Amir Vafa Yaghmai, a former child soldier of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) and one of the 4 people who appears in the documentary Children of Camp Ashraf, responded to the accusations of the group against the film’s crew in an interview with Mihan TVI. He announced his willingness to answer the audience’s questions in order to reveal the true nature of the MEK.
According to Yaghmai, it took the film makers about six years to make the film. He states that the documents related to the budget for making the film and the necessary legal permits are available in Sweden.
Amir Vafa Yaghmai, is in his early forties, married and has two children. He is an environmental expert and a citizen of Sweden. Among the 4 people whose lives have been documented in the Children of Camp Ashraf, Amir is a person who, like many other children of the MEK, was sent back to Iraq as a child soldier at the age of 14 and served in the so-called National Liberation Army of the group. In this video, he talks about friends who, like him, were sent back to Camp Ashraf in Iraq while they were under legal age and eventually, they were killed there.
Amir Vafa Yaghmaei, a former child soldier of the Mujahedin-e Khalq
According to Amir, he and others involved in the film expected the hostile reaction of the MEK to the release of the film, but the reaction of Rajavi’s organization was more aggressive than what they expected, particularly because this “astonishing” reaction occurred before watching the content of the film. In his opinion, the fear and terror that leaders of the MEK feel is originated from the truths that the former children of Camp Ashraf have testified in this documentary. This indicates an important point: the organization’s approach to freedom of expression.
Amir Vafa Yaghmai believes that the smuggling of the MEK children to Europe and North America was part of the project of family separation in Rajavi’s Cult, which had previously been started with forced divorces, and the first Gulf War provided Rajavi with a golden opportunity to complete his project.
This former child soldier provides thought-provoking details about people who protested against the screening of the film in front of the movie theater and inside it. For example, the person who spoke as a speaker for the crowd of protesters is Mohsen Rezaei, with the organizational nickname of Habib. He is the very person who is responsible for persuading him and other child soldiers to return to Camp Ashraf in Iraq to perform their “historical duty” and to continue the path of their parents. Amir considers this person a criminal who deserves to be tried in a court.
Amir Yaghmai gives other information about the signatories of the so-called letter against the filmmakers, which shows that each of these people has a dark background in the organization, and due to their scandalous cases, they were forced to obey the organization’s orders. For example, he mentions Hossein Razavi, who was accused of sexually assaulting boys in Camp Ashraf.
Also, Amir knows two former child soldiers who shout in the movie theater and introduce themselves as children of Ashraf and consider the content of the film as a lie made by the Iranian government; He considers them as his comrades, who are victims of the deceitful structure and slanderous conditions of the MEK.
Based on Yaghmai’s testimonies, he and three other people whose lives have been documented in this movie, according to the contract they signed with the producers, they did not receive any money for appearing in the movie.
He expresses his happiness that the issue of child soldiers of the MEK has been brought up in European societies hoping that in the future, foreign audiences will be more aware of the facts of inside the MEK and the bitter stories of the children who survived this cult. He considers it as his responsibility to talk about the suffering that has happened to the children of the MEK, both among the sympathizer families abroad and in Camp Ashraf. He declares his readiness to spread awareness about this as much as possible.