Open Letter from Sahar Family Foundation to Martin Kobler
Open Letter from Sahar Family Foundation to Martin Kobler
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... He directly threatened members of his cult that during interviews they should not say or write anything but their names and the period they have been in Ashraf garrison, and should not mention anything about wishing to leave the base of the cult since this would produce severe consequences for them. In his lengthy speech, Rajavi tried to frighten people against any and every possible UN action and emphasized that they would gain no benefit from the UN interviews and the UN intervention and it could even harm them. He told them that if they do anything except what he has asked ...
Sahar Family Foundation has written a letter to the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Iraq, Mr Martin Kobler, regarding the latest developments at the base of the Rajavi cult in Iraq.
The text of the letter is below:
United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) Mr Martin Kobler,
With kind respects and best wishes for your task regarding the issue of the inhabitants of Camp New Iraq (formerly Ashraf garrison), we would like to inform you of the following:
According to information gained from inside Ashraf garrison, Massoud Rajavi arranged a video conference with Ashraf inhabitants towards the end of September 2011. Participation in this session was mandatory for all cult members residing in Ashraf. In this conference, which lasted for 8 continuous hours, Rajavi tried to prepare his followers for the possible UN interviews beforehand.
He directly threatened members of his cult that during interviews they should not say or write anything but their names and the period they have been in Ashraf garrison, and should not mention anything about wishing to leave the base of the cult since this would produce severe consequences for them.
In his lengthy speech, Rajavi tried to frighten people against any and every possible UN action and emphasized that they would gain no benefit from the UN interviews and the UN intervention and it could even harm them. He told them that if they do anything except what he has asked them to do they would be arrested and handed over to the Iranian regime where they would be tortured and executed.
During his speech, Rajavi said that the Iraqi government, the EU, the UN, the ICRC and any other agency cannot make any decisions and the US is the only agency that makes all the decisions. In this respect he tried to give hope to his followers that with the US administration’s approval, the conditions that the organization used to enjoy under Saddam Hussein would be reinstated.
The information received from Ashraf garrison also indicates that all members have been put on a state of alert against the Iraqi forces and specific plans have been made in this regard. These plans are mainly defensive but some plans for ambushing the Iraqi forces and disarming them have also been made. The members are told that after disarming the Iraqi forces they should hand over the captured weapons to their superiors and wait to be told what to do next. It should be mentioned that during the April clash with the Iraqi forces some weapons were seized from Iraqi soldiers which are still being held by the Rajavi cult.
There has also been news that the leaders of the cult are actively seeking another clash with the Iraqi forces in order to eliminate some of their discontented members as they did in previous cases. This has been done several times in the MeK cult before. During the invasion of Iraq by allied forces in 2003, the leaders of the Rajavi cult murdered some of those who wanted to leave and later announced that they had been killed during the bombardments. In the following years as more dissidents fled Ashraf garrison it was revealed that of the over 50 persons that the MeK claimed were killed as the result of the bombardments, a maximum number of 5 had actually been killed in this way and the rest were eliminated by the cult itself.
What we would specifically like to draw your attention to is that inside Ashraf garrison the brainwashing sessions called “current operations” are proceeding with intensity. The reason for these delays and time-killing by the leaders of the cult and preventing the UN from carrying out its tasks is that they want to identify those who are potential deserters and also to mentally prepare their members for the interviews.
We therefore on behalf of the suffering families, who are the only right representatives of the inhabitants of the garrison and are truly following their best interests, urge you to adopt the following means.
- Arrange for the hundreds of families of members, who have been picketing outside the garrison for nearly two years and merely request to visit their loved ones which the leaders of the cult have denied, to visit the inhabitants during the transfer and interview process.
- Make sure that such meetings are carried out without the presence of the MeK officials. It is necessary for the International Red Cross and preferably the next of kin of interviewees to be present in order to gain the rapport and trust of the asylum seekers.
- Pass adequate information about their actual situation to these people since they have been away from the real world for many years and have no clue whatsoever about the circumstances outside the cult. Their only source of knowledge has been the cult leaders, so they must be well informed beforehand.
As before, Sahar Family Foundation declares its readiness for all possible cooperation. We would like to share all our resources in any appropriate way with the international organizations in order to reach a quick and peaceful solution for the dilemma of Ashraf garrison.
Sahar Family Foundation Baghdad, 3 January 2012
Copy to: Mr. Daniel Fried, U.S. Special Adviser on Camp Ashraf Mr. Jean de-Ruyt, EU foreign policy adviser on Camp Ashraf
The achievements of two years of picketing by the families
(Rajavi is a hostage taker, Rajavi is nobody's representative)
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... Today it is clear to everyone that the leaders of the Rajavi cult like all similar cults anywhere in the world which use destructive mind control methods do not see themselves bound by their words or their signatures. It is now clear that they are more than anything else afraid that their forces (hostages) would run away during this transfer. Sooner or later, Rajavi will have to give up Ashraf garrison - which is situated on land illegally and forcefully confiscated by his benefactor Saddam Hussein where he built a military base which he later gifted to the Mojahedin Khalq. Sooner or later he will have to face the fact that the members will be deported from Iraq ...
As you know, an agreement has been struck between UNAMI, the Iraqi Government and the leaders of the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation according to which the camp should be evacuated by the end of year 2011.
Also, according to this agreement the deportation of Mojahedin Khalq will be delayed by another 6 months in which time the UNHCR would be able to register the residents and carry out individual interviews in preparation to transfer them to other countries.
According to the Memorandum of Understanding, an initial 400 of the residents of Camp Ashraf are to be transferred to the former American Camp Liberty adjacent to Baghdad Airport, but to this day, 30th December 2011, the leaders of the Rajavi cult have rejected the planned transfer by bringing all sorts of reasons and excuses, clearly against the agreements accepted by the other two parties involved (UNAMI and the GOI).
Today it is clear to everyone that the leaders of the Rajavi cult like all similar cults anywhere in the world which use destructive mind control methods do not see themselves bound by their words or their signatures. It is now clear that they are more than anything else afraid that their forces (hostages) would run away during this transfer. Sooner or later, Rajavi will have to give up Ashraf garrison - which is situated on land illegally and forcefully confiscated by his benefactor Saddam Hussein where he built a military base which he later gifted to the Mojahedin Khalq. Sooner or later he will have to face the fact that the members will be deported from Iraq.
It is worth mentioning the continuous hard work of the families of the people trapped inside the camp who have stayed by the camp for the last two years and demanded their human rights from their base, which they call Freedom City, built adjacent to Camp Ashraf. They exposed the lies of Rajavi and they proved that the leader of the Mojahedin Khalq cult has no respect whatsoever for the people and the loved ones taken hostage inside the camp.
It is now clear to everyone that it is the fathers, mothers, children and spouses of the trapped people who represent the best interest of the hostages and not the leaders of the cult.
The agreement between all parties to sort out the problem of Camp Ashraf could not have been achieved without the hard work and the suffering of these families, especially during the last two years. They have worked flat out for the last two years in Freedom City, adjacent to Camp Ashraf for two years and intend to do so for as long as it takes. It is clear that even after the transfer of Rajavi's hostages to a new location, the families will not rest until they achieve their minimum demand of private visits with their loved ones. The hope of reaching this goal is now greater and nearer than ever and the number of families is continually increasing in number. They have all decided to finish the quest that began two years ago and to not give up until they have achieved their simple humanitarian demand of 'Right of Visits' with their captured relatives.
SFF on behalf of the picketing families would like to extend its appreciation to all the survivors and ex-members, as well as human rights activists in Iraq, Iran and other countries who have been aiding and supporting the families and helping their voices be heard in the world.
With the hope that one day soon the goal of the freedom of every one of our loved ones takes the tiredness of all these years off our bodies.
(Maryam Rajavi directly ordered the massacre of Kurdish people)
Families representing Camp Ashraf residents want fast and peaceful resolution
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... While nobody expected the MEK leaders to welcome the families with open arms, and nobody expected the MEK's callous and cynical owners to care for the individual welfare of their gladiators and slaves, it is shocking that even internationally renowned human rights organisations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the UNHRC have not uttered a word about this situation. These protectors of human rights may as well have been paid by the Rajavis for their spurious appeals to the Iraqis to 'protect the human rights' the camp's residents. Not one single word of criticism has been said against the Rajavi's blatant and cruel denials of these families' just demands ...
Anne Singleton, Middle East Strategy Consultants, December 22 2011 http://mesconsult.com
Anne Singleton is the author of the books "Saddam's Private Army" and "Camp Ashraf" http://camp-ashraf.com
The most unhelpful aspect of the negotiations to close Camp Ashraf and remove the residents from Iraq is that the Western agents continue to act on the myth that the people inside the camp are somehow a single, discrete entity with no connection to the outside world and no say in their own treatment. Thus it is reported without context, analysis or explanation that the Mojahedin-e Khalq will need to be transferred to a separate facility - specifically the former U.S. military base Camp Liberty. Once there they will need to be interviewed by the UNHCR for decisions to be made on their refugee status, with UNAMI overseeing Iraqi conduct at the new camp. And out of this process their futures will be determined.
But even this, 'the desired outcome', is being promoted without the actual cooperation of the MEK leader. This proposed mass movement of the camp's residents can only give rise to a pseudo angst-ridden hand-wringing which at one time fears mass suicide, at another their mass deportation to Iran where they will be tortured and executed, it fears they are labelled as terrorists and will not be 'allowed' to come to the West, and then fears that they will come to the West and pose a security threat. Underpinning the whole Washington-led negotiation process is the basic principle 'how do we conserve the MEK'.
Behind the naive and unhelpful scenario of convincing Massoud Rajavi to agree the mass relocation of his captives to an open camp over which he has no control lies a blatant violation of fundamental human rights which is taking place before everybody's eyes but which nobody apparently wants to acknowledge. This is because focusing on this situation would remove any legitimacy from the negotiations. It would expose the reality behind the myth; Massoud Rajavi is nobody's representative. It would mean acknowledging that Rajavi has falsely imprisoned over three thousand individuals and is daily violating their basic human rights and it would mean moving forward on that basis.
There are currently around 400 families at the gates of the camp. They have come determined to rescue their loved ones and protect them from harm. These are the true representatives of their captured relatives in the camp. Why do they still have no voice? Why do international agencies ignore them and pretend they have no stake in the negotiations and outcome.
Over the past eight years family after family has tried to assert their basic right - to meet with their closest relatives in a secure and private atmosphere outside the control of the MEK. The demand pre-dates the decision to close Camp Ashraf, and will certainly post-date any moves at the camp. Indeed, the biggest scandal is that this demand has nothing to do with the Iraqi determination to close the camp before the end of 2011, but it is still being ignored.
While nobody expected the MEK leaders to welcome the families with open arms, and nobody expected the MEK's callous and cynical owners to care for the individual welfare of their gladiators and slaves, it is shocking that even internationally renowned human rights organisations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the UNHRC have not uttered a word about this situation. These protectors of human rights may as well have been paid by the Rajavis for their spurious appeals to the Iraqis to 'protect the human rights' the camp's residents. Not one single word of criticism has been said against the Rajavi's blatant and cruel denials of these families' just demands. Not one word of criticism has been levelled against the Rajavis' daily abuse of human rights inside the camp in spite of the on-going testimonies of both past and recent escapees.
It is the urgent obligation of every humanitarian agency involved to prefix the mythical negotiations with the unequivocal demand that Rajavi immediately and peacefully open the gate of Camp Ashraf and allow the people inside to have contact with their families. There can be no legal or moral obstacle or objection to such a course of action.
... A large number of families of Camp Ashraf residents gathered in front of the Camp, this morning, reported Nejat Society representative. Families of Ashraf prisoners chanted slogans to once more announce their call to visit their loved ones. Local and foreign reporters are present in there in order to broadcast the news of the region. As it was also reported 100 residents of Camp Ashraf are relocated in Camp liberty, a site near Baghdad international airport, today. Families are hopeful to see or at least get news of their children --after years of no news about them-- while they are transferred from Ashraf to Baghdad ...
A large number of families of Camp Ashraf residents gathered in front of the Camp, this morning, reported Nejat Society representative.
Families of Ashraf prisoners chanted slogans to once more announce their call to visit their loved ones.
Local and foreign reporters are present in there in order to broadcast the news of the region.
As it was also reported 100 residents of Camp Ashraf are relocated in Camp liberty, a site near Baghdad international airport, today.
Families are hopeful to see or at least get news of their children --after years of no news about them-- while they are transferred from Ashraf to Baghdad.
Ten escape from Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation - take refuge in police station north of Baquba
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... A security source in Diyala province said on Friday that 10 members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization of Iran (PMOI) had managed to escape from the camp and take refuge in a police station north of Baquba, indicating that the escape was due to their exposure to the "tyranny and injustice" of the leaders of the organization. The source said in an interview for Alsumaria News, "Ten members of the MEK of Iran based in Camp Ashraf or what is known currently as Camp New Iraq... (55 km north of Baquba), escaped today from the camp and took refuge in a police station close by" ...
A security source in Diyala province said on Friday that 10 members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization of Iran (PMOI) had managed to escape from the camp and take refuge in a police station north of Baquba, indicating that the escape was due to their exposure to the "tyranny and injustice" of the leaders of the organization.
The source said in an interview for Alsumaria News, "Ten members of the MEK of Iran based in Camp Ashraf or what is known currently as Camp New Iraq... (55 km north of Baquba), escaped today from the camp and took refuge in a police station close by".
The source, who preferred anonymity, said that "the reason for their escape is they were exposed to tyranny and injustice by the leaders of the organization," noting that "the fugitives demanded the central government transferred to the outside," without giving further details...
... A security source: thirty members of Mujahedin Khalq escaped camp Ashraf for an unknown place. A number of members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization left their Camp for an unknown place said an informed source in Diyala Province, Iraq. The group members are suffering anxiety and confusion following the decision by Iraqi government to relocate the camp, the source added. The source who is an Iraqi Interior Ministry employee reported the escape of thirty residents on the condition of anonymity. He refused to give further information ...
A security source: thirty members of Mujahedin Khalq escaped camp Ashraf for an unknown place.
A number of members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization left their Camp for an unknown place said an informed source in Diyala Province, Iraq. The group members are suffering anxiety and confusion following the decision by Iraqi government to relocate the camp, the source added.
The source who is an Iraqi Interior Ministry employee reported the escape of thirty residents on the condition of anonymity. He refused to give further information.
The United Nations earlier this week declared that the residents of Camp Ashraf will be transferred to another place based on the recent Memorandum of Understanding signed by the UN and the Iraqi government.
Ten escape from Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation - take refuge in police station north of Baquba
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... A security source in Diyala province said on Friday that 10 members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization of Iran (PMOI) had managed to escape from the camp and take refuge in a police station north of Baquba, indicating that the escape was due to their exposure to the "tyranny and injustice" of the leaders of the organization. The source said in an interview for Alsumaria News, "Ten members of the MEK of Iran based in Camp Ashraf or what is known currently as Camp New Iraq... (55 km north of Baquba), escaped today from the camp and took refuge in a police station close by" ...
A security source in Diyala province said on Friday that 10 members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization of Iran (PMOI) had managed to escape from the camp and take refuge in a police station north of Baquba, indicating that the escape was due to their exposure to the "tyranny and injustice" of the leaders of the organization.
The source said in an interview for Alsumaria News, "Ten members of the MEK of Iran based in Camp Ashraf or what is known currently as Camp New Iraq... (55 km north of Baquba), escaped today from the camp and took refuge in a police station close by".
The source, who preferred anonymity, said that "the reason for their escape is they were exposed to tyranny and injustice by the leaders of the organization," noting that "the fugitives demanded the central government transferred to the outside," without giving further details...
... During recent clashes with Iraqi forces, they made us get involved in clashes with Iraqis. They told that the Iraqi soldiers had come there to arrest us and hand us to Iran where we would be certainly tortured and executed. Therefore we thought that we had to fight with Iraqi forces at any cost even our death. Families’ presence in front of the Camp, created hope of a new life in our hearts and the fear of leaving the group and fear of Iraqi forces lowered in our heart. We were relatively assured that outside Ashraf there would be another life. The loudspeakers through which families called their children were our only hope in that prison ...
As it was previously reported, three residents of Camp Ashraf fled the camp on Friday December 2nd,2011 and joined families picketing in front of the Camp.
The following is the statement issued by the three to declare their separation from the MKO:
We, declare our separation from the terrorist cult of Mujahedin Khalq, noting that we were deceived and recruited by Massoud Rajavi and his agents who took us to camp Ashraf Iraq, under the pretext of giving us membership in an employment agency and sending us to Europe.
Once we found out what their real intention was, we tried to return but they threatened us to be handed to Iraqi Baath government that then would imprison us in Abu Quraib and from there we would be sent to Iran where we would allegedly be executed as the MKO members.
Thus, we were forced to spend the best part of our life in Camp Ashraf, imprisoned under daily psychological pressure. Self-criticism sessions and psychological torture were going on every day.
During recent clashes with Iraqi forces, they made us get involved in clashes with Iraqis. They told that the Iraqi soldiers had come there to arrest us and hand us to Iran where we would be certainly tortured and executed. Therefore we thought that we had to fight with Iraqi forces at any cost even our death.
Families’ presence in front of the Camp, created hope of a new life in our hearts and the fear of leaving the group and fear of Iraqi forces lowered in our heart. We were relatively assured that outside Ashraf there would be another life.
The loudspeakers through which families called their children were our only hope in that prison.
We hope that until the day the last resident is released, the presence of families and the sound of their loudspeakers not be ended.
Ultimately, we risked our lives and tried to release ourselves. We had worked on our plan for escape for several months.
We are thankful to the God that helped us escape the horrifying castle and join Iraqi forces.
During our presence in the MKO, we witnessed the atrocities the leaders committed against us and other members. This is our right to campaign against them in Iraqi judicial community as well as the international community for the years MKO leaders deprived us from our basic human rights that are respected by any dictator in any detainment.
Ali Qezel Qarshi entered the MKO in 1992
Sadeq Khavari entered the MKO in 2000
Mohammmad Khavari Golshirmiri entered the MKO in 2000
... they are standing beside the grave of their former torturer. Both men were sent to Abu Ghraib political prison by Massoud Rajavi after extensive imprisonment, isolation and torture inside the MEK’s own prisons failed to force them to submit to Rajavi. Rafi’ee Nejad frequently visited them even when they were in Abu Ghraib. They were released during the fall of Saddam in 2003. There were over 50 registered ex-MEK prisoners in Abu Ghraib at that time labelled as a group as ”Mojahedin Deposits”. Remembering the brutality of Rajavi’s torturers and prisons, both victims of Rajavi and Saddam prayed for forgiveness for their torturer ...
The MEK cemetery was previously inaccessible as it lay inside the former boundaries of Camp Ashraf. Following the Iraqi military operation to reclaim illegally held land from the MEK in April 2011, the cemetery is now open to view and to independent investigation.
Families and former MEK members arriving at the cemetery led by Mr Hassan Azizi a veteran former member. He spent years struggling to get himself and his children out. Still later his wife also managed to escape. The family now live in the Netherlands. Mr. Azizi was part of the European delegation recently visiting Iraq and the Camp.
This is a memorial to the MEK who died in the MEK’s Operation Pearl in Iraqi Kurdistan in which Rajavi took orders from Saddam to massacre Kurdish villagers. Maryam Rajavi famously ordered her forces to run over the victims with their tanks so as not to waste bullets unnecessarily. The MEK, acting as Saddam’s Private Army, were used to viciously quell the Kurdish uprisings in the north.
In the south in 1991 the MEK were also used to suppress Shiite uprisings. This picture is a memorial to three of the top MEK commanders killed by the people of Karbala during the Shiite uprising when they took over Saddam’s Secret services HQ in the province. The bodies were never recovered. The three central graves are flanked by the graves of Neda Hassani and Sediqeh Mojaveri who died as a result of self-immolation ordered by Maryam Rajavi to protest her arrest by French anti-terrorism police at Auvers-sur-Oise in 2003.
Before the Iraqis gained control of the cemetery Rajavi had ordered that the pictures of the graves in the whole graveyard be mixed up so they do not correspond to the names on the graves. Perhaps only Rajavi can explain his motive for such a bizarre act.
The Iraqis have reported however that some of the graves have been found to contain more bodies than the single named person indicated on the headstones. Ex members identified many graves of people who have been killed in the hands of the leaders of the organisation.
Among the graves they also found the grave of Nader Rafi’ee Nejad
The grave of Nader Rafi’ee Nejad
Nader Rafi'ee Nejad acted as a torturer for the Mojahedin-e Khalq leader Massoud Rajavi. He was a veteran member of the MEK who, along with Reza Khaksar (later killed during an armed clash in 1981) and Hassan Mohassel (a former police officer and later a guard in the MEK’s prisons in Iraq), served with the Revolutionary Court in Evin prison after the Iranian revolution.
Rafi’ee Nejad interrogated and tortured former officials of the ousted regime of Shah. Due to the MEK's pursuit of its own radical policies after 1980, Rafi'ee Nejad, Mohassel and Khaksar were later dismissed from the Revolutionary Court by the government of the Islamic Republic at that time.
After the armed struggle began in 1981, Rafi'ee Nejad fled to Europe and was appointed to the MEK’s foreign relations department. In 1985, he was introduced as a leading member and in 1991 as deputy to an executive board in the MEK. In 1990, he shed his ‘diplomatic’ suit and donned the uniform for jailors of the MEK in Iraq.
In that year, he attended a course with Iraq's intelligence and security service to undergo classic training by Iraqi interrogators.
He was involved in torturing Mohammed Hussein Sobhani and also the killing of Parviz Ahmadi who died under torture.
In recent years after the fall of Saddam, Nader Rafi’ee Nejad frequently appeared on the clandestine satellite TV station of the organisation pretending to be a legal expert, promoting the punishment of the ex-members wherever they could be found. He always referred to the cult leader’s fatwa that ‘the people who have managed to run away from the cult have to be killed…’
Two of the victims who have been directly tortured by Nader Rafi’ee Nejad are Mohammad Hussein Sobhani and Ali Ghashghavi. In the picture above, they are standing beside the grave of their former torturer. Both men were sent to Abu Ghraib political prison by Massoud Rajavi after extensive imprisonment, isolation and torture inside the MEK’s own prisons failed to force them to submit to Rajavi. Rafi’ee Nejad frequently visited them even when they were in Abu Ghraib. They were released during the fall of Saddam in 2003. There were over 50 registered ex-MEK prisoners in Abu Ghraib at that time labelled as a group as ”Mojahedin Deposits”.
Remembering the brutality of Rajavi’s torturers and prisons, both victims of Rajavi and Saddam prayed for forgiveness for their torturer.
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