Former Mojahedin-e Khalq Members Back Iraqi Citizens and GOI Demand to Oust MEK (MKO, NCRI) in Camp Ashraf from Iraq
In a letter by Massoud Khodabandeh (Iran-Interlink.org), to the Government of Iraq, former
As expected, due to “threats in its western based media in the days running up to the gathering”, MEK members attacked demonstrators, reporters and Iraqi security personnel, and even “exhibited self-inflicted head wounds as they followed orders to pretend that Iraqi security forces had attacked them.” Iraqi citizens from Diyala Province where the MEK military garrison Camp Ashraf has remained since 1986, described the MEK presence as a “cancer or a nightmare for their society.” They were joined by Iranian families of MEK members who have remained at the camp gates for eleven months trying to find relatives who they say are held hostage by Massoud Rajavi inside the camp – “a place where no marriage or childbirth has taken place for two decades and from which there is no means of contact with the outside world.”
The letter points to the “clear congruence between the aims of the Iranian families of the hostages and all those Iraqis who have lost loved ones, possessions and land at the hands of the MKO…” and asks the GOI to “invite independent observers from Western countries to visit the camp in order to see for themselves what is happening there”.
The greatest concern says the Open Letter is for current victims inside Camp Ashraf because “MEK leader Massoud Rajavi is denying seriously ill members from accessing life-saving medical treatment because he benefits from the publicity surrounding their deaths which – using lies and misinformation in his western media outlets – he seeks to blame on your government.”
Former MEK members say there is “urgent need for independent human rights investigators to be given free and unfettered access to check on the situation of every person resident in the camp – that is with no interference by MEK leaders…”.
The letter concludes, “it is only fair to ask Europe and America, where we have witnessed extensive favours toward the group, to take and house the remaining aging people trapped in this camp.”