Fresh off Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s statement to the United Nations insisting that Mujahedin e-Khalq aka ( MKO/MEK/PMOI)’s Camp Ashraf should be closed by year’s end has sprung the State Department-listed Foreign Terrorist Organization into action, with a series of condemnations from both them and their supporters. gathering of MeK supporters rallied in Brussels…
The Government of Iraq is very clear that it is dealing with the phenomenon of a dangerous, destructive mind control cult. Unfortunately, Western agencies do not appear to have got to grips with this fundamental aspect of the group and as such continue to fall under the spell of the MEK/MKO/PMOI leaders and their unearthly and insatiable demands. It would be unfortunate in the extreme if the UNHCR did not understand during all its negotiations…
Chief of Iraqi foreign policy commission Sheikh Humam Hammudi said inhabitants of Ashraf camp sought refugee status from Europe and Australia… inhabitants of the camp have embarked on high profile interaction with European and Australian ambassadors to Baghdad seeking refugee status from them. Hammudi reiterated that Iraqi state and nation unanimously want to expel MKO/MEK/PMOI members from Iraq ..
In a letter to the EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton, the advocacy group said that ‘the international community has a duty to help members of terrorist organizations around the world including members of Mojahedin-e Khalq (MKO/MEK/PMOI) to be liberated and find their human dignity…the MKO has assassinated 12,000 Iranian citizens, 7 US citizens and thousands of Iraqi citizens over past three decades.
The real challenge for international officials is not about the fate of these members, but how to deal with the cult leaders, Maryam and Massoud Rajavi. This challenge will continue until the day the Rajavi’s allow cult members choose their own futures, and unfortunately that day might never occur. But last week, Barbara Slavin of IPS reported that an agreement was reached about 10 days ago through the MKO’s/MEK/PMOI legal counsel in London…
Although UNHCR won’t require the dissidents to disassociate from the group, it said in a recent statement that refugee status could be granted only to individuals and not to the group as a whole. In effect, the MEK aka MKO/PMOI, as its known by its Farsi language initials, appears to be on the verge of accepting the demand by U.S. Ambassador James Jeffrey in July to disband as a military formation.
Mr. Arango submitted questions by email, which elicited a lengthy response from the MEK.The problem was not cured, however, because so little of the MEK response was incorporated in the story. One simply does not learn from this story why the group seems so intransigent about its unwillingness to relocate, disband or accept an end to American protection. The MEK’s point of view on this was an essential, but missing, element in a story that so thoroughly reported on the ambassador’s perspective.
In the past, the MEK leadership has refused to allow most residents of Camp Ashraf to apply for refugee status or to speak with UNHCR representatives without MEK officials present.Former members of the group, who contend that the MEK is a cult that fosters blind obedience to its leaders, say that many Ashraf inhabitants have been held against their will and would eagerly leave the camp if they could. ..
The people inside the camp are described as “non status” and they are not accepted as refugees or even asylum seekers. The Iraqi government is adamant it will carry out the decision to close the camp – which is one of the last remains of the Saddam regime – and on the other hand the leaders of the Mojahedin inside the camp insist on keeping the status quo without any logical, legitimate, legal or other reasons..
The current debate over delisting seems premature to most experts, but it presents an important opportunity to restore the rights of hundreds of individuals trapped at Camp Ashraf. Removing the MEK from the U.S. terrorist list would do nothing to end the human rights violations faced by MEK members. Only by dismantling the camp, disarming the group, separating the leadership from the rank and file, and providing low-level members rehabilitation support can the human rights situation be resolved.