Gatherings

On 3 June families encamped outside Camp Ashraf waiting for news of their children celebrated Iranian Mothers’ Day. The fact they are separated from not only their long-lost children who are being held hostage inside the camp by MKO leader Massoud Rajavi, but are also far away from their other family members back home, did not deter them from having a good time. They remain cheerful and optimistic. They will succeed eventually in their aims.

The families have warned Rajavi and his Western backers that they will not allow their children to be used as human sacrifices as other MKO members have in the past. Pictures of the self-immolations ordered after the arrest in Paris in 2003 of Maryam Rajavi were raised above the gates of Camp Ashraf to remind the world of the crimes of the Rajavi cult against their own members.

 Two days later on Saturday 5 June Shahab Husseini son of Mohammad Hussein born in Tehran, escaped from Camp Ashraf. Shahob Husseini had been with the Mojahedin-e Khalq for twenty four years. Since the Government of Iraq took responsibility for the camp in 2009, a steady stream of MKO members have successfully managed to overcome the immense difficulties imposed on them by the cult leaders and have managed to leave.

For the past four months the families have been asking to meet with their relatives who remain captive inside the camp. The families have established a small camp of their own to out-wait the Mojahedin’s stubborn refusal to comply with their simple request.

The families are cheerful and optimistic. They are being encouraged and facilitated by the Iraqi authorities, who also want the Mojahedin to comply with demands of the Iraqi Government.

The Mojahedin have accused these families of being ‘agents of the Iranian Intelligence Ministry’ who have come to kill them. Rajavi has indoctrinated his followers with fear and loathing of their own mothers and fathers.

Of course, the work of dissolving a mind-control cult is not easy. Cult experts would agree that the two groups of people who most threaten the leaders’ control over members’ minds are the ex-members and the families of current members. This is no different in the case of the Mojahedin-e Khalq. Having been pushed into a corner by the revelations of the ex-members, the cult now faces the absolute determination of these families to achieve their aim. The families will stay at Camp Ashraf until they have freed their children.