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Former members of the MEK

Three MKO defectors joined their families

Three former members of the terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) joined their families in the central province of Isfahan, said the head of the provincial Nejat Society here on Thursday.

Speaking at a ceremony marking the repatriation of the three former MKO members on Wednesday evening, Mohsen Hashemi said that Qasem Baba Safari, Bijan Shah Moradi and Hossein Janatinejad were among a group of the repentant members of the terrorist group who returned home after escaping the notorious Ashraf camp in Iraq.

Since 2003, Hashemi said, about 500 MKO members have managed to flee Ashraf camp and successfully return home through the cooperation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Iran’s Foreign Ministry.

Most of those being kept by the MKO had left Iran in the hope of finding jobs but later fell in the trap of MKO agents and taken to the notorious camp for hard labor.

The three were MKO members during 1988-2000, Hashemi said.

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Former members of the MEK

Voluntarily Return of Some MKO Defectors

In a phone contact with the office of Red Cross, Mr. Khezr Aval, Deputy Representative of Red Cross in Tehran, said that by the assistance of International Red Cross, a number of former MKO members who were settled in a US camp in Iraq have returned to Iran on August 2, 2005.

He added that the office of Red Cross would release the names of new returnees.

Appreciating the efforts of Red Cross and other organizations, Iranian and Iraqi authorities and other organizations , we congratulate the return of defectors to the country . Taking it as a good omen, we ask the authorities on the fate of other former members in US-run camps and those still detained by the cult of Rajavi.

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Former members of the MEK

Firouzmand; Interview With BBC

In a press conference in Paris, Mohammed Javad Firouzmand-former senior member of MKO- talked about the condition of this organization in Iraq.

After the US invasion to Iraq, he escaped from Camp Ashraf- MKO’s main headquarter led by Massoud Rajavi- and returned to Iran by the assistance of the international Red Cross. He left Iran illegally in a while and arrived in Europe via Turkey. In an interview with BBC, he said of his escape from Camp Ashraf:

– After the Americans took control of Camp Ashraf and its surrounding areas, they started to identify the members of the MKO. They said they wanted to verify that the members were not dangerous. Indeed, two times, they interrogated the members, fingerprinted them and opened a file for each one. The first time, this process was done with the presence of the MKO officials and therefore, it was not possible to escape. But the second times, none of the MKO officials were there. This was the only chance for me to escape the MKO without announcing my intention. I should say that I had once escaped the camp in 2001 but I was arrested by Saddam forces and I was imprisoned and tortured by Mojahedin, and then Massoud and Maryam sentenced me to death. Anyway, I escaped the US-run camp in northern side of Camp Ashraf.

* How many people are now in the US-run camp?

– If we consider it since about 18 months ago, when the first defectors started leaving the MKO, around 700 members have left the MKO so far. Around 500 of this number have returned to Iran under the supervision of International Red Cross and there are now more than 150 former members in the US-run camp, protected by Americans.

* How many remained in Ashraf camp? What’s your estimation of the number of those who want the leave the MKO?

– Around 3000 to 3100 are now in Camp Ashraf under the control of the MKO, without a clear future. Well, it can be said that all of them like to go. In past 17 months more than 700 escaped from MKO and this is unprecedented. And this loss of forces will take the MKO to a deadlock.

* How were you able to get to Europe? What events did you pass?

– In March 2005, under the supervision of Red Cross, there was no way out of Iraq and I was looking for a path to save myself from the hell of Iraq. Iran was the only solution, but a risky one. I said this to the Red Cross. I asked them whether they guaranteed my safety in Iran, because I had a long record of fighting the regime. They said no and that they couldn’t guarantee that in any form, written or verbal. Well, I accepted this risk.

* How did they, Iranian security agents, treat you in Iran? You and others who had returned from the MKO? during the interrogations?

– More than 500 former members returned to Iran. Around 14 returned to Iran just last week. I swear to God, and with 25-year record of fighting this very regime I frankly say that fortunately the elements of the regime received us from the Red Cross and delivered us to our families. They had no negative or bad behavior and I didn’t see any negative effect in their words or practices. This is a reality that I should say.

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Interview with Yasser Ezzati

Gathering of Roshana Association before German Parliament, Federal State of NRW, Dsseldorf

– Mr. Ezzati, Can you explain why you are here?

Ezzati: We are now before the Westfalen parliament; we have gathered here to help underage people who have been brainwashed by the MKO. Even people like Turaj or Alan Mohammedi who committed suicide were sent to Iraq at the age of 13-14. We have gathered here to say that these people should talk to international organizations in a free situation. I was there and I know that the MKO puts them under pressure. These young people don’t want to stay there and I recently talked to Amir Vafa Yaghmayee- the son of Ismael Vafa Yaghmayee, member of NCRI- and he said that he is under pressure even in the US camp and he can’t speak.

– How many people are there in the US-run camp?

E: the children of MKO, I mean dissident ones in the US camp are 4. Heidar Naghash, Amir Vafa Yaghmayee, Saeed and a girl, Azadeh Boostani.

– Are you familiar with them?

E: I have lived with them, in Germany and in Camp Ashraf.

– Do you gather here to ask the parliamentarians to return those having the citizenship of Germany?

E: We want them to send a group there. Talk to the children and let the children choose between Ashraf and Europe because the MKO has limited their choice to Iran and Ashraf.

– Why did the MKO let you out but prevents them from leaving the group?

E: When I was in Ashraf I knew that Americans don’t help anyone. So I believed that escaping from Ashraf is easier. I didn’t go to the US camp and I pretended that I wanted to stay with the MKO.

 

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Diplomacy and the MKO’s Foreign Supporters

Interview with Ebrahim Khodabandeh

 Interviewer – Mr. Win Griffiths came to Iran and saw the reality of your condition at first hand; but he evaded, in a way, admitting this reality! Why does a figure such as him ignore his responsibility and resort to partiality in his judgment?

Ebrahim Khodabandeh – There are various reasons for this, the clearest of which is his formal ties with the [Mojahedin] Organization. In the end, it’s been 25 years that he is working with the MKO and there’s a kind of formality between them.

Many MKO members (like me and others) are the people who have had relations with the people who are now in the House of Lords. These people have had contact with the MKO since they were young and were in the Labour Party and then they had become members of parliament, stood down and became Lords, but kept their contact.

There are a few such people, such as Win Griffiths, Lord Corbett, and Lord Clark; they’re the products of the 1980s when a big wave was in motion against Iran (at that time it was said that every 25 minutes an Iranian is executed). These people came at that time and I saw that Labour Party formally supported the NCRI. A representative of the Labour Party came and said that they wanted to support the MKO. Anyway, this was their policy at that time.

These [people] are the products of that period of time and when they retire, no one replaces them. Most of them are concentrated in the US and the UK; in other European countries you can’t find such similar conditions. This is because the MKO had strong foreign relations in the US and UK. It had people on the ground who had made friendship with parliamentarians.

There may be a thousand reasons for Win Griffiths’s position; he may have formal relations with a person in the MKO.

But this is only related to a person. If you look closer, you can see that support for the MKO has become restricted and limited. At one time, a majority of the Swedish parliament supported the NCRI, when Maryam Rajavi was in Paris, but it is now finished.

After that, it was reversed and opponents of the MKO in European Parliament increased. The MKO has never been able to get good support from the parliaments in Germany and France.

It also depends on the political situation of the MPs and their record as an MP. The presence of some people, who were influential, could be decisive; but Parliament is not an important organ in the foreign policies of these countries, and so the position taken by a member of parliament is not important.

If all the MPs of the world gather and sign a petition in favor of the MKO, nothing will be changed for this organization. All of them together can’t have the value of a diplomat or an expert from a Foreign Office. The professional views of such experts have always been decisive. No one, even a simple expert, in any foreign ministry, supports this organization.

Except with Saddam, the Organization couldn’t establish solid relations with other states; it has not had even a simple discussion. Other nations don’t count on the MKO to sit and talk to it. Instead, the MKO has always wanted a person from any foreign ministry to come and talk to them. This never came true for the MKO and then the terrorist lists showed up. First, the US list of terrorist organization and then, the UK, and then it was extended to European Parliament.

Now if you compare the words of Win Griffiths and the [Terrorism] Act [2000] passed by the UK parliament which introduced the MKO as a terrorist organization; they’re not comparable. I mean the words of Griffiths are not decisive.

Interviewer – Your explanations about the diplomacy of the organization and that where it is going and its propaganda positions have been very useful. But when we address Mr. Win Griffiths as a human being, he has taken a position against your case; how should we evaluate this?

Ebrahim Khodabandeh – We should remember that Mr. Griffiths is retired [as an MP] and he would be dealing with the supporters of the MKO. If I were him, I’d work cautiously because the members of the MKO are present there in the UK and I would meet them again; in the end, one should think that he had 20 years of relationship and he needs more caution than people like Teddy Taylor who has no formal relation with the MKO or Emma Nicholson who has always taken position against the MKO.

I mean this position taking depends on personal characteristics; it can’t be analyzed politically.

Interviewer – Another point was that the MKO put pressure on Homa Khodabandeh and tried to convince her that she should protest and set herself on fire. Mitra Bagheri had said this, 20 days before organized self-immolations in France; before Marzieh Babakhani and Sedighe Mojaveri in Paris and Neda Hassani in the UK set themselves on fire; of course, the total number of self-immolations was 16 out of which 2 deaths were reported.

But the organization claims that it was not organized by the MKO.

I want to establish a link between what the MKO had said to Homa and the events in France. Can we say that what happened in France was a move by the members themselves?

Ebrahim Khodabandeh – I can’t believe that even a move is performed by itself in the MKO; I mean if someone can do something in the MKO by himself, then the MKO is not the organization that I know.

If someone wants to drink water, it is done under the supervision of the organization. In most of the cases we couldn’t decide and waited for the organization to give us commands. We couldn’t even decide on the simplest affairs of all human beings.

It is possible that an official of the MKO has not directly ordered someone to execute the orders, but there are special methods to force the members indirectly to do something; the MKO is master at such methods.

For instance, in the meetings they didn’t tell us to attack a person, but they prepared the situation so that all the people in that meeting attacked a person who did not have similar ideas. In that system, ordering members is easy.

If it was something spontaneous, the people who were closer to the center of the MKO (Maryam Rajavi) should have been more affected; but why didn’t the veterans come to the scene and why were the younger members involved; why was it limited and why wasn’t it wider?

My daughter told met that someone had called her and said that ‘if she was really my daughter, she’d set herself on fire’. When they can say such things to my daughter, consider the things they may have said after Maryam was arrested.

They may have said that if something like this happens, we would do so and so; well, there are a number who are influenced and would do the same

Let me tell you something; if the MKO didn’t want these events to happen it had the ability to prevent them although the members had become very excited.

Interviewer – When Mr. Griffiths came to Iran, you asked Ms. Elahe Azimfar to come to Iran and meet with you in person and you guaranteed her return. Would you repeat this again? Would you ask her or any other MKO representative to come to Iran?

Ebrahim Khodabandeh – Sure; I’m assured that I can guarantee this. I’m sure about it due to the things I’ve see here. It’s not restricted to one case. One can see many things, courts, revolutionary courts, judges, interrogators, intelligence ministry; prison guards the families, people in the streets. All this can’t be a big theater.

My analysis is that right now, Ms. Elahe Azimfar can come to Iran. She can go around and see everyone and then she can return to the UK!

Who benefits from this? If you look at it very carefully, you’ll see that the only loser is the MKO. It is the MKO which should answer these questions: where’s the torture, where’s the execution, why was x not tortured, why was y not executed? This is one of the first results of such a visit to Iran.

Win Griffiths came to Iran and returned; he can say what he wants. That he came to Iran after 25 years of enmity with the Islamic Republic and supporting MKO, that he was welcomed like a guest, he went everywhere he wanted and talked to everyone he liked, and then he returned, that is enough.

He can say nothing; anyone who witnesses this must ask himself "Where are all those claims?" I mean there’s a contradiction.

Once we see a person like Emma Nicholson, who came here to say "don’t execute these people". She didn’t ask for anything in return. She was not given money. My brother asked him and she came to Iran and asked Iran not to execute us. And then we see how the MKO treats her.

What has she done that the MKO insults her? What has she said that the MKO is so angry? So, the only loser out of visits to Iran is the MKO and no one else.

That’s why the MKO tries to isolate those who talk about Iran and who go to the Iranian embassy. It wants to create a situation in which no one thinks of returning to Iran. A situation in which members think they have committed a betrayal; they can do anything but they must never approach Iran.

I know that the Iranian government has a good insight into the MKO and knows that if someone is separate from the MKO for 10 days, then that person won’t be the same again. Iran is always open to such people.

This is not like Europe. The punishment for armed robbery here is death, but how is that [Iran] pardons MKO members, even those who have participated in operations? Because they know that if a person leaves the MKO, and the ‘Current Operation’" [brainwashing] sessions are stopped, that person can be reconstructed and sent back into society. It means that these persons have not been terrorists and criminals but they have been in a situation that has forced them to be so.

Experience shows that those who survived their own [terrorist] operations in Iran, made a 180 turnabout during a short time. Unfortunately, some of them committed suicide or were killed during the operation.

This turnabout can’t be achieved through torture, or mental pressure since they were ready for torture and mental pressure. The thing they were not ready for was seeing reality. That’s why they were told to swallow cyanide capsule.

I’m sure that if someone like Ms. Elahe Azimfar comes to Iran, she would be warmly received and then she can return freely. Then she can return and say that she was tortured here.

She can say whatever she wants, it’s not important. But the only loser will be the MKO and the MKO won’t allow such a thing to happen.

Interviewer – It was announced on behalf of Mr. Griffiths that he is carrying a message of peace for Iranian officials and whether it is possible for the government to stop its enmity toward the MKO and issue a pardon or not. Do you think it was a personal request or was it something which had been coordinated by the MKO?

Ebrahim Khodabandeh – No, I think it was personal. As far as the system in Iran is concerned it has no problem. What would they want to do if they return to the country? Would they hold the ‘current operation’ sessions in a stadium?

The system’s behavior with us shows that it doesn’t consider the MKO to be a serious threat.

Win Griffiths said that he was personally opposed to armed struggle. He said that he didn’t accept that MKO has performed military operations.

Interviewer – Of course, he later withdrew these words.

Ebrahim Khodabandeh – Anyway, this was what he told us. He said that he wanted to create understanding. But I don’t believe that the organization will abandon its principles. Mr. Griffiths should know that MKO’s basis is that the regime should be toppled. Well, first of all, it should withdraw from this position and then there is room for other discussions.

For instance, first I say that I seek your death! Now I want to sit and talk to you. It’s impossible because I have not left any room for discussion.

So, this was something personal. He said that he had something like the model of South Africa in his mind. But the cases are not similar at all.

Interviewer – Mr. Griffiths and two of his friends had formed an ad hoc parliamentary committee to save you, "The Committee for the freedom of Ebrahim Khodabandeh and Jamil Bassam"! But as the MKO’s propaganda decreased, this committee was shut down (although if its purpose was humanitarian it should have continued its activities until achieving a clear result). Now the question is, whether these committees and other similar movements are created at the request of MPs or at the request of the MKO?

Ebrahim Khodabandeh – All the activities by these MPs are planned by the MKO. MPs are very busy. Iran may be at the bottom of their agenda. They are so busy that they can’t enter into such cases. They only let their names be used by such committees- which are usually fixed and are run by a few who have old relations with the MKO.

These committees don’t have formal or legal aspects. They’re not influential at all. They’re more propagandistic and help the MKO in its propaganda programs.

Interviewer –  You mean they have internal applications in the MKO?

Ebrahim Khodabandeh – Yes, they’re used to recruit and keep members. For example, consider the committee which had been formed for us. It was not for our freedom. It had propaganda use, up to a point? Up to where? Up to when Baroness Emma Nicholson came and visited us. Then my daughter came and visited me. And later, Griffiths came and then the time for using this committee was expired.

One of the things that was explained here for Mr. Griffiths here was our case and the accusations against us. The UNCR also said that we should be returned to Syrian and that the extradition was illegal because we had UK citizenship. But they couldn’t charge Iran because we had threatened Iran’s security and Iran had the right to receive us wherever we had been arrested.

For instance, a number of people were arrested by the US in Afghanistan. They were taken to Guantanamo Bay. The US says these people were threats to its security. It was explained to Win Griffiths that there were clear charges against us.

It was explained for him that we should go on trial court because we had been arrested and charged.

Anyway, such committees have temporary applications; to fill newspapers and show activities and …

They show these to attract new members and keep some people busy.

Interviewer –  You mean Mr. Griffiths has accepted Iran’s reasoning on judicial issues?

Ebrahim Khodabandeh – Yes, he had a meeting with Mr. Javad Larijani about us. They explained our case to him and said that they are ready to explain it for anyone who has criticisms of the judicial process in this regard.

These are mostly political noises, there’s no legal discussion in them. They lack diplomatic and legal value. They’re only for propaganda.

Interviewer –  Thank-you. 

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Former members of the MEK

14 MKO Defectors Return Home

After the return of a number of former MKO members from Iraq to Iran during past few months, another group of 14 former MKO veterans- who had been under the supervision and protection of US forces- have returned to their countries with the cooperation of International Red Cross.

When anti-Iranian propagandas of terrorist MKO and other opposition groups faded and these people found the truth, they returned by their own will.

At the time being, Islamic Republic has issued pardon for them and the best and safest way for saving them is Iran.

It’s notable that 250 former members have returned to Iran since February.

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Memories of Ali Moradi

 Ali Moradi had been a sergeant in the Iranian army at the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war. He was captured early on and spent nine years as a POW in Ramadi camp. He was among a group of Iranian POWs recruited into the Mojahedin shortly after the ceasefire by promises of marriage and  paid work. This is an extract from a longer interview conducted after his return to Iran. After Maryam returned to Iraq in 1997 the Rajavis imposed more radical changes to combat what Maryam called our bourgeois mind-set. Under the new rules, a gender apartheid was introduced so that men and women were physically separated. Now there were only all male units and all female units both of which had 3 or 4 women commanders. All were completely separate. A man and woman were no longer allowed to be alone in the same room. We were not allowed to speak to women unless authorized for work purposes. In the autumn of 2002 when the US stepped up its threats against Iraq, Massoud and Maryam held a meeting for all the combatants. They analyzed that in 2005 the Khatami government would be toppled by a popular uprising and we must ready ourselves for a final operation.

Just about everybody had questions at that point. What would we do if the Americans attack us? The answer came, ‘We will attack Iran’ with everything we have’, said Massoud.

Now I have to say that most members don’t actually expect to die, but Massoud Rajavi boasted that we would go like Ashura (marking the martyrdom of Imam Hossein with his followers). This was the Black Phase and it was clearly a suicide mission for the whole organization.

The next news we had from the leadership was that Mohammad Mohaddessin had written to the UK Foreign Office and the US Department of State and had announced our neutrality.

In another meeting, Rajavi read a message to us which said that the US and UK had agreed not to attack our camps. Within a month two of our camps had been attacked by the coalition forces and around fifty combatants had been killed. According to Rajavi’s orders the NLA should now launch its final all-out attack on Iran. But they did not move. Most people, I can say 95% of people felt devastated then. Everyone had the same thoughts in their minds. ‘I gave my life to this struggle, what has happened to my aims now?’

Worse was to come when Hossein Abrishamchi, (brother of Mehdi Abrishamchi who is subject to the French judicial investigation into the MEK’s terrorist activities in France) and Mojgan Parsii (nominal head of the MEK in Iraq) negotiated first a ceasefire then total disarmament with General Ordinero of the US army. Within a week the MEK’s armour and weapons was collected and the US surrounded Camp Ashraf to where all the MEK’s combatants were rounded up and sent. (A cache of weapons had been hidden by the MEK, but US air forces soon discovered it.) Again, the combatants felt devastated. Everyone began questioning what had happened to the organization, what was the future, what about the aims I had given my life to, what about the overthrow of the regime. Remember too that at this point we still had no idea that around 250 leading members had escaped Iraq and fled to Europe, including Maryam Rajavi.

In the chaos which followed the US and coalition invasion of Iraq, the combatants enjoyed a little freedom, and we began to talk and discuss the event and the possible outcome for the organization. After the American forces rounded everyone up into Camp Ashraf they began to interview everyone. The first interview was to establish the name, origin and other basic information so that an ID card could be issued. The second interviews were held to collect DNA information from each resident of the camp. The third interviews were held by representatives of the US Department of State. They were asking everyone for information. One thing that we were asked in every interview was ‘where is Massoud Rajavi’, it was a question for all of us as much as for the Americans. In the third interview we were asked where we would like to go once we left Iraq. The MEK had told everyone to answer that they want to stay in Iraq, but most people disregarded this and insisted they wanted to go to another country. The MEK had told everyone that if you go to Iran they will torture you and hang you and that you can’t go to Europe because they won’t accept you. In spite of this, during the first interviews around 115 asked directly for help from the US forces to get out of the camp. These were taken to the North of the camp where the US army had it barracks.

To date, over 600 MEK resident of Camp Ashraf have taken refuge with the US forces in the North camp. From these, over 250 have been repatriated to Iran and the others remain. The only reason it had been possible for these people to escape to the North camp was because MEK commanders do not have guns and cannot stop them.

People want to leave, but they are afraid of the unknown. They don’t have any real information. No one has told them where they can go, that they have alternatives. The Mojahedin told us that it would not allow the Red Cross to visit our camp.

Hossein Madani told me personally that ‘we have tried everything we can, including lobbying them intensively in Switzerland, so they will not come to our camp’. It was a deliberate policy to prevent people from asking to leave. But I had a PoW card from the Red Cross, so I was able to go to the North camp and ask for refuge with the Americans. I had nothing left to keep me there. I had no family, I had lost my aims, and worst of all was the deception of the MKO which I could now clearly see.

I would say that right now around sixty to eighty percent of the people in the camp are dissatisfied and would leave if they could. The conditions inside Camp Ashraf are really severe. The control over the members has become even more rigid after the protected persons status was given.

You are not allowed to talk to one another. If two people get together and start talking, suddenly someone will pop up and start interrogating them and accusing them, ‘what are you talking about, you are undermining the leader …’ There is no news from the outside world. We have no real information and now I know that all the news they gave us about Iran is wrong. I mean ALL of it. In the camp if anyone expresses any questions about anything they are taken into a group of about twenty people who talk to that one person to convince them. They have confiscated everyone’s documents too to make it hard to get out. The US army haven’t been very helpful either. In the north camp they told us they had to make sure people wouldn’t be a terrorist threat if they go to Europe, but how do you want to prove that. But people still escape, and the MKO commanders have no guns so they can’t stop them. I know several of the top people have run away; Said Jamali, Khalil Ramazanpour and Alireza Ahad are all in the North camp. Davoud Baghervand came back with my group and is now in Iran.

I think that everyone in the MKO has questions about their future, even the leaders. Many want to leave but they have nowhere to go. Around 80% of those who had the courage to leave did so after they had been visited by their families. That’s why the MKO is so afraid to let the families in the camp.

When it comes to the point that they can’t deny a family visit, they take you aside and

have an intensive meeting to prepare you. I met with Fereshte Yegahni for one and a half hours before a visit from my brother. She told me, ‘your brother will tell you lies. The Iranian government has sent him. Be very careful as this is a political activity by the regime. Don’t see him as your brother, you must believe that you are talking to the regime. Don’t cry, and don’t let him persuade you to leave.’ This was unacceptable to me. I saw my brother and shortly after that

meeting I went to the North camp, determined to get home. I wrote to Colonel Georgis and the Red Cross and told them I want to leave and go back to Iran. Conditions in the North camp are very difficult, they gave us non-halal meat, pig meat, and there is no air conditioning. In every twenty four hours we have to line up five times on parade. We weren’t able to have contact with our families because the Americans told us that letters would be censored by the country receiving them, which in our case was Iran, so people were afraid to write, though we did get letters. When I finally got to go home I remember looking down from the airplane window as we took off, at the flat ground of Iraq. When we flew over the border and I saw the mountains of Iran with the snow on them, I was so happy I just wanted to jump

straight out of the plane and land in the snow of my homeland. At the airport in Tehran I expected hostility, but people came forward to greet us and welcomed us warmly. For two days I was really fearful. I thought this had just been for propaganda. But as the kindness continued for five and six days, only then did I believe it. I am now home with my  family. I have had no problems since I came back to Iran. They have tried to help us here as much as possible. But in the end I have wasted years of my life with that organization. I have no wife, no children, I have no job and no wealth.

I have nothing. And now I know I lost all my life for the selfish ambition of one man. When I was in Camp Ashraf everyone in the camp was asking the same question ‘Where is Massoud Rajavi?’ The last time I saw him was the day before the US invasion of Iraq. He has not been seen or heard from since that time. That’s over two years. For his followers at all levels of the MEK hierarchy, this has become the major issue. When anyone asks, Rajavi’s commanders say it’s for security reasons. But no one accepts that. A leader should be at the front of his forces, not run away at the first sign of danger. Rajavi always boasted ‘I am the leader and I am the first in line for sacrifice’. But the combatants are now comparing him with Sattar Khan, Mirza Kuchik Khan, Mousa Khiabani and other rebel leaders who died fighting alongside their forces. Rajavi’s commanders say his disappearance is for security reasons, but no one has

 

 

 

any doubt that Rajavi has just run away to save his own skin. People in the camp feel totally betrayed. This has been the worst betrayal, no one can trust anything anymore. Morale is so low in the camp that that even if Rajavi should reappear before them tomorrow, the vast majority of forces in Ashraf Camp will refuse to follow him. Everyone now has questions only about their own future.

Our forces returned to the garrison and were disarmed. The US forces freed the people of Iraq and for a while we kind of felt saved too. The atmosphere in the camp opened up a little and we had some freedom. At this time a lot of people abandoned the garrison and went to the US camp and didn’t return.

Soon after the disarmament the organization closed the atmosphere again.

Even though they didn’t have guns, the commanders kept the organization intact using Rajavi’s methods of fear and intimidation. We all saw how we had lost everything, our whole struggle had come to nothing and morale was very low.

The most important thing that happened during these two years has been the visits of families. The organization was severely opposed to contact with our families. Even a phone call was not allowed. I tricked them and said I would ring my family and ask for money – the organization is always desperate to get money. I called my brother and he  convinced me to come home. The organization described the family visits as an emotional war. They said our families had been sent by the regime to destroy us. They told us the Iranian Intelligence Ministry had motivated our families to come to Iraq. For this reason, many people were afraid to speak to their own families.

One of the things that gave us courage to leave and go to the American camp was that we had been given recognition

as people. I’m not talking about the protected persons status, I mean that the Americans interviewed us and wrote down our names and gave us an identity. Now we could not just disappear. In the beginning the Americans were not good with us, but after the protected persons status their relations with us improved. When we went for interviews the MKO told us, ‘don’t tell the US that you want to leave, defend the MKO in front of the Americans.’ But in our hearts we all wanted to leave. A month after the protected persons status was granted, the MKO set about destroying all its documents. Particularly those relating to the relations with the Iraqis and with the US. We destroyed all our military schedules and destroyed the books and songs which were against the USA.

 

 

 

More than anything else, Massoud Rajavi’s disappearance destroyed morale in the organization. We were all thinking that if he’s the leader why has he left. We felt betrayed. We watched the video of Ebrahim Zakeri’s [Rajavi’s former head of MKO intelligence] funeral in Paris. We showed no reaction, but in our hearts we were all stunned to see the organization’s top people all there in Paris. They had all run away.

Rumours started that Massoud must also be hiding in Europe. No one knew what to think, but no one dared discuss it. Only, everyone knows in all our hearts that the organization is finished. When the families started coming to visit, the MKO told us they are the representatives of imperialism and we must destroy them. The families became our new enemy rather than the Islamic Republic. They told us stories about the US camp. They said the Americans had killed two of our people and thrown the bodies away. They said they would make us immoral if we went there. People stay because of this. And because they don’t have any place to go. The Americans said we had four options, to stay in Iraq, to go to Iran, to apply for asylum in another country or to leave through international organizations.

We were always asking, ‘where are the international organizations, where is the Red Cross?’ But the MKO wouldn’t let them come into the camp. They told us we have to stay there. They tried to make the members forget about the other three options.

Even so, the men have the courage to escape now the leaders don’t have guns. They can apply to leave and go to the north camp. But the situation for women is desperate beyond description. In the time I was there I only saw three women who had dared to come to the north camp. That’s out of over six hundred people. What they told us was really shocking. Even these women who escaped did so believing that they would be raped by the Americans when they got to the north camp. That’s how bad things are. The younger women are controlled by the older women and they are under observation all the time. There is strict gender separation in Camp Ashraf. Men and women are not allowed to speak to one another. They have separate vehicles. Let me tell you how absurd and at the same time shocking this is.

When they want to put petrol in their vehicles the men and women have separate times. The men go between 8 and 9 am. Then there is a gap of twenty minutes before the women can visit the petrol pumps from 9.20 to 10.20 am. The  reason for the gap is so there is absolutely no possibility that men and women meet one another at the station. That is how the situation is.

The Mojahedin really has two faces. In spite of all their external propaganda, the situation of women in the organization is really worse than anything you can imagine. I saw Maryam Rajavi in the last Women’s Day celebration. She released a symbolic white dove. In my mind when I imagine her, I see this dove in one hand and her other hand is like a claw grasping my neck and viciously strangling me. In the end, Rajavi crossed the boundary and tortured his own people. He killed and tortured his own people and he exploited women. I can never forgive him for this.

 Survivors’ Report  May 2005

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Former members of the MEK

TEARS OF JOY

At a ceremony last week, an Iranian mother hugged her son, one of 31 returning combatants who had spent time at a military camp in Iraq.

Anti-Iran militants return home

More than 250 young Iranians, from a group committed to toppling Iran’s leaders, are back in Tehran.

TEHRAN, IRAN “ Clutching flowers, chewing fingernails, and nervously holding their faces in their hands, 31 Iranian families awaited a reunion they thought would never come. They were reuniting with sons who had joined anti-Iran militants, officially tagged "terrorists" by both the US and Iran.

The journey of one of those sons, Hamid Khalkali, is typical: He went to Turkey five years ago for work, but ended up at a military training camp in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. He was recruited by the Mujahideen-e Khalq, the "People’s Holy Warriors," or MKO, Iran’s largest opposition group, which aims to overthrow the government. It was supported for two decades by Mr. Hussein.

But now Mr. Khalkali is being officially welcomed home. He’s one of more than 250 former combatants who have returned home since December – among the first to test Iran’s offer of amnesty. Even as hawks in Washington debate tapping the group to help engineer regime change in Iran, a growing disillusionment within the MKO, coupled with a new Shiite- dominated government in Iraq that has little sympathy for it, has thinned the ranks of this once-feared militant group.

Collapsed in her son’s arms

Hamid’s mother, Mahin Amouie, thought her son was dead. But her grief turned to cautious joy last week when the telephone rang. Giving little information, the caller said: "We want to give you good news – come and get your son."

Until Ms. Amouie arrived at a small amphitheater in Tehran, bearing flowers and talking to other disbelieving families, she says she had no idea that Hamid had joined the MKO. Climbing onto the stage when her name was called, her emotional dam burst when Hamid strode into view. Tears streaming, Amouie collapsed into her son’s arms, a scene repeated again and again.

"Oh Lord, I sacrifice myself for you!" Amouie sobbed to Hamid, crushing the armful of flowers as she wrapped herself tight around his neck. "Where have you been? Where have you been?"

While some hawks in Washington wanting to enlist their services, the MKO is designated a "terrorist" group by the US State Department, with some 3,500 members still in Iraq. Hussein used the group as foot-soldiers in his war against Iran in the 1980s and later to help put down anti-regime uprisings in Iraq. Quoting US government sources, Newsweek last month reported that the Bush administration is "seeking to cull useful [MKO] members as operatives for use against Tehran," to be trained as spies and sent back to Iran to gather intelligence. Currently, remaining members are under what the US calls "protective custody" at Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad.

Some 232 crossed from Iraq in two groups earlier this month, under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross. "For us, it’s a humanitarian file. We do it for the families," says Loukas Petridis, a Red Cross spokesman in Tehran. "The message the Iranian authorities want to pass to Camp Ashraf is that more than 250 people have come back, and are free – and so far, that is how it has been." The Red Cross first received guarantees of safe treatment from Iran before agreeing to help.

With Marxist roots, Mao-style political indoctrination, and self-criticism sessions that prompt former members to brand the MKO a cult, the group’s history includes killing several Americans in the 1970s, supporting the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and seizing of the US Embassy. Losing out in the post-revolution power struggle, the MKO turned against the regime and launched a string of bomb attacks that killed hundreds in the early 1980s. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, survived an MKO attack in 1981 that paralyzed one arm.

For years the MKO leadership has warned members that they faced certain death or imprisonment if they returned to Iran.

Reporting from inside Camp Ashraf last weekend, The Los Angeles Times said the MKO dismisses the defectors as "quitters," and that those remaining "show no interest" in going back.

Most of those now repatriating to Iran have been with the MKO just a few years, and say they were "deceived" with promises of cash and a job when recruited in Turkey.

"It is 100 percent stress, but after four years I want to see my family," says Binyamin Espandani, a young former militant as he waits to join his family. "I went there for an objective – I wanted my country to stay independent…. But after the US came, the mujahideen were asking Americans for help to topple the government of my country."

Warnings for the families

A semiofficial agency that helps former militants reintegrate addressed the waiting families. "Maybe you expect your sons to [be unchanged from] five years ago, but it won’t be the same – some were told [by the MKO] to cut themselves off from you," said Shahin Rabiee, of Anjoman Nejat, or "Rescue Association."

But there were warnings, too, for families that signed a form stating that they received their son "safe and sound," and were now "responsible for him."

"They are not completely innocent. They could have escaped [from Iraq] easily during the American attack; they had weapons in their hands," psychologist Dr. Sami Ani told them. "So we have to accept that your children were doing something against the security of the country. But they are forgiven…. They … were brainwashed."

The happiness of homecoming set aside all other concerns. Former militant Hamid Sahapour held his mother’s hand and stroked her face while his brother Davoud tearfully leaned on him from the right. "I can’t express my joy – there are no words," says Mr. Sahapour. "Before the Americans came, if I said I wanted to leave, they would have sent 20 people to beat me."

This time Hamid’s mother, Delaram Vatanha, vows never to let him out of her grasp: "I will not let him go again."

Christian Science Monitor

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Former members of the MEK

The Abu Ghraib prison that I know

As I passed through the gates of the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, I could not believe that this was really me, standing at the edge of where the world finishes.

Abu Ghraib prison, a name that sent shivers down the back of any Iraqi, was in front of me and I, with over twenty one years history of serving the Mojahedin organization, had to start a new existence in this prison and wait for the leadership of the organization, especially Maryam, the sensual wife of Massoud Rajavi, to decide in what way they will eliminate me.

Looking back I clearly remember that even while I was entering the prison I had not understood or recognized the true nature of this barbaric couple. I did not know exactly how they had been surviving on the consumption of the blood of the children of my country.

It is reminiscent of the ancient story of Zahak whose shoulders were kissed by the devil whereupon two voracious snakes grew, one on each shoulder. Then the devil, posing as a doctor, came to his bedside and told him ‘if you feed these snakes a human brain each every day for some time, they will die’. So year in, year out without end, Zahak killed the children of the people of Iran and fed the brains to the snakes on his shoulders. And now this same story is being repeated by Rajavi and his wife who, for getting a grip on power – and what a dirty way of achieving power – are killing the best children of this country. They are selling them in bunches to the likes of Aghid Hashem and Naghib Mohammed [two agents of Saddam’s Secret Services]. I clearly remember my last day in Ashraf camp when they were going to hand me over to the Security Services of Saddam. On that day, a well known dirty and corrupted woman called Mahvash Sepehri together with Batool Rajaie and Javad Khorasan from the so called officials of the organization, along with some of the well known torturers of the organization including Farhad Olfat, came to me and asked me to put my head down and by accepting the rank of deputy of section, go back to my work. After a year of imprisonment and torture in solitary confinement I had only one answer and that was to spit on the floor at their feet.

After a few days in Abu Ghraib prison, I discovered what ‘Falgheh’ meant. But I had no idea that I would become famous in Abu Ghraib together with Abass Yazdani as a ‘loyalist’ of the Falgheh. The Falgheh was a specially made machine for torturing the prisoners. Every Iranian prisoner and in particular every ex member of the Mojahedin had to be tied to this equipment. The so called ‘deposits’ of Rajavi, were informed by our torturers, that we had to feel the machine in such a way that we would understand more deeply Rajavi’s sacrifices, and we would witness with our whole being that our Mojahed leader is paying the highest price by accepting the torture of his ex members.

It did not take long for me to experience this machine. In one of those hot Iraqi afternoons my name was suddenly shouted out by one of the prison guards. I reported to him and without a word he started to beat me with a big wooden club. My head was broken and blood poured from several places on my body. He did not stop and a few moments later two other guards joined him. Nothing was said. Only severe beating. I was loosing my strength very quickly and then I don’t know what happened.

There was some unfamiliar sound and then I was up. At first I thought that I must be dreaming, but the pain was so real that I forgot what I was thinking about. I was covered in blood.

My jaw was dislocated. Lying me on the floor they started again and I could feel their boots kicking every part of my body while I was screaming.

In that situation the one thing I did not know was that I would be spending the next three months living in a toilet.

The guards made me stand on my legs. Only at that time was I informed that I was accused of trying to escape the prison and that there were others who had allegedly been trying to help me and that I would not tell their names! They were beating me up to tell them the names of people who did not exist.

It was clear that the real reason for my torture was that I had been trying to give hope to the other prisoners and had been trying to convince them that one day they would be freed and so we should not give in to the demands of the torturers to go back to Rajavi.

They had found out about this. The laughable accusation of trying to escape was something they would routinely use to cover whatever real purpose they had to beat people up.

Naturally there were people who were unable to put up resistance and under torture would start saying anybody’s name in the vain hope that they would reduce the torture. I would not co-operate in this charade and would not give any names. I could not even bring myself to give the names of the people that I knew had been the cause of my situation.

That was why I had to be tortured to the end. Every torturer and every prisoner knew that these were false allegations but again, everybody knew also that the system of torture and beating had to continue.

My name had come up and in the end they moved me to ‘Mahjaz’. This was a toilet with no water where they would not give you clothes, food or anything else. There was no light in it either. For three months in the worst heat of Iraq I had only 3 glasses of water per day for all my needs. I had no food for the first four days and then I received one piece of bread per day. I had to sleep by the side of the same toilet bowl which had been used over and over and had never been cleaned. The concrete floor was not big enough to stretch out my legs while lying down to sleep.

Living in this condition for three months was barely possible, but every day too after counting the prisoners, the guards would come and in groups of three to five would beat me up and haul me off to the prison yard. There in front of others, they would tie me to the ‘Falgheh’ and beat me on my feet with a very thick wooden club and I would scream and shout. After a while, it became a routine. Every morning I had to run into the yard with a guard beating me on my back. I had to lie down in the middle of the yard so that the chosen prisoners of the day could tie my feet onto the ‘Falgheh’ and keep them up so that the guards could beat my severely injured feet with their special clubs. Seeing me under torture had become a normal thing even for my friends. It was just another routine among hundreds of other scenes in Abu Ghraib. But it was very different for me. For me it was constant torture and constant fear of the next torture session. Many times I could see that while I was under torture the other prisoners were talking to each other and laughing. I could not blame them as I could remember that before me, it had been the turn of Abass Yazdani, and I used to go and watch even though I did not want to. And now it was my turn.

On one of these regular torture days, my foot broke and I passed out. When I came round I saw that they had bandaged my foot. They had not touched my other wounds. But breaking my foot and losing my nails meant the torture was stopped for some time. I spent about three years in Abu Ghraib prison on the direct order of Massoud Rajavi, during which for only three months was I exempted from torture.

All these barbaric activities were taking place because Rajavi had decided that he no longer wants to have any ex members.

Today Rajavi is serving the Americans in rebuilding the Secret Services of Iraq. He is also serving shoulder to shoulder with the new torturers in Abu Ghraib prison. Both Saddam and Bush know that Rajavi, who does not have any mother country, would do any dirty work to please his masters and that is why his sell by date can always be renewed. He resembles an infamous torturer during Iran’s Safavid Empire [1501 – 1722].

This man remained in his position after the attack by Ashraf Afghan and went on to serve in Nader Shah’s court. One day on his way to work he saw the head of Nader Shah on a spike. He approached the people whom he was to kill that day – the ones who killed Nader Shah the night before – and asked them to give him fresh orders for the new victims to be beheaded. He stayed in his job even after the death of Nader Shah.

Similarly, Massoud Rajavi will always have some customers up to the last day of his life. That is, of course, unless someone does not bring him to justice sooner.

 

Akbar Akbari Sharbaf 

Date: 2004/09/05

 

 

 

 

   

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