Sahar Family Foundation has written an open letter to Mr Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary General, and has sent the copies to the international media and the appropriate authorities.
The text of the letter is as follows:
Mr Ban Ki Moon,
UN Secretary General
With Regards
As the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) has eventually left Ashraf garrison and moved to Liberty transit camp, and the process of UN asylum registration has begun,
As the name of the MKO had been removed from the list of foreign terrorist organizations (FTO) in the US, Europe and Britain, and as Western countries no longer regard the MKO as a terrorist entity,
And as the suffering families of the members are still waiting in Iraq after almost three years to visit their loved ones and have not only not received any positive answer but have been insulted and accused and even harassed by the MKO elements,
We as the representative of the families of the members of the MKO in Iraq urge you to use your international capacity and:
Arrange for the meeting of the families with their loved ones in order to end their sufferings.
The news received from Camp Liberty indicates that the cultic relationships and standards are still imposed at their most intense. The members are told that they are bound to stay in Iraq and no one is allowed to leave. The members are also frightened about what the consequences would be if they leave the organization or seek to visit their families. The phobia of ‘extradition to Iran and facing torture and execution’ is systematically cultivated in the minds of the members.
The MKO authorities have clearly told the members that the National Liberation Army (Saddam Hussein’s private army of Rajavi) is the MKO’s sole capital investment and will never, under any circumstances, be given up. The leaders have emphasized that arms and weapons are not detachable from the MKO’s struggle.
As the obstacle of the FTO list has been removed and access by UN officials to the MKO members is much easier in Camp Liberty, there is no excuse for not arranging family meetings for the members. The families are eager to independently make sure about the physical and mental wellbeing of their loved ones.
The MKO is claiming that the members have chosen their destiny willingly and knowingly and that they have no desire to visit their families. There are many documents however which prove these individuals are systemically mind manipulated and their willpower has been psychologically robbed from them.
UN officials have the capacity to arrange these meetings without the interference of the MKO authorities. The same thing has been arranged in other parts of the world in the past. This excuse that the MKO leaders do not cooperate can no longer be acceptable and it is the duty of the UN officials to demand that the MKO leaders give the members their most basic human rights. If the leaders are refusing to do so, it is surely right for the UN to announce it publicly and not just in private meetings.
We wish to thank you in advance on behalf of the families.
Sahar Family Foundation
Baghdad, October 10, 2012
Copies to:
Mr Martin Kobler and the UNAMI
Iraqi ministry of human rights
ICRC in Iraq
US Ambassador to Iraq
International and Iraqi media