Deciding the Fate of the Mujahadin
This Commentary was published by the Washington Times on October 5, 2008
The Bush administration inherited many of Iraq's problems when it invaded that country, including an Iranian terrorist organization funded and armed by Saddam Hussein the Mujahedin-e-Kalq (MKO). Though in the midst of a war on terror, the Bush administration chose in 2003 to protect 3,000 of the organization's militants and house them in a camp given to the group by Saddam — Camp Ashraf just north of Baghdad.
Ever since, the faith of this State Department-listed terrorist organization has been unclear. Hated by Iraqis for its involvement in Saddam's crimes against the Iraqi people, the Baghdad government wants to expel the group. But no country is willing to take them.
Though the Iranian government wants to put the group's leadership on trial in Iran, it seems less interested in the organization's rank and file. The European governments have little interest in taking in 3,000 battle-hardened Muslim militants, fearing that they will use Europe as a base to plan and execute further terrorist attacks.
The U.S., on the other hand, has already contradicted its own principles by giving preferential treatment to an organization on the State Department's terrorist list — even though President Bush himself pointed to the organization's patronage under Saddam Hussein as evidence of Iraq's support for international terrorists in his speech to the United Nations in September 2002.
"Iraq continues to shelter and support terrorist organizations that direct violence against Iran," President Bush said. To complicate matters further, if reports that the U.S. has used MKO terrorists for cross-border raids into Iran are true, then Washington certainly doesn't want these militants to end up in Iranian hands.
Washington seems doomed if it does, doomed if it doesn't.
Members of the terrorist organization have protested outside the White House this past week, angered by the Bush administration's decision to hand over Camp Ashraf to the Iraqi government. The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will surrender the MKO members to Tehran, they argue, who in turn will imprison and execute them.
Though approximately 500 MKO fighters have been repatriated to Iran and no reports of abuse have emerged according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which oversaw their return, sending rank-and-file Mujahedin members to Iran against their will would be irresponsible.
Hated by the Iranian people for having fought on Saddam's side in the Iraq-Iran war, the Iranian Mujahedin is understandably fearful of the fate awaiting them in Iran. After all, the Iranian government systematically violates the human rights of journalists and union leaders alike, let alone anti-Iranian terrorists.
Yet, contrary to the protesters outside the White House, the issue is not a choice between freedom in Camp Ashraf and captivity in Iran.
The Mujahedin is not an effective opposition to the unpopular government in Iran as the organization's defenders in Washington claim, but a politico-religious cult that brainwashes its members, places children of Mujahedin members with other families in order to prevent parents from defecting, and who according to Human Rights Watch, maintains control by torturing its rank and file. "Members who try to leave the Mujahedin pay a very heavy price," according to Joe Stork of Human Rights Watch.
Its involvement in terrorism is undisputed. It assassinated several Americans in Iran in the 1970s. It supported the taking of the U.S. Embassy in Iran and blasted Ayatollah Khomeini for releasing the American diplomats in 1981, arguing instead that the hostages should have been executed. It made a pact with Saddam Hussein in the 1980s and fought alongside his army against their Iranian countrymen. Later in the 1990s, they became Saddam's most trusted henchmen, tasked with quelling Kurdish and Shiite uprisings against the Iraqi dictator.
According to defectors, Mujahedin members in Camp Ashraf celebrated the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
In 2004, French authorities descended upon the Mujahedin headquarters in France, arresting the leader of the cult, Maryam Rajavi. Immediately, zealous Mujahedin members staged hunger strikes and several set themselves ablaze. Hardly the behavior of a democratically oriented opposition group.
But the vast majority of the Camp Ashraf residents are not so much members of a terrorist cult as they are victims of it. The camp is itself a prison. It may have provided Mujahedin militants with protection against ordinary Iraqis who sought to avenge their relatives killed by the Mujahedin at the behest of Saddam Hussein, but the prison has primarily enabled the leaders of the terrorist organization to prevent the rank and file from defecting.
Rather than debating where to expel the Mujahedin terrorists, help should be provided to the rank and file to break with the cult and make free choices about their future. It's the only humanitarian solution to this dilemma - and one that defeats rather than protects this anti-American terrorist group.
Tria Parsi is an Adjunct Scholar with the Middle East Institute. He is the founder and president of the National Iranian American Council.
Comments
Protection of Iran's Mojahedin a US International Law Obligation
NOTE: Below is a response by Ms. Robab Baraei to Trita Parsi’s attempt at character assassination of 3,500 Iranian dissidents in Camp Ashraf, Iraq. A shorter version of this was submitted to the Washington Times which was published on Saturday October 11, 2008. (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/11/protect-our-friends/)
US Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents (USCCAR)
As a former political prisoner in the ayatollahs’ jails, along with my husband and teenage daughter, and as a relative of several residents of Camp Ashraf in Iraq, I found Trita Parsi’s suggestion that we need to “defeat,” rather than protect, the members of the People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK) despicable (Deciding the fate of the Mujahedin, Solutions, Sunday Read, October 5). His character assassination of these patriotic Iranians, many of them torture victims and former political prisoners, is both anti-Iranian and anti-American, and exposes my loved ones to even more risks.
Parsi is on a mission to tear apart the only organized opposition to the Tehran reign of terror, a quest he shares with the mullahs in Iran. According to the Wall Street Journal of June 25, 2007, the mullahs’ regime has demanded “both in public and through private channels, that the Bush administration break up” the PMOI.
Parsi tries to justify his call for expulsion of Ashraf residents by claiming that those who individuals who have returned to Iran have experienced “no abuse.” No wonder, considering that those individuals were later employed in the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence’s campaign against the PMOI. The residents of Ashraf, however, remain committed to their 40-year struggle to bring democracy to Iran. According to Amnesty International, they would face “torture or other serious human rights violations” in Iran.
Mandated by the Fourth Geneva Convention, the US-led Multi-national Force-Iraq recognized the PMOI members as “Protected Persons” in July 2004, after a 16-month review by seven different government agencies which cleared every PMOI member of any violation of American law. (New York Times, July 27, 2004). The US, as a signatory of the all Geneva Conventions and as the leading force of the MNF-I, has legal and humanitarian obligations to provide protection for Camp Ashraf residents.
The PMOI - the only opposition the ayatollahs see as a credible threat to their survival – was blacklisted by the Clinton administration in 1997 “as a goodwill gesture to Tehran.” (Los Angeles Times, October 9, 1997) In 2001, the United Kingdom, also kowtowing to Tehran, did the same. Jack Straw, then UK Foreign Minister, later told BBC radio that the move was done as per Tehran’s wishes.
On May 7, 2008, Britain’s Court of Appeal ruled that the PMOI was “not concerned in terrorism.” Following a unanimous vote in both Houses of Parliament, Gordon Brown’s government de-listed the organization in June 2008. The EU’s Court of First Instance has also ruled that the EU’s blacklisting of the PMOI was illegal. Both courts acknowledge the PMOI is dedicated to “replacement of the existing theocracy with a democratically elected, secular government in Iran.”
In fact, the PMOI is the most popular Iranian opposition. On June 28, 2008, according to Agence France Presse, “More than 70,000 supporters of Iran's opposition [PMOI] protested near Paris.” the Africa-Asia Monthly of July-August 2007 reported from Tehran that, “the Iranian rulers are very concerned and alarmed. Not because of an unfeasible foreign military attack but because of people’s support for Mojahedin-e-Khalq. Today, MEK is highly capable of attracting the young people born and raised after the revolution.”
In Iraq, on June 16, 2008, more than 3 million Iraqi Shiites signed a declaration in support of the PMOI, calling for removal of all the restrictions on them. (UPI, June 16, 2008). In 2006, more than 5 million Iraqis of varied backgrounds supported the presence of the PMOI in Iraq.
US military commanders in Iraq have acknowledged the PMOI’s invaluable contribution to saving American lives. Lt. Col. Julie S. Norman, for example, noted in August 2006: "[PMOI] intelligence has been very helpful in this regard and in some circumstances has helped save the lives of [U.S.] soldiers." (The Jerusalem Post, July 17, 2008)
As for Parsi’s assertions about Camp Ashraf itself, Col. David Phillips “Griffin-6”, responsible for the safety and security of Camp Ashraf from January-December 2004, has stated: “We always had open dialog and debated different subjects… The [female] units were professional and displayed strong support for freedom, democracy and equality for women… Were it not for the ongoing insurgency throughout Iraq, I would sanction my daughter to travel to Camp Ashraf and meet these very dedicated and professional female members of the Mujahedin.”
In December 2003, the Washington Post described a possible expulsion of the PMOI as a move that “could alter the regional balance of power” and as “a significant political and security gain for Iran” which “could marginalize the group or even eliminate it as an effective opposition movement.” Tehran and its enablers in Washington such as Parsi, are bent on breaking-up this strategic threat. The U.S. has a legal obligation, under International Humanitarian Law and the Geneva Convention, moral responsibility and national security need to thwart this ploy and continue to protect Camp Ashraf’s residents for as long as US forces are in Iraq.
Robab Baraei
Head of DC Delegate,
U.S. Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents
Washington