Personal Rights of Members in the MEK

French Assembly, Why did you invite Maryam Rajavi?

Mr Claude Bartolone, President of the French National Assembly ,

We regretted the presence of Mrs Maryam Rajavi, leader of the People’s Mojahedin Khalq Organization, in the French National Assembly on Wednesday 4th December, 2012, a person whose hands are smeared with the blood of the best people of our motherland, Iran. Unfortunately, some of the Mojahedin’s lobbyists, who are representatives of the French people, have been deceived by Maryam Rajavi’s lies and they invited her to the French National Assembly.

Mr President

When Mrs Maryam Rajavi speaks about human rights, you should know that there are 3200 MEK members who have been held captive in Iraq in Camp Liberty on her direct order. Of this total more than half are willing to return to their normal life, if allowed their freedom. Currently, members who show any hint of dissent and those who want to separate from the MEK will be severely and brutally beaten on the direct order of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. Since these people have been relocated to Camp Liberty, more than 50 of them have succeeded in escaping and have rescued themselves from that camp. The obstacles and obstructions which the MEK has created, has resulted in failure of their refugee process in Iraq. The representative of your honorable country in the United Nations and the Security Council’s sessions have witnessed that Mr Martin Kobler, the UN’s special envoy, has complained many times at the lack of MEK cooperation in solving this humanitarian matter. On the other hand, for more than two years the families of MEK members have been asking for a one or two hour meeting with their loved ones. They have established a sit-in in front of the camp, but unfortunately they have been denied meeting with their loved ones on the direct order of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi.

Mr President,

In the French National Assembly, which is the symbol of French democracy and human rights, Mrs Maryam Rajavi speaks about human rights while dissidents inside the MEK are being killed on the direct order of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. In this regard, I can mention the names of women such as Mehry Moussavi, Minoo Fathali, Marjan Akbarian, Zahra Faizbakhsh, Homa Bashardoost, Allan Mohammadi, and others and men such as Saeed Kiani, Kiomarz Barforosh, Alinaghi Hadad, and others. In this regard my friends and I who have witnessed these crimes, are ready to testify in any court of law. The MEK, which has not gained power in Iran, massacres its own members. Any Iranian opposition group or organization which wants to criticize the MEK will be faced with bullying aggression and intimidation tactics by the MEK and suffer character assassination; and they will receive death threats from the MEK. None of the Iranian opposition groups which reside in Europe and the USA cooperate with them because of their cultic and violent behavior. The National Council of Resistance, the MEK’s public political face, which comprises MEK commanders and operatives, does not have any popularity among Iranian people. Now, Mrs Maryam Rajavi with this kind of background and record, requests the same kind of recognition and accreditation as the Syrian opposition from the French government!

We former MEK members, with 20-30 years of living in the MEK, who were able to rescue ourselves from the MEK after the downfall of Saddam Hussein and who are currently living in France, would like to alert you to the facts of this situation.

Respectfully
the voice of libertée

Mohammad Karami, Ayaran

Transcript
The representatives of the French National Assembly
The representatives of the French Senate
The representatives of the European Parliament

December 29, 2012 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

French Journalist: MKO Members Infected with HIV

French journalist and author Thierry Meyssan said that the country’s government during the presidency of François Mitterrand supplied the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO also known as the MEK, PMOI and NCR) with HIV-infected blood to be injected to defiant members and defectors.

Meyssan made the remarks in an interview with Seyed Mohammad Javad Hasheminejad, the secretary-general of the Habilian Association, a human rights group formed of the families of 17,000 Iranian terror victims.

Meyssan said that during the Iraqi-imposed war on Iran (1980-1988), while he was doing journalistic works and studying operations at blood transfusion centers, he was taken aback by understanding that the infected bloods in France were being given to the MKO instead of being perished.

The MKO claimed that it needs the blood to be injected to its members in case of being injured or sick while the bloods were HIV-infected and caused aggravatingly painful diseases, he said.

"After that I understood François Mitterrand’s wife had ordered the sale of (infected) bloods to the MKO and helped them in this regard," he added.

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

A May 2005 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 argued for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.

The US formally removed the MKO from its list of terror organizations in early September, 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.

Camp Liberty is a transient settlement facility and a last station for the MKO in Iraq.

December 20, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

MKO Concerned about Human Rights!

MKO expresses concern over attendance of Mr. Kobler in marking Iraq’s HR’s Day

An assessment of the human rights situations in the world’s countries tells that the situation in general is worrying. There are, however, essential differences between the results according to findings and reports of local and international NGOs which vary from country to country according to their political, social and historical characteristics and particularly if a country experiences post-war crises. Even in such a country, Iraq for example, many people today realize that their government has obligations in the sphere of human rights and the government has also started to meet these obligations; the existence of the Ministry of Human Rights expresses how important human rights are for this country.

But the important thing and the responsibility on the international organizations active to monitor and promote human rights are to push states to respect the obligations to which they have signed up. These international bodies play an active role by taking measures aimed at encouraging states to respect these obligations and they can also play a more active role by following the recommendations issued by these bodies. It is clear that an exceptional improvement of the human rights situation means a positive step forward that needs an international encouragement to be followed by many other, a responsibility that Mr. Martin Kobler, Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for Iraq, carried out by attending the official Human Rights Day celebrations hosted by Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki at the Iraqi Institute of Human Rights in Baghdad.

Appreciated as an overall promising and urging move, the attendance is being criticized by the leaders of the forcefully relocated MKO that the Iraqi government is decisive to expel from its soil for its very same role in violation of human rights and many Iraqi rules as well as interfering in domestic affairs. In a statement issued by the group’s office in France, Mr. Kobler’s attendance was condemned as “an abhorrent flattering” which was claimed to be in complete contradiction to his earlier reports of human rights violations in Iraq. Mr. Kobler is quoted to have flattered in the presence of Nouri Al-Maliki by saying:

“The Prime Minister’s remarks are in line with the UN’s agenda on human rights. This is a correct and realistic obligation to human rights. ….. The existence of the Ministry of Human Rights expresses how important human rights are for this country. ….His Excellency the Prime Minister and the Human Rights Minister, I am very happy to participate in this gathering. I am very happy that the Prime Minister is in this event and this is a very important indication that His Excellency the Prime Minister’s honorable presence means he pays notice to human rights in Iraq. I express my gratitude to the Minister of Human Rights for his enormous cooperation with UNAMI and me personally and human rights in Geneva. What we are doing in Iraq is in line with the government’s actions and parallel to strengthening human rights in Iraq.”

Even if we suppose that Mr. Kobler has flattered the Prime Minister Al-Maliki, Iraq is a country that needs strong and considerable encouragement to pass over the hard days and to be promoted with confidence to make efforts for bringing sorts of improvement to the human rights situation in the country. Of course, MKO’s displeasure is mostly because the Iraqi government turns a blind eye to ceaseless and illogical demands of the group that is imposed on the government, and which is only one of many unwelcome legacies of the ousted Saddam to tackle with. At the present, MKO has the least required cooperation with both the Iraqi government and the UN bodies to bring an end to the agonies and plights of some 3,200 enslaved members of the group waiting under an unrelenting, cultic, psychological pressure in a transitory camp near Baghdad for their destiny to be decided. Having a long record of violating its insiders’ rights, the group itself is the bottleneck that hampers the processing process and continues to break principles in dealing with insider’s rights.

December 16, 2012 0 comments

Nejat Society Letter to the UN Secretary General

Dear UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon,

The residents of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization’s headquarter in Iraq, Camp Ashraf moved to Nejat Society Letter to the UN Secretary General a Temporary Transit Location, Camp Liberty near Baghdad airport, according to the Memorandum of Understanding signed by UN special representative, Ambassador Martin Kobler and the Iraqi Government. Previously too reluctant to move to TTL (Camp Liberty), having settled down in the new site, the MKO leaders are now seeking the recognition of Liberty as Refugee Camp by the UN.

Regarding the testimonies of recently defected members, the leaders of the MKO are making efforts to maintain the manipulative controlling system of their cult-like group in Camp Liberty. They even do not allow the residents to use the facilities allocated to them by the UNHCR. Members are not allowed to use telephones, televisions. They have no access to the world outside the Cult of Rajavi, yet.

Systematic psychological pressure is heavily used against the Cult members. Manipulation sessions are held much more severely, according to escapees from Camp Liberty.

Members of the group are not permitted to visit their families who have been waiting to meet their loved ones in a free atmosphere, for so long.

Today, the leaders of the MKO seek to turn Camp Liberty to a small-size Camp Ashraf, with the same regulations and the same cult-like structure. They have ramped up suppression against members in order to prevent the collapse of the group. Thus, their last resort for the time being is to push the UN to recognize Liberty as a Refugee Camp. This way, they can prolong their stay in Iraq and eventually the structure of their cult-like organization.

Mr. Secretary General,
One of the most crucial rights deprived from the MKO members is the freedom to choose for their fate; to choose where to live; to choose where to go. Definitely, you and your respectable colleagues stand for individuals’ basic human rights but the leaders of the Cult of Rajavi continue to violate the members’ rights day and night. They intend to turn the temporary transit camp to a permanent refugee camp and ultimately another container for their cult of personality.

Do not allow the cult leaders to keep on abusing our loved ones mentally and physically imprisoned in their cult trap. Appreciating the acts of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq in the evacuation of Camp Ashraf, we shall be pleased to see your prompt cooperation to aid the residents of TTL decide for their own future without the supervision of the MKO authorities.

Respectfully,

Nejat Society

December 4, 2012 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

MEK has turned Camp Liberty into a prison

Mrs.Maryam Sanjabi has written a new valuable article on the situation in Camp liberty [Temporary Transit Location] where the last remaining members of MEK reside. Sanjabi`s review is important in regards to evaluating the situation of MEK members. She was an important and trusted figure in MEK and since decided to leave the cult like terrorist group, has remained active to help others inside. She has established a great contact with those who have managed to escape the camp and applied asylum from UN. In her article Sanjabi describes how MEK chain of command has made life in camp liberty as a concentration camp for people inside. She says that each individual has to get up at 5 am and follow a daily ordered program that is already set for them. The program consists of aimless labor till noon and from noon to night people are forced to attend ideological meeting.

She adds that MEK leaders have ordered a kind of separation and segregation. Every 3-4 residential building in the camp are set for a group of members and they have to spend their time inside the isolated section. "They are using some sort of curtains to cover each section. People have to stay inside this area even for eating. So the only things they can see are a few others and the sky.", She Says. Sanjabi believes that such efforts is to limit contacts between MEK members.

It was long mentioned that MEK keeps its members isolated and there is no means of communication with the outside world. But it seems that new efforts include preventing cult members from contacting each other.

Earlier this month there was a report indicating that an MEK member set himself on fire due to pressures he received from MEK commanders. Fortunately he was saved by Iraqi officials and survived.

November 26, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Camp Liberty resembles a prison?

MKO’s well funded disinformation campaign is seeking support in minor European capitals. The group’s lobbying efforts in Britain, France, Belgium,… is nothing new and to some extent they Camp Liberty resembles a prison? have won the support of a number of unaware or narrow-minded authorities of Europe. The most important success was the removal of the MKO from the terrorist list of European Union following long term lobbying activities in 2009.

In her recent act of disinformation, Maryam Rajavi addressed Estonian Parliament calling for support for the so called resistance of the Iranian people (!) against Islamic Republic. She dares to represent herself as Iranians’ attorney, while she doesn’t comply with the most basic human rights within her own camps either in Iraq or France.
Rajavi claims that the conditions of Camp Liberty (Temporary Transit Location which was previously Saddam’s Palace and then was turned into a camp for American troops) resemble the conditions of a prison and it does not meet humanitarian and human rights standard. However, defectors of the group who recently fled TTL describe an entirely opposite condition of the camp.

Majid Mohammadi, former member of the MKO fled Camp Liberty earlier this year. In an interview with Nejat Society, he explains how they were disappointed after moving to the new camp,”When the idea of moving to Liberty was proposed, the majority of guys thought that they would finally go to another place in which they would no more be limited and controlled and they would be able to have access to the outside world…but, we didn’t know that the Rajavis intended to build another Ashraf in Liberty.”

Mohamamdi reveals that “Organizational control and cultic practices were exercised much more severe than those in Camp Ashraf.”

The former member of the cult of Rajavi notifies that the daily mind control meetings at TTL last for twelve hours a day.”

Regarding facilities and equipments at Camp Liberty Mr. Mohammadi says:
” Residents live in Conexes. Each Conex is resided by 7 people. It is worth to mention that, according to arrangement made by UNHCR’s supervisor, each Conex was supposed to be resided by two people but the cult leaders placed 7 people, instead. They wanted to prevent private meetings and to have more strict control over members.”
The rest of Conexes were allocated to offices of commandants and mind control meetings including Current Operation (a self-criticism daily meeting in which members have to confess their thoughts during the day) and Weekly Cleansing (held once a week in which members have to submit oral and written reports on their thoughts, dreams… during the whole week), based on Mr. Mohammadi’s evidences.

UN representative on Camp Ashraf affairs in Iraq, Martin Kober previously stated that Camp Liberty “meets acceptable humanitarian standards “as a Temporary Transit Location.
Besides, Ambassador Daniel Fried, Special representative of the State Department said,” the conditions at Camp Liberty is not nearly as bad as described by the MEK.”

In contrary to the reports on normal humanitarian standards in Camp Liberty, the MKO propaganda still runs petitions and lobbying campaigns to call on UN to recognize the camp as a Refugee Camp in Iraqi territory where the people and the government oppose the presence of foreign forces particularly Saddam Hussein’s mercenaries who have the blood of Iraqi Kurds and Shiits in their hands, the MKO.

Majid Mohammadi describes the equipments of TTL –once used by US soldiers – and how MKO members were barred from using them. The leaders of the cult confiscated any equipment that gives members the joy of a normal life. Here’s Mr. Mohammadi’s testimony:

“Based on the agreement signed by Iraqi government and the UN authorities, each Conex should be equipped with TV, air conditioner and telephone…until the two –supposedly two- residents are granted asylum and leave the camp. But, the leaders of the cult confiscated all telephones.

"The TVs had no antenna. We were just allowed to watch MKO channel in the eating place at specific times.”

The former member of the cult of Rajavi recalls that they even were not allowed to use the gym – highly equipped for American troops. They were told,” If we open the gym, members want to build their body and this is definitely for their desire to have wife and a normal life. So suggesting the idea of using the gym is kind of opportunistic act.”

He notifies that the commanders of the MKO did not permit members to use the exercise mats. “They have the smell of life, they shouldn’t be used,” they said!

It is obvious that the leaders of the MKO do not want a normal life for their members. They urge UN to recognize their Camp as a refugee Camp because in that case they can simply prolong their stay in Iraq and eventually maintain their Cult structure. To achieve such an objective, "Rajavi doesn’t hesitate to make a thousand people die,” Mohammadi said.

European parliamentarians should watch out. They should be benefactors to stop human rights abuses committed by MKO leaders against TTL residents.

By Mazda Parsi

November 20, 2012 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

MKO members fate as the victims continue to remain unsolved

The Humanitarian Cause Remaining Unsolved
Mojahedin Khalq is de-listed but the fate of its members as the victims continue to remain unsolved

In its November 2012 edition, Afrique Asie wrote; “The State Department bowed to the judicial The Humanitarian Cause Remaining Unsolved court ruling obligating it to a revisal of the PMOI designation. It was a historic victory for the Iranian Resistance at the end of a legal and political journey in Europe and then the US, with many ups and downs. Justice provided a positive answer everywhere to the PMOI’s demands”. It appears there are still agencies misinformed as to the true cause of a terrorist group’s removal from the list. The real story is in direct contradiction to the group’s diffusion of disinformation propaganda.

A US appeals court had ordered Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to decide within four months by October 1, whether to remove the designated terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization MKO/MEK/PMOI from the US FTO’s blacklist. Ambassador Daniel Benjamin, coordinator for counter-terrorism, had told reporters earlier in a conference that the group had misunderstood a recent court order that required the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to decide whether to remove the MEK from the terror list. According to the judges’ order, the Secretary of State had to make her decision by October 1 to keep the group on the list or remove it, but the order “did not mandate any particular result.”

The decision, however, was taken on the ground of a humanitarian move and MKO appears to have totally forgotten that in the process of its years-long lobbying efforts almost majority of the American former officials on the group’s payroll urged for removal of the group for the humanitarian cause of the people of Camp Ashraf and then Camp Liberty as a top agenda to facilitate their resettlement in third countries as soon as possible. Michael Mukasey, the former Attorney General, speaking in a Washington meeting arranged to urge delisting of MKO stated:

“The point of this move, of course, is to make it easier for the residents to be relocated outside Iraq. That’s the goal, as we all know. And that goal cannot be achieved so long as the State Department continues to make the United States the only country in the civilized world to designate the MeK as a terrorist organization. … it’s time to end this. The continued listing of MeK is the main obstacle to resettlement… .”

In a message sent by General James Jones to the same Washington Symposium, he stressed that “The right thing to do, the humanitarian thing to do, is for the United States to remove the terrorist listing currently ascribed to the people of Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty, and to champion a program of third country repatriation as soon as possible”.

Or when Dennis Hastert, another former Congressman, tried to make a logical argument for delisting MKO at the same meeting, he said:

“But when there’s liberty and life of human beings at stake we have to make that the exceptional focus on what is their well-being and what is the right thing to do. And to try to sacrifice a group of people’s well-being, their life, their ability to have a decent life, a humanitarian existence, should not be stopped by some political considerations in trying to massage a political or diplomatic situation.”

And MKO was removed from the list. But did it change the fate of Ashraf and Liberty’s residents to be sent and resettled in other countries? Absolutely not. The residents are now placed in a humanitarian plight that can be condemned as inhumane and practiced only in cultic settlements. And of course, the brag and show of those meetings in which American advocates lauded delisting of MKO as initiative to end the agony of its members has come an end; their mission is fulfilled, the cashes paid, and they have no obligation to feel any sense of responsibility towards these enslaved people.

Maybe these officials are also amazed to see that how MKO has managed to promote a humanitarian cause overnight to be demonstrated a historic victory for its propaganda machine and the humanitarian move of the State Department as a bow to its demands. They were paid their share in a massive campaign to abuse human rights for unjust political causes. However, it is not all the story. Sometimes it is the US that decides which group is terrorist depending on how that group suits national and political interests. And of course, the only thing nobody cares about is the fate, agony and plights of who under the pretext of human rights issues continue to be abused and remain the real victims.

November 20, 2012 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

Will the victims of MKO Cult be forgotten?

Notes on removing the name of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) from the US State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations (FTO)

The US State Department has recently come to the conclusion that the MEK is no longer a terrorist organization. The reason given is that the group has apparently not committed any terrorist act for more than a decade and has seemingly abandoned the use of violence to reach its political goals. The question this raises is, according to the US administration and the US judicial system, how many years are needed to consider the crimes of a terrorist group whitewashed? Certainly in a different international political situation with different interests, conditions would have differed. No doubt the US government would not adopt the same policy towards Al-Qaeda and would consider them terrorists for good.

But despite the claims made by the State Department, the leader of the group Massoud Rajavi has said again in the past week that armed struggle will never be removed from the ideology and strategy of the MEK, and the group has never even in theory distanced its thoughts from using violence. As far as the Iranian people are concerned they consider the group as terrorists and traitors and do not care what the US thinks about them. Removing the name of the MEK from the FTO does not give the group any credit in public opinion; on the contrary it discredits the list and brings discredit to the US administration and the State Department.

There is no doubt that the Rajavi cult has committed widespread acts of terrorism and claimed the lives of many civilians. The group also co-operated with the invading enemy and killed the defenders of Iran’s borders. This is the clearest betrayal of the nation according to any standards. The organization has also taken part in suppressing the Iraqi people along with the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and more importantly the cult has violated the most basic rights of its own members and subjected them to mind manipulation.

The victims of the group are the people of Iran, the people of Iraq, and the very members of the cult. The families of these victims have a common demand. That justice should be served on the totalitarian leader of the cult in an international criminal court.

Although the State Department has tried to whitewash the criminal past of the group and its leader, the report admits that the basic human rights of the followers are systematically violated. It is understandable that the list of FTO is modified according to the US international interests, but it is worth bearing in mind that trying to give credit to the most hatred group in Iran’s history and working hard to save it from being demolished does not help restore the image of the US government in the eyes of the Iranian people who have always witnessed a hostile attitude.

(The last paragraph has been petitioned on the WHITE HOUSE for signatures – please go to the link below and sign it)

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/will-mek-victims-be-forgotten
/jR2RRqPC?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl

November 6, 2012 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Now Focus Attention Back On Rajavi’s Hostages In Camp Liberty

Among humanitarian organisations and the estranged families of MEK members there is a sense of relief now that the US sideshow of speculation over MEK terrorist listing and who the MEK’s financial backers are has blown over. It means that attention can now properly be returned to the situation of the MEK in Iraq where the urgent problem is how to restore basic human rights to the former MEK fighters trapped in Camp Liberty. Because although UN inspectors and Diplomatic representatives have attested to the more than acceptable living conditions in the temporary transit camp, the residents continue to be denied their basic human rights by the MEK leadership. Since 2003 the Americans have been complicit in allowing the MEK to mistreat the membership. Unfortunately this situation has continued at Camp Liberty to where all but a handful of the former Camp Ashraf residents have been relocated.

Massoud and Maryam Rajavi run a personality cult which dictates to the members that only they should be worshipped and adored. There is no room for other relations, even friendships. In the MEK, members are not even permitted to maintain a relationship with other family members inside the group, such as siblings, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins. Relations between individuals is severely restricted and constantly monitored for infringements. This state of affairs is maintained through a harsh, unremitting regime of daily confessions with infringements – or sins – punished by an escalating system of public humiliation, beatings and isolation. In Camp Liberty residents are billeted six to a bungalow even though enough space has been allocated to allow for two per housing unit. The cult leaders insist on more than two people sharing as a means to prevent dissenting views from being discussed behind closed doors.

In Iraq the estranged families of MEK members have maintained a vigil outside both Camp Ashraf – and now Camp Liberty – for nearly three years. These families have travelled to Iraq to try and get news of and contact with their loved ones who are being held hostage by the Rajavi cult. Massoud and Maryam Rajavi have imposed cruel conditions on their followers in which nobody is allowed to have contact with their families outside the cult without the permission of the leaders.

The Americans in Iraq have done nothing to help these families reach their loved ones. Instead they have apparently done everything possible to prevent the dissolution of the MEK as a single entity, in spite of being informed of the cult nature of the group.

However, because the US terrorism list has no relevance in Iraq, the Government of Iraq will not change its stance because of this action. Indeed, no government of any colour would be able or willing to keep any MEK in Iraq because of its history of violence against Iraqi citizens.

Since the US government no longer regards the MEK as terrorists the Americans should now make a real effort to remove them from Iraq for their own wellbeing. The State Department claims that the MEK has publicly renounced violence – even though there is no evidence that the MEK leader Massoud Rajavi has made any verbal or documented declaration to this effect. (Who do the State Department thinks actually runs the MEK? Lawyers?) As such the MEK should be expected to fully decommission its military personnel and reconfigure its internal structure to allow it to pursue exclusively peaceful and democratic opposition activities against the governments of Iran and Iraq, and possibly Syria.

The burning question then is what the MEK will do with its redundant former fighters in Camp Liberty in Iraq? As avowed enemies of the Iranian government they must presumably take refuge in the West. To qualify as refugees they must renounce their membership of the MEK as a political entity. Logically this should not present any difficulty as they are no longer needed as fighters. (Because the MEK is now a peaceful organisation with no need for any personnel trained in violence or military/terrorist style activity.)

The first step is to open up Camp Liberty to the outside world, to the families and humanitarian NGOs which are waiting to offer help to the residents. The residents must be given access to external information sources, internet, television, telephones, print media, etc. Conditions must prevail such that each resident is able to enjoy freedom of movement in the camp, freedom of association in the camp, including between the genders, and freedom to contact their families. This would represent a first, yet vital, step toward solving the problem of the MEK in Iraq.

October 2, 2012 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Eyewitness: condition at Liberty was one hundred percent better than Ashraf

SFF interviews Hassan Sharqi

Mr. Hassan Sharqi who could release himself from Camp Liberty (Temporary Transit Location) SFF interviews Hassan Sharqi on August 22nd, 2012 was interviewed by Sahar Family Foundation a few days after his defection. The following is the interview which was translated by Nejat Society.

SFF: Please introduce yourself.

Hassan Sharqi: I am Hassan Sharqi. I was taken as a War Prisoner by Iraqi forces in 1980 and I was in Iraq POW’s camps for 9 years. I joined the MKO in 1981 because of the difficult conditions in Iraqi camps. After a while, I found out that I was detained in a worse situation. I still had to stay imprisoned but this time in the cult of Rajavi. I asked to leave the organization twice, in 2008 and in 2012 but they didn’t accept my demand. Instead, they held long-time meetings to punish me. Since Camp Liberty belongs to the United Nations, I decided to announce my defection during the interview and not to get back to the organization.

SFF: During the years you were in the MKO, how many times did you contact with your family?

HS: Except the nine years of my imprisonment in Iraqi prison that I used to write letter, I had no contact with my family during the 24 years that I was in Camp Ashraf. About one and a half years ago, my brother called to me via loudspeakers from the eastern side of the Camp. He wanted to visit me but I wasn’t allowed to meet him because of the severe controlling
conditions in the group and the way the officials treated us. My brother is back in Iran now.

SFF: how influential was the families’ presence at the camp?

HS: it was extra ordinarily influential. When their voice was heard in the camp, it was very motivating. Members are stuck there, they are waiting the day they can join their family. Some could risk and escape the camp to set themselves free. After each escape, supervision and guarding was enhanced so it became harder and harder for others to leave the Camp.

SFF: what kind of communication facilities did you have in the Camp?

HS: I, myself had no access to communication tools like cell phone, telephone or the Internet. These tools were only accessible for high ranking members.

SFF: why doesn’t the MKO allow members to contact their families?

HS: mainly because they fear the collapse of the cult. They fear that members be absorbed by the families. That’s why Massoud Rajavi, the cult leader, calls the families as mercenary and enemy. He is afraid of them. He says that the Iranian regime wants to stop you by wife and life and eventually to stop you from struggling.

SFF: In which phase were you transferred to TTL?

HS: I was moved in the third convoy.

SFF: can you describe the condition at Camp Liberty?

HS: about water, electricity, food and settlement facilities, I believe that the condition at Liberty was one hundred percent better than Camp Ashraf. American forces have previously been in TTL, they’ve left their equipments there and now the MKO is using them. About kitchen and preservation equipments, Camp Ashraf has never had such amenities.
About living conditions, if the authorities housed the members according to what the UNHCR had assigned, the place would be the best. The beds and closets are very good. Each Conex has three air conditioners. But out of 40 Conexes the authorities allocated only 20 ones to members’ accommodation and the rest were allocated to offices and working place.

SFF: the MKO says that it had no possibility for planting trees? What does it mean?

HS: in my idea, there is no need for planting trees or building side walks and streets if the site is a temporary one, there is no need for asphalted streets. They want to make a new base because they’re losing Ashraf. What they do has nothing to do with a Temporary Transit Location. Secondly, everyone knows that planting trees in this hot season is a vain work. The trees will go dry. This is just to keep members busy so that they cannot think of anything else.

SFF: did the MKO conserve its organizational structure at Camp Liberty?

HS: yes, it did . They accepted to move to liberty because Iraqi forces were not involved. Camp Ashraf consist three parts. They moved them all to Liberty. They didn’t want the organizational structure to be understood. They divided the forces in 40 quarters that were given to them. They separated each part from the others using curtains because they didn’t want forces of each unit communicate with the other one. You may not believe that in the world of satellites and the Internet, we weren’t able to communicate with the person next to us. They disagree with any form of communication devices. Brainwashing sessions including Current Operation, Weekly Cleansing and Organizational meetings were held more severely and more frequently than the ones that were held at camp Ashraf.

SFF: where was your interview with UNAMI?

HS: on August22, I was interviewed by UNAMI representatives who were installed in camp Liberty together with 15 other members.

SFF: did they hold any meeting for you before the interview?

HS: yes, on August 21, I was told to be at the commandant’s office at 9 O’clock. Two officials, Rasoul and Mohammad Bakhshayee tried to manipulate our minds about the following day’s interview. The meeting took three and a half hours long. They told us that we should claim that the conditions of life were not good at liberty and we had problems with water and electricity. We had to say that we had had contacts with our families before coming to liberty and we had no meetings except Current Operation. They asked us to say that food supplies were very little and Iraqi forces didn’t let us reach food easily. They told us to tell lies.

SFF: why did you decide to leave the group?

HS: I spent 33 years of my life in camp Rumadia (9 years) and Camp Ashraf (24 years) as a prisoner. I found out that the MKO was a liar and just wanted to maintain its establishment from collapse. Thus, I asked to leave the group twice but they refused my demand. On the interview day, I used the opportunity and said everything to the authorities of HCR. I told them about the reality of the organization and that I didn’t want to get back any more. I was serious in my decision.

SFF: do you think there are other people in the group who are willing to leave it?

HS: during the years of imprisonment, the MKO has manipulated members by brainwashing sessions and deceitful words of leaders so no one is able to make a serious decision until he is helped from the outside world. They have no idea of the world they would enter after defection.

SFF: what do you want to do after your release?

HS: First of all, I want to hire an attorney to sue the MKO leaders in Iraqi judiciary in order to reveal the atrocities they committed against me in those 24 years. Then, I’m determined to return to my country even if I am alive for a few days. I am an Iranian; I shouldn’t be far from my territory.

SFF: Thanks for your time.

HS: thank you, I know that SFF has played a major role to denounce the Cult of Rajavi. I want to continue denouncing Massoud Rajavi and the crimes he committed.

September 9, 2012 0 comments

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