MKO former members
Britain removes terrorist group MKO (Rajavi cult) from her lists as Iraq puts them firmly on the list A report by Kristiane Backer (World Week Watch) An interview with Massoud Khodabandeh 
World Watch Week, Press TV, June 29, 2008
TEHRAN (FNA)- Nejat (Rescue) Association – formed of the former members of the anti-Iran terrorist group Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization – praised the decision by the Baghdad government to take control of the MKO headquarters in Iraq.
“This decision is supported by Nejat Association because once it is materialized, family members of those in the base can meet them and members of this group can make a decision (about their future) independently and away from the psychological pressures imposed on them by the Monafeqin (hypocrites) leaders,” Secretary of the Association Arash Sammeti told FNA here on Tuesday.
Iranians call the MKO as hypocrites since they turned their back to their country and joined Saddam Hossein in the 1980-1988 Iraqi imposed war on Iran.
Recent reports say that the number of those splitting up with the MKO has been on the increase and the terrorist group’s leaders have, thus, tightened up members’ access to the media and information and banned meetings with family members in a bid to reduce the number of defectors through their intensified brainwashing efforts.
The number of defectors of the MKO has been on the increase, specially after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.
After the US invasion of Iraq, members of the group were moved to a camp in northeastern Baghdad – known as Ashraf base – where they live under US-led forces’ protection.
“The decision by the Iraqi government to take control of the Ashraf base has faced Americans, who allege to be a fervent supporter of human rights and campaign against terrorism, with a new test” Sammeti stressed, adding that US action vis-à-vis Baghdad’s decision would illustrate how much Washington is loyal to its claims.”
“Hundreds of MKO family members and defectors have recently filed a complaint with the Iraqi government (to force the group leaders to allow them to have meetings with their family members). Officials in Baghdad have vowed to take action on the basis of the complaint,” Sammeti said, and voiced pleasure with the Iraqi government’s decision.
The Iraqi parliament is set to decide on the fate of the terrorist group amid calls for their expulsion.
“Regarding the presence of the MKO in Iraq, the Iraqi national assembly, the cabinet and the president have made the same decision,” Sheikh Humam Hamoudi, a senior Iraqi lawmaker told press tv last Thursday.
Iraqi parliamentarians and officials have called for the expulsion of MKO members, saying the terrorist group meddles in the country’s internal affairs.
In a recent statement, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Cabinet has also announced that the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization interferes in Iraq’s internal affairs and supports anti-government activities.
The government has formerly banned any deal with the members of the group and called on the US to stop supporting them in Iraq.
Many analysts believe that the government should have expelled the group long time ago in a bid to save many Iraqi lives.
They said the decision would help improve the security situation in the war-torn country.
The MKO has been involved in the killing of many Iraqis under Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Several lawmakers described the group as a threat to Iraq’s national security as it trains anti-government elements and is involved in backing insurgents.
The MKO has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by many countries.
The group is on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze, and has been designated by the US government as a foreign terrorist organization.
Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization has committed innumerable terrorist acts against the Iranian people and top government officials.
Formed in the 1960s in opposition to the rule of US-backed shah, the MKO took part in the 1979 Islamic revolution to take control of Iran, but soon changed course and turned into the main armed opposition to the Islamic Republic and has, ever since, assassinated scores of people and officials.
The then President Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister Mohammad Javad Bahonar and Judiciary Chief Mohammad Hossein Beheshti were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.
The MKO was an ally of the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran in the 1980s.
Participation of Anjomane Solh in seminar “Post Bush US Foreign Policy”
Oslo, June 20, 2008 (Friday) — Anjomane Solh Norway participated in the Seminar “Post Bush US Foreign Policy” addressed by US prominent politician, Bill Richardson. Richardson spoke about different countries including Iran
The Seminar was organized by NUPI, the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs with collaboration of Ministry of Foreign Affair at Nobel Institute Oslo. A number of intellectuals, writers and academic personalities attended the seminar. Beside the participation, Anjomane Solh also briefly talked to Bill Richardson at the sideline of the seminar.
Bill Richard, the Governor of New Mexico is one of the important US Democratic Party Politicians.
First Jan Egeland, the director of NUPI as host of the seminar introduced Bill Richardson and then invited him to deliver his lecture.
In his detail speech, Bill Richardson spoke about the Bush’s foreign policies and post Bush challenges including issues Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, North Korea and Russia and China. He said, government and President of USA would face challenges in the context of such countries but diplomacy is very important while dealing with the challenges.
He said, power is significant but power is a decline without diplomacy. About Iran and North Korea, the US’s Politician said, we should deal with Iran and North Korea as we dealt with Libya. We have to talk to these countries and use influence of Russia and China in the context.
About Iraq he said, it is issue of hundreds of American lives and hundred of thousands of Iraqi lives. We should realize that if US’s forces withdrew, Iraqis are able to run their country. Countries like Norway can play a role to bring the Shia and Sunni groups in Iraq to the dialogue.
Speech of Bill Richardson was continued for one hour and at the conclusion of the lecture, some of the participants including Anjomane Solh asked questions on the different issues related of US foreign Policy.
At the end of the seminar, Representative of Anjomane Solh, Ghasem Ghezi presenting a document to Bill Richardson informed him about 120 disaffected people of Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) in Iraq
from Arbil, Sulymanyeh and Dahuk in Iraqi Kurdistan
On May 2nd the American army run Temporary International Persons Facility (TIPF) at Camp Ashraf was closed completely, ending a process which
had begun in December 2007. The TIPF was situated adjacent to the military base of the terrorist Rajavi cult in Khales, Diyali province, in Iraq. TIPF had been established in 2003 to give refuge to survivors of the cult who had rejected the group and managed to escape. Around 3,300 members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (aka Rajavi cult) are still being held as ‘protected’ prisoners by the American military.
After the removal of several of the survivors of the cult in December 2007 and the establishment of Sahar Family Foundation with the help of the Iraqi Government, Iraqi and international human rights organizations, as well as the families of the victims and survivors, the remaining people who did not wish to leave the protection of the American army were transferred on May 2, to Dahuk in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Ms. Batool Soltani, an ex-member of the Leadership Council of MKO who managed to escape from Camp Ashraf about 4 months ago, is now representing Sahar Family Foundation in Iraq and Turkey. Following a visit to Istanbul in May, she has now visited Arbil, Sulymanyeh and Dahuk in the Kurdish region of Iraq to assess the situation of the survivors who are now accommodated temporarily in these places until they find a way to settle in safer places.
Ms. Soltani also met with officials from the Kurdish Regional Government, various NGO offices in these cities, and officials from the US army in Kurdistan. These meetings will continue over the next few days and a full report will be published in this respect.
The statistics and situation currently pertaining to the survivors in Kurdistan are:
At this moment in time there are 12 people in Arbil, 2 in Sulymanyeh and out of the 85 people who were transferred from TIPF to Dahuk, 65 are still present (others have left to reach neighboring and European countries). The American army personnel who have been accommodating the people in Dahuk have now begun transferring them to Arbil. These will be accommodated with the other 12 people who live in 2 houses, and a new house which has been hired by UNHCR. The 12 who were there and the new arrivals are all under the protection of UNHCR and are given shelter (in houses) and food rations. They are free in respect of movement and are accepted by the Kurdish Regional Government (special thanks to PM Shirvan Barezani).
In recent days MKO members have been contacting these people (the group has hired (bought) one of the survivors as its agent in Kurdistan whose name, place and contact numbers and other information including his contacts in the terrorist organization are available for interested official bodies if needed) and has offered 1300 US dollars and 250,000 Iraqi Dinars (about 200 US dollars) altogether 1500 US dollars to whoever signs papers to say that the MKO has treated them well and includes all the usual cultish claims associated with forced confessions. We must stress that some of the people who are being approached are in such a desperate situation that have not had any fruit or vegetables for over 2 months and have survived on only grains and pulses.
Many people have refused to sign these papers and receive the money but Ms. Batool Soltani who is being accompanied by Mr. Massoud Khodabandeh from Iran-Interlink asked all the survivors to sign the papers (which are not worth the paper written on) and take the money which is desperately needed in this situation. Massoud Khodabandeh explained to the survivors that the signatures which the Rajavi cult gets from people in need (or by force in the cult’s terrorist camp or in their terror HQ in the suburbs of Paris), is part of a psychological war with those people who have been subjected to cult manipulation for years. Khodabandeh emphasized that when the survivors reach free countries in Europe and elsewhere, they will be able to talk freely about what has happened to them and that these kinds of signature (and video confessions) obtained by the cult using deception and coercion, will not negate the truth, and people in free countries would not criticize you for accepting to sign bogus papers in order to rescue yourselves.
Some of the survivors told us that Rajavi’s representative in Kurdistan (the same bought agent) has told them that “SAHAR Family Foundation activities have increased your price [that is, the value of the people there] and we pay this money to see that if they can match what we can offer [that is, if Sahar can pay more to buy the people that Rajavi thinks he has bought for 1500 dollars].
Khodabandeh and Soltani in response announced that first Rajavi should understand that a single hair of any of these people is worth more than the combined leadership of the cult, and the rest of the money stolen from these people by the cult leaders will be taken back through European courts in future (it is interesting that already Rajavi is offering 5,000 US dollars in Turkey and 20,000 US dollars in European countries to silence these survivors for a short time, and we believe they should take the money and sign whatever is given as this is only a small percentage of their own money stolen by the cult leaders).
In a meeting with some of the survivors in Dahuk, Ms. Soltani gave a brief report on her meetings with various officials and said that the representative of the US Army in Camp Ashraf has clearly announced that, contrary to the propaganda of MKO, for the people trapped in the camp, anyone who approaches the US army personnel would be taken under the protection of the army and under no circumstances would the person seeking protection be handed back to the cult leaders inside the camp.
These people would be transferred to the protection of UNHCR in Kurdistan and join the other survivors already there. The official from the US army also emphasized that again contrary to what MKO is publicizing, there is not a grain of sympathy with this terrorist organization among Americans, or for that matter Iraqis, and the US army is already seriously concerned about what is called the Exit part (MKO has apparently arranged accommodation inside Camp Ashraf for disaffected members and is keeping them there by force) and is investigating. He emphasized that these kinds of activities by the Mojahedin-e Khalq terrorists inside the camp is as illegal as it is immoral.
According to eye witnesses in Kurdistan, the survivors in Kurdistan (as well as the ones in Turkey and other countries reaching Europe) have been told by MKO agents that if they accept to sit in front of a camera and announce that "… I am at this moment in good health etc… and announce that MKO has been overly humanitarian etc and it is my fault that I have left them because I am weak etc,… and if in future you see me saying things against MKO I say from now that it would only happen under the pressure of the Intelligence Ministry of Iran …." they would receive a sum substantially more that the 1500 US dollars they can receive now for signing in their favour.
Considering the various cases of kidnapping, missing people and the reports about killing people inside the various camps of MKO terrorists in Ashraf (Iraq) and Auvers-sur-Oise (France), Khodabandeh reminded the survivors that if these conditions involve their presence in the HQ of Rajavi cult or their safe houses in Iraq, Turkey or European countries, they should not take the risk until after obtaining their legal status as refugees from a democratic countries and to not do so without the full knowledge of the law enforcement agencies of these countries.
The survivors are also reporting that the agents of MKO have announced that for any information as to the whereabouts of the families who are trying to visit Camp Ashraf (under protection of the US army) to see their relatives (which should be encouraged by the occupying forces according the Fourth Geneva Convention), and especially information as to the whereabouts of Ms. Soltani and Mr. Khodabandeh, MKO would pay a lavish price – enough to provide a good capital for the informer to start a new life in a western country of his or her choice.
Ms. Soltani in response said that the man (Rajavi) has always been a subject for jokes and laughter from day one. She said that in the last telephone conversation between the Leadership Council of MKO terrorists in Camp Ashraf and Massoud Rajavi (the cult guru-in-hiding who has not surfaced in the last 5 years), practically all the Leadership Council were making jokes about his daft approach to any situation. “Now I can see that he can not confine his approach to inside the cult and is amusing the survivors and us” said Ms Soltani.
She said in her message to Rajavi: "the day that you manage to kill me and my body falls in blood and dust, is the day that I have been honored to give my life in the path of rescuing my friends and countrymen. And of course that is the day that hundreds of Soltanis will arise to bring you and your nasty cult down". She added: "After my successful escape do you think that there is even one person in your Leadership Council whom you will ever be able to trust? I don’t think so".
Link to a video conversation between Ms. Soltani and one of the survivors in Arbil in Farsi.
Hassan Nemati ex-Mojahedin-e Khalq member drowned in the Aegean According to a report by Aria Association, Mr. Hassan Nemati, a former member with 25-years of service in the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), has drowned in the river in the border between Turkey and Greece. 
On 20 May 2008 Hassan Nemati (Saffar), drowned near the shores of Samos as he and a friend tried to enter Greece clandestinely by swimming the river. Hassan Nemati and a group of repentant Mojahedin members were expelled by the Turkish authorities. Nemati and one of his friends decided to leave the Kusadasi and swim to Samos. During the night passage over the Aegean Sea storm waves rose up and Hassan Neamti was drowned. He is the second person who has drowned in Turkish border waters in the past few weeks. On 23 April 2008, Hassan Mirzai, another repentant MKO member, drowned after being forcefully expelled by the Turkish authorities. Mirzai was one of a group of asylum seekers who were made to leave the country by swimming across the river border between Turkey and Iraq. Three others also drowned in the same incident. The body of the Hassan Nemati has not yet been found.
The UNHCR representative in Turkey has condemned the behaviour of the Turkish authorities by announcing the death of Hassan Mirzai and forced eviction of the group via the river.
Moreover, the UNHCR has requested that these refugees are not deported.
According to this organization there are other former MKO asylum seekers who are currently becoming lost in different regions of Iraq, Turkey and Greece.
These people have been deceived for four years by the Mojahedin organization which promised to help them get asylum with European countries if they remained in the TIPF camp.
The Mojahedin organization has not kept its promise and now these people have no protection, they are without legal status and are wandering in the neighbouring countries of Iraq and in Iraqi cities.
Here we must question the western backers of the Mojahedin, and especially Lord Corbett who likes to present a nice democratic mask, about the situation of this organisation:
Is it not true that the leaders of this organization have promised their members that they will pay their airfare if your country gives them asylum?
(Robin Corbett, who promoted terrorism in Iran and Iraq under the logo of MKO for the past 25 years!!)
So until today not only this organization has made no effort to support these people but instead insults and accuses them when they themselves are trying to get out of this miserable situation.
They offer death tickets!
The MKO cult and its leaders have never been messengers of freedom and democracy and the only message they had for their own members were lies, deceit and death.
Who is responsible for the abandonment and deaths of former MKO members?
The Aria Association offers condolences to the bereaved families and implores humanitarian organizations around the world to go to the rescue of these people who are currently in pitiful conditions in Iraq, Turkey and Greece after the closure of the TIPF camp TIPF.
May 24, 2008-Paris
Note by Iran-Interlink:
Last December American forces removed half the MKO dissidents from the TIPF adjacent to Camp Ashraf. On Friday May 2, 2008 American forces completely closed TIPF and transferred the remaining people to Dahouk in Kurdistan. They have been housed for two months and have food rations, but have been told they will then be given over to the UN refugee agency.
The deportation order issued by the Turkish authorities
Link to the report (Audio) in Persian
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/2734560/7957789
Aria Iran, Paris, May 24, 2008 – Translated by Iran-Interlink
http://www.ariairan.com/fr/?mod=view&id=5232 (French)
http://www.ariairan.com/fa/?mod=view&id=5229 (Persian)
http://iran-interlink.org/fa/?mod=view&id=4570 (Persian)
Dear Ms. Hashtroudi,
Happy New Year,
First of all, we would be pleased to send you congratulations on the publication of your book about your experiences and memories within MKO, and the clear expression of the reasons of your defection. We hope you to be successful in your continual good activities.
We wrote you the letter since you spent several years with MKO and are, to some extent, familiar with its nature and function and according to your knowledge you decided to defect from NCRI. We believe that such a knowledge puts you in a position where you should do your best to help the victims of the organization, in an absolutely humane action, without any political tendency.
As you are well aware, MKO has used psychological techniques that are practiced in all cults, to recruit members, it has captured a large number of people mentally and physically in Ashraf, Iraq. These people need emergency aid and their families seek the help of those like you.
The intellectuals including you who have realized MKO’s labyrinth personally, are able to do some actions to save the captives and return them to the free and open world. The captured members of Ashraf haven’t had any contact with the outside world for years and are manipulated by the self- criticizing meetings under the sever physical control. We would like to ask you to step up your efforts regarding your possibilities in Paris, in order to solvate the true victims of the ambitions of the power worshipers. The families of those dear ones appreciate you and wish you the best.
Sincerely Yours,
Nejat Association ,April 22nd, 2008
In April 2008, three other defectors of MKO who were installed in TIPF, returned to Iran via International Red Cross and Red Crescent. They described their adventures with MKO in a visit with Nejat Society on April 23rd.
Mr. Nasouri who was mentally captured by MKO for 18 years:
I am Hassan Nasouri, I was born in 1963, Bushehr. I got acquainted with MKO
in 1979 via journals, meetings and my friends. In 1981, when the armed struggle started, my connection was cut. In March 1988, I went to Turkey legally. Before my departure I could watch the organization’s program on their TV channel, in Bushehr. In Turkey I called the organization’s linker and asked for joining them. I could reach Iraq that June. After staying in Bagdad for a few days I arrived in Karkuk where I received military training for Chelcheragh Operation and then Eternal Light Operation. Following the operations I returned to camp Ashraf. I was tank driver in Perl Operation (in which the Iraqi Kurds were massacred in 1991) MKO used the war situation to kill the Kurds who had upraised against Saddam Hussein.
Before the American invasion my problem with MKO was focused on their ideology but I couldn’t express any opposition. We were supposed to attack Iran in case of American invasion to Iraq but instead we were absolutely submitted to Americans that caused me express my critics against MKO who was trying to find another Saddam Hussein among the Americans. Therefore, I decided to defect but I was also afraid of going to TIPF where I had a terrible imagination of. When I announced my defection they held many meetings for me during an entire month and did their best to dissuade me. Finally, I threatened them that I would escape or commit suicide or homicide and then they accepted to deliver me to Americans. At last, I could enter TIPF in the early 2007. I was in TIPF for two years and could contact my family from there and in March, 2008 I succeeded to return to Iran after 20 years.
During the period I was in MKO, I asked for contacting my family several times and I was told that it was impossible. Just two months before my defection they asked me to call my family after 18 years for the first time but later I found out that was only for recruiting new members and financial support. I told them that I had no track of my family and they brought me my family’s numbers. I wasted twenty years of my life in MKO where I saw my ideals but ultimately I figured out that MKO was not what I thought of and now, here I am in Iran and I should start from the beginning.
As a former member of MKO who has experienced the political and military stages of MKO, I believe that if the door of Ashraf was open to Europe, more than seventy percent of the members would leave the group.
I am really sure that Rajavi is well aware of such a fact so he does his best to maintain Ashraf.
In the organization, Rajavi is either a solution to problems or a problem maker. In order to show that he can solve problems, he has to work in an isolated and enclose place like Ashraf otherwise the problems are presented. He recruits the members and attracts the attention of the authorities by playing roles and even ordering the members to play roles. I can remember the time when Fariba Hashtrudi had come to Ashraf, they had done such decorations in order to satisfy her and not to show her any contradiction but they never imagined that finally there would be a day that she would stop to take look at her behind scene and leave the NCRI and finally call the MEK as liars.
(Anne Garrels reporting from Baghdad) RENEE MONTAGNE, host: This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I’m Renee Montagne. STEVE INSKEEP, host: And I’m Steve Inskeep. Good morning. We’re about to bring you up to date on a group that’s called a terrorist organization or even a cult. It’s called those things but it’s under the protection of the U.S. military. It’s a group of Iranians. They want to overthrow Iran’s government and they are in exile right now in Iraq.
We’re going to hear this morning from both sides of the border about one of the stranger stories to emerge from the war. The story centers around the Iranian exiles who call themselves the People’s Mujahideen, or MEK. Their U.S.-protected camp is called Camp Ashraf.
NPR’s Anne Garrels begins with the story of one woman who escaped them. ANNE GARRELS: Last spring after living in Camp Ashraf for half her life, 40-year-old Batul Soltani made a run for it. She fled to the nearby American military compound. Though U.S. soldiers protect Ashraf from outside attacks, Batul says they do nothing to stop the MEK from continuing to persecute its members.
Ms. BATUL SOLTANI (Former Member, MEK): (Through translator) The MEK leadership remains in control in the camp and we had no choice but to stay. We were under psychological and physical pressure. The U.S. does nothing inside Ashraf. They allow the MEK to terrorize the inmates.
(Ms. Soltani)
GARRELS: Until the U.S. invasion, the MEK carried out cross-border attacks against the government in Tehran. It also helped Saddam Hussein target his enemies at home. The new Iraqi government made up of those former enemies has no love for the MEK. After the U.S. invasion, American soldiers disarmed the militants and set up checkpoints around the camp to protect its members from Iraqi retribution.
Some in the Bush administration and Congress believe the MEK could be a useful ally against the Iranian government, though U.S. officials say that view is no longer widely held. They and the Iraqi government would like the militants at Camp Ashraf to leave the country. A few hundred have fled but Batul says most cult members cannot act freely, either because they’ve been brainwashed or because of MEK pressure.
Ms. SOLTANI: (Through translator) I never saw the Red Cross or American soldiers inside the camp. The MEK leadership manipulates anyone who comes in so they see only what they want them to see.
GARRELS: Recruited in Tehran as a teenager, Batul says her dreams of overthrowing the Iranian government turned into a nightmare. Once she and her young husband arrived in Ashraf, all couples were ordered to divorce. Her children were taken away.
Ms. SOLTANI: (Through translator) My son was six months old and my daughter was five. They said you can’t keep your children here. We will send them overseas to Europe. I have not seen my children in 16 years.
GARRELS: MEK commanders also took away the members’ documents and warned them they would be arrested by Saddam’s security if they tried to leave. Then after the U.S. invasion, Batul says MEK leaders warned them the Americans would kill anyone who left.
Batul says she stayed on hoping if she were a dutiful member she would eventually be reunited with both her children and her husband. Finally a year ago she stole a car, made a dash for a U.S. checkpoint, and was given refuge by the American military. She’s now searching for her children.
Ms. SOLTANI: (Through translator) I am asking Iranians all over the world if they know anything about my children. The Mujahideen won’t tell me where they are.
GARRELS: Defectors say the Mujahideen keep those wishing to leave out of sight. Asghar Farzin says he was one of the lucky ones. An American colonel during an initial search of Ashraf five years ago discovered him by chance in an MEK prison.
Mr. ASGHAR FARZIN (MEK Defector): One day someone knocked my door. I saw American commander because I can explain for him in English, he sat next to me and listened to me.
GARRELS: With the help of the American officer and the Red Cross, he was able to leave Ashraf. But he says others still there need help and counseling.
Though they acknowledge a significant number of cult members are trapped, U.S. officials speaking on background say it’s not safe for American soldiers to go into the camp. U.S. and U.N. officials say they cannot force members to go back to Iran against their wishes. But the U.N. has not found other countries willing to take them. The clock is ticking.
Under a new status of forces agreement, the Iraqi government will likely take control of Ashraf by the end of the year. Caught at the end of a press conference, General Douglas Stone, who’s currently in charge of Ashraf, made it clear he would like this mess to go away. He said it’s going to be discussed with the Iraqis, adding, things like this don’t go on forever, right? But after five years he still has no solution.
Anne Garrels, NPR News, Baghdad.
NPR News Morning Edition April 28, 2008
(Mike Shuster reporting from Tehran)RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Iran’s government has regarded Camp Ashraf warily, but some Iranians are helping MEK members get back home. NPR’s Mike Shuster reports from Tehran. MIKE SHUSTER: Like Batul Soltani and thousands of others, Arash Sametipour could’ve been trapped in Camp Ashraf all these years. He joined the MEK in the 1990s, and in 2001 he was sent from Iraq into Iran to assassinate an Iranian general. The plot failed, he lost his right hand in a grenade explosion and was imprisoned in Iran. Now he runs the Nejat Society in Tehran, a non-governmental group that helps former members of the MEK who want to get out of the organization. Recently Sametipour was in Baghdad to meet with some of them, who he agrees are in an impossible situation. Mr. ARASH SAMETIPOUR: Since these people, they did not have any legal documents and the situation in Iraq was really critical for them, we decided to provide them any humanitarian help that we could, and I think we were successful in that point.
SHUSTER: Of the MEK militants in Camp Ashraf, more than 200 have left the camp on their own and have been living in the transitional camp the U.S. set up nearby. These people, Sametipour says, want to leave the MEK but don’t necessarily want to return to Iran.
Iran’s government still views the MEK as a threat and wants to see the group disbanded, according to Ali Resaid(ph), the director of the North America department of Iran’s foreign ministry.
Mr. ALI RESAID (Iranian Foreign Ministry): They are a very serious and very dangerous terrorist group and it is recognized by European and even the U.S. government.
SHUSTER: Iran’s government would like to take custody of the leaders of the MEK and put them on trial, says Sametipour.
Mr. SAMETIPOUR: They were involved in brainwashing process and terrorist 
operations inside Iran. Iranian authorities have announced that these people must be prosecuted in Iran. I think a list of 50 to 60 people are there who Iranians want them. They want them to be prosecuted.
SHUSTER: But it is the position of the Iranian government that the vast majority of those who live in Camp Ashraf are free to return to Iran without punishment, says Ali Resaid.
Mr. RESAID: For those of them who have repentance of their activities, also those of them who are not seriously involved with any assassination or these sort of things, we have amnesty for them.
SHUSTER: The Nejat Society has tested Iran’s offer of amnesty. Arash Sametipour says his group has helped repatriate several hundred former MEK members, and he says they are now living normal lives in Iran.
Mr. SAMETIPOUR: Right after fall of Saddam Hussein, Iranian government had announced officially that there is an amnesty for those who are willing to return home. We have talked to many authorities over here and this is a truth that, you know, when they come back over here to Iran there won’t be any prison waiting for them. They can just live like any other citizen.
SHUSTER: When Sametipour was in Iraq recently he concluded that the U.S. is not really sure what it wants to do with those in Camp Ashraf. Some in the U.S. government, he fears, may still be tempted to use them as a bargaining chip with Iran.
That may also be the case between the government of Iran and Iraq. The issue was on the agenda when Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, traveled to Baghdad in early March for talks with Iraq’s president, Jalal Talibani. Iraq’s government may simply take custody of these people if they are released by the U.S. In that case their fate may figure significantly in the future of relations between Iraq and Iran.
Mike Shuster, NPR News.
NPR: Morning Edition, April 28, 2008
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89990562
Nejat Society Interviewed Mr. Mansour Asari
Nejat Association had talked with Mr. Mansour Asari who recently defected from MKO and joined his family in Iran, at Nejat NGO’s Tehran office: I’m Mansour Assari, the son of Mojtaba. I was born in Khansar, in 1972. In July, 2000, I was recruited by MKO in Turkey where I had gone to reach Europe. Then they sent me to Camp Ashraf.
In 2004, after the organization was disarmed, I found an opportunity to leave MEK and join TIPF.
Immediately after I stepped in Ashraf, I figured out that I have nothing in common with MKO’s ideology and functions. Every thing was contradictory to what I saw on MKO’s satellite TV but I was afraid of expressing my idea because they would cause too much pressure on me in their so called current operations (self-criticizing meetings).
I was told, in Turkey, hat the exit of the organization is always open but in camp Ashraf, Masud Rajavi and Nasrin ( Mahvash Sepehri) told clearly that any one who is willing to leave the organization,has to confess ,in front of the cameras,that he or she is the agent of Iranian Intelligence Ministry and then write and sign what she/ he has said. There fore, I kept quiet waiting for a chance to leave.
In TIPF, no country would like to receive us since the MKO is on the terror list. In January 2008,I left TIPF, without any money and return to Ashraf since the group had announced that any one who wants to go to Europe ,they would give him money. We were 5 people who returned to Ashraf. There, Zhila Deihim,Reza Moradi,Mohammad Ali Salehi and Hamid Araste and Yousef Anbaz encountered us. We stayed with them for 21 days. Mohammad Ali Salehi talked to me to convince me to stay there, he took me to the entrance part. Ne’mat Oulaiee and Adel ( Mohammad Sadat Darbandi) tried to keep me but finally I said to Batul Rajaiee:” I am insistent to leave “ they paid 1800 $,took my signature and receipt. I left Ashraf for Turkey where the defectors of the organization helped me be settled in Istanbul.
I called my family and explained everything. A few days after the Iranian’s New Year, my parents came to Istanbul to visit me. They were always crying during our visit but I had no feeling. I couldn’t recognize them at first, because they had became too old. After a while , I felt my feelings starting to revive and began to cry. Up to that time, I had decided not to return to Iran since I thought it was treason to the organization. But the logic was replacing my fanatic cult-like thoughts. I felt that I loved my family and country. When I was assured that I would have no trouble in Iran,I decided to return with my family, to Iran. They were ready to help me go to Europe but I wanted to go nowhere except Iran. I arrived in Iran this March without any problem. I plan to work here, building my new life.
In my opinions, all those who are in MKO, are captives and deserved to be released . I was imprisoned in Ashraf psychologically and physically. In fact the fear of the peer pressure and mental bars, had kept me in Camp Ashraf. Most of the members of Ashraf have no way out. It is even difficult to leave Ashraf and Join the TIPF. When you are kept in a place like Ashraf, you feel the world is limited to that only place. They try to inspire the members the illusion of being the superior people of the world.
As a matter of fact, I had an extraordinary experience. I had totally forgotten all my family, emotions and love. Visiting my family helped me a lot ,find my normal life style reviving my human emotions. Now, I realize why MKO is terrified by family contacts, why the cults see the families as their enemies. The reality is that MKO paid the money to Mr. Assari and some other defectors to leave Iraq. But the question is that why MKO didn’t do such a thing in all those previous years and didn’t try to help the other separated members who had lost a big part of their life. At the first view one may think that MKO doesn’t want them to return to Iran . But this reason is not accceptbale since they could help the defectors in the past too but they didn’t . The reason of such a change in MKO’s behavior cant be anything but the trip Mr. Khodabande took in Iraq and the meetings he had with Iraqi authorities discussing the MKO affairs in Iraq and the result was the foundation of SFF (Sahar Family Foundation ) . this action will absolutely be a changing point in MKO’s activities in Iraq. At the present time the most terrifying problem for MKO is the members’ joining to SFF since the testimonies made by these people will from an important part of MKO’ criminal case in Iraqi courts.
