How sweet it is to live within a warm, relaxing atmosphere among your family members.
After years of grieves under physical and mental pressures, it is so fascinating to stay with your own family without being worried about the cult leaders’ punishment or the peer pressure of the comrades.
What a pity that they lost many years of their lives without such CALM!
An Urgent Appeal, for Actions and Initiatives on behalf of Iranians in limbo in Iraq; in Defense of Human Rights and the Right to Asylum
Tragedy is too often the stuff of literature. The majority of people worldwide,
try to avoid persons and situations that are shaped by too great a tragedy, concentrating instead on that which is simple and promises some easy resolution
Yet activists are literary figures. They concentrate on human tragedies, not shying away from multi-dimensional problems and readily working towards difficult solutions.
In a region increasingly marked with tragedy , perhaps no story is more tragic than that of the former members of the Iranian Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), who wish to leave their state of limbo in war ravaged Iraq, can not return to Iran and hope for safety, and have not yet managed to gain asylum to any other corner of this earth.
The Iranian poet Shamlou – in his poem “Public Love” – talks of the dead of the year 1953 being the most loving of the living. And we have often repeated this when talking of those who have given their lives in any given year in the still ongoing struggle for freedom and human rights in Iran.
And yet one group of men and women, driven away by the unmet promise of the Iranian people’s revolution and told that if they loved their country and people well enough, they would give up everything and take up arms for just six short months, sought to prove this love by doing just this.
Security, jobs and children even were left behind, as these often young men and women – and some teenagers – left for Iraq , from where this struggle was to take shape.
Yet, each six month term was to be followed up with another, and they who had sought an alternative to two dictatorships within their own country, became victims of their leader’s power fantasies (which with time went as far as forcing all to divorce their partners and ban all other love – except the love for the one power – out of their very hearts) , Saddam Hossein’s war games , and the mind control, punishment routine , beatings and torture by their comrades!
And as the report released in 2005 by Human Rights Watch noted, there was “NO EXIT”![1] They were denied even the freedom to defect or leave. And so they were kept at Camp Ashraf in Iraq until this was turned into Camp “TIPF” , under the charge of US American forces. As hard at conditions were at Camp “TIPF”, with its recent closing the situation of these individuals became even more desperate.
Today, understanding the great and multi-faceted tragedy of these lives held in limbo and under extremely harsh and inhumane conditions , we deem it our responsibility to come to the defense of these fellow Iranians as well as to the defense of the legitimate rights of all political asylum seekers in Iraq. And we call upon all activists and defenders of human rights as well as political organs and organizations to familiarize themselves with this tragedy and – with us – to attempt to bring about a humane solution..
Iran National front – Europe (Germany); Summer 2008
The Following is a list of some of these former MKO members who are now in a state of limbo in Iraq, following the very recent closing of camp “TIPF”. Of these, 35 have been able to leave Iraq and are yet still in search of a destination.
Ebrahim Bolochi
Ebrahim Rahimi
Abolfazl Dehnamaki
Ahad Omidvar
Ahmad Soleimani
Ahmad Shahbazi
Ahmad Sehat
Ahmad Gharamohammadi
Ahmad Minai
Ahmad (pseudo name: Mehdi Ranjbar)
Ardeshir Baghbani
Arash Ahmadian
Esfandiyar Bakhshi
Esmail Momeni
Esmail Hooshyar
Afshin Gharatapeh
Iraj Golalipour
Iraj Mousavi
Parviz Derakshan
Parviz Ranjbar
Parviz Farahmand
Parviz Mousavi
Tohid
Jaber Tai Samirami
Jamal Azimi
Javad Assadi
Hamed Sarafpour
Hojatollah Rostampour
Hojatollah Kafai
Hassan Piransar
Hassan Nemati (Safar)
Hossein Bakhshalizadeh
Hossein Bazrpour
Hossein Borojani
Hossein Rezai
Hossein Zendegi
Hossein Mehravar
Hamzeh Tomari
Hamidreza Sistani
Hamidreza Karimi
Hamid Abdolghafari
Hamid Fellahat
Hamid Mohebi
Hamid Naji
Khosrow Dehani
Davoud Razavi
Dormohammad Dehani
Rayan Petrosian
Rahim Khodagholi
Reza Azmodeh
Reza Zand
Reza Mohammadi (Mehrtash)
Ramezan Ghorbanzadeh
Ramezan Mohammadinasab
Rouzbeh Kurdi
Soleiman Kheyri
Siavash Biyabani
Siavash Saidnia
Seyed Abbas Moussavi
Cyrus Taefi
Cyrus Vafa
Shokrollah Mohammadi
Shahab Ekhtiyari
Shirin Masratbakhsh
Sadegh Khorshidi
Sadegh Zohouri
Abedin Janbaz
Adel Kheyri
Adel Matlabi
Abdolamir Sayahi
Abdolsatar Jahangiri
Abdolkarim Mohammadtaghinejad
Abdollah Nikbakht Tabrizi
Ali Ahmadi
Aliakbare Bojari
Ali Bakhsh-afarinande (Reza Gooran)
Ali Barzegar
Ali Jahanifard
Ali Khademan
Alireza Shahmoradiyan
Ali Abdollahi
Ali Mohammad Baloch
Ali Moghadas
Ali Mirahmadi
Ali Miri
Alireaz Goyande
Alireza Mozenzade Tabrizi
Omad Bagheri
Gholamreza Asghari
Gholamreza Rezai
Gholamreza Kermani
Farzin Fasihi
Farshid Farsat
Farhad Bazrafshan
Firooz Karegar
Kambiz Taghipour
Kaveh Pourhamadani
Karam Eslami
Kamal Mousavi
Kiakavoos Amirahmadi
Keyvan Rastbin
Michael Petrosian
Majid Rouhi
Majid Shabani
Mohsen Abdolkhani
Mohsen Abdollahi
Mohammad Ebrahim Rahimi
Mohammad Amir Raisi
Mohammad Taghi Ansari
Mohamad Tehrani
Mohammad Hossein Yousefi
Mohmmad Dadjou
Mohammad Dostdar
Mohammad Razaghi
Mohammad Reza Hosseini
Mohammad Saadooni
Mohammad Sahebi
Mohammad Ali Ahmadi
Mohammad Ghale-joghi
Mohammad Karami
Mohammad Yousef Charezahi
Mahmoud Bayat
Mahmoud Khaleghi
Mahmoud Eynaki
Morteza Mohajer
Masoud Zarghami
Moustafa Heydari
Moustafa Shafiie
Mansour Asari
Mansour Keshmiri
Manouchehr Khodadadi
Mehdi Barjeste Garmaroudi
Mehdi Abbaszadeh
Mehdi Fazollahi
Mehdi Nikbakht
Mehrdad Abdolvand
Mehrdad Fathi
Mehrdad Vosoghi
Mousa Marzban
Mirbagher Sedaghati
Nader Keshtkar
Nader Naderi
Nadali Rahimi
Nasrollah Azari
Norouz Tavakol
Hadi Afshar (pseudo name: Said Jamali)
Hashem Ostovar
Homayou Kaviani
Vahid Karami
Younes Hassanpour
List compiled on 15.08.2008
[1]For more information please read: http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/mena/iran0505/1.htm
The letter of the 8 recent survivors of Rajavi cult who have managed to get themselves out of Iraq and into Europe
On Tuesday July 22, 2008, eight survivors of the Rajavi cult, who have managed to get themselves out of Iraq and into Europe, attended a meeting in the US embassy in Paris and presented a letter in support of the people who are left back in Camp Ashraf in Iraq.
The names of the newly arrived survivors of the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation terrorist training camp in Iraq – who are protected by the US administration against the will of the Iraqi government – will be kept in confidence at the request of their lawyers and the French police because of fears for their safety.
Rahai Association of Netherlands is proud to announce that the association was involved in helping the new arrivals of the camp and joined them in the meeting.
The names and the stories of every individual will be announced in future along with the stories about the inhuman way the Mojahedin Khalq (Rajavi cult) has tried to control and suppress them during their stay inside the camp.
Rahai
July 24, 2008
Address: prinsesseweg 44-1
9717 BK Groningen
Netherlands
Telefoon: 0031624236194
Fax: 0031505798923
Email: info@rahai.nl
————–
Ambassador Craig Roberts Stapleton
US Embassy in France
2, avenue Gabriel
75382 Paris Cedex 08
France
Your Excellency,
In our introduction we must first express our gratitude to members of the American armed forces in Iraq who helped us to escape from the clutches of the Iranian terrorist cult, Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK), after the group was disarmed in 2003.
We are representing people who want to leave Camp Ashraf, individuals like ourselves who are desperate to get out of the MeK as a terrorist organisation.
We have now reached the safety of Europe after enduring a difficult struggle to get here. We are disappointed that while American forces did nothing to hinder our eventual freedom, nothing was done in any way to help us get to safety and return to normal life.
It is because of this situation that we promised our friends that once we were safe we would speak on behalf of those yet to escape. As the personal representative of President George Bush, we appeal to you to take our message to the heart of your government.
We were greatly disappointed by the closure of the TIPF at Camp Ashraf, Iraq in May this year. This has made it almost impossible for anyone else to leave the MeK and turn their back on terrorism and violence. The US government makes bold statements about the ‘war on terror’. What happens when those involved desperately want to turn their back on terrorism and return to normal life? Does the Administration have no responsibility toward them when they are under your protection?
Instead of helping those who abandon violence as a way of life, American forces are deliberately protecting the infrastructure of the MeK terror group in Iraq. Your government is fully aware of the conditions inside Camp Ashraf. The incidences of unrest, violence and suicides speak of desperate dissatisfaction among those trapped inside the MeK’s hegemony. Yet, for five years your soldiers have been giving protection to both the environment and the individuals which perpetuate this suffering.
American soldiers essentially washed their hands of us once removing us from TIPF. It has been through good fortune and our own efforts that a number of us have reached Europe and gained our freedom. Your government has failed in a moral responsibility to aid those who turn their backs on terrorism.
What will you do now to help others who want to leave the MeK?
The Iraqi government has repeatedly demanded the removal of all foreign terrorist groups from their country. In this respect, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has recently discovered that Iran will no longer accept any ex-MeK from Iraq. Those who protest loudly that the people in Camp Ashraf are in imminent danger of being expelled to Iran and rounded up and executed are plainly wrong. There is no way they can return to their families, even if they want to. This is because your government has failed to dismantle the group over five years and give everyone in the camp the minimum of freedom to decide their own fate.
If you had, we are sure you would have no more than a few hundred loyal terrorists on your hands at this time. Instead, you are forced to remove 3,300 unformed combatants which since 1997 your government has designated as terrorists, from Camp Ashraf under utmost secrecy and maximum security to an unknown location.
There are tens of hundreds who would willingly leave the MeK if they had a minimum of help. We ask you in the name of their families, in the name of human rights and in the name of morality to give them that help.
Yours sincerely
On behalf of our friends in Camp Ashraf, Iraq
Rahai Association, July 24, 2008
rahai.nl
TEHRAN (FNA)- Nejat (Rescue) Association – formed of the former members of the anti-Iran terrorist group Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization – praised the decision by the Baghdad government to take control of the MKO headquarters in Iraq.
“This decision is supported by Nejat Association because once it is materialized, family members of those in the base can meet them and members of this group can make a decision (about their future) independently and away from the psychological pressures imposed on them by the Monafeqin (hypocrites) leaders,” Secretary of the Association Arash Sammeti told FNA here on Tuesday.
Iranians call the MKO as hypocrites since they turned their back to their country and joined Saddam Hossein in the 1980-1988 Iraqi imposed war on Iran.
Recent reports say that the number of those splitting up with the MKO has been on the increase and the terrorist group’s leaders have, thus, tightened up members’ access to the media and information and banned meetings with family members in a bid to reduce the number of defectors through their intensified brainwashing efforts.
The number of defectors of the MKO has been on the increase, specially after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.
After the US invasion of Iraq, members of the group were moved to a camp in northeastern Baghdad – known as Ashraf base – where they live under US-led forces’ protection.
“The decision by the Iraqi government to take control of the Ashraf base has faced Americans, who allege to be a fervent supporter of human rights and campaign against terrorism, with a new test” Sammeti stressed, adding that US action vis-à-vis Baghdad’s decision would illustrate how much Washington is loyal to its claims.”
“Hundreds of MKO family members and defectors have recently filed a complaint with the Iraqi government (to force the group leaders to allow them to have meetings with their family members). Officials in Baghdad have vowed to take action on the basis of the complaint,” Sammeti said, and voiced pleasure with the Iraqi government’s decision.
The Iraqi parliament is set to decide on the fate of the terrorist group amid calls for their expulsion.
“Regarding the presence of the MKO in Iraq, the Iraqi national assembly, the cabinet and the president have made the same decision,” Sheikh Humam Hamoudi, a senior Iraqi lawmaker told press tv last Thursday.
Iraqi parliamentarians and officials have called for the expulsion of MKO members, saying the terrorist group meddles in the country’s internal affairs.
In a recent statement, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Cabinet has also announced that the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization interferes in Iraq’s internal affairs and supports anti-government activities.
The government has formerly banned any deal with the members of the group and called on the US to stop supporting them in Iraq.
Many analysts believe that the government should have expelled the group long time ago in a bid to save many Iraqi lives.
They said the decision would help improve the security situation in the war-torn country.
The MKO has been involved in the killing of many Iraqis under Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Several lawmakers described the group as a threat to Iraq’s national security as it trains anti-government elements and is involved in backing insurgents.
The MKO has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by many countries.
The group is on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze, and has been designated by the US government as a foreign terrorist organization.
Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization has committed innumerable terrorist acts against the Iranian people and top government officials.
Formed in the 1960s in opposition to the rule of US-backed shah, the MKO took part in the 1979 Islamic revolution to take control of Iran, but soon changed course and turned into the main armed opposition to the Islamic Republic and has, ever since, assassinated scores of people and officials.
The then President Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister Mohammad Javad Bahonar and Judiciary Chief Mohammad Hossein Beheshti were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.
The MKO was an ally of the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran in the 1980s.
Hassan Nemati ex-Mojahedin-e Khalq member drowned in the Aegean According to a report by Aria Association, Mr. Hassan Nemati, a former member with 25-years of service in the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), has drowned in the river in the border between Turkey and Greece. 
On 20 May 2008 Hassan Nemati (Saffar), drowned near the shores of Samos as he and a friend tried to enter Greece clandestinely by swimming the river. Hassan Nemati and a group of repentant Mojahedin members were expelled by the Turkish authorities. Nemati and one of his friends decided to leave the Kusadasi and swim to Samos. During the night passage over the Aegean Sea storm waves rose up and Hassan Neamti was drowned. He is the second person who has drowned in Turkish border waters in the past few weeks. On 23 April 2008, Hassan Mirzai, another repentant MKO member, drowned after being forcefully expelled by the Turkish authorities. Mirzai was one of a group of asylum seekers who were made to leave the country by swimming across the river border between Turkey and Iraq. Three others also drowned in the same incident. The body of the Hassan Nemati has not yet been found.
The UNHCR representative in Turkey has condemned the behaviour of the Turkish authorities by announcing the death of Hassan Mirzai and forced eviction of the group via the river.
Moreover, the UNHCR has requested that these refugees are not deported.
According to this organization there are other former MKO asylum seekers who are currently becoming lost in different regions of Iraq, Turkey and Greece.
These people have been deceived for four years by the Mojahedin organization which promised to help them get asylum with European countries if they remained in the TIPF camp.
The Mojahedin organization has not kept its promise and now these people have no protection, they are without legal status and are wandering in the neighbouring countries of Iraq and in Iraqi cities.
Here we must question the western backers of the Mojahedin, and especially Lord Corbett who likes to present a nice democratic mask, about the situation of this organisation:
Is it not true that the leaders of this organization have promised their members that they will pay their airfare if your country gives them asylum?
(Robin Corbett, who promoted terrorism in Iran and Iraq under the logo of MKO for the past 25 years!!)
So until today not only this organization has made no effort to support these people but instead insults and accuses them when they themselves are trying to get out of this miserable situation.
They offer death tickets!
The MKO cult and its leaders have never been messengers of freedom and democracy and the only message they had for their own members were lies, deceit and death.
Who is responsible for the abandonment and deaths of former MKO members?
The Aria Association offers condolences to the bereaved families and implores humanitarian organizations around the world to go to the rescue of these people who are currently in pitiful conditions in Iraq, Turkey and Greece after the closure of the TIPF camp TIPF.
May 24, 2008-Paris
Note by Iran-Interlink:
Last December American forces removed half the MKO dissidents from the TIPF adjacent to Camp Ashraf. On Friday May 2, 2008 American forces completely closed TIPF and transferred the remaining people to Dahouk in Kurdistan. They have been housed for two months and have food rations, but have been told they will then be given over to the UN refugee agency.
The deportation order issued by the Turkish authorities
Link to the report (Audio) in Persian
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/2734560/7957789
Aria Iran, Paris, May 24, 2008 – Translated by Iran-Interlink
http://www.ariairan.com/fr/?mod=view&id=5232 (French)
http://www.ariairan.com/fa/?mod=view&id=5229 (Persian)
http://iran-interlink.org/fa/?mod=view&id=4570 (Persian)
(Mike Shuster reporting from Tehran)RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Iran’s government has regarded Camp Ashraf warily, but some Iranians are helping MEK members get back home. NPR’s Mike Shuster reports from Tehran. MIKE SHUSTER: Like Batul Soltani and thousands of others, Arash Sametipour could’ve been trapped in Camp Ashraf all these years. He joined the MEK in the 1990s, and in 2001 he was sent from Iraq into Iran to assassinate an Iranian general. The plot failed, he lost his right hand in a grenade explosion and was imprisoned in Iran. Now he runs the Nejat Society in Tehran, a non-governmental group that helps former members of the MEK who want to get out of the organization. Recently Sametipour was in Baghdad to meet with some of them, who he agrees are in an impossible situation. Mr. ARASH SAMETIPOUR: Since these people, they did not have any legal documents and the situation in Iraq was really critical for them, we decided to provide them any humanitarian help that we could, and I think we were successful in that point.
SHUSTER: Of the MEK militants in Camp Ashraf, more than 200 have left the camp on their own and have been living in the transitional camp the U.S. set up nearby. These people, Sametipour says, want to leave the MEK but don’t necessarily want to return to Iran.
Iran’s government still views the MEK as a threat and wants to see the group disbanded, according to Ali Resaid(ph), the director of the North America department of Iran’s foreign ministry.
Mr. ALI RESAID (Iranian Foreign Ministry): They are a very serious and very dangerous terrorist group and it is recognized by European and even the U.S. government.
SHUSTER: Iran’s government would like to take custody of the leaders of the MEK and put them on trial, says Sametipour.
Mr. SAMETIPOUR: They were involved in brainwashing process and terrorist 
operations inside Iran. Iranian authorities have announced that these people must be prosecuted in Iran. I think a list of 50 to 60 people are there who Iranians want them. They want them to be prosecuted.
SHUSTER: But it is the position of the Iranian government that the vast majority of those who live in Camp Ashraf are free to return to Iran without punishment, says Ali Resaid.
Mr. RESAID: For those of them who have repentance of their activities, also those of them who are not seriously involved with any assassination or these sort of things, we have amnesty for them.
SHUSTER: The Nejat Society has tested Iran’s offer of amnesty. Arash Sametipour says his group has helped repatriate several hundred former MEK members, and he says they are now living normal lives in Iran.
Mr. SAMETIPOUR: Right after fall of Saddam Hussein, Iranian government had announced officially that there is an amnesty for those who are willing to return home. We have talked to many authorities over here and this is a truth that, you know, when they come back over here to Iran there won’t be any prison waiting for them. They can just live like any other citizen.
SHUSTER: When Sametipour was in Iraq recently he concluded that the U.S. is not really sure what it wants to do with those in Camp Ashraf. Some in the U.S. government, he fears, may still be tempted to use them as a bargaining chip with Iran.
That may also be the case between the government of Iran and Iraq. The issue was on the agenda when Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, traveled to Baghdad in early March for talks with Iraq’s president, Jalal Talibani. Iraq’s government may simply take custody of these people if they are released by the U.S. In that case their fate may figure significantly in the future of relations between Iraq and Iran.
Mike Shuster, NPR News.
NPR: Morning Edition, April 28, 2008
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89990562
We are former members of MKO who are appealing to you and your colleagues to use your influence and contacts to allow members of MKO in camp Ashraf the opportunity to see their families.
Some politicians and lawmakers have chosen to stand with the MKO and have spoken on their behalf in different occasions (like removing them from the terrorist list, falsely presenting them as a “third alternative”, and so on).
We are asking that you make an appeal on behalf of people who are left without a voice in their plight.
As you know there are more than 3000 members of MKO stationed in Iraq on an isolated location called Camp Ashraf (or Ashraf City as is also known). Here they have been imprisoned since 2003 after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
As relations between the governments of Iran and Iraq got better, some attempts were made by families of MKO members in camp Ashraf to arrange for a visit with their sons & daughters. These attempts were made primarily by the parents or siblings of the members in camp Ashraf. The very first attempts started as early as 2003, some months after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Family members had to travel on very harsh and dangerous roads to reach Camp Ashraf which at that point was under the control of the United States Army.
Today however the MKO have made it impossible and downright dangerous for family members to get anywhere near Camp Ashraf. Parents and siblings who haven’t met their loved ones in years or decades are turned away at the gates under threats and abuse. The Mojahedin accuse them of being “spies” for the Iranian regime, even though all they want to do is meet their sons and daughters after years of separation.
This matter goes beyond politics and is just a basic matter of human rights. We ask respectfully that you make any effort possible to convince the leaders of the MKO to do the right thing in this matter and allow the families to visit their loved ones in camp Ashraf.
Please voice your concern on this matter to the MKO and demand that they allow the families of their own members to reconnect with their parents and siblings.
Here are some articles and videos highlighting this issue:
Children of ‘the resistance’ – Canadian National Post article from 2006
Parents of MKO members in Camp Ashraf – Baghdad 2003 – YouTube Video / Parents getting denied to enter Camp Ashraf and accused of being agents of the Iranian Regime
By Iranpeyvand on Apr 17, 2008
Reported by BBC originally in Persian, a group of Mojahedin-e Khalq’s detached members arrived in France. It is the first of a number of groups that managed to leave Iraq for a Western country. 
BBC persian, April 06, 2008:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/2008/04/080405_bd-mko.shtml
Link to Aria Association report:
PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — At a press conference in Paris on April 5, 2008, the first series of survivors of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation, aka the Rajavi cult or Saddam’s private army, announced their escape from Camp Ashraf in Iraq and their arrival in Europe.
The Mojahedin, which is proscribed as a foreign terrorist entity in the US, UK, EU and Canada, was bombarded and disarmed by the US army back in 2003 and have been confined since in Camp Ashraf in Iraq.
Ms. Nasrin Ebrahimi, 26 years old, who served in the group for over 10 years explained how two years ago she used a military vehicle to escape the terrorist run camp and take sanctuary with the American Army. She alleged that Marjan Akbari, daughter of Bashir Akbari, was killed by the organisation about two years ago.
Mr. Jamshid Charlang, 49 years old, alleged imprisonment and torture by the Mojahedin for criticising the group’s leaders. He said during his imprisonment he witnessed the torture and murder of Parivis Ahmadi in an MKO run prison inside Camp Ashraf. The MKO prevented Charlang from seeing his wife and child for twenty years. After the fall of Saddam he escaped and reached the American army camp before arriving in Paris.
Ebad, 33 years old, and Alireza, 36 years old, were among others talking about the situation of Camp Ashraf which is protected by the American Army, but is still run internally by the uniformed military structure kept intact during the past five years.
In February 2008, Massoud Khodabandeh of Iran-Interlink reported from Baghdad after several meetings addressing the issue of foreign terrorism in Iraq. Iraq’s government demand to expel all 3,000+ Camp Ashraf captives is stalled because no western country will de-proscribe the group so that asylum can be granted them. In the interim, Sahar Family Foundation was established in Iraq to help disaffected Mojahedin members who renounce terrorism find asylum, be reunited with their families and integrate back into mainstream life.
The Conference was organised by the Association for the Protection of Iranian Refugees in France. According to BBC reporting, the Association’s spokesman Javad Firoozmand said this is only the first group to arrive in France after the establishment of Sahar Family Foundation
Prnews wire,
Asghar Farzin, Reza Sadeghi, and Ali Biglary, former members of the MKO, plead for justice against the organisation to the Iraqi judicial authorities and urge them to deal with the situation in Ashraf camp
I Asghar Farzin was born on 1965 in Abadan, Iran. On 1987 I moved to Turkey to continue my studying in that country. I was acquainted with the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation (MKO) in the university. They spoke about freedom and justice and also Islam and recruited me into their organisation. The same year, that is December 1987, I was sent to Iraq for a short visit and I returned back to Turkey. The following year I was asked to go to Turkey for a short visit again and I accepted. But this time my passport was taken away from me and they did not let me go back to Turkey. I had to stay in Ashraf camp until the year 2003.
When the coalition and American forces occupied Iraq, I took refuge with the Americans and on February 2004 I moved to a camp called TIPF. On March 2005 I went to Iran to my family in Bushehr on my own request. Now I have come back to Iraq to file a lawsuit against the MKO in Iraqi judicial system.
Consequently 17 years of my life has been wasted and I was kept in Iraq against my will with no contact with my family and if the Americans had not occupied Iraq, God knows how long I had to stay in Ashraf camp. The leaders claim that the entry door of the organisation is closed but the exit is always open. They seduced me and it appeared that they take me to Iraq for a short period but then they said that the exit is only open to the Abu-Ghraib prison in Iraq. Many discontented members had been sent to Abu-Ghraib, therefore I chose to stay in the organisation.
During this period anytime I demanded to contact my family in Iran or I requested to leave the organisation they put me under severe psychological pressure to the point that I would withdraw my request.
The MKO has used seduction as well as compulsion to take away many years of my life when I was young and made me to do forced unpaid labour all through these years. Could a value be estimated for many years of my lost life and my poor heath state at the moment? I urge the Iraqi authorities to deal with the case of the inhabitants of Ashraf camp too who are subject to constant brainwashing and who have no contact with the outside world. I request that the leaders of the MKO face trial since they have abused the basic human rights of their own members.
————–
I Gholam-Reza Sadeqhi Jebeli was born on 1961 in Esfahan, Iran. On 1986 I left Iran to Pakistan and then to Canada and I stayed in Toronto. I married there and I have a son called Arian. After the first Gulf war I was recruited into the MKO and I used to participate in their meetings. On March 1994 I started to work with the organisation fulltime and I used to do street collection and recruiting other people. Then the organisation sent me to the USA and I was a fulltime member over there too. Then I was asked to go to Iraq for a short visit. I travelled to Iraq from New York on September 1997. But in Iraq they took my passport and did not let me go back to Canada again. So I had to stay there against my will until April 2006 when I left the organisation and moved to TIPF. There I realised that my son who had been taken to Iran by a friend when I was going to Iraq is still in Iran and his mother is badly missing me and her. She had gone through hard psychological experiences all through these years and she was hospitalised as the result of enormous mental pressure since she had no trace of either me or our son. The organisation never let me have any sort of contact with them.
Then I decided to go to Iran voluntarily since my son was there. I managed to send him back to Canada to his mother. Now although I can go to Canada myself but I decided to come to Iraq to file a lawsuit against the MKO for wasted many years of my life and my shattered family. The fact is that the organisation seduced me to go to Iraq and forced me to stay there and did not let me to have any contacts with my family in Canada or in Iran. I should also add that when I announced inside the organisation that I would definitely want to despatch from the MKO and the psychological pressure had no use, they assaulted me physically which left me a broken finger which is still noticeable.
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I Ali Biglari was born on 1969 in Kermanshah, Iran. During the Iran-Iraq war I was arrested by the Iraqi forces. On October 1989 the MKO people including Mehdi Abrishamchi came to the camp of the prisoners of war in Iraq and recruited me telling many lies and giving false promises. On the year 2000 I announced that I wanted to dispatch the organisation and consequently they put me in solitary confinement. The condition to get out of the jail was to announce that I regretted my previous request to leave the organisation. Eventually they handed me over to the Iraqi security forces and they took me strait to Abu-Ghraib prison under the charge of illegally passing the boarder. In the prison I requested to meet with the ICRC but they paid no attention and there was no trial either. I was a POW and I was registered with the Red Cross and had an ID number, so illegally passing the boarder had no significance with my case, but they used to say openly that I had to either go back to the MKO or stay in prison without any trial. I was in prison up to the second Gulf war when I was handed over to the Iranian officials and I went back to my family on March 2003. Now I have been married for three years and I have a two years old daughter. I have returned to Iraq to claim for 18 years of my life which was wasted in Iraq and the physical and psychological damages that I suffered both inside the organisation and inside Abu-Ghraib prison. Mehdi Abrishamchi and others who came to the camp of PWOs in Iraq seduced me and showed me a false image of the MKO. They first told me that I can leave anytime I wanted to but I ended up in Abu-Ghraib prison. They imprisoned me and tortured me inside the organisation merely because I wanted to depart and they left the rest of the work for Saddam’s security forces. The mental pressure on me was so high that I once committed suicide inside the organisation but fortunately I survived.
I have come to Iraq to urge the Iraqi judicial authorities to deal with many crimes of the MKO in Iraq against its own members and also deal with the situation of those mentally and physically captured in Ashraf camp and help them.
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Contact (Iraq):
saharfamily@yahoo.com
Tel: +964 – 7808481650 (Arabic and Farsi)
Contact (outside Iraq):
Sahar
BM 2632
London
WC1N 3XX
U.K.
Tel: +44 – 2076935044 (English only)
