2001 they gave me a mission. I was taken to Basra and, with the support of the Iraqi security service, was brought across the border."

He argues that closing Camp Ashraf will give MEK people the chance to escape from cult pressures and have a free choice of where to live.

Mahmoud Tabrizi, a UK-trained engineer who left Iran during the Shah’s time and joined the MEK, spent three years at Camp Ashraf in the 1990s. "You have to be totally dedicated. If you have the smallest doubt, you have to leave. I decided to go, even though I still support their activities. It’s the only army which treats deserters in the same way as its members. They paid my ticket to return to Britain," he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/02/camp-ashraf-closure-iran-mek

January 3, 2009 0 comments

Iraq

Iraq to close MKO camp in Iraq

Iraq has decided to shut down the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) Ashraf Camp as soon as possible, expel the MKO members from Iraq and close their file forever, said a senior Iraqi official.

Political advisor of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), Muhsin Al-Hakim exclusively told IRNA that Baghdad considered the MKO as a terrorist group.

Most of its members are based in Ashraf Camp north of Baghdad.

According to Al-Hakim, continued presence of the terrorist group in Iraq would be against Paragraph 33 of the Resolution 687 of the United Nations Security Council.

It would also be against the Iraqi Constitution, decisions made by the country’s presidency council and approvals of the Iraqi parliament, added the advisor.

The Paragraph 33 of the UN Security Council resolution, approved in April 3, 1991, required the government of Iraq to expel all terrorist groups that are present in the country.

The MKO members have two options of either returning home or leaving for another country but they cannot remain in Iraq any longer, Al-Hakim said stressing that the terrorist group was legally in an unclear situation as its members are neither considered refugees nor prisoners of war.

According to reports by human rights advocates, former members of MKO who returned home were living in good conditions, Al-Hakim added.

The advisor stressed that the grouplet has been barred from conducting all political, social and media activities on Iraqi territory.

He added that an Iraqi battalion was currently in charge of providing external security of Ashraf Camp while its internal affairs are undertaken by the foreign nationals department of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry.

MKO is known as a terrorist group for conducting violent operations in Iran.

It is labeled a terrorist organisation by the United States, the European Union and many other countries.

Many of the MKO members abandoned the terrorist organisation while most of those still remaining in the camp are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so.

January 1, 2009 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

The City of Robots

Basically, the robots are built to help human being live an easier, more comfortable life aiding him to reach his goals. Man can get closer to his ambitions or ideals by using the robots. The leaders of MKO, as well as the leaders of the other destructive cults try to make robots out of the human beings who are under their rule in order to get their ambitions.

The leaders of MKO, as well as the leaders of the other destructive cults have chosen a simpler solution to their problems. They try to make robots out of the human beings who are under their rule in order to get their ambitions.

Now, after three decades of the existence of Camp Ashraf in Diala Province, Iraq and Camp Maryam in Auvers-sur-Oise France, the two bases have turned into the cities of robots:

In the city of robots everyday is like the other day. Any event, revolution and change happen around the world, no change happens in robots’ schedule. The ability of making a decision, choosing and changing is a gift that the robots miss. Indeed change is something necessary that makes the life more interesting and makes the hope blossom in the heart of people.

For the human-like robots of camp Ashraf and even Camp Maryam, in the heart of modern Europe, everyday is the same as yesterday. They get up at a certain time early in the morning; they eat at a certain time, in a certain place. They do the same thing everyday for example watering a garden or cleaning a tank…. They go to bed at certain time every night. While they are asleep, they should care about their dreams and nightmares because they shouldn’t be against the organization’s ideology. If so, the member has to write the contradictions and submit to his or her official and accept the consequences.

They should attend the manipulation meetings everyday to reveal their internal thoughts so as nothing of their thought remain hidden to their leaders. Therefore in the city of robots no one has individuality. Everybody belongs to the leader and has to devote his entire life to him.

But the robots of MKO are not equipped with remote control because they sometimes remember their owns and their belongings like the mothers including Batoul Soltani who had kept her children’s photos for years and watched them in the bathroom under heavy fear and anxiety, to keep the least hope in her heart.

But the leaders of MKO go further to kill the hope and will. They force the women in the cult to have hysterectomy surgery because the robots do not substantially have the power of reproduction or giving birth to the other people. This is the way the destructive cult of Rajavi uses along with its process of building robots.

December 31, 2008 0 comments

Iraq

Iraq seeks departure of Iranian opposition exiles

BAGHDAD, Dec 31 (Reuters) – Iraq said on Wednesday it wants thousands of Iranian opposition exiles at a camp north of Baghdad to leave the country, although it does not plan to expel them by force.

Iraqi forces take over responsibility for Camp Ashraf, home to 3,500 exiles of the People’s Mujahideen of Iran, on Jan. 1 as part of a bilateral deal governing the presence of U.S. troops who guarded the camp in the past.

The U.S. embassy said this week some U.S. troops will remain at the camp to help Iraqi authorities protect it after it passes to Iraqi control, but the Iranian exiles say they fear Baghdad may still try to shut it and drive them out.

The People’s Mujahideen fled to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq during the 1980s and fought with Iraqis during the Iran-Iraq war. U.S. forces declared the exiles “protected persons” after the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam.

Baghdad and Washington both consider the exiles to be a terrorist group. The exiles say they fear that the Shi’ite-led Iraqi government, which has friendly ties with Iran, might bow to Iranian pressure to crack down on them.

“The Iraqi government will deal with the people in this camp in a humane way and according to internationally adopted standards, the Iraqi constitution and Iraqi laws,” Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement.

“The government of Iraq does not have any intention to expel the people of this organisation or force them to leave Iraq. But it calls on those people to find another place outside Iraq in any state that may accept them as refugees, or for those who wish to return to Iran to go of their own free will,” it said.

“Iraq is no longer a suitable place for them because the Iraqi constitution does not permit dealings with an organisation classified as a terrorist group.”

December 31, 2008 0 comments

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