Self-Sacrifice

by Struan Stevenson

  Alejo and I were surprised. We were fighting on several continents to have the PMOI removed from terrorist lists, arguing that this was a legitimate, peaceful opposition movement, and here they were publicly celebrating their military past, which could have been misused to keep the PMOI on the blacklists. We raised this with the NCRI and argued that it was counterproductive. The 2008 rally and all subsequent rallies to date have been entirely free of all military overtones. Our advice was being taken on board.

  Alejo and I have been regular attendees at these gigantic rallies ever since. It is deeply frustrating when we encounter politicians and civil servants who tell us that the PMOI is irrelevant as an opposition movement and has no support within Iran. We point to the 100,000 Iranians who come to Paris every year and remind them that all of these people have extended families back in Iran that could number over one million. We also have to challenge such ignorance by reminding them that support for the PMOI carries the mandatory death penalty in Iran, and it is therefore hardly surprising that there are no mass opposition rallies in Tehran and other Iranian cities. A look at the demography of Iran and the composition of the exiled Iranians who take part in the PMOI rallies, shows that this movement has a good base of support amongst the middle classes and the people living in cities and urban areas of Iran.

  These annual rallies in Paris are incredibly well-organised. The countless speeches by renowned political leaders are beamed into Iranian homes from the PMOI’s own satellite TV network, itself strictly illegal under the Mullahs’ repressive regime. Many people have been executed simply for donating money to keep this TV station going. Unquestionably, Mrs Rajavi leads a most formidable, well-organised and well-funded opposition movement, with a manifesto that I would be happy to stand for election under. Over the years, Mrs Rajavi and foreign affairs spokesman Mohammad Mohaddessin have both become fluent English-speakers. Recalling their limited ability to speak English when we first met, this has been a truly remarkable achievement and a sign of their relentless quest for excellence.

  On Saturday 23 June, 2012, the PMOI held its largest ever gathering outside Iran in the enormous Parc des Expositions halls at Villepinte, north of Paris. Around 100,000 participated in the rally. I took part in similar events in the same place in 2013 and 2014. Typically, at these annual events, more than 500 prominent political personalities, parliamentarians and jurists from 40 countries and five continents are present. More than 1,300 coaches are chartered to bring participants from throughout Europe to the venue. Speakers from the US usually include people like former Democratic Party Chairmen, Governor Howard Dean and Governor Ed Rendell, former US Ambassador to the UN, Governor Bill Richardson, Congressman (1995-2011) Patrick Kennedy, former New York Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Hugh Shelton, Senator Joe Lieberman, Former FBI Director Louis Freeh, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and President Obama’s first Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, Philip J. Crowley. Also the rally is usually attended by a large group of American officers who were based in Ashraf after the US invasion of Iraq, including Colonel Wes Martin.

  Other speakers from Europe generally include European Parliament Vice President Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Vice President of the Italian Senate, Emma Bonino, EU Commissioner (1999-2010), Günter Verheugen, Former Irish Prime Minister, John Bruton, French Foreign Minister (2005-2007) and UN Under-Secretary-General, Philippe Douste-Blazy, former Director of the French Anti-Espionage Agency, Yves Bonnet and German Bundestag Speaker (1988-1998), Rita Süssmuth, plus a long list of parliamentarians from other European States. Members of parliaments from Afghanistan, Jordan, Palestine and other Middle Eastern countries also address the gathering.

  The keynote speaker at these events is of course always the Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi, who is elected by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the Iranian parliament-in-exile, as ‘president for a six-month transitional period after the fall of the Mullahs.’

  In my speech to the June 2012 rally I reported on an incident that had happened during the previous week in the European Parliament. A group of Iraqi government officials had come to Brussels for meetings. ‘They wanted to attend the routine monthly meeting of my Delegation for Relations with Iraq. I made a background check and realised that the delegation included the notorious Colonel Sadiq, who had been indicted by the judges in Spain for his complicity in the alleged murder of 47 people in the two massacres in Camp Ashraf and his involvement in torture and oppression,’ I said. ‘The Parliament’s security officials stripped Sadiq of his security pass and did not allow him into the building. We do not welcome alleged murderers in the European Parliament. Now we have sent a lesson back to Iraq.’

  I continued: ‘But you know the appalling thing about this whole episode was that on Monday there was a press conference in Washington at the State Department and an anonymous official told the press that the United States was proud to support this Iraqi delegation coming from Baghdad to Brussels. Indeed Ambassador Dan Fried, the US special envoy for Ashraf, had even flown across the Atlantic to meet the group and attend their meetings in Brussels.’

  I was supported by Alejo Vidal-Quadras who said: ‘We were very shocked when we knew that Colonel Sadiq, who conducted attacks against Ashraf, shooting dead dozens of unarmed civilians, was part of this Iraqi delegation to the European Parliament. We did not allow him into the Parliament, mostly for environmental reasons, because in the European Parliament we like to breathe clean air.’

  Alejo Vidal-Quadras also addressed Maliki, rebuking him for sending ‘criminals’ to the European Parliament. ‘Our difference is that you put criminals in command of top jobs while we put them in prison!’

  In fact the encounter with the Iraqis had been a tense and fraught affair. Led by the Deputy Foreign Minister Abbawi Aziz, the delegation from Baghdad had included, apart from the notorious murderer Colonel Sadiq, George Bakoos, Maliki’s personal advisor responsible for dealing with Ashraf. There were also officials from the Ministry of Justice, Iraqi intelligence, the Secretariat of the Prime Minister’s Cabinet, the Human Rights Ministry and even two generals. The intention, fully endorsed by US Ambassador Dan Fried, was to convince my Delegation for Relations with Iraq that the Iraqi authorities were looking after the 3,400 residents of Ashraf and Liberty in an exemplary fashion, and that they were certainly not responsible for any of the attacks or massacres that had occurred.

  On learning that Colonel Sadiq was part of the visiting delegation, I phoned Security and told them to stop him at the outside entrance and strip him of his pass. I said on no account was he to be allowed into the building. The group was supposed to arrive at my meeting at 15.00 hrs. Finally, at 15.25 hrs. they appeared, looking very red-faced and angry. They told us that they were horrified that Colonel Sadiq had been stopped at the entrance and prohibited from coming to our meeting. I exploded and said, ‘Colonel Sadiq was directly involved in commanding the massacres of innocent men and women at Camp Ashraf. He’s been indicted by the Spanish courts on a charge of murder and we do not welcome murderers in this House.’

  George Bakoos was almost choking with rage. ‘This is a grave injustice and an acute embarrassment to the people of Iraq,’ he screeched. ‘You would rather support terrorists like the PMOI than listen to the true facts from us!’ At this, Alejo Vidal-Quadras let fly, ‘Do not try to lecture us on freedom and democracy in the European Parliament,’ he yelled. ‘We will not take lessons from murderers and torturers.’ The meeting broke up in disarray, with each side shouting abuse at the other. I was overjoyed when I heard that Sadiq was arrested in Paris two days later and held for 24 hours in prison. He was released pending further enquiries, but he immediately fled back to Iraq and resumed his role at Camp Liberty even more aggressively. But the apparent collusion of the US State Department and Ambassador Dan Fried, in his attempt to facilitate the attendance of a murderer at a meeting of my delegation, had deeply angered me and soured relations
between us.

  Fried compounded my anger by stating that decisions on removing the PMOI/NCRI from the US State Department Terror List, for which the US Federal Courts had set a deadline of the end of September or the courts themselves would remove them from the List, could be influenced by whether or not the remaining 1,200 residents got out of Ashraf quickly. In other words, if 1,200 unarmed asylum-seekers refused to move quickly from Ashraf to Liberty it meant the PMOI were terrorists! I had always understood the Americans believed in freedom and justice, but this really plumbed the depths. Kobler and Fried repeatedly warned me that their number one priority was the safety of the people in Ashraf and Liberty. Why in that case did they not object to the appointment of Colonel Sadiq as Camp Commandant at Liberty? Why had they not insisted on the Iraqi government upholding the terms of the MOU they signed with Kobler on behalf of the UN?

  Notwithstanding these frustrating setbacks, there was a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. The Albanian government had generously agreed to accept 240 of the sickest and most elderly residents from Camp Liberty and had provided them with a multi-storey building, where most of them were residing. In May 2014, Alejo and I went to Tirana in Albania. We were given a guided tour of the building, looking at the sleeping quarters, offices, dining-room and kitchens. The residents were full of praise for the Albanians who had given them access to first-class hospital care and were now cooperating with them on a daily basis. All of this was being paid for by the PMOI.

  Alejo and I had set up meetings with Edi Rama, the Prime Minister of Albania, Saimir Tahiri, the Minister of the Interior, and with President Bujar Nishani. We also had arranged to meet the Speaker of the Albanian parliament and the leader of the main opposition party. Our meetings were highly productive. For the most part, the Albanian leaders were young, deeply committed politicians, keen to see their country become a full member of the European Union. They were also delighted to have been able to assist with the re-settlement of 240 of the Camp Liberty refugees, although they were bemused as to why Albania, a tiny country on the periphery of Europe, could provide such humanitarian shelter, while the 28 EU Member States seemed incapable of doing anything.

  Our main objective in coming to Tirana was to ask the Albanian government to take even more of the PMOI refugees. We explained the mounting crisis in Iraq and the fact they faced imminent annihilation if no one had the courage to step in and help with re-settlement in the way that Albania had. We pointed out that no matter how many PMOI refugees came to Tirana they would be self-financing, productive and would benefit the Albanian economy.

  Albania certainly was an eye-opener for Alejo and me. Back in Brussels I told friends that we had witnessed a miracle. It was something that even Mother Teresa, the iconic Albanian saint, would have been proud of. I said that only a year ago the 240 PMOI refugees had been prisoners in Liberty Concentration Camp. They were wounded, exhausted, sick and facing daily psychological torture by Nouri al-Maliki’s Iraqi thugs. They lived in constant fear of rocket attacks and assassination, which had claimed the lives of over 100 of their companions. They were denied access to proper medical care and surgery, and had watched helplessly as some of their closest friends had died.

  Then, I said, the miracle happened. The great humanitarian Albanian government stepped in and agreed to re-settle these ill and exhausted refugees. They were flown to Tirana and teams of skilled doctors and surgeons began work on their long progress back to recovery. I recounted how when Alejo and I had visited the large social centre in Tirana that is home to these survivors of the horrors of Iraq, we found a bustling community. We joined these wonderful people in songs and celebrations. It was a joy to see people who had been on the edge of death smiling and laughing and living once again a life of peace, fully integrated into Albanian society and ready once more to continue the fight against the Iranian oppressors. Their courage, their sacrifice and their refusal to give in were inspirational.

  I wrote to the Albanian President and Prime Minister thanking them and thanking the fantastic team of young Albanian doctors and surgeons and the many other key lawyers, teachers and professionals who had become the close friends of the PMOI in Tirana.

  Alejo and I found Albania to be a country of charming, warm and friendly people. This was not the country of pickpockets, criminals and thugs portrayed by the Western media. Indeed, this is a country that suffered from years of totalitarian rule. The President of Albania, several senior government ministers and many ordinary Albanian citizens explained to us that this is why they value and cherish political opposition movements like the PMOI. This is why they value freedom and democracy and share our quest for justice and human rights in Iran.

  Many of these talented young people from Albania travelled to Paris for the annual PMOI Rally on Friday 27 June 2014. This was the biggest gathering yet, with an estimated 110,000 supporters attending from 69 different countries and over 600 parliamentarians and prominent political figures from five continents. Two former prime ministers of Albania, Sali Berisha and Pandeli Majko were present, and gave passionate speeches in defence of the PMOI and Liberty residents, and warmly welcomed the Iranian dissidents who had taken refuge in their country. Sali Berisha, who had been the Prime Minister until only a few weeks earlier, was the one who had approved taking in the first group of 210 PMOI members to his country.

  Mrs Rajavi’s keynote address touched on the Mullahs’ increased meddling in Iraq, the strategic impact of the crisis in Iraq and its impact on Iran, the developments in Syria, as well as the policies of the Mullahs’ regime under the so-called moderate presidency of Hassan Rouhani.

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  Interviews with PMOI Refugees in Camp Liberty, September 2014

  Ali Mohammad Sinaki

  ‘I was born in Tehran in 1946 into a relatively rich and religious family. I finished elementary and high school in Tehran and in 1964 entered Tehran’s National University, continuing my education in chemistry. In 1968 I received my first degree in chemistry. From 1969 to 1971, I worked in the Ministry of Education as a chemistry teacher. From 1971 to 1975, I worked in the Ministry of Commerce as a sugar-cube industry expert in Iran’s sugar-cube factories. In 1975, I was accepted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US to study nuclear engineering for a master’s degree, and by using my scholarship from the Atomic Energy Organisation Iran (AEOI) I moved with my family, including my daughter, to the US and continued my studies until I received my master’s degree from MIT. It was during this period that I became acquainted with the PMOI, choosing to become a supporter afterwards.

  Finishing my studies in MIT in May of 1977, I went to the University of Michigan to continue my studies and get my PhD. Many developments and demonstrations against the Shah had begun in Iran during this period that I was a PMOI supporter, and I saw that in such changing times it wouldn’t be right to continue my education in the US. Therefore, in January of 1978 I put my PhD on hold and returned to Iran, and began working in the AEOI as a nuclear fuel expert. This was while I was secretly working as a supporter for the PMOI, and during the 1979 revolution in Iran I was active in the demonstrations. Following the revolution’s victory I realised that my expectations of freedom and democracy were not to be fulfilled under the framework of the Khomeini regime. I saw the PMOI as the only dignified organisation in pursuit of the cause of freedom, and so I started becoming active in the PMOI’s employee section.

  These overt activities continued until September 1981, when I was arrested on charges of supporting the PMOI. As a result I spent seven and a half years in jail in Evin and Ghezel Hesar prisons. During this period, in addition to the fact that I was tortured myself, I also witnessed other inmates being tortured. I also witnessed the 1988 massacre of political prisoners under orders of Khomeini himself. I have a few memoirs from that period, entitled Memoirs of the Massacre of Political Prisoners. I was released in November 1988 after seven and a half years behind bars. However, this release was not pleasant for me at all,
because I entered a closed society under the shadow of a religious dictator. With my professional expertise I could have gone on with my ordinary life. But the faces of the martyrs and especially those PMOI inmates massacred in 1988 always passed before my eyes, making me feel a sense of responsibility.

  Therefore, I was looking to join the PMOI. However, after being released from prison I was banned from leaving Iran, and during this period all I was thinking about was finding a way to get out of the country and join the PMOI to continue my struggle. In October 1989 I was finally able to pass through the border into Pakistan, and then with the help of my PMOI friends, in January 1990 I was able to go to Camp Ashraf. I was in Ashraf until February 2012 and then relocated to Liberty, and I have been in Liberty ever since.’

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  Washington D.C.

  The first time I went to Washington D.C. on behalf of the PMOI was in July 2006. I had to address a major Congressional briefing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday 25 July on ‘Women: Key to Establishing Democracy in the Middle East’. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee chaired the event. I recall one of the speakers at the event was a young Iranian lady from California who had been imprisoned in Evin Prison in Tehran for being a supporter of the PMOI. She told us in graphic detail of the tortures she had endured before her release and escape to the West. She wept as she described how her bare feet had been whipped with electric cables until the flesh peeled off. She told us how a pregnant woman had miscarried after being tortured, and the guards had kicked the foetus across the floor of the cell. You could have heard a pin drop in the Caucus Room where the meeting was held. People in the audience were weeping. It was a profoundly moving experience.