Camp Ashraf Inhabitants

Camp Ashraf residents announce readiness to leave Iraq

According to a report published by the Fars news agency on Saturday, the members of the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) who are based at Camp Ashraf has announced their readiness to leave Iraq.

The Fars news agency quoted a close source at the United Nations office in Iraq as saying, “The senior members of the MKO sent a letter to the UN Special Representative (for Iraq Ad Melkert) yesterday (Friday), in which they expressed (the group’s) readiness to leave Iraq.”

“In their letter, the senior members of the MKO called on the UN representative to prepare the ground for the group’s exit out of Iraq and their travel to a European country or the United States,” the source stated.

According to the source, Melkert is discussing the issue with officials of the French, British, and U.S. embassies in Baghdad.

On April 8, following orders of the government and in line with the new Iraqi Constitution, the Iraqi army tried to dismantle the terrorist group’s residential area, called Camp Ashraf, but the MKO members residing in the camp clashed with the Iraqi soldiers.

The Iraqi government has also set a deadline for Camp Ashraf residents to leave the country.
On April 13, the Iranian ambassador to Baghdad announced that Camp Ashraf residents can return to Iran under certain conditions.

“These persons can travel to Iran or any other country if they are willing to do so and if no criminal case has been filed against them in Iran or Iraq. They will also be given passports,” Ambassador Hassan Danaiifar stated.

Backed by the U.S. and some European countries, the MKO started its activities as a terrorist group based in Iraq in the early 1980s. In addition to the assassination of hundreds of Iranian officials and citizens, the group cooperated with Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime in its repression of the Iraqi people.

April 17, 2011 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

Victimizing people; the utmost generosity of Rajavi

Based on the facts mentioned, the necessity of the dissolution of Ashraf Camp as a cultic structure which imposes inhuman features upon its members becomes obvious.

Baghdad- Association for Defending Victims of Terrorism: why the doors of Ashraf Camp have never been opened for the families of the victims? Why the MKO members like some captives, have been denied the life out of the camp? In other word, what are the implications of such great efforts for keeping the members inside the camp? In fact the question is that for which reason Rajavi keeps her members in a base which she calls it a bloodbath?

Without any effort to take the members out of this so-called bloodbath, Rajavi constantly corresponds with American officials and other western states to protest against the legal Iraqi government. She does not refer to the real will of the Iraqi people, parties and political wings which call for their expulsion. In this regard she commits various inhuman crimes for gaining advantages and supports.

MKO uses women as a defensive shield for attracting the attention and support of the human rights governments and organizations. The self-immolations are an indication of the capability of the cult in training people who can commit any crime even against themselves. Rajavi’s ransom for survival of Ashraf is the lives of MKO members.

Therefore we have to find the reasons of the MKO leaders for preserving Ashraf in the following issues; the MKO finds its existence in the application of different techniques like suppression of suspicion and resistance through which it can give a new sense of attachment. It is an issue which frequently comes along with suppressing common emotional human senses and feelings. In this regard, removing the non-cultic ideas by repeating some slogans or limited phrases, the cult leaders try to deny the previous beliefs and establish some new values in which the cult is the center and every instrument for attaining the defined goals is legitimate. Setting up the principles of a cult, any sense of personal judgment or valuation, individual decision or thinking are all denied and blind obedience is being developed between members. Wearing uniforms, confessing the internal drawbacks or any sense of doubt, isolation from the outside world, families and friends, exaggerating the faults and sins… are all among the techniques that cults resort for protecting their nature.

For the same reason the terrorist group of MKO keeps its members in a socially and mentally isolated environment in order to take the members abilities to think and make decisions. Providing such a behavioral ground leads to suicides. Self-immolation is the most common way of suicide in MKO. One of the examples of the application of this technique is the self-immolations of 2003 in which a number of MKO members set themselves on fire in protest to the arrest of Maryam Rajavi. Threatening to suicide also works as a tool in MKO negotiations with other sides.

Based on what mentioned, the necessity for dissolution of Ashraf Camp as a cultic structure which imposes inhuman features upon its members, becomes obvious. Then the best efforts should be made in order to return back these members to the bosom of the family, relatives and society.

April 16, 2011 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

UNHCR: Camp Ashraf residents have to renounce violence before applying for refugee status

Iranian PMOI exiles ‘must leave Iraq by end of year’
Iraq’s government has said members of an Iranian exile group must leave the country by the end of the year, after deadly clashes with security forces.

The People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) would be forced out of its base north of Baghdad, Camp Ashraf, "using all means", a spokesman said.
But its members would be deported to a third country and not Iran, he added.

The PMOI’s political wing has said 34 people were killed and 300 injured in an "attack" on Camp Ashraf on Friday.
Medics say at least 10 died, while officials put the toll at three.

The PMOI, also known as Mojahedin-e Khalq, is considered a terrorist group by the US and Iran.

It set up Camp Ashraf in Iraq in the 1980s and was welcomed by then-President Saddam Hussein, who was fighting a war against Iran. He funded and armed the PMOI, which fought alongside Iraqi troops.

‘No intention of staying’
During the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Camp Ashraf was bombed by coalition forces. PMOI leaders eventually agreed a ceasefire and its members were disarmed.
In 2009, the US military handed responsibility for the camp to Iraq’s Shia-led government, which has repeatedly vowed to close it.

On Monday, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said that in the wake of last week’s violence the cabinet had "committed to implement an earlier decision about disbanding the terrorist group, the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran, by the end of this year at the latest, and the necessity of getting it out of Iraq".

"This organisation must be removed from Iraqi territory by all means, including political and diplomatic, with the co-operation of the UN and international organisations," he said in a statement.

Iraq was "taking into consideration the wish of the PMOI members to choose the country in which they wish to reside", he added.
"We have to find a nation where they can go, and we will look to the UN to help."

A spokesman for the UN High Commission on Refugees, Andrej Mahecic, said residents of Camp Ashraf could apply individually for refugee status, which would help them find a permanent home.

But before that could happen, they would have to renounce violence as a means of achieving their goals, which some have refused to do, he added.

Shahin Gobadi, a PMOI spokesman based in Paris, said the camp residents would be willing to move to the US or EU member states willing to grant them asylum.
"We have no intention of staying in Iraq, but there has been no response," he told the Reuters news agency.

Mr Gobadi said they were also willing to return to Iran, but only if it could be guaranteed that they would not be punished by the authorities.

April 14, 2011 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

Two MKO members set themselves alight

Camp Ashraf clash leaves 3 dead-Two Mojahedin Khalq (MKO, MEK, NCRI, Rajavi cult) members set themselves alight prior to the clash

Camp Ashraf clashes casualties up Two Mojahedin Khalq (MKO, MEK, NCRI, Rajavi cult) members set themselves alight prior to the clash
BAGHDAD- A Youtube clip showed an Iraqi army force storming Camp Ashraf, which hosts the residents of the Iranian opposition group Mujahideen-e-Khalq, on Friday, leaving 28 people killed and dozens others wounded, according to MEK sources.

The clip, shot by MEK supporters, showed Iraqi forces using armor vehicles in their raid on the camp, which had been under the protection of U.S.
forces after they entered Iraq in 2003 prior to transferring the responsibility of its protection to Iraqi security forces.

Earlier on Friday, an Iraqi military source said three MEK refugees were killed and 13 more wounded by Iraqi forces inside Camp Ashraf in Diala.

“Three Iranians were killed when Iraqi forces from the 5th Division tried to set up a checkpoint inside Camp Ashraf,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
“The Iranian group clashed with the Iraqi forces, prompting the Iraqi security to open fire on them,” he explained.

“Two Iranians set themselves alight in front of the Iraqi forces prior to the clashes, while others pelted the Iraqi soldiers with stones, injuring six of them,” he added.

The Iranian group announced on its website that nine of its elements were killed in the attack by Iraqi forces.

MEK has been based in Camp Ashraf in Diala province, 57 km northeast of Baghdad, since 1980s during the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq war.

Several politicians within the Iraqi government have been striving to drive the organization out of the Iraqi territories, claiming that the Mujahideen-e-Khalq fighters took part in suppressing the Shiite uprising that broke out in southern Iraq after the second Gulf War in 1991 against the former regime.

The restive province of Diala lies 57 km northeast of Baghdad.

April 9, 2011 0 comments

Missions of Nejat Society

Former members of MKO welcomed in a meeting in Germany

In a meeting held in Koln, Germany in March 2011, Ms. Batoul Soltani ,former member of MKO’s leadership Council congratulated three recently separated members of Mujahedin Khalq living in Germany, Mr. Mehrdad Sagharchi, Mr. Rouhollah Tajbakhsh, Mr. Mehdi Sojoudi for their new life in free world. She also congratulated the international Woman’s Day, hoping the release of women captured in the cult of Rajavi.

The three ex-members told the audience some of their bitter experiences in MKO. They mentioned the group’s tricks and deceitful approaches to recruit members.

They spoke of the suffocating, closed atmosphere of inside the cult where members are not allowed to marry, to contact their family, to watch TV or to read newspapers. They just have to work so hard that they could not find any opportunity to think.

Although the atmosphere of Camp Ashraf is terribly oppressive, escaping the cult is not impossible, according to former members; people should only decide to save themselves from the bars of Ashraf. They also suggested their preparedness to help their ex-friends in Camp Ashraf.

At the end, Ms. Soltani promised salvation of captives of Ashraf in near future, promoted by families picketing at Ashraf gates.

Translated by Nejat Society

March 17, 2011 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

Report from Camp Ashraf – March 2011

Why are the human rights abuses taking place inside Mojahedin Khalq (Rajavi cult) Camp Ashraf not being investigated?

Since February 2010, the families of Mojahedin-e Khalq members inside Camp Ashraf have been encamped at the front gate of the camp demanding to have news and visits with their long-lost relatives. From elderly parents to the children, grandchildren, sisters and brothers of MEK members, all are seeking information about their relatives. They call out from the front of the camp hoping their voices will be heard by the people inside. They stand on dirt embankments around the perimeter of the camp to call out to their relatives.

The transcribed video report on Camp Ashraf

The Mojahedin response has been sadly predictable and in line with the cult nature of the group. From the outset they have refused all contact between the members in the camp with the outside world, not only with the families but also human rights agencies and other independent observers.

As the MEK leaders withdrew the rank and file into the centre of the camp so they would not be within sight or sound of the families, the families used loudspeakers to try to project their voices to reach their relatives.

They played music and even the sound of children’s laughter to penetrate the stultifying atmosphere inside Camp Ashraf. In response, the MEK brought its own loudspeakers to prevent the families’ voices reaching the inner parts of the camp. After a while excruciating parasite noise began to be broadcast from American supplied equipment, harmful to all who are exposed to it.

The families have no choice but to sit it out and wait and hope. Where at first the MEK were sent to the gate to shout insults and reject the families, they are no longer brought in view of the outside world. The MEK now are made to shout ‘Death to the Dictator’ from inside the depths of the camp and their voices projected by loudspeaker to the outside of the camp where the families wait and weep for their lost ones.

One young woman in a white ‘Chanel’ headscarf weeps for her lost father. He has been, she explains, in Camp Ashraf for23 years. He was captured as a POW in Iraq 25 years ago and after two years was among those transferred to the MEK camp where he has been ever since. She hasn’t seen him for 25 years. She wants him to come home with her, and, she says, she will not leave until she can take him out of the camp.

Still the families wait and call out to their long-lost relatives in the hope of reaching them. Although the gates of Camp Ashraf are now open, there is still no access to the people held hostage inside. The MEK have simply withdrawn into a smaller circle, surrounding themselves with barbed wire, embankments and barriers. They have stationed trucks to hide their broadcasting equipment, and covered others with sacking to pretend they do not exist. But worst of all is that now, Massoud Rajavi’s special suppressive forces are patrolling the perimeter of the camp and aggressively engaging with and attacking the families, swearing at them, throwing stones and even catapulting metal missiles at the defenceless families. Several of them have been hit and hurt by these missiles.

The MEK’s backers in Europe and North America continue to raise false alarms and problems concerning the camp and to introduce false information in their various parliaments. In response, government officials have continued to put the record straight. The MEK are not protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention. The UNHCR has not granted them refugee status in Iraq. The camp continues to be monitored weekly by UNAMI with a separate American presence.

The Iraqi authorities are ensuring that the camp is safe and secure and that the MEK inside receive regular supplies of food, medicine and other essentials, while preventing non-essentials such as barbed wire and weapons being imported into the camp.

But what no one can explain, whether MEK backers or government officials, is why these families are not being helped and why the MEK continue to be allowed to hold 3500 people hostage inside the camp with no recourse to help or rescue. Why are the human rights abuses taking place inside Camp Ashraf not being investigated?

March 16, 2011 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Last group of Dissociated members of MKO in a meeting in Paris

A group of human rights activists and separated members of MKO, Mr. Ebrahimi ,Mr. Sepehri ,Mr. Naseri and Mr. Kohzadi attended the meeting where they were congratulated for their release form Camp Ashraf prison.

During the meeting that lasted a few hours, MKO former members, spoke of human rights violations and various psychological pressures imposed on MKO members in Camp Ashraf.

The attendees discussed possible approaches to contribute their ex-comrades captured in Ashraf in order to get released from the notorious cult of Rajavi. They confirmed that families’ presence in front of Ashraf gates would strengthen the captives’ will to release themselves.
They notified that MKO leaders seriously feel threatened and terrified due to the families’ presence.

Mr. Mehdi Khoshhal said:" It is funny that Rajavi wonders why families of MKO victims use loudspeakers to send their messages to their beloved ones or why the number of loudspeakers around Camp Ashraf is increased. "

Mr. Razaghi , Mr. Naderi , Mr. Sarafpour , Mr. Ariyaiee and Mr. Sobhani were some other MKO former members who participated the meeting.

Translated by Nejat Society

March 14, 2011 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Mojahedin Khalq propaganda machine cannot hide the facts at Camp Ashraf

There are a number of basic facts which even the sophisticated and well-financed MEK propaganda machine cannot make untrue. It is worth repeating them.

The number of MEK members has never risen beyond 6,000 to 7,000. Even in 1988 at the height of their powers the group could only muster 5500 to launch its abortive operation to topple the regime, the infamous Eternal Light operation. American soldiers corralled 3800 members inside Camp Ashraf in 2003. In the rest of the world figures probably do not exceed an additional one to two thousand including the MEK’s non Iranian supporters and backers.

Fourth Geneva Convention Protected Persons’ status was wrongfully applied in 2004 by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. He gave ‘Pentagon protection’ to his terrorists in Iraq while the UN and ICRC expressed their concern over the issue and argued (fruitlessly) that the MEK is a paramilitary group, not a civilian population and this designation had no legal basis. But in any case the status would not apply after 2006, a year after the first elections in Iraq – a fact repeatedly corroborated by British, European and American officials. A document produced by the Library of the UK’s House of Commons states: “In the case of occupied territory, the Convention continues to apply for a year after the general close of military operations, and partially thereafter if the occupying power continues to exercise the functions of government. The occupation of Iraq formally ended on 30 June 2004.”

The MEK members in Camp Ashraf do not have any legal right to be in Iraq. No MEK member has refugee status in Iraq. Leader Massoud Rajavi ensured they all entered the country illegally in order to be able to use this against them if they defected (he sent scores to Abu Ghraib in this way). After 2003, the UNHCR in Iraq would not grant refugee status to MEK members because it is a paramilitary group and the GOI has refused to grant refugee status to members of what is known throughout Iraq as a terrorist organisation which has killed some 25,000 Iraqi civilians. In Written Answers in the House of Lords on 20 April 2009, Lord Malloch-Brown (then Minister of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office) told parliament, “The UN High Commission for Refugees has previously determined that Camp Ashraf residents do not qualify as refugees.”

The Government of Iraq has every reason, regardless of Iranian or American influence either way, to wish to expel the MEK from the country. The MEK was responsible for killing 25,000 Iraqi civilians. It is currently the only part of Saddam Hussein’s repressive apparatus which remains intact and active. This is due to the failure of the American military to dismantle the camp and remove the inhabitants. (RAND Report, August 2009) Iraq’s Foreign Minister Zebari a few weeks ago again accused the MEK of trying to maintain a state within a state and said that "the Mojahedin-e Khalq terrorist organization is like many other armed terrorist organizations," adding that "the government is determined to impose its sovereignty and not allow any party to impose its policy orientations."

The Iraqi Judiciary would like to prosecute leading members of the MEK for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against Iraqis in Iraq. They have been frustrated by the interference of the MEK’s backers in Washington, London and Brussels.

Iraqi soldiers are stationed at Camp Ashraf to provide protection, a role imposed on them by the Americans who failed to deal with the MEK for six years. In the six years that American soldiers protected the terrorist group and its base, fourteen American soldiers were killed during escort missions for MEK shopping in Baghdad. (RAND Report August 2009.)

There is plenty of evidence that the MEK commit serious human rights abuses against their own members inside Camp Ashraf, but to date no independent investigation has taken place into these allegations.

The Iranians outside Camp Ashraf are the families of members trapped inside. The MEK do not allow the members to have contact with them. The families have been recently attacked by MEK special forces from inside the camp which resulted in the hospitalisation of a couple of old people. The American soldiers have repeatedly come to support the MEK in the harassment of the families who have now entered their 13th month of their picket, demanding a simple visit to make sure their loved ones are there of their own free will. So far, no one has established that the people inside Camp Ashraf are there of their own free will.

February 26, 2011 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

State Dept: Mojahedin Khalq backers claims not true

State Dept. Refutes Ridge Claim That MEK Has Special Protection Under Geneva Convention

When a who’s who of Washington heavyweights spoke at a panel two weeks ago on behalf of the MEK, an Iranian opposition group currently considered a terrorist organization by the State Department, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge made a claim that the members of the group who currently reside in Iraq enjoy special protection under the Geneva Convention. But the State Department tells TPM that’s not true.

During his remarks, after reading aloud portions of the MEK’s ten-point plan for the future of Iran, which includes calls for a "pluralist system," "separation of church and state," and an Iran "devoid of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction," Ridge made a plea:

That’s the Iran that the resistance, the People’s Mojahedin, MEK, have fought for, believe in. Remember they relinquished their arms. They’re protected under the Geneva Convention. We have to send a message to Al-Maliki and to the Iraqi government. The United States troops handed responsibility of protecting these individuals, who are protected under the Geneva Convention, to you. How can you tolerate those loudspeakers, and what about these incursions that precipitated some problems inside Camp Ashraf? You must heed the admonition. You promised to protect them under the Geneva Convention. Right now, one wonders the sincerity of that initial promise

Ridge was referring to the 3,400 or so MEK members who currently live at Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad, and who were recently attacked. But the State Department says the Geneva Convention claim is wrong.

"MEK members are not ‘protected persons’ under the Fourth Geneva Convention," a State Department official in the Counterterrorism Office told TPM in an email. "After the end of the occupation of Iraq, the Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I) continued to treat the MEK as ‘protected persons’ as a matter of policy, not as a matter of legal obligation, until MNF-I’s UN mandate expired at the end of 2008."

In 2007, the department’s terror list included a sentence that the Camp Ashraf residents "have been designated as ‘protected persons’ under Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention." But in 2008, the list stated that Camp Ashraf residents "have been treated as ‘protected persons’ consistent with provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention." And the 2009 list makes no mention of the Geneva Convention.

As State Department official explains it, "With the expiration of MNF-I’s UNSCR mandate, the Government of Iraq assumed security responsibility for Ashraf on January 1, 2009. The Government of Iraq assured the USG in writing that it will treat the MEK humanely and will not forcibly transfer them to any country where they will be tortured or be persecuted based on religious or political beliefs."

MEK members went to Iraq in 1986, after they were forced to leave France. They were offered safe haven by Saddam Hussein, who armed them and deployed them against Iran in the Iran-Iraq war. According to the State Department, Hussein also used MEK forces to crack down on Iraqi Shia and Kurds in the early 1990s, and the group received millions of dollars in Oil-for-Food program subsidies from Hussein. Earlier this month, MEK supporters accused Iraqi special forces and Iranian agents of orchestrating an attack on Camp Ashraf and injuring 175 people.
At the D.C. event, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey also mentioned the Geneva Convention in regard to the residents of Camp Ashraf, but his take was more nuanced.

"In 2003, when the United States invaded Iraq, the residents of Camp Ashraf surrendered their weapons, the weapons they had to defend themselves, and accepted written confirmation from the then deputy Commander of allied forces in Iraq, General Jeffrey Miller, on behalf of the United States, that they were protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention," Mukasey said. "From 2003 until 2009, the United States protected the residents of Ashraf and fulfilled the solemn obligation that we had undertaken in 2003. But in January 2009, as some of you may know, the United States turned over responsibility for safety and security to Iraqi security forces."
And Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson mentioned "protecting the rights of those at the camp," though he added it was "something that I was not aware of until this morning."

By Eric Lach

February 3, 2011 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

Rajavi deploys his Special Guard to attack families with catapults

After one year families of MKO hostages in Camp Ashraf refuse to go away

Zionist-backed Mojahedin-e Khalq revert to type. The families of MEK cult members held hostage in Camp Ashraf are subjected to violent attacks by Massoud Rajavi’s Special Guard. The cult enclave is surrounded by the families of the people inside who are asking to have contact with their loved ones. The worst fear of Rajavi is for his cult members to have contact with the outside world.

Rajavi deploys his Special Guard to attack families with catapults

Over the past few months the families have begun approaching the fence all around the camp perimeter trying to engage with the members inside and talk with them.

Now, in order to prevent them from contacting the ordinary members, Rajavi has introduced an extra security system to try to force them back. Undaunted the families continue to approach the fence and engage with the MEK’s security force.

Rajavi has introduced an extra security system to try to force families back

The systematic nature of the security patrol is clear. The MEK have introduced extra lookout posts around the perimeter mounted on trucks. There are also mobile patrols which travel the perimeter road watching for the families. When the patrols discover the families approaching, the MEK security forces are mobilised. These forces are organised. They do not engage with the families but are immediately hostile. They quickly escalate the encounter from aggressively shouting at the families to go away and swearing at them, to throwing stones and using catapults to launch missiles (some of them made of metal scraps). This is not a spontaneous reaction but is a deliberate action to prevent the families getting close to the perimeter.

It is notable that the perimeter fence has been added to with the extension facing inward and the barbed wire all on the inside. This is clearly designed to keep people in rather than prevent anyone outside from entering the camp. It should be plain from this that Camp Ashraf has become a prison for the ordinary members.Download Rajavi deploys his Special Guard to attack families with catapults

January 30, 2011 0 comments

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