Towards the end of 2018, a flawed and suspicious 140-page report was published by Amnesty International (AI) about events which took place in Iran in the summer of 1988. This report, after more than 30 years, talked about the alleged executions of Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) members. The MEK was referred to as a peaceful democratic opposition to the Islamic Republic of Iran even though the MEK was conducting terrorist and military operations against Iran before and after that time.
Examination shows that the report was written by Raha Bahreini, Mansoureh Mills, Shadi Sadr, and of course mainly by the MEK in Albania, and it was approved for publication by Philip Luther, research director for MENA (Middle East and North Africa) at AI.
Following publication of the report many families and victims of the MEK sent letters of complaint to Mr Luther at philip.luther@amnesty.org about anomalies in the report. To date, these have remained unanswered and AI has apparently adopted a policy of ignoring and silence.
When approached in person, AI officials have not accepted responsibility for the content of this report and have instead referred complainants to the authors at raha.bahreini@amnesty.org and mansoureh.mills@amnesty.org and asked them to send their complaints to the writers directly, which is quite odd. Amnesty International did not deny the role of the MEK and Shadi Sadr in preparing this report.
One of the central complaints about this shameful whitewashing propaganda piece by AI concerns the war crimes committed by the MEK in its Eternal Light operation. This operation took place less than a month before the executions. Yet amazingly in these 140 pages there was no mention of the over ambitious and doomed military invasion into Iran in which more than 3000 MEK members – many non-combatant civilians – were killed. Responsibility for the Eternal Light operation lies entirely with the MEK, in particular the leaders Massoud and Maryam Rajavi.
Another glaring fault is that all those whose testimony was included in the report are supporters of the MEK. Yet there are many, many families both in and outside Iran who do not support the MEK but whose testimony was not invited. The report cannot be said to be fair or independent based on this omission.
Among other complaints are that the report does not mention that currently the MEK, facilitated by the Albanian government, still does not allow families to have contact with their loved ones trapped in this group in the closed camp in Manez in Albania. This represents an ongoing violation of basic human rights which families have complained about for several years now.
It is a great pity that a human rights organization with more than a half-century background, has become a tool for political games in the region, and has produced such a long-outdated, narrowly researched and biased report, without addressing any of the complaints it has provoked.
In this regard, the first letter of complaint sent by the families to the Secretary General of Amnesty International Mr. Kumi Naidoo at sct@amnesty.org.uk can be found at the link below:
The AI report which whitewashes the MEK
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