Personal Rights of Members in the MEK

MKO Members Fail to Escape Camp Liberty

A number of members of the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as MEK, NCRI MKO Members Fail to Escape Camp Liberty and PMOI) failed in their attempt to run away from a hospital near the group’s transient settlement facility, Camp Liberty, near the Iraqi capital.

“Over 70 members of the grouplet sought to escape from the hospital where they were treated after going on a forced hunger strike, but they didn’t succeed,” a physician at one of Baghdad’s hospitals wrote in a letter to Iraq’s human rights ministry.

The Iraqi physician wrote in his letter that these people have told him that they were forced by the MKO ringleaders to go on hunger strike, and have given letters to the Iraqi medics to be submitted to human rights organizations in order inform the relevant authorities of vitally bad conditions.

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

A recent Human Rights Watch report accused the MKO of running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations.

According to the Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.

The group, 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 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 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 US jurisdiction unfrozen and do business with American entities, the State Department said in a statement at the time.

In September 2012, the last groups of the MKO terrorists left Camp Ashraf, their main training center in Iraq’s Diyala province. They have been transferred to Camp Liberty which lies Northeast of the Baghdad International Airport.

January 28, 2014 0 comments

UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Letter to Guterres from former MKO members

Letter to António Guterres UNHCR from former members in Eastern Azarbaijan province in Iran

Honorable António Guterres UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva

As your Excellency are aware, Camp Liberty in Baghdad, the temporary camp for nearly three thousand members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) subjected Thursday night 26 December 2013 to a terrorist attack by rockets and mortars. According to PMOI this attack caused death of 4 of the camp residents and wounding 71 others, many of them in critical condition.

The PMOI has published the names and photographs of the killed, but not the names of the wounded.

We, the undersigned, as a group of former members of PMOI in Eastern Azarbijan province (Northwest of Iran), express our support for the request of the families of the residents of Camp Liberty to ask your honor, as UN High Commissioner for Refugees and international authority are responsible to solve this issue, as well as the competent international bodies, especially the International Committee of the Red Cross and its office in Iraq to obligate the leadership of the PMOI to announce the names of the wounded residents in this incident by any appropriate means, such as informing the families or to allow the wounded to contact or meet their families because according to international humanitarian laws and basic principles of human rights, they are worried about the health and status of their relatives residing in the refugee camp.

We believe that lifting the cultic and organizational restrictions are the basic and fundamental way to liberate captive members in Iraq, from an organization that has known as a reactionary cult with dictatorial internal relations, as has been emphasized in recent UNAMI report for the first half year of 2013, where indicates: “UNAMI continuing concerns about human rights abuses committed by the PMOI/MeK leadership within Camp Hurriya against the residents….The PMOI/MeK, which has a hierarchical and authoritarian structure, imposes a number of severe restrictions on the residents’ rights, including the right of freedom of movement within the Camp and the right to leave the organization, the free right of association, along with restrictions on contacts with family members (including those residing in Camp Hurriya), on access to basic communications, and on access to medical care and treatment.”

We also announce our support for the request of a group of families of the residents of Camp Liberty to speed up the transfer of the residents from Iraq, where there are daily killings of many innocent people in terrorist incidents or in bloody sectarian clashes, to the third countries specially the sick and wounded, while nearly third of them have documents of residency or asylum in European countries or North America.

We join these families to call international bodies, especially the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to put their utmost efforts to urge the member states towards resettling the residents to the third countries as soon as possible.

We would like to express our deep appreciation and gratitude in advance for your efforts in this regard, and informing the families about the fate and status of their relatives in Camp Liberty.

a group of former members of PMOI in Eastern Azarbijan province (Northwest of Iran)

27 January 2014

Signatories:

1. Sirous Ghazanfari

2. Maseoud Taghipouryan

3. Mohammadreza Mobin

4. Akbar khabare

5. Hosen Hemati

6. Ahmad Hosenzade

7. Ahad Rsolpour

8. Karam Kheiri

9. Ali Ghanbarzade

10. Abdolahe Nikbakht tabrizi

11. Ali Amani

12. Alah Verdi Rsolzade

13. Shahryar Samade

14. Saeid pakdel

15. Hedar Abolhasani

16. Nader Chap Chap

17. Alireza Moghadami chbcghloei

18. Hamid Rastegari

19. Jaefar Fraj pour andbili

20. Akbar Dolt negad

21. Jelal Salmani

22. Habibe Monesi ghramlki

23. Jamshid Nazari

24. Mohammad javad Asadi

25. Esmaeil Aghapour

26. Mehdi Pourghasem

27. Reza Shams

A copy to:

– Secretary- General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-moon – New York

– Mrs. Jane Holl Lute UNSG adviser for relocation of Camp Liberty residents to third countries.

– UN High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations, Ms Nawi. Pillay – Geneva

– the Special Representative of the Secretary- General of the United Nations in Iraq, Mr. Nikola Mladenov

– Chairman of the human rights monitoring in the UNAMI in Iraq, Mr. Ashouri

– Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, in Iraq

– Ashraf – Liberty Project Office in the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations in Camp Liberty – Mr. Ahmed Al-Tamimi

– The International Committee of the Red Cross

– Office of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Baghdad

– Office of the Prime Minister of Iraq

– Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights

– Amnesty International

– Human Rights

Community of Independent Bloggers,

January 28, 2014 0 comments

Open letter to Mrs. Jane Holl Lute

Dear Mrs Holl Lute, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General for the Relocation of Camp Hurriya (aka Liberty) Residents Outside of Iraq, please accept our warm greetings as former members of the PMOI.

Mrs Holl Lute We hope that you complete your mission successfully and very quickly because of the hardship and misery which each one of us tolerated and endured in the PMOI and for the sake of our friends who are still trapped and stuck in this notorious organization.

We, separated members and critics, know very well that because of the egoism of the PMOI leadership and by invoking the fanatical principles of their ideology, the PMOI leadership will try its best to keep those miserable and trapped members in Iraq until they die, and that, as a matter of fact, the leadership welcomes their deaths because they know that the majority of PMOI members, especially the rank and file of this organization, will become their critics as soon as they reach the free world. For that reason we would like to help you in your mission as much as possible.

Mrs Holl Lute, breaking the cult-like and organizational barriers is the basis and fundamental prelude to the release, rescue and exit of those stranded and trapped members in Iraq. The PMOI leadership has robbed them of their ability to think for themselves and make decisions on their own behalf.

Your interlocutors for the rescue mission from Iraq should rightly be the individual members and not the organization and its self-appointed representatives, but because of the problems and obstacles which we would like to discuss with you, any discussion individually with those trapped members may be out of reach at present because all those members are made to obey their leaders’ orders regarding this matter.

We would like to share our experiences with you regarding this subject and how you might best approach this problem.

We wish you every success in your humanitarian mission and we eagerly follow your endeavours and activities in this regard.

Separated members and critics of the PMOI.

21 January 2014

Signatories:

1.Mohammad Karami

2. Hassan Piransar

3. Batul Soltani

4. Saba Shekar Beyghi

5. Mohsen Mahdavi

6. M. Barazandeh

7. Hamid Sistani

8. Mahmoud Sepahi

9. Mehrdad Sagharchi

10. Ghorbanali Hossein nejad

11. Hassan Azizi

12. Seyed Amir movasaghi

13. Alireza Mirasghari

14. Edward Termado

15. Behzad Alishahi

16. Toraj Amiri

17. Massoud Khodabandeh

18. Shirzad Jalili

19. Majid Rohi

20. Niaz Salimi

21. Shamim Rabiee

22. Anne Singelton

23. Bahiee Jeylani

24. Nasrin Ebrahimi

25. Zahra Al Sadat Mirbagheri

26. Homeyra Mohammad Nejad

27. Mahtab Alipour

28. Zahra Moini

29. Mona Hossein Nejad

30. B- Amiri

31. Visha Madej

32. Ahmad Mohammadi

33. Arash Sameti pour

34. Ali Khatami

35. Saeed Soltanpour

36. Ali Ghashghavi

37. Ali Jahani

38. Hamid Dehdar

39. Ehsan Bidi

40. Mehdi Khoshhal

41. Hassan Khalag

42. Jafar Ebrahimi

43. Hamid Yosefi

44. Vahid Saidi

45. Adel Azami

46. Ali akbar Rastgo

47. Mitra Yousefi

48. Massoud Jabani

49. Mohammadreza Najarian kermani

50 . Homayon Kahzadi

51 . Mirbagher Sedaghi

52 .Ghafour Fatahyian

53-Reza Fani Yazdi

54. kobra Kobra

55. Mehdi Sajoudi

56. Ronak Eyazi

57. Hamed Shirmardi

58 . Mehdi Nikbakht

59.Shahrouz Tajbakhsh

Copies to

– Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-moon – New York

– UN High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations, Ms Nawi Pillay – Geneva

– Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations in Iraq, Mr Nikola Mladenov

– Chairman of the human rights monitoring in the UNAMI in Iraq, Mr Ashouri

– Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations in Iraq

– Ashraf-Liberty Project Office in the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations in Camp Liberty – Mr Ahmed Al-Tamimi

– The International Committee of the Red Cross

– Office of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Baghdad

– Office of the Prime Minister of Iraq

– The Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights

– Amnesty International

-Human Rights Watch

Faryade Azadi, Paris

January 22, 2014 0 comments

Camp Liberty

Who is to blame for the killing of Liberty residents ?

Iraq has experienced countless religiously or politically motivated attacks since Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. The country has witnessed numerous bloody days. The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) says that more than 5,200 people were killed between April and the end of September this year. The escalating violence caused Iraq to be an insecure region for the residents. The Mujahedin Khalq members as unwanted guests are no exception.
Camp Liberty, the temporary transit location of Mujahedin Khalq was hit by rockets on Thursday December 26, with three people dead and several others seriously injured, Reuters cited the camp’s spokesperson as saying.
This is the fourth rocket attack this year against the camp where 3000 members of Mujahedin reside.
Mujahedin Khalq is the Iraqi dictator’s accomplice in suppressing Shiite and Kurds uprisings who after the fall of Saddam continued its provocative practices. The Iraqi people have deep seated hatred towards the MKO since their hands stained with the blood of their countrymen and beloved ones. Iraqi authorities have issued 148 arrest warrants for MEK members for crimes against Iraqis since 1991 but none have been arrested, according to officials.
Reuters reports that Wathiq al-Batat, the commander of the al-Mukhtar Army militia, took responsibility for the attack on the MKO camp accusing the group of communicating with Sunni and Shi’ite politicians he said were linked to al Qaeda.Al-Batat said :” “We’ve asked (the government) to expel them from the country many times, but they are still here,”
So the Iraqi soil is no more safe for the Mujahedin members.
After the attack on Camp Liberty EU, US, UN and some other International bodies condemned the attack in strong terms as it claimed the lives of Camp residents and urged the Iraqi government to step up security measures around the Camp and called on Iraq to launch investigation into the incident.
The Iraqi authorities have repeatedly reiterated that they have problem in providing security for their own people let alone for the members of an unwanted terrorist organization.
This process has been the case after each attack on both Camps Ashraf and Liberty, bearing no fruit.
Every time Iraq reiterates its unwillingness to let MKO stay on their soil, International bodies’ duty seems to be just condemning the attacks. The cult leaders on their turn try to take advantage of the incidents and shedding of members’ bloods.
The leaders and high ranking members of the organization who are residing in safe places do not care about the safety and well being of the rank and file members being trapped in the cul de sac of Iraq.
The Cult leaders won’t put into danger their cultic structure by letting members out individually, rather they want to relocate members as a unit. They strive to survive their cult by putting its members under missiles and bullets. The power-thirsty leaders of the group just look at the members as tools to promote their ambitions.
Still the only voiceless victims of the incidents are Camp residents who are both ignored by international society as well as their own leaders. Liberty residents are the plaything of political equations between their leaders and the leaders’ masters .
Really, who is to be blamed and who is to be making accountable for the lives of the 3000+ trapped residents of the Temporary Transit Location ?!
A. Sepinoud

January 4, 2014 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

Human Rights Declaration; MKO Version

The Mujahedin Khalq ringleaders are desperate to use any means possible to gain the support and favor of the West. They stage rallies, hold conferences and events and hire prominent political figures as paid speakers to speak out on their behalf.

The latest show of MKO was held on the eve of Human Rights Day in Paris, in which Maryam Rajavi marked the Human Rights Day and also tried to link its group to Nelson Mandela as his funeral and commemoration of his life and legacy was coincided with the HR Day. Needless to say that Mandela was a global symbol for the struggle for Human Rights.

The sight of Maryam Rajavi offering condolences for the passing away of Nelson Mandela was disturbing, considering that her husband as the fugitive leader of her group actively opposed and criticized Mandela’s legacy.

Unlike Mandela, who earned profound international respect, Rajavis cannot claim that they have sought to establish policy and practice in order to protect fundamental Human Rights.

Despite concrete evidences and most shocking examples of the group’s callous disregard for Human Rights, the deceitful cult leaders claim charming support for democracy and Human Rights.

On MKO website under the title of “NCRI position on Human rights” the third Agenda is: [the NCRI] “Promotes and adheres to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”. [1]

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948 at Palais de Chaillot, Paris. The Declaration represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled. [2]

This UDHR is proclaimed as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive to promote respect for the rights and freedoms entitled and enlisted in the 30 articles of the declaration.[3]

Based on the agenda inserted on its website, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization aka MKO/MEK/NCRI has obliged itself to respect the Human Rights declaration. Thus the group should implement it within its own organization as a sample society of the bigger it wishes to create and govern. Yet the group doesn’t apply even one out of 30 articles of the Declaration. U.N. envoy Martin Kobler accused the leaders of Mujahedin Khalq of human rights abuses. Kobler told the Security Council:" Of increasing concern are the human rights abuses in Camp Hurriya itself by the camp leadership,…Hundreds of daily monitoring reports suggest that the lives of Camp Hurriya members are tightly controlled."[4]

A glance at the Declaration’s articles shows that none of them are being applied by the group.

To name some; the third article of the HR declaration reads: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” The forth articles reads:” No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.” And the fifth Article reads:”No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”[5]

Yet according to Human Rights watch report the former MKO members reported abuses ranging from detention and persecution of ordinary members wishing to leave the organization, to lengthy solitary confinements, severe beatings, and torture of dissident members.[6]

The MKO violates the Article 9, which urges no unfair detainment.

According to Human Rights Watch report the MKO held dissidents in its internal prisons during the 1990s and later turned over many of them to Iraqi authorities, who held them in Abu Quraib. One of the former MKO members interviewed, according to the report, recalled that during the mid-1990s a prisoner died after an intense beating. Two other former MEK members said they were held in solitary confinement for extensive periods of time, one for five years, and the other for eight and a half years.[7]

The MKO violates the article 12, which insists on the right to privacy. Nonetheless, authoritarian control, confiscation of assets, sexual control (including mandatory divorce and celibacy), emotional isolation, forced labor, sleep deprivation, physical abuse, and limited exit options are examples of the group’s leaders abusing the followers. [8]

The MKO violates the Article13, which urges the freedom to move and take residency.

According to the RAND report, to prevent MEK/MKO members from departing the camps, almost all MEK/MKO recruits were obliged to turn over their identity documents to the MKO for “safekeeping”. By bringing members into Iraq illegally and then confiscating their identity documents, the MKO was able to trap them. [9] Among the numerous references to the Mujahaddin e-Khalq (MEK) revealed by Wikileaks were cases of forced detention at Ashraf:"The MEK was also violating human rights by holding residents at Ashraf against their will." [10]

The MKO violates the Article 14, which asserts the right to seek a safe place to live.

The deadly incidents in Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty caused all concerned individuals to be worried about the fate and life of MKO members to be worried about their fate. All parties concerned have reached to the consensus that the only way to resolve situation of Camp Liberty residents is to relocate them somewhere out of Iraq. António Guterres, UNHCR chief insisted: “The residents of Camp Hurriya urgently need solutions to relocate out of Iraq".[11] Still the leaders of the group are reluctant to let members relocate to third countries as this way they will lost their cultic hegemony on members.

Martin Kobler, the former Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq, several times deplored the lack of cooperation of the residents and of their leadership with the UNHCR and UN monitors. In an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad Kobler said that “residents of an Iranian dissident camp are denied freedom of movement by the exile group.”[12]

Wendy Sherman, the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs also noted that the MEK’s leadership in Paris was obstructing the process to resettle MEK members.[13]

The MKO violates the article 16 which avows the right of marriage and family.

Cult leaders instructed members not just to move into gender-segregated housing but also to divorce their spouses, maintain complete celibacy, and even cut off communication with friends and family, both within and beyond MeK compounds. Love for the Rajavis was to replace love for spouses and family. Martin Kobler former UN envoy in Iraq addressing the UN Security Council on July 2013 said that Camp Liberty residents are not free to “contact family members outside Iraq, or to have contact with other relatives even within the camp itself “ [14]

The MKO violates the article 18 which insists on the freedom of thought.

MKO members are required to keep daily records of their thoughts and nighttime dreams, as well as observations about their fellow members. They must submit their journals to their supervisors. The leadership requires members to study MKO ideology and to participate in indoctrination sessions that are characterized by a mix of propaganda and fear tactics. Group members are required to watch films of the Rajavis’ speeches. They are allowed to listen and watch only the group’s own broadcasts. The members are allowed to read only internal reports and Bulletins. Violators are punished. [15] The increasing number of defections and those willing to leave the Camp Liberty has caused the leaders to push more pressure on members implementing constant bombardment of indoctrination and manipulation cult methods.

The MKO violates the article 19 which avers the freedom of expression.

Former MKO members say that punishment is frequently meted out for such offenses as expressing or fomenting disagreement with the political or military strategy of the MeK or sharing individual political views with other members.[16]

All mentioned above are just instances of harsh human rights abuses taking place within the affairs of the Mujahedin Khalq Cult. This is why the people being trapped within the double prison of MKO camp risk everything to run away. In one case for example, Zahra Bagheri crawled combat-style over a kilometer for hours in the dark to escape Camp Ashraf. Her body was so lacerated and bleeding that the Iraqi soldiers who found her were shocked and shed tears by seeing her deplorable condition.[17]

The defectors testimonies point to deteriorating Human Rights conditions in Camp Liberty. Still the Camp residents have no voice. Nobody takes care about their fates and their sufferings. The MKO Cult leaders on their turn have been “actively obstructive, indeed provocative, toward those wishing to investigate and alleviate this suffering” as Ann Singleton put it correctly. [18]

By: A.Sepinoud

References:

[1] Nejat bloggers are either former MKO members or have a family member who is currently held in Camp Ashraf. They have suffered deeply because of Massoud Rajavi’s crimes. While the Nejat Bloggers recognize that citing sources of information is essential ,we, as a society feel so strongly against the MKO that we have agreed to not include the group’s websites or links in our articles because we consider it as kind of publicity for the cult.

[2] Universal Declaration of Human Rights ,Wikipedia

[3] The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,UN.org,

[4] Charbonneau, Louis, Iran dissidents in Iraq, accused of rights abuses, slam UN envoy, Reuters News, July16,2013

[5] The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,UN.org,

[6]Human Rights Watch, NO Exit, May2005

[7]ibid

[8] Goulka, Jeremiah, Hansell, Lydia, Wilke, Elizabeth, Larson, Judith, The Mujahedin-e Khalq in Iraq, A Policy Conundrum, RAND, August2009

[9]ibid

[10] WikiLeaks Releases involving Mujahaddin e-Khalq (MEK) , National Iranian American Council (NIAC),September 9,2011

[11] Bobb, Donn, UNHCR welcomes Albanian offer to Hurriya residents, unmultimedia.org, March 2013

[12] SCHRECK, ADAM, AP Interview: UN Iraq rep Martin Kobler urges exile cooperation, Associated Press, June 27, 2013

[13] NIAC, MEK leader in Paris obstructing the process to resettle members, October 4, 2013

[14] Charbonneau, Louis, Iran dissidents in Iraq, accused of rights abuses, slam UN envoy, Reuters News, July16,2013

[15] Goulka, Jeremiah, Hansell, Lydia, Wilke, Elizabeth, Larson, Judith, The Mujahedin-e Khalq in Iraq, A Policy Conundrum, RAND, August2009

[16] ibid

[17]Singleton,Ann, Silencing the victims of the MeK to promote Maryam Rajavi’s phoney feminism,March7,2013

[18] Singleton, Anne & Khodabandeh ,Massoud, The Life of Camp Ashraf – Mojahedin-e Khalq, Victims of Many Masters, September 2011

December 18, 2013 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

It’s Time to Close the Camps

The last quarter century has been a time of great change across the globe, much of which has been for the better. The number of electoral democracies has grown from 69 in 1989 to 118 today. Despite

Michael Rubin Russia’s resurgence, the instability wrought by the Arab Spring, and the dangers posed by rogue regimes, the world remains far freer now than at any point in history.

How tragic it is, then, that so many tens of thousands remain effectively imprisoned in political concentration camps. North Korea, of course, is the world’s worst violator. According to the Guardian, the left’s flagship paper, up to 200,000 North Koreans remain imprisoned. CNN has detailed some of the ongoing horror in the six camps, and any report from the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea is worth reading. The Hermit Kingdom is not alone, though.

For decades, China has also maintained a series of “re-education through labor” [laojiao] camps. And while the Chinese government has recently promised to dismantle its network, actions ultimately speak louder than words.

The United States might have little leverage over China and North Korea, but low-hanging fruit which could be resolved with American diplomatic pressure does exist. The Mujahedin al-Khalq (MKO) is correct to castigate those who believe that the Iranian government or its militia proxies should enjoy an open season on group members. Opposing massacres is not synonymous with support for the group, however; it may no longer be a U.S.-designated terror group, but remains just as much an authoritarian cult. And while MKO spokesmen may castigate the Iraqi government and the Iranian regime, the real victims of the MKO lay within the group itself. Camp Liberty—the successor to Camp Ashraf—exists as much if not more to keep MKO members insulated from the real world and under the control of MKO leader Maryam Rajavi’s commissars than as a means of protection for group members.

Other camps exist in the Tindouf province of southwestern Algeria. Here, perhaps 40,000 residents of southern Morocco, Algeria, western Mali, and northern Mauritania languish in camps controlled by the once-Marxist Polisario Front, largely kept from returning home by the group’s political commissars and the Algerian government. During a recent visit to Dakhla, in Western Sahara, I had the opportunity to speak to former members who described not only their own escape from the camps, but the attempts by others who were forcibly returned to the camps, where Polisario authorities punished them for the audacity of seeking to return home rather than languish in camps 22 years after the war between Morocco and Algeria ended. Simply put, Polisario realizes that if the camps close, the gravy train of international assistance would end and the Polisario would lose its raison d’être.

The Polisario is not the only Cold War remnant stubbornly holding hostages. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia also engages in the practice, holding some prisoners for more than a decade. While some journalists parachute in and whitewash just what happens in FARC camps, it is hard to see “cultural programming” as anything other than an attempt at ideological re-education.

The Obama administration came into office seemingly committed to prioritizing human rights, never mind the debates about how best to guarantee rights, freedom, and liberty. The State Department became a revolving door not only for journalists, but for human-rights advocates, most notably Human Rights Watch’s Tom Malinowski and writer Samantha Power. Increasingly, however, it seems such figures are either window dressing for an administration so disinterested in human rights that it is willing to sanction political concentration and re-education camps or, worse yet, that these figures are so permeated by moral equivalency and skewed in their understanding of what universal human rights are that they are willing to normalize with the regimes, sponsors, and groups which engage in such practices.

Concentration camps and slavery (discussed in a previous post) are two phenomena that simply should not exist in the 21st century. That they do is a sad testament to the reality of regimes like North Korea’s, China’s, Algeria’s, Venezuela’s, and Cuba’s, and the choices which successive U.S. administrations–both Democrat and Republican–have made to not let such issues be stumbling blocks to engaging with the United States on other issues.

Michael Rubin, Commentary Magazine

December 18, 2013 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

Psychological pressure and violation of human rights in Rajavi’s cult

We have informed our readers in previous articles that discontent amongst the members of Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK or MKO), stationed in Camp Liberty near Baghdad in Iraq, is escalating and Why do the international organizations close their eyes? more and more individuals seek to leave Rajavi’s cult. The situation is so tense that the commanders of the cult have openly declared a state of alert. The main task of the officials of the cult is to identify discontented members, place them under scrutiny and to employ their inhumane psychological techniques against them. The commanders have been warned that if any of the members under their command escapes, they will be severely punished.

In order to bring the members under tighter control and make them forget about escaping, the officials of the cult have increased the peer pressure in the sessions named “current operation” and, as they say, have heated them up. In these sessions the person who is the subject is put under severe harassment by others using insults and accusations. This is done to break down the subject mentally. The situation is so hard that after the session they closely watch the subject so they do not commit suicide.

In these sessions for instance they tell the subject that he or she has become a vampire sucking the blood of the organization. This is related to an address by the cult leader Massoud Rajavi to his followers in which he warned them against sucking the blood of the organization. Rajavi, like all cult leaders, instead of being responsible toward his followers for leading the organization into catastrophe is claiming that they are sucking the blood out of his cult.

Other examples are calling the subject ‘empty minded’ or a ‘stinky inhumane body’. They make the subject confess that all these years they were busy sucking the blood of the organization and have betrayed the leader. They make the subject feel ashamed of being alive.

In these sessions they ultimately, after shattering the subject mentally, accuse the person of still having ties with their family in their heart and that they must cut out these reactionary ties. What the person must do practically is to confess this and then publicly denounce all his or her loved ones.

One interesting issue is that the cult keeps calling the officials of the UN and the ICRC spies and elements of the enemy, and has announced that approaching them is passing a red line. Approaching these people or asking for them and even talking about them is equivalent to betraying the organization and the consequence is to become the subject of these devastating daily sessions. In each meeting Rajavi and other leaders of the cult talk against the UN and the ICRC in relation to Camp Liberty and call them the agents of Iran and Iraq. All the cult officials think about is how to prevent the members from escaping.

The way the cult treats its followers in the big prison called Camp Liberty under the absolute rule of Massoud Rajavi is an obvious violation of human rights. The treatment and conditions of the captives in the camp is most certainly inhumane. The international organizations are fully aware of these things but for some political interests close their eyes and remain silent. Such behavior is not acceptable under any standard but unfortunately the victims of Rajavi have no voice.

We have repeatedly announced that the lives and psychological health of Rajavi’s captives are in danger, and that the international officials who deliberately do not fulfill their duties and have given Rajavi an open hand, and do not ever openly say what they see with their own eyes, are responsible.

Sahar Family Foundation once again repeats previous warnings that appeasing Massoud Rajavi, the cult leader of MKO, is against the interests of his captives in Camp Liberty and makes him even more impudent and will have no benefit for anyone.

December 16, 2013 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

MKO: Don’t criticize us or you are IRI’s agent!

The Mujahedin khalq Organization (the MKO) is a destructive cult by any criteria. It is a cult because of MKO: Don't criticize us or you are IRI's agent! many reasons. One of the most significant reasons is that it cannot handle criticism. However, criticism is regularly applied inside the cult –to keep members brainwashed — but not against the cult leaders. In fact, self-criticism and confession are part of the methodology of the destructive cults including the MKO.

Members of the group are tasked with reporting all their 24/7 thoughts, emotions and dreams to their senior officials, they have to criticize themselves or their peers for any natural thought that might –according to the cult regulations – distract them from the aim of the group but they are never allowed to criticize or question their superior ones. Criticizing the leaders of the group makes you the most disgusting creature in the cult that deserves the most horrific punishments.

Javad Firouzmand, a former member of the MKO revealed parts of suppressive conduct by the group senior officials against members in the MKO camps who were willing to leave the group or had declared their defection from the group. He described the way Mehdi Abrishamchi –the so-called chairman of the Peace Commission of the National Council of Resistance— treated the 400 cult members who were not willing to stay in the group any more. The entire 400 dissident members were accused of being”the spies of the regime”, as Mr. Firouzmand reminds.”He [Abrishamchi] definitely remembers the time he handed a number of defectors and dissidents of the group to Saddam Hussein forces. They were then imprisoned in AbuQuraib where they would be tortured and die and no one would know about their fate,”Firouzmand wrote. [1]

He also notes the MKO’s dreadful ability to fabricate documents against critic members. He recalls the night when Abrishamchi came to his cell in Ashraf prison and asked him to sign a paper or he would be put to death. The document was supposed to prove that he had been arrested by the MKO forces in front of Iranian embassy in Baghdad a few hours after he had escaped the camp. As Firouzmand states he had never gone to Iranian embassy but actually he had been arrested by Iraqi security forces in the house of an Iraqi merchant! He was threatened to death when he didn’t accept to sign the paper. Later he was forced to sign some documents just in order to survive!

The waves of dissent among MKO supporters outside the camps and rank and file inside the camps who are constantly offended by the mind controlling, oppressive and cult-like system of the group, flooded by the group’s propaganda, deprived from their most basic human rights, have amplified the bankruptcy of the group. Indeed, in recent years the group has struggled hard to survive rather than struggling to allegedly overthrow the Islamic Republic.

Ann Singleton is another former member of the group, Middle East Strategy Consultants, Author of “Saddam’s Private Army” and “The life of Camp Ashraf”. She notifies the MKO’s undemocratic weird attitude toward any criticism. As Mrs. Singleton puts those who recently distanced themselves from the group by tenderly criticizing some of the leaders’ functions”have been stunned by the vitriolic attacks the MEK launched against them”. [2]

“The Rajavis of course claim that anyone who speaks out against them, particularly the former members, has been recruited by the IRI and sent to destroy the MEK as part of a malicious, murderous plan.”Singleton writes.”Yet where is the evidence of this?”, she asks.[3]

The cult-like substance of the MKO undermines any efforts by the group to get the gesture of a democratic alternative to Iranian government. Jeremia Goulka who is one of the co- authors of the RAND report on the MKO, suggests that the MEK vigorously denies that it is a cult, accusing critics of working for the Iranian regime or performing inadequate research. “However, I studied the MEK in depth and over a period of many months for the U.S. military,”he writes. He describes his experience of visiting Camp Ashraf:

“I visited Camp Ashraf, the MEK facility 40 miles north of Baghdad, and interviewed MEK members, former MEK members, and dozens of military and civilian officials. Along with almost all of my interviewees and Human Rights Watch, I concluded that the MEK is a cult. It employs many common cult practices: mandated celibacy and divorce, thought control, sleep deprivation, and forced labor. It segregates men from women, separates families and friends – who must seek permission just to converse – and even tells family members back home that the members are dead.”[4]

“While its propaganda arm espouses Western values to Western audiences, the MEK continues to force-feed its doctrine to members who may not criticize the Rajavis and are not free to leave the Ashraf compound,”he notes. [5] Referring to Maryam Rajavi’s propaganda against the Iranian nuclear program, Goulka warns Western supporters of the group about the risk of advocating a group that he absolutely sees a cult.

By Mazda Parsi

References:

[1] https://www.nejatngo.org/fa/posts/15172

[2] https://www.nejatngo.org/en/posts/5513

[3] ibid

[4] Goulka, Jeremiah, INVESTIGATIONS BEGIN INTO MEK SUPPORTERS UP, Salon.com, March 28, 2012

[5] Goulka, Jeremiah, THE IRAN WAR HAWKS’ FAVORITE CULT GROUP, Salon.com, March 28, 2012

December 14, 2013 0 comments

Duplicity of the MEK nature

Defector’s Testimonies on Pure Violence in the MKO

While Iran and the world six powers were negotiating the Iranian nuclear program, the Mujahedin Khalq propaganda arm the so-called National Council of Resistance was all the time launching their notorious disinformation campaign against Islamic Republic.

The MKO figure who is introduced as "chairman of the Peace Commission of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, is Mehdi Abrishamchi. He is the key PR runner who declares the alleged revelations on Iranian nuclear program in the press conferences organized by the group.

Mehdi Abrishamchi is actually the ex-husband of the group’s alleged president elect Maryam Rajavi who divorced his wife to grant her to the leader of the cult Massoud Rajavi. Massoud married Maryam immediately after she separated from Abrishamchi.

Once Abrishamchi became the MKO’s PR tribune under the misleading title "chairman of Peace Commission", former members of the group reminded his true nature as a malicious official of "the Cult of Rajavi".

Javad Firouzmand is an MKO ex-member and currently the spokesman of Iran Aria Association that was founded by former members of the group to aid release and relocation of the group members. Mr. Firouzmand is one of those defectors of the cult who published a detailed article on Mehdi Abrishamchi’s true face. He denounces Abrishamchi as an enemy of peace and freedom who used to ruthlessly suppress any opposite opinion in MKO camps in Iraq and now he despicably runs the MKO’s demonizing and misinformation campaign in Europe.

Nejat Society has translated certain parts of Javad Firouzmand’s enlightening article on the MKO dreadful senior member Mehdi Abrishamchi:

” Abrishamchi surely remembers the summer of 2001 when he was torturing me in prison of Camp Ashraf after I was arrested and jailed following an unsuccessful escape. He broke the bone of my chest by his foot. He together with Hassan Nezamalmaleki and Mahvash Sepehri tried to make me blind by shoving a pen into my eye. They tried to lift me by pulling me with my ears while my hands were coughed and my feet were chained, that ultimately ended with my ears bleeding and puncture.

Instead of cheating and chanting slogans of "freedom", Abrishamchi must answer me question: Did he respect my right for freedom when I decided to leave the MKO? I had spent the longest time of my life in the MKO, someday he has to state under what accusation he personally tortured me.

After several month of imprisonment he pulled me to Rajavi’s session called ‘To’meh’ [victim] in Camp Baqerzadeh where Massoud and Maryam Rajavi sentenced me to 8 years of hard labour and finally to death penalty. This way they wanted to threaten other dissident members of the cult. They signed my sentence before the eyes of 4000 members. Was it a crime to defect from the MKO Gestapo in the late years of Saddam Hussein’s ruling? Did it mean that I was a "regime mercenary" just because I wanted to leave the MKO?

I recall the days they hit me in the abandoned Camp Jalalzadeh. I was hand coughed beaten under their fists and feet. I do not forget Abrishamchi’s typical atrocity; he verbally abused my family while beating my chest, stomach and legs by his toes.

From early in the morning –when Saddam Hossein’s security forces submitted me to the MKO—Abrishamch and Hassan Nezamalmaleki started horrendously torturing me until noon. They were mad with Ba’th’s security guards who hadn’t shot me – Rajavi had previously ordered them to shoot any MKO defectors they come across. Beating me violently he was shouting," They should have killed this ‘henchman’. Why did they yield him alive?"

I could never forget the evil face of Abrishamchi, Nezamalmaleki, Mahvash Sepehri and many other women of the Elite Council who used to torture me every day while my hands and feet were chained and my eyes were closed.

He was the person who after constantly torturing me for 8 hours ordered the guard of the prison to take me to their jail in Ashraf in which as he said they would be able to make me speak!"

December 8, 2013 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

What matters for US promotion of Human Rights?

A day before the resumption of negotiations in Geneva on the Iran nuclear issue, the head of security Department of Geneva ordered the Mujahedin Khalq who were on hunger strike to evacuate the Place des Nations.[1] Hunger strike is among the MKO cult leaders’ tactics to get itself on the scene

The negotiations went on and resulted in an agreement between Iran and the 6 world powers. All sides hailed the deal calling it the first proper move towards the peace.

Police spokesman talked about the day that the hunger strikers were asked to comply with the laws and authorities.

“Shortly after the arrival of the press, a striker got sick. An ambulance was called. A policeman boarded to check the identity of the patient, who was yelling. His comrades were then rushed to the police shouting "fascist!" And two men jostled. Another striker suddenly dropped himself on the road on purpose paralyzing traffic. “[2]

The sight indicates the show of brainwashed members of a broken cult-like group who fell out of favor from international community and are ready to hunt an opportunity for a big show-off.

Hunger strike is among the MKO cult leaders’ tactics to get itself on the scene. In different phases and under different pretexts Rajavi ordered members to go on hunger strike for its political gain and its hidden agenda and to launch its propaganda campaign.

This latest hunger strike is being held under the pretext of saving the lives of the seven allegedly missed residents of Camp Ashraf, who the organization claims to be detained during the Camp Ashraf September clashes and hold by the Iraqi security forces somewhere in Baghdad.

Iraqi authorities have repeatedly denied involvement in the attack, in which camp residents also went missing.[3]

The question here is that if the lives of members are really important for the cult leaders why do they order hundreds of members to put their lives in danger? Whoever is familiar with the cult practices and whoever has the experience of living within the group knows well that the members are not allowed to do anything without the approval of its leader.

A number of former members of MKO condemned the forced hunger strike through a statement and hold Rajavi accountable for the lives of the imprisoned Camp Liberty residents. The statement reads:” “In fact, all political and propaganda affairs including self- immolations and hunger strikes are basically organized acts and actually under the order of the leadership and members are due to execute them,” [4]

Although the 95 days of hunger strike with no death report seems weird to the outside audiences as the critics notify it a propagandistic show in which the participants attend in turns to be filmed and photographed, yet the victimization of a number of the group’s dissidents and rank and files is not far from possible to make it believable.

Based on the reports of the group’s website several members have reached the point of no return. Maryam Rajavi through a fabricated statement asked” friends of Camp Ashraf and PMOI members imprisoned in Camp Liberty, who are in a critical condition and close to death in the cities of Geneva, Berlin, Ottawa and Melbourne, to end their hunger strikes…”, yet she didn’t mention the Liberty residents – who are the main participants of the strike to end their fasting. This shows the real intention of the cult leaders to use members as fuel for their propaganda machine. [5]

Rajavi as a leader of a destructive cult who is being ignored by its masters may make more dangerous decisions to victimize more of its followers.

This is the real threat of a cult and a human rights disaster that is being ignored by the west.

It is another example of the double standards within the US political stands. Just as terrorism, human rights is also a matter of geography, and even more so, of political interests.

The US has a legacy of saving the whole world through their so called humanitarian efforts; they did that in Korea, China, Guatemala, Indonesia, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Grenada, Lebanon, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Libya and Iraq and more recently in Syria under the pretext of which it pushes its warmongering efforts and justify its military actions. [6]

Considering the concrete evidences of human rights abuses within the destructive cult of MKO reported by RAND and HRW and the testimonies of several former members of the cult who managed to escape the group, along with the deteriorating conditions of the Liberty residents, why don’t the US put forth and save these individuals’ lives who are under the threat of being attacked from outside or being victimized by the cult leaders’ themselves. If the US is capable to save nations why doesn’t it save the roughly 3000 enslaved members – striving for a free life of a bankrupt, desperate cult?!

By: A. Sepinoud

References:

[1] Gabus, Laure, Barazzone déplace les dénonciateurs du camp d’Achraf à l’Ariana, Tribune de Geneva, November19, 2013

[2]ibid

[3] al-Salhy, Suadad, Iraq says no success tracing killers of Iranian dissidents,Reuters, November26,2013

[4] https://www.nejatngo.org/en/posts/5504

[5] Nejat bloggers are either former MKO members or have a family member who is currently held in Camp Ashraf. They have suffered deeply because of Massoud Rajavi’s crimes. While the Nejat Bloggers recognize that citing sources of information is essential ,we, as a society feel so strongly against the MKO that we have agreed to not include the group’s websites or links in our articles because we consider it as kind of publicity for the cult.

[6] Jacob, Anthony, After Iraq, US plans to save Syria!, PressTV, September 4, 2013

December 7, 2013 0 comments

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