Families of the MEK hostages denied of their rights

MKO leaders refused to let Iranian families meet their children in Camp Ashraf

Despite the humanitarian efforts of the Iraqi Government, MKO leaders refused to let Iranian families meet their children in Camp Ashraf

Leaders of the Organization refused to allow the reunions of Iranian families coming from Iran to Iraq to meet with their children who are members of the organization in Camp Ashraf, although they have undergone long separations.

This news came during a visit by a number of Iranian families with the consent and support of the Iraqi government to Camp Ashraf in Diyala province on Saturday to meet their children who are from the organization’s members. The families were disappointed when officials of the organization refused to allow them to meet with members of the organization for fear that these members will leave and return to their homeland and their families.

For its part, the Government of Iraq has asked the American side and a delegation from the United Nations and International Committee of the Red Cross and international human rights organization to hold direct negotiations with the leaders of the organization for continued long hours to convince them of the need to deal with this situation in a humane and approved way and for the Iranian families to meet with their children instead of the organisation publishing statements which accuse the Iraqi government of violating human rights laws.

Ultimately the negotiations failed as a result of the absolute rejection by the leaders of the organization of this humanitarian initiative. To achieve their aims the families have begun a sit-in at Camp Ashraf to demand that the Iraqi government and international community intervene to pressure the leaders of the organization in Camp Ashraf to give their children complete freedom to make personal decisions in response to their emotions and their sentiments.

Meanwhile the Iranian families stressed the amount of suffering and pain they face at the moment and over the years as a result separation from their children. The families said that the main objective of the existence of Iranian families in Iraq is to help their children and return them to Iran to live with us in peace.

Translated by Iran Interlink

November 5, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Families on hunger strike to protest American support for MKO terrorist group

Families on hunger strike to protest American support for terrorist group which holds their loved ones hostage ..American Army established a check point to prevent families release their loved ones from a terrorist cult

Iran Interlink update on Camp Ashraf

Al Khalis, Iraq, November 04, 2009 – Eight families (named below) travelled to Iraq from Iran this week to find and meet with their relatives who are trapped in a terrorist cult. Once again American soldiers, apparently acting as lackeys for the MKO leaders in Camp Ashraf, have blocked all attempts of these families to meet their loved ones.

Efforts by the Iraqi authorities, U.N. representatives, the ICRC and others to facilitate the humanitarian move have been blocked by the Americans.

Although Iraqi police have established a base inside Camp Ashraf in an effort to enforce Iraqi law among the residents there, the American soldiers have established a further buffer checkpoint which effectively prevents them from carrying out this duty.

Families who arrived at the camp on Saturday 31 October were able to pass through the Iraqi checkpoints to the camp, but were blocked at the final checkpoint which is manned by U.S. military personnel.

The families are now staying at the first check point and an Iraqi officer is acting as liaison between them and the camp. The US army is apparently resisting the requests of the families and insists that the Iraqis should ask permission from the MKO leaders to let families see their loved ones. The MKO is not only an illegal foreign terrorist group in Iraq but has since 1997 been on the U.S. terrorism list.

The families are living in temporary container units. They say they are grateful to the Iraqi military for accommodating them at the first check point and providing security as well as attempting to organise meetings between the families and their loved ones. It is now four days that the families are living in the military check point with the obvious lack of facilities.

From November 2 the families began a hunger strike. They demand that the Iraqi government as the only responsible body in Iraq must take charge and allow the freedom of their children.

The Iraqi government’s attempts to dismantle the terrorist camp and release the victims has been facing strong resistance from the Israeli lobby and neocons who support the return of Saddamists to Iraq. The Mojahedin Khalq Organisation has acted as their proxy in Iraq with Camp Ashraf being used as the base for gathering and coordinating the Saddamists after the American Invasion of Iraq in 2003. By order of the Pentagon, the camp was protected and held together by the U.S. until their retreat in 2008. Americans left a unit at the camp to make sure the terrorist HQ is not dismantled by the new Iraqi government.

The MKO leaders, with the backing of the U.S. army, refuse to accept families meeting their children. They say the families are “agents of the Iranian secret services” and have refused even to hand over the letters the families have written to their children.

Names of the families currently visiting Camp Ashraf:

1- Mr. Jahanshir Sassani – looking for his son Mohammad Ali Sassani . Mohammad Ali was a P.O.W. during the time of Saddam’s war with Iran. He was handed over to the MKO during the war in defiance of international law. He has been in Iraq for 21 years. This is Mr. Sassani’s fourth visit to Iraq to try to meet with his son.

2- Mr. Reza Noroozi – looking for his son Abdolmajid Nooozi. Abdolmajid was a P.O.W. during the time of Saddam’s war with Iran. He was handed over to the MKO during the war in defiance of international law. He has been in Iraq for 22 years.

3- Mr. Akbar Moradi Rizi – looking for his brother Hossein Moradi Rizi. Hossien has been in cult isolation for the past 30 years.

4- Mrs. Nasreen Lotfizadeh – looking for her daughter Soosan Banihashemi. Soosan has been in cult isolation for the past 21 years.

5- Mrs. Parvin Saberi – looking for her brother Aghil Saberi. Aghil has been in cult isolation for the past 16 years.

6- Mrs. Giti Zartoshtnia – looking for her son Roozbeh Attaee (aka: Ali Mahdavi). Roozbeh has been in cult isolation for the past 10 years.

7- Mrs. Masoumeh Mahboob – looking for her husband Arzil Dialeh and sons Mohsen and Peyman Dialeh. They have been in cult isolation for the past 7 years.

8- (…)

November 5, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Relatives of MKO captives Urgent Appeal to Iraq’s Minister of Human Rights

Urgent Appeal to Wijdan Mikhail Salim, Minister of Human Rights of Iraq
From eight Iranian relatives of MKO captives in Camp New Iraq (Camp Ashraf)

We have travelled a long way to Iraq to visit our family members. Some of us have not seen these close relatives – sons, daughters, husbands – for over twenty years. Now that we have arrived we have found that we have been banned from seeing our families by the Mojahedin-e Khalq leaders. Who is in charge of what happens in this country?

Iranian relatives, Outside Camp "New Iraq", November 4, 2009

We came here because we believed that the Iraqi government had finally taken control of the camp and its inhabitants and would be able to help us. This is not so.

We are grateful for the support and accommodation provided by the Iraqi authorities at the checkpoint leading to the Camp of New Iraq which was renamed from Camp Ashraf. Even this re-naming led us to believe that the Iraqi government was in control of the camp.

Sadly, we have discovered that a terrorist cult is still calling the shots in your country and that it is because of them that we cannot see those dear relatives whom we have travelled so far, and waited so long to see. Really, what harm can the eight of us do?

As Minster of Human Rights we hold you responsible for the situation in which our relatives are kept captured. We do not believe that they are free to decide for themselves whether to meet with us or not. They are being held incommunicado and subjected to cruel and inhuman treatment which forces them to deny their natural feelings. The MKO is a cult and deliberately mistreats its members.

If they are really free to choose then why don’t the MKO leaders give them permission to come out of the camp and see us and then they can choose freely to return to their struggle without any further delay or comment from us.

Eight visiting Iranians are waiting for your answer; guests in your country. Although we are elderly and weak we have gone on hunger strike. We cannot do this for long. But we hope that you understand the strength of our feelings and the desperation of our actions and that our appeal to you to intervene on our behalf is answered by your kindest efforts to help us.

November 5, 2009 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

Washington backed MKO terrorist cult Bars Family Meetings with Members in Iraq Camp

Leaders of the anti-Iran terror group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), have barred the group members incarcerated in a military base – about 60km (37 miles) north of Baghdad – form visiting their family members and relatives, fearing their defection, informed sources said on Monday.

According to the Habilian website (run by the family members of Iranian terror martyrs), a number of MKO members’ families, including their mothers, fathers and relatives on Saturday went to Camp of the New Iraq (formerly known as Camp Ashraf) to meet their sons and daughters but the guards at the camp didn’t allow them to do so and reciprocated their demands with harsh and insulting behavior.

The Camp guards also disrespected representatives of the international human rights bodies dispatched to the area to accompany the families.

Statements made by the MKO leaders in response indicated that they would not allow such meetings for the fear that families might encourage their beloved offspring to defect the terrorist group.

Iraqi security forces took control of the training base of the MKO at Camp Ashraf – about 60km (37 miles) north of Baghdad – in July and detained dozens of the members of the terrorist group.
The Iraqi authority then changed the name of the military center from Camp Ashraf to the Camp of New Iraq.

The MKO has been in Iraq’s Diyala province since the 1980s. The Iraqi government and parliament have announced that they would not tolerate the group anymore and that they are seeking to expel the group from the country in the near future.

The anti-Iran terror group has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by many international entities and countries.

The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of EU parliamentarians said in a recent letter in which they slammed a British court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list. The EU officials also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).

Many of the MKO members abandoned the terrorist organization while most of those still remaining in the camp are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so.

A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report accused the MKO of running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations.

According to the Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.
The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the Islamic Revolution in Iran in a bid to take control of the newly established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister Mohammad Javad Bahonar and Judiciary Chief Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.

The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.

The terrorist group joined Saddam’s army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.

The MKO was put on the US terror list in 1997 by the then President, Bill Clinton, but since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group has been strongly backed by the Washington Neocons, who also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.

November 3, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Open Letter to Bryan Wilfert MP from Mohammad Mohammady in Canada

Mr. Bryan Wilfert, Richmond Hill Member of Parliament

225 Eat Beaver Creek

Richmond Hill, ON

Dear Mr. Wilfert,

In our meeting on Friday January 25, 2008, you asked me some questions regarding the situation of my sister, Somayeh Mohammady, as well as my parents who are also currently in Iraq, and the correspondent of the Canadian government. I have some doubts that I was able to answer your questions in a satisfactory manner since talking about this situation makes me too emotional and uncomfortable to properly formulate my thoughts and responses. I also wish to remind you that I am personally a victim of this brutal situation and suffered in the same condition that my sister experiences, for four years.

Since 1998, knowing the nature and means of this organization, my parents started an internal campaign to free and return my sister back to Canada. As you might be aware, up to 2003 and before toppling of Saddam Hussein, it was impossible to talk about or disagree with the MKO publicly. If they have this much power to force a young girl to denounce her family and call her parents agents of the Iranian regime just because they tried to take her out of a war zone and from the camp of an organization that has been branded terrorist by many Western governments, you can clearly understand how dangerous and impossible it could have been back than when the leadership of the MKO had the full support of Saddam and anything could have happened to my sister with no consequences to those responsible. Even after my 2004 release, and up to recently, I had serious concerns for my safety to talk about my own situation and just recently decided to come out and support my family regardless of the consequences to myself.

If, even now that this group is supposedly under the custody of American and International forces in Iraq, they can be such potential danger that the Canadian authorities call me to inform me about the threats to my parents lives in Iraq and ask me to force them to return to safety in Canada, you can imagine what it could have been like back in those years. For that reason in those years all my parents could do, that even than it was considered bold and risky by those aware of the MKO’s violent means, was to try to find influential people inside the organization or write to the Rajaviâ€™s to beg for my sister’s freedom and safe return. You might find translated copies of those letters in the possession of our lawyer Ms. Pamila Bhardwaj as part of our legal file. Even the fact that my father agreed to send me to Iraq in 1999 was a hopeless attempt to find a way to bring her back without going public against such a malicious organization.

The rest is documented and I hope you have some knowledge of it. I was captured too and could not get out until 2004 after the regime change in Iraq that also reduced the power of the MKO leaders. Though at the beginning, and by the advice of those close to us, I pretended to be happy and willing as a cover up to set the ground for my sister’s release, as soon as they learned about my real intention, I was kept in solitary confinement and tortured in many brutal and inhumane ways. However, since I was a Canadian citizen at that time, my father was able to take me out in 2004 but, although my sister expressed her desire back then to go with us, since she did not have Canadian status after 7 years of absence from Canada, she was asked by the authorities at the time to remain there till they resolve this issue which they never did up to this point.

What is being used against my father by the MKO, and unfortunately being echoed by some Canadian authorities, is the fact that since that time my father made numerous trips to Iraq, ignoring the dangers on the ground. This should tell you how important the situation is to my family. We tried everything from desperately begging the Rajaviâ€™s and the other leaders of the organization, setting up informative campaigns, following a lengthy legal process and physically going there and putting our lives in danger. What else do we need to try in order to make the Canadian government understand that we are extremely suffering and need to reunite with our sister and daughter? It is not only because we are worried for her and miss her, not because none of us can enjoy our lives knowing that one of us is trapped in such a horrible situation, not because we feel disempowered and humiliated for the constant rejection of our plea, not because knowing the conviction of my father that he will not stop until he brings her back and fulfills his duties as a father even if we lose everything, but simply because we are Canadians and the day we took the oath we were promised the same rights and protection as the rest of the citizens of this great country. Many people come to Canada every year from backward, violent and undemocratic corners of the world trying to make a new start and learn and follow those rules that make this country so great and outstanding. We are learning too but at the same time we need to feel belonging and that we are equally a part of it.

At the end, in my humble opinion, it does not reflect positively on our government to use or repeat the same allegations, against my family, as those used by the MKO mouthpieces. Every day in the past 5 years people left the camp, committed suicide or denounced this organization. The same label was used for all of them that they have been bought by a third party and have a shady agenda. We are opposing this mentality and ask you to use an open and fresh mind to help us.

With many regards,

Mohammad Mohammady

January 26, 2008

February 7, 2008 0 comments

Newer Posts

Older Posts