People's Mujahedin of Iran
Encyclopedia
The People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI, also MEK, MKO) (Persian
: sāzmān-e mojāhedin-e khalq-e irān) is a terrorist militant organization that advocates the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Founded in 1965 by a group of leftist Iranian college students as an Islamic and Marxist political mass movement MEK was originally devoted to armed struggle against the Shah of Iran
, capitalism
, and 'Western
imperialism
'. In the aftermath of 1979 Iranian Revolution, at first the MEK and the Tudeh Party, chose to side with the clerics led by Ayatollah Khomeini against the liberals, nationalists and other moderate forces within the revolution. A power struggle ensued, and by mid-1981, MEK was fighting street battles against the Islamic Revolutionary Guards. During the Iran-Iraq War
, the group was given refuge by Saddam Hussein
and mounted attacks on Iran from within Iraqi territory. Government sources claim that over 17,000 Iranians were killed by the MKO.
The group claims to have renounced violence in 2001 and today it is the main component organization of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
(NCRI), an "umbrella coalition" calling itself the "parliament-in-exile dedicated to a democratic, secular and coalition government in Iran. The group has had thousands of its members for many years in bases in Iraq
, but according to the British Broadcasting Corporation "they were disarmed in the wake of the US-led invasion and are said to have adhered to a ceasefire
."
The United States
, Canada
, Iraq
and Iran
have designated the PMOI a terrorist organization. On January 26, 2009, following what the group called a “seven-year-long legal and political battle”, the Council of the European Union
removed the PMOI from the EU list of organisations it designates as terrorist.
The PMOI and the NCRI claim to have provided the United States with intelligence on Iran's nuclear program in 2002 and 2008.
On September 6, 2011, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) elected Zohreh Akhyani as its new Secretary General for a two-year term.
The new Secretary General joined the PMOI 32 years ago following the anti-monarchic revolution in Iran in 1979.
Note: The acronyms MEK and PMOI are used interchangeably throughout this article as the abbreviation MEK is commonly used by the media and national governments around the world to refer to the People's Mujahedin.
, believed that the PMOI had 10,000 members, one-third to one-half of whom were fighters. The think-tank claims PMOI membership has dwindled, the organization has had little success attracting new recruits. According to a 2003 article by the New York Times, the PMOI would be composed of 5,000 — many of them female — fighters based in Iraq.
, middle-class students at Tehran University, including Mohammad Hanifnejad, Saied Mohsen and Ali-Asghar Badizadegan. The PMOI opposed the rule of Shah
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
, considering him corrupt and oppressive and considered the Liberation Movement moderate and ineffective. It's membership has been described as part of the Iranian generation "shaken by the events of June 1963" and the radical generation Fidel Castro
, Che Guevara
, Vo Nguyen Giap
, the Tupamaros
in South America, the Algerian Mojahedin, and the Palestinian fedayeen
. They were more "religious, radical, anti-American" than the earlier generation of Iranian leftists. In its first five years, the group primarily engaged in ideological work, their interpretation of Islam
and economic and political ideas, though the group "never once" used the terms socialist, communist, Marxist or eshteraki to describe itself, according to scholar Ervand Abrahamian
Its first military activities, a bombing of the Tehran electrical works and unsuccessful airplane hijacking, were conducted in August 1971 in protest against the Pahlavi's extravagant 2,500 year celebration of Iran's monarchy
. Nine Mujahedin were arrested and under torture one member gave out information leading to the arrests of another 66 members. Within a few months SAVAK
had eliminated "the whole of its original leadership through executions or street battles." Other members remained incarcerated for many years, with the last group, including Massoud Rajavi
, being released just before Khomeini
arrived in Tehran in January 1979. However, in the mean time, the group survived and continued to carry out violent attacks on the regime.
While the remaining primary members of MEK were imprisoned, some of the original low-level members of MEK formed a new organization that followed Marxist, not Islamic, ideals; these members appropriated the MEK name to establish and enhance their own legitimacy.
This was expressed in a book entitled Manifesto on Ideological Issues, in which the central leadership declared "that after ten years of secret existence, four years of armed struggle, and two years of intense ideological rethinking, they had reached the conclusion that Marxism, not Islam, was the true revolutionary philosophy." Mujtaba Taleqani, son of Ayatallah Taleqani, was one of these converts to Marxism. Thus after May 1975 there were two rival Mujahedin, each with its own publication, its own organization, and its own activities. A few months before the Iranian Revolution the majority of the Marxist Mujahedin renamed themselves "Peykar
", on December 7, 1978 (16 Azar, 1357), the full name is: Organization of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class.This name was after the "St. Petersburg League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class", which was a left wing group in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was founded by Lenin in the autumn of 1895.
Leading up to the Islamic Revolution the Marxist wing of the PMOI conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and Western targets. According to the U.S. Department of State and the presentation of the PMOI by the Foreign Affairs group of the Australian Parliament, the group conducted several assassinations of U.S. military personnel and civilians working in Iran during the 1970s. After the revolution the group actively supported the U.S. embassy takeover
in Tehran in 1979, and opposed the release of the diplomats in 1981 by the Iranian regime, and called for their execution instead. As a result they staged a large demonstration.
of revolutionary Shiaism is based on an interpretation of Islam so similar to that of Ali Shariati
that "many concluded" they were inspired by him. According to historian Ervand Abrahamian, it's clear that "in later years" that Shariati and "his prolific works" had "indirectly helped the Mujahedin." According to the U.S. Department of State' presentation of the PMOI, the philosophy of the PMOI is a combination of Marxism, Nationalism
and Islam.
In the group's "first major ideological work," Nahzat-i Husseini or Hussein
's Movement, authored by one of the groups founders, Ahmad Reza'i, it was argued that Nezam-i Towhid (monotheistic order) sought by the prophet Muhammad, was a commonwealth fully united not only in its worship of one God but in a classless society that strives for the common good. "Shiism, particularly Hussein's historic act of martyrdom and resistance, has both a revolutionary message and a special place in our popular culture."
In 1981, the PMOI formed the National Council of Resistance of Iran
(NCRI) with the stated goal of uniting the opposition to the Iranian government under one umbrella organization
. The PMOI claims that in the past 25 years, the NCRI has evolved into a 540-member parliament-in-exile, with a specific platform that emphasizes free elections, gender equality
and equal rights for ethnic and religious minorities. The PMOI claims that it also advocates a free-market economy and supports peace in the Middle East. However, the FBI claims that the NCRI "is not a separate organization, but is instead, and has been, an integral part of the [PMOI] at all relevant times" and that the NCRI is "the political branch" of the PMOI, rather than vice versa. Although the PMOI is today the main organization of the NCRI, the latter previously hosted other organizations, such as the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran
.
According to the publicly stated ideology of the PMI, elections and public suffrage are the sole indicators of political legitimacy. According to their publications, the Word of God and Islam
are meaningless without freedom and respect for individual volition and choice. Their interpretation of Islam the Quran says that the most important characteristic distinguishing man from animals is his free will. It is on this basis that human beings are held accountable. Without freedom, no society can develop or progress. Although its leaders presents themselves as Muslims, the PMOI describes itself as a secular
organization: "The National Council of Resistance believes in the separation of Church and State."
("the Western plague"), and as monafeqin
(hypocrites) and kafer
(unbelievers). In February 1980 concentrated attacks by hezbollahi pro-Khomeini militia began on the meeting places, bookstores and newsstands of Mujahideen and other leftists driving the Left underground in Iran. Hundreds of PMOI supporters and members were killed from 1979 to 1981, and some 3,000 were arrested.
The MEK responded in turn, and on 28 June 1981, bombs
were detonated at the headquarters of the since-dissolved Islamic Republic Party. Around 70 high-ranking officials, including Chief Justice Mohammad Beheshti (who was the second most powerful figure in the revolution after Ayatollah Khomeini at the time), cabinet members, and elected members of parliament, were killed. The Mujahedin never publicly confirmed or denied any responsibility for the deed, but stated the attack was `a natural and necessary reaction to the regime's atrocities.` The bomber was identified as a Mujahedin operative by the name of Mohammad Reza Kolahi, who had secured a job in the building disguised as a sound engineer. Khomeini accused them of culpability and, according to BBC journalist Baqer Moin
, the Mujahedin were "generally perceived as the culprits" for it in Iran. Two months later on August 30, another bomb was detonated killing the popularly elected President Rajai and Premier Mohammad Javad Bahonar
. An active member of the Mujahedin, Massoud Kashmiri, was identified as the perpetrator, and according to reports came close to killing the entire government including Khomeini. The reaction following both bombings was intense with many arrests and executions of Mujahedin and other leftist groups, but "assassinations of leading officials and active supporters of the regime by the Mujahedin were to continue for the next year or two." This occurred following Saddam's invasion as the Iranian regime focused more resources on national defense than confronting dissidents.
Eventually, the majority of the PMOI leadership and members fled to France
, where it operated until 1986, when tension arose between Paris and Tehran over the Eurodif
nuclear stake and the French citizens kidnapped in the Lebanon hostage crisis
. After Rajavi flew to Baghdad, French hostages were released.
. The PMOI also has used front organization
s to solicit contributions from expatriate Iranian communities. PMOI's main economic development is based on tributes and endowments from its supporters all over the world.
The PMOI's decision to move its headquarters to Iraq in the middle of the war — which was started by an invasion by the Iraqi army and cost many tens of thousands of Iranians lives — caused the PMOI to lose most of its supporters in Iran, regardless of their views towards the Iranian government. A report by the Foreign Affairs group of the Australian Parliament states the PMOI "is believed to have lost much of its popular support within Iran since siding with Iraq".
by the Iranian forces.
has written in his memoirs that this massacre, deemed a crime against humanity, was ordered by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
and carried out by several high-ranking members of Iran's current government.Recently The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed a Special Rapporteur on Human Rights violations for Iran, to take action on such actions since 1988.
struck a deal with Tehran for the release of French hostages held prisoners by the Hezbollah in Lebanon, the PMOI was forced to leave France and relocated in Iraq. Investigative journalist Dominique Lorentz
has related the 1986 capture of French hostages to an alleged blackmail of France by Tehran concerning the nuclear program.
in suppressing the Kurdish and Shiite uprisings in Iraq
after the 1991 Persian Gulf War
. Maryam Rajavi
, who assumed the leadership role of the PMOI after a series of years as co-leader alongside her husband Massoud Rajavi, has been reported by former members of the PMOI as having said: "Take the Kurds under your tanks, and save your bullets for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards
."
In the following years the PMOI conducted several high-profile assassinations of political and military figures inside Iran, including Asadollah Lajevardi
, the former warden of the Evin prison, in 1998 and deputy chief of the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff
, Brigadier General
Ali Sayyad Shirazi, who was assassinated on the doorsteps of his house on April 10, 1999.
, PMOI camps were bombed by coalition forces because of its alliance with Saddam Hussein. On April 15, U.S. Special Forces
brokered a ceasefire agreement with the leaders of the PMOI and entered into a ceasefire agreement with the coalition after the attack. Each compound surrendered without hostilities. In the operation, the US reportedly captured 6,000 PMOI fighters and over 2,000 pieces of military equipment. This was a controversial agreement both in the public sphere and privately among the Bush administration due to the MEK's designation as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.
In the operation, the US reportedly captured 6000 MEK soldiers and over 2000 pieces of military equipment, including 19 British-made Chieftain tanks. The MEK compound
outside Fallujah became known as Camp Fallujah and sits adjacent to the other major base in Fallujah, Forward Operating Base Dreamland. Captured MEK members were kept at Camp Ashraf, about 100 kilometers west of the Iranian border and 60 kilometers north of Baghdad.
After a four-month investigation by several U.S. agencies, including the State Department, only a handful of charges under U.S. criminal law were brought against PMOI members, all American citizens. The PMOI remains listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the Department of State. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared PMOI personnel in Ashraf protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention
. They are currently under the guard of US Military. Defectors from this group are housed separately in a refugee camp within Camp Ashraf
, and protected by U.S. Army military police (2003-current), U.S. Marines (2005–2007), and the Bulgarian Army(2006-current).
On January 1, 2009 the U.S. military transferred control of Camp Ashraf
to the Iraqi government. On the same day, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced that the militant group would not be allowed to base its operations from Iraqi soil.
Eleven Iranians were killed and 500 injured in a July 29, 2009 raid by Iraqi security on the MEK Camp Ashraf
in Diyala province of Iraq. U.S. officials had long opposed a violent takeover of the camp northeast of Baghdad, and the raid is thought to symbolize the declining American influence in Iraq. In the course of attack, 36 Iranian dissidents were arrested and removed from the camp to a prison in a town named Khalis where the arrestees went on hunger strike for 72 days, 7 of which was dry hunger strike. Finally, the dissidents were released when they were in an extremely critical condition and on the verge of death. http://iranliberty.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=963:36-ashraf-residents-hostages-released-on-72nd-day-of-hunger-strike&catid=33:ashraf&Itemid=81http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=33654http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hundreds-of-ashraf-residents-in-urgent-need-of-medical-care-us-unami-must-intervene-to-end-inhumane-siege-of-ashraf-84689077.html
The Iraqi government had earlier denied anyone died when they took control of the camp, which has been home to the People's Mujahideen for two decades. Other accounts list said a dozen had been killed. According to Simaye Azadi, there main channel, many attacks got filmed and uploaded on websites like youtube.
, under the orders of anti-terrorist magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguière
, after suspicions that it was trying to shift its base of operations there. 160 suspected PMOI members were then arrested. In response, 40 supporters began hunger strike
s to protest the arrests, and ten immolated
themselves in various European capitals. French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy
(Union for a Popular Movement
) declared that the PMOI "recently wanted to make France its support base, notably after the intervention in Iraq", while Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, head of France's domestic intelligence service, claimed that the group was "transforming its Val d'Oise centre [near Paris]... into an international terrorist base".
U.S. Senator Sam Brownback
, Republican of Kansas and chairman of the Foreign Relations subcommittee on South Asia, then accused the French of doing "the Iranian government's dirty work". Along with other members of Congress
, he wrote a letter of protest to President Jacques Chirac
, while longtime PMOI supporters such as Sheila Jackson-Lee, Democrat of Texas, criticized Maryam Radjavi's arrest. However, the PMOI members were quickly released.
The same year that the French police raided the PMOI's properties in France (2003), Tehran attempted to negotiate with Washington. Iranian officials offered to withdraw military backing for Hamas
and Hezbollah, and to give open access to their nuclear facilities in return for Western action in disbanding the PMOI, which was revealed by Newsnight
, a BBC current affairs program, in 2007. The BBC uncovered a letter written after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 where Tehran made this offer The proposition was done in a secret letter to Washington via Switzerland
. According to the BBC, the U.S. State Department received the letter from the highest levels of the Iranian government . According to Lawrence Wilkerson
, former chief of staff of Secretary of State Colin Powell
, interviewed by the BBC, the State Department initially considered the offer, but it was ultimately rejected by the office of Vice President Dick Cheney
.
in 2002, which has turned to be a major concern for the US and some of its allies today. Recently on Feb 20, 2008, the NCRI claimed to have revealed another nuclear site of Islamic Republic. This claim has never been independently verified.
's place in Auvers-sur-Oise, securing millions of euros and taking Maryam Rajavi
and some of her collaborators into custody. Several of Rajavi
's followers set themselves on fire to protest her arrest, confirming official French concerns about the cultish nature of the group."
On September 14, 1981, Time Magazine published an article about PMOI and reported: "The Mujahedin platform focused on anticapitalist, anti-Western slogans. It demanded the nationalization of all foreign businesses run by Iranians and continuation of the anti-imperialist struggle, especially against the U.S.
Western intelligence sources doubt that the Mujahedin, though superbly organized, have as many followers as they claim. "They are not a popular movement," one analyst asserts. "Their ideology is not understood by the masses. They are capable, of carrying out terror operations but not of governing Iran.""
On April 21, 1997, Time Magazine published an article about PMOI and reported:
says Michael Eisenstadt, an Iran expert at the Washington Institute on Near East Policy. "If they were to achieve power, it is unlikely they would give it up."
On August 28, 1988, New York Times published an article that after chemical attacks by PMOI against western Iranian cities, Alireza Jafarzadeh
as then public spokesman for PMOI in the United States
said:
The Mujahedeen claimed to have inflicted 40,000 Iranian casualties.
On July 13, 2003, New York Times published an article that in 1991 when Saddam Hussein
used the PMOI and its tanks as advance forces to crush the Iraqi Kurdish people in the north and the Iraqi Shia people in the south, Maryam Rajavi
as then leader of PMOI's army forces commanded:
On December 14, 2006, Time Magazine published an article about PMOI and reported: "By the mid-1980s, the group (PMOI) had cozied up to Saddam Hussein
, who provided them with funds and a compound, Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad. The U.S. government has accused the group of helping Saddam
brutally put down Iraqi Kurdish people in the early 1990s, and of launching numerous attacks inside Iran."
On January 05, 2009, Time Magazine published an article about PMOI and reported: "Despite its position on the U.S. terrorist list since 1997, and reports by former members of abusive and cultlike practices at Ashraf, the MEK has gathered support from some surprising places abroad — especially since the U.S. invasion — by pitching itself as a viable opposition to the mullahs in Tehran. "They have been extremely clever and very, very effective in their propaganda
and lobbying
of members of Congress," says Gary Sick
, a Persian Gulf expert at Columbia University's Middle East Institute and the author of All Fall Down: America's Tragic Encounter With Iran. "They get all sorts of people to sign their petitions. Many times the Congressmen don't know what they're signing." But others, Sick adds, "are quite aware of the fact that this is a designated terrorist organization, and they are quite willing to look the other way for a group that they think is a democratic alternative to the Iranian regime.""
On May 18, 2005, Newsweek
published an article about PMOI and reported: "Human Rights Watch
alleges that the Iranian exile group known as Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) has a history of cultlike practices that include forcing members to divorce their spouses and to engage in extended self-criticism sessions.
More dramatically, the report states, former MEK members told Human Rights Watch
that when they protested MEK policies or tried to leave the organization, they were arrested, in some cases violently abused and in other instances imprisoned. They were held in solitary confinement for years in a camp operated by MEK in Iraq
under the protection of Saddam Hussein
. MEK representatives in the United States and France, where MEK is headquartered, did not respond to NEWSWEEK
phone calls and an e-mail requesting comment.
The new Human Rights Watch
report does allege strange and sometimes brutal behavior by the group's leaders and internal security apparatus.
According to Human Rights Watch
, following this 1988 military defeat, the Rajavi
's leadership of MEK became increasingly authoritarian and cultlike. According to an MEK defector's memoir, Rajavi
claimed to have a mystical relationship with a prophet known as Imam Zaman, who is Shia Islam's version of the long-awaited Messiah. In order to better cement their relationship with their leader, and hence ultimately their Messiah, Rajavi then instructed his followers to divorce their spouses. The group had already established a practice of "self criticism," under which members were asked to undergo their own personal "ideological revolution" by confessing personal inadequacies in cultlike confession sessions.
Human Rights Watch
says the testimony of former MEK prisoners paints a grim picture of how the organization treated its members, particularly those who held dissenting opinions or expressed an intent to leave the organization.
Other witnesses told Human Rights Watch
claimed it was the practice of MEK interrogators to tie thick ropes around prisoners' necks and drag them along the ground. One witness told investigators: "Sometimes prisoners returned to the cell with extremely swollen necks--their head and neck as big as a pillow." In a statement accompanying its investigative report, Joe Stork
, a Human Rights Watch
expert on the Middle East, commented:
claimed that the PMOI were running prison camp
s within Iraq and were committing severe human rights violations against former PMOI members. The report described how the PMOI was held under tight control of the husband and wife team of Masoud and Maryam Rajavi
. The report prompted a response by the PMOI and a few friendly MEPs (European MPs), who published a counter-report in September 2005. They noted that HRW had "relied only on 12 hours interviews with 12 suspicious individuals", and stated that "a delegation of MEPs visited Camp Ashraf in Iraq" and "conducted impromptu inspections of the sites of alleged abuses." Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca
(PP
), one of the Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament, alleged that Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) was the source of the evidence against the PMOI.
Prompted by the FOFI document, Human Rights Watch re-interviewed all 12 of the original witnesses, conducting private and personal interviews lasting several hours with each of them in Germany and the Netherlands
, where the witnesses now live. All of the witnesses restated their claims about the PMOI camps from the 1991-2003 period, saying PMOI officials subjected them to various forms of physical and psychological abuses once they made known their wishes to leave the organization.
According to Mohsen Kadivar
and Ahmad Sadri
writing Salon.com
,
In an interview with RFERL escaped MEK leader Abdul Latif Shardouri (aka Abdollatif Shadvari) who says he had been in the MEK for 25 years stated that his family thought he was dead because he had had no contact with them during those 25 years. "Using the telephone, mobile phone, Internet, and even listening to radio is forbidden in the organization."
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
: sāzmān-e mojāhedin-e khalq-e irān) is a terrorist militant organization that advocates the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Founded in 1965 by a group of leftist Iranian college students as an Islamic and Marxist political mass movement MEK was originally devoted to armed struggle against the Shah of Iran
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, Shah of Persia , ruled Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979...
, capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
, and 'Western
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
'. In the aftermath of 1979 Iranian Revolution, at first the MEK and the Tudeh Party, chose to side with the clerics led by Ayatollah Khomeini against the liberals, nationalists and other moderate forces within the revolution. A power struggle ensued, and by mid-1981, MEK was fighting street battles against the Islamic Revolutionary Guards. During the Iran-Iraq War
Iran-Iraq War
The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between the armed forces of Iraq and Iran, lasting from September 1980 to August 1988, making it the longest conventional war of the twentieth century...
, the group was given refuge by Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
and mounted attacks on Iran from within Iraqi territory. Government sources claim that over 17,000 Iranians were killed by the MKO.
The group claims to have renounced violence in 2001 and today it is the main component organization of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
National Council of Resistance of Iran
The National Council of Resistance of Iran , founded in 1981 in France, is the parliament in exile of the "Iranian Resistance", and is a political umbrella coalition of five Iranian opposition political organizations, the largest organization being the People's Mujahedin of Iran.The President-elect...
(NCRI), an "umbrella coalition" calling itself the "parliament-in-exile dedicated to a democratic, secular and coalition government in Iran. The group has had thousands of its members for many years in bases in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, but according to the British Broadcasting Corporation "they were disarmed in the wake of the US-led invasion and are said to have adhered to a ceasefire
Ceasefire
A ceasefire is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be declared as part of a formal treaty, but they have also been called as part of an informal understanding between opposing forces...
."
The United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
have designated the PMOI a terrorist organization. On January 26, 2009, following what the group called a “seven-year-long legal and political battle”, the Council of the European Union
Council of the European Union
The Council of the European Union is the institution in the legislature of the European Union representing the executives of member states, the other legislative body being the European Parliament. The Council is composed of twenty-seven national ministers...
removed the PMOI from the EU list of organisations it designates as terrorist.
The PMOI and the NCRI claim to have provided the United States with intelligence on Iran's nuclear program in 2002 and 2008.
On September 6, 2011, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) elected Zohreh Akhyani as its new Secretary General for a two-year term.
The new Secretary General joined the PMOI 32 years ago following the anti-monarchic revolution in Iran in 1979.
Other names
The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran is known by a variety of names including:- Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MEK)
- The National Liberation Army of Iran (the group's armed wing)
- (Disputed) National Council of Resistance of IranNational Council of Resistance of IranThe National Council of Resistance of Iran , founded in 1981 in France, is the parliament in exile of the "Iranian Resistance", and is a political umbrella coalition of five Iranian opposition political organizations, the largest organization being the People's Mujahedin of Iran.The President-elect...
(NCRI) - the PMOI is the founding member of a coalition of organizations called the NCRI, while others including the U.S. FBIFederal Bureau of InvestigationThe Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
claims that the NCRI is either an "alias" for or a front group for the PMOI. Both organizations share the same leader and offices. The PMOI itself described the NCRI as its "Political Branch" in documents found by the FBI in December 2001.
- Monafiqeen - the Iranian government consistently refers to the People's Mujahedin with this derogatory name, meaning "the hypocritesMunafiqMunāfiq is an Islamic Arabic term used to describe a religious hypocrite, who outwardly practices Islam, while inwardly concealing his disbelief , perhaps even unknowingly....
".
Note: The acronyms MEK and PMOI are used interchangeably throughout this article as the abbreviation MEK is commonly used by the media and national governments around the world to refer to the People's Mujahedin.
Membership
The PMOI was believed to have a 5,000 – 7,000 strong armed guerrilla grouplet, based in Iraq before the 2003 war, but a membership of between 3,000 – 5,000 is considered more likely. In 2005 the US think-tank, Council on Foreign RelationsCouncil on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
, believed that the PMOI had 10,000 members, one-third to one-half of whom were fighters. The think-tank claims PMOI membership has dwindled, the organization has had little success attracting new recruits. According to a 2003 article by the New York Times, the PMOI would be composed of 5,000 — many of them female — fighters based in Iraq.
Foundation
The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran was founded in 1965 by six former members of the Liberation or Freedom Movement of IranFreedom Movement of Iran
The Freedom Movement of Iran is an Iranian political organization which was founded in 1961 by Mehdi Bazargan, Mahmoud Taleghani, Yadollah Sahabi, Mostafa Chamran, Ali Shariati, Sadegh Ghotbzadeh and some other political or religious figures...
, middle-class students at Tehran University, including Mohammad Hanifnejad, Saied Mohsen and Ali-Asghar Badizadegan. The PMOI opposed the rule of Shah
Pahlavi dynasty
The Pahlavi dynasty consisted of two Iranian/Persian monarchs, father and son Reza Shah Pahlavi and Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi The Pahlavi dynasty consisted of two Iranian/Persian monarchs, father and son Reza Shah Pahlavi (reg. 1925–1941) and Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi The Pahlavi dynasty ...
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, Shah of Persia , ruled Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979...
, considering him corrupt and oppressive and considered the Liberation Movement moderate and ineffective. It's membership has been described as part of the Iranian generation "shaken by the events of June 1963" and the radical generation Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
, Che Guevara
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
, Vo Nguyen Giap
Vo Nguyen Giap
Võ Nguyên Giáp is a retired Vietnamese officer in the Vietnam People’s Army and a politician. He was a principal commander in two wars: the First Indochina War and the Vietnam War...
, the Tupamaros
Tupamaros
Tupamaros, also known as the MLN-T , was an urban guerrilla organization in Uruguay in the 1960s and 1970s. The MLN-T is inextricably linked to its most important leader, Raúl Sendic, and his brand of social politics...
in South America, the Algerian Mojahedin, and the Palestinian fedayeen
Palestinian fedayeen
Palestinian fedayeen refers to militants or guerrillas of a nationalist orientation from among the Palestinian people...
. They were more "religious, radical, anti-American" than the earlier generation of Iranian leftists. In its first five years, the group primarily engaged in ideological work, their interpretation of Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
and economic and political ideas, though the group "never once" used the terms socialist, communist, Marxist or eshteraki to describe itself, according to scholar Ervand Abrahamian
Ervand Abrahamian
Ervand Abrahamian is a historian of Middle Eastern and particularly Iranian history.An Armenian born in Iran and raised in England, he received his M.A. at Oxford University and his Ph.D. at Columbia University. He teaches at the City University of New York where he is Distinguished Professor of...
Its first military activities, a bombing of the Tehran electrical works and unsuccessful airplane hijacking, were conducted in August 1971 in protest against the Pahlavi's extravagant 2,500 year celebration of Iran's monarchy
2,500 year celebration of Iran's monarchy
The 2,500 year celebration of the Persian Empire consisted of an elaborate set of festivities that took place October 12–16, 1971, on the occasion of the 2,500th anniversary of the founding of the Iranian monarchy by Cyrus the Great...
. Nine Mujahedin were arrested and under torture one member gave out information leading to the arrests of another 66 members. Within a few months SAVAK
SAVAK
SAVAK was the secret police, domestic security and intelligence service established by Iran's Mohammad Reza Shah on the recommendation of the British Government and with the help of the United States' Central Intelligence Agency SAVAK (Persian: ساواک, short for سازمان اطلاعات و امنیت کشور...
had eliminated "the whole of its original leadership through executions or street battles." Other members remained incarcerated for many years, with the last group, including Massoud Rajavi
Massoud Rajavi
Massoud Rajavi , is the president of the National Council of Resistance of Iran and the leader of People's Mujahedin of Iran , an opposition organization active inside and outside of Iran. After leaving Iran in 1981, he resided in France and Iraq...
, being released just before Khomeini
Ruhollah Khomeini
Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini was an Iranian religious leader and politician, and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran...
arrived in Tehran in January 1979. However, in the mean time, the group survived and continued to carry out violent attacks on the regime.
Schism
In October 1975 the PMOI underwent an ideological split.While the remaining primary members of MEK were imprisoned, some of the original low-level members of MEK formed a new organization that followed Marxist, not Islamic, ideals; these members appropriated the MEK name to establish and enhance their own legitimacy.
This was expressed in a book entitled Manifesto on Ideological Issues, in which the central leadership declared "that after ten years of secret existence, four years of armed struggle, and two years of intense ideological rethinking, they had reached the conclusion that Marxism, not Islam, was the true revolutionary philosophy." Mujtaba Taleqani, son of Ayatallah Taleqani, was one of these converts to Marxism. Thus after May 1975 there were two rival Mujahedin, each with its own publication, its own organization, and its own activities. A few months before the Iranian Revolution the majority of the Marxist Mujahedin renamed themselves "Peykar
Peykar
Peykar also called the Marxist Mojahedin, was a secular splinter group from the People's Mujahedin of Iran , the largest of Iran's guerrilla groups. Its members broke away from the PMoI to support of secular Marxism Leninism, rather than the Leftist Islamist modernism of the People's Mujahedin...
", on December 7, 1978 (16 Azar, 1357), the full name is: Organization of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class.This name was after the "St. Petersburg League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class", which was a left wing group in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was founded by Lenin in the autumn of 1895.
Anti-American Campaign
It has been alleged that MEK killed six Americans in 1973, 1975, and 1976.- The PMOI failed in an attempt to kidnap the U.S. Ambassador to Iran, Douglas MacArthur IIDouglas MacArthur IIDouglas MacArthur II was an American diplomat.MacArthur was the son of Captain Arthur MacArthur III and Mary McCalla MacArthur, and was named for his uncle, General Douglas MacArthur. He was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. He married Laura Louise Barkley on August 21, 1934, the daughter of future...
, on 1971-11-30. - USAF Brig. Gen. Harold Price was wounded in a May 1972 assassination attempt.
- The first success in the assassination campaign was the murder of Lt. Col. Louis Lee Hawkins, a U.S. Army comptrollerComptrollerA comptroller is a management level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization.In British government, the Comptroller General or Comptroller and Auditor General is in most countries the external auditor of the budget execution of the...
. He was shot to death in front of his home in Tehran by two men on a motorcycle on 1973-06-02. - A car carrying U.S. Air Force officers Col. Paul Shaffer and Lt. Col. Jack Turner was trapped between two cars carrying armed men. They told the Iranian driver to lie down and then shot and killed the Americans. Six hours later a woman called reporters to claim the PMOI carried out the attack as retaliation for the recent death of prisoners at the hands of Iranian authorities.
- A car carrying three American employees of Rockwell InternationalRockwell InternationalRockwell International was a major American manufacturing conglomerate in the latter half of the 20th century, involved in aircraft, the space industry, both defense-oriented and commercial electronics, automotive and truck components, printing presses, valves and meters, and industrial automation....
was attacked in May 1976. William Cottrell, Donald Smith, and Robert Krongard were killed. They had been working on the Ibex system for gathering intelligence on the neighboring USSR.
Leading up to the Islamic Revolution the Marxist wing of the PMOI conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and Western targets. According to the U.S. Department of State and the presentation of the PMOI by the Foreign Affairs group of the Australian Parliament, the group conducted several assassinations of U.S. military personnel and civilians working in Iran during the 1970s. After the revolution the group actively supported the U.S. embassy takeover
Iran hostage crisis
The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States where 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamist students and militants took over the American Embassy in Tehran in support of the Iranian...
in Tehran in 1979, and opposed the release of the diplomats in 1981 by the Iranian regime, and called for their execution instead. As a result they staged a large demonstration.
Before 1979 Iranian Revolution
The PMOI's ideologyIdeology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
of revolutionary Shiaism is based on an interpretation of Islam so similar to that of Ali Shariati
Ali Shariati
Ali Shariati was an Iranian revolutionary and sociologist, who focused on the sociology of religion. He is held as one of the most influential Iranian intellectuals of the 20th century and has been called the 'ideologue of the Iranian Revolution'.-Biography:Ali....
that "many concluded" they were inspired by him. According to historian Ervand Abrahamian, it's clear that "in later years" that Shariati and "his prolific works" had "indirectly helped the Mujahedin." According to the U.S. Department of State' presentation of the PMOI, the philosophy of the PMOI is a combination of Marxism, Nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
and Islam.
In the group's "first major ideological work," Nahzat-i Husseini or Hussein
Husayn ibn Ali
Hussein ibn ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib was the son of ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib and Fātimah Zahrā...
's Movement, authored by one of the groups founders, Ahmad Reza'i, it was argued that Nezam-i Towhid (monotheistic order) sought by the prophet Muhammad, was a commonwealth fully united not only in its worship of one God but in a classless society that strives for the common good. "Shiism, particularly Hussein's historic act of martyrdom and resistance, has both a revolutionary message and a special place in our popular culture."
After the revolution
In more recent years under the guidance of Maryam Rajavi the organization has adopted strong principles in favor of women. Women have now assumed some senior positions of responsibility within the ranks of the PMOI and although women make up only a third of fighters, two-thirds of its commanders are women. Rajavi ultimately believes that women should enjoy equal rights with men.In 1981, the PMOI formed the National Council of Resistance of Iran
National Council of Resistance of Iran
The National Council of Resistance of Iran , founded in 1981 in France, is the parliament in exile of the "Iranian Resistance", and is a political umbrella coalition of five Iranian opposition political organizations, the largest organization being the People's Mujahedin of Iran.The President-elect...
(NCRI) with the stated goal of uniting the opposition to the Iranian government under one umbrella organization
Umbrella organization
An umbrella organization is an association of institutions, who work together formally to coordinate activities or pool resources. In business, political, or other environments, one group, the umbrella organization, provides resources and often an identity to the smaller organizations...
. The PMOI claims that in the past 25 years, the NCRI has evolved into a 540-member parliament-in-exile, with a specific platform that emphasizes free elections, gender equality
Gender equality
Gender equality is the goal of the equality of the genders, stemming from a belief in the injustice of myriad forms of gender inequality.- Concept :...
and equal rights for ethnic and religious minorities. The PMOI claims that it also advocates a free-market economy and supports peace in the Middle East. However, the FBI claims that the NCRI "is not a separate organization, but is instead, and has been, an integral part of the [PMOI] at all relevant times" and that the NCRI is "the political branch" of the PMOI, rather than vice versa. Although the PMOI is today the main organization of the NCRI, the latter previously hosted other organizations, such as the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran
Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran
The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan , abbreviated as PDKI, KDPI, PDK-I, is a Kurdish political party in Iranian Kurdistan which seeks the attainment of Kurdish national rights within a democratic federal republic of Iran....
.
According to the publicly stated ideology of the PMI, elections and public suffrage are the sole indicators of political legitimacy. According to their publications, the Word of God and Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
are meaningless without freedom and respect for individual volition and choice. Their interpretation of Islam the Quran says that the most important characteristic distinguishing man from animals is his free will. It is on this basis that human beings are held accountable. Without freedom, no society can develop or progress. Although its leaders presents themselves as Muslims, the PMOI describes itself as a secular
Secularism
Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...
organization: "The National Council of Resistance believes in the separation of Church and State."
Armed conflict with the Islamic government
Following the 1979 revolution, the newly established theocratic government of Ayatollah Khomeini moved to squash dissent. Khomeini attacked the MEK as elteqati (eclectic), contaminated with GharbzadegiGharbzadegi
Gharbzadegi is a pejorative Persian term variously translated as "Westoxification," "West-struck-ness" "Westitis", "Euromania", or "Occidentosis"...
("the Western plague"), and as monafeqin
Munafiq
Munāfiq is an Islamic Arabic term used to describe a religious hypocrite, who outwardly practices Islam, while inwardly concealing his disbelief , perhaps even unknowingly....
(hypocrites) and kafer
Kafir
Kafir is an Arabic term used in a Islamic doctrinal sense, usually translated as "unbeliever" or "disbeliever"...
(unbelievers). In February 1980 concentrated attacks by hezbollahi pro-Khomeini militia began on the meeting places, bookstores and newsstands of Mujahideen and other leftists driving the Left underground in Iran. Hundreds of PMOI supporters and members were killed from 1979 to 1981, and some 3,000 were arrested.
The MEK responded in turn, and on 28 June 1981, bombs
Hafte tir bombing
On 28 June 1981 , a powerful bomb went off at the headquarters of the Iran Islamic Republic Party in Tehran, while a meeting of party leaders was in progress...
were detonated at the headquarters of the since-dissolved Islamic Republic Party. Around 70 high-ranking officials, including Chief Justice Mohammad Beheshti (who was the second most powerful figure in the revolution after Ayatollah Khomeini at the time), cabinet members, and elected members of parliament, were killed. The Mujahedin never publicly confirmed or denied any responsibility for the deed, but stated the attack was `a natural and necessary reaction to the regime's atrocities.` The bomber was identified as a Mujahedin operative by the name of Mohammad Reza Kolahi, who had secured a job in the building disguised as a sound engineer. Khomeini accused them of culpability and, according to BBC journalist Baqer Moin
Baqer Moin
Baqer Moin is a BBC journalist and author. He has been described as "a specialist on Iran and Islam and is head of the BBC's Persian Service" and as "BBC's Central Asia specialist"...
, the Mujahedin were "generally perceived as the culprits" for it in Iran. Two months later on August 30, another bomb was detonated killing the popularly elected President Rajai and Premier Mohammad Javad Bahonar
Mohammad Javad Bahonar
Hojatoleslam Mohammad Javad Bahonar was an Iranian scholar, Shiite theologian and politician who served as the Prime minister of Iran from 15 to 30 August 1981 when he was assassinated by Mujahideen-e Khalq MEK, also known as PMOI and KMO...
. An active member of the Mujahedin, Massoud Kashmiri, was identified as the perpetrator, and according to reports came close to killing the entire government including Khomeini. The reaction following both bombings was intense with many arrests and executions of Mujahedin and other leftist groups, but "assassinations of leading officials and active supporters of the regime by the Mujahedin were to continue for the next year or two." This occurred following Saddam's invasion as the Iranian regime focused more resources on national defense than confronting dissidents.
Eventually, the majority of the PMOI leadership and members fled to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, where it operated until 1986, when tension arose between Paris and Tehran over the Eurodif
Eurodif
Eurodif, which means European Gaseous Diffusion Uranium Enrichment Consortium, is a subsidiary of the French company AREVA which operates a uranium enrichment plant established at the Tricastin Nuclear Power Center in Pierrelatte in Drôme...
nuclear stake and the French citizens kidnapped in the Lebanon hostage crisis
Lebanon hostage crisis
The Lebanon hostage crisis refers to the systematic kidnapping in Lebanon of 96 foreign hostages of 21 national origins – mostly American and western European – between 1982 and 1992...
. After Rajavi flew to Baghdad, French hostages were released.
Relations with Iraq under Saddam Hussein
The PMOI transferred its headquarters to Iraq in 1986, during the Iran–Iraq War. According to the US State Department, the PMOI received all of its military support and most of its financial assistance from Saddam's government until the 2003 Invasion of Iraq2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
. The PMOI also has used front organization
Front organization
A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy groups, or corporations...
s to solicit contributions from expatriate Iranian communities. PMOI's main economic development is based on tributes and endowments from its supporters all over the world.
The PMOI's decision to move its headquarters to Iraq in the middle of the war — which was started by an invasion by the Iraqi army and cost many tens of thousands of Iranians lives — caused the PMOI to lose most of its supporters in Iran, regardless of their views towards the Iranian government. A report by the Foreign Affairs group of the Australian Parliament states the PMOI "is believed to have lost much of its popular support within Iran since siding with Iraq".
National Liberation Army of Iran
Near the end of the 1980-1988 war with Iran, a military force of 7000 members of the PMOI, armed and equipped by Saddam's Iraq and calling itself the National Liberation Army of Iran (NLA), went into action. On July 26, 1988, six days after the Ayatollah Khomeini had announced his acceptance of the UN brokered ceasefire resolution, the NLA advanced under heavy Iraqi air cover, crossing the Iranian border from Iraq. It seized and razed to the ground the Iranian town of Islamabad-e Gharb. As it advanced further into Iran, Iraq ceased its air support and Iranian forces cut off NLA supply lines and counterattacked under cover of fighter planes and helicopter gunships. On July 29 the NLA announced a voluntary withdrawal back to Iraq. The PMOI claims it lost 1400 dead or missing and the Islamic Republic sustained 55,000 casualties (either IRGC, Basij forces, or the army). The Islamic Republic claims to have killed 4500 NLA and Iraqi troops during the operation. The operation was called Foroughe Javidan (Eternal Light) by the PMOI and the counterattack Operation MersadOperation Mersad
Operation Mersad was the name given by the Iranian government to its successful counterattack against a July 1988 military incursion from Iraq by a military force of about 7000 members of the People's Mujahedin of Iran, armed and equipped and given air support by Saddam's Iraq...
by the Iranian forces.
1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners
A large number of prisoners from the PMOI, and a lesser number from other leftist opposition groups (somewhere between 1,400 and 30,000), were executed in 1988, following Operation Eternal Light. Dissident Ayatollah MontazeriGrand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri
Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri Najafabadi was a prominent Iranian scholar, Islamic theologian, Shiite Islamic democracy advocate, writer and human rights activist. He was one of the leaders of the Iranian Revolution in 1979...
has written in his memoirs that this massacre, deemed a crime against humanity, was ordered by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
Ruhollah Khomeini
Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini was an Iranian religious leader and politician, and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran...
and carried out by several high-ranking members of Iran's current government.Recently The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed a Special Rapporteur on Human Rights violations for Iran, to take action on such actions since 1988.
Relations with France in the mid-1980s
In 1986, after French Prime Minister Jacques ChiracJacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
struck a deal with Tehran for the release of French hostages held prisoners by the Hezbollah in Lebanon, the PMOI was forced to leave France and relocated in Iraq. Investigative journalist Dominique Lorentz
Dominique Lorentz
Dominique Lorentz is a French investigative journalist who has written books on the stakes and reality of nuclear proliferation, as well as a film documentary, La République Atomique , which related terrorist acts in France in the 1980s to the nuclear program of Iran.Her work details various types...
has related the 1986 capture of French hostages to an alleged blackmail of France by Tehran concerning the nuclear program.
Post-war
According to presentations of the PMOI by the U.S. Department of State and the Foreign Affairs group of the Australian Parliament, the PMOI assisted the Iraqi Republican GuardIraqi Republican Guard
The Iraqi Republican Guard was a branch of the Iraqi military during the presidency of Saddam Hussein. It later became the Republican Guard Corps, and then the Republican Guard Forces Command with its expansion into two corps....
in suppressing the Kurdish and Shiite uprisings in Iraq
1991 uprisings in Iraq
The 1991 uprisings in Iraq were a series of anti-governmental rebellions in southern and northern Iraq during the aftermath of the Gulf War. The revolt was fueled by the perception that the power of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was vulnerable at the time; as well as by heavily fueled anger at...
after the 1991 Persian Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
. Maryam Rajavi
Maryam Rajavi
Maryam Rajavi is an Iranian politician who is President elect of National Council of Resistance of Iran, a front group for People's Mujahedin of Iran, since 1993. She is the wife of Massoud Rajavi, a founder of the People's Mujahedin of Iran...
, who assumed the leadership role of the PMOI after a series of years as co-leader alongside her husband Massoud Rajavi, has been reported by former members of the PMOI as having said: "Take the Kurds under your tanks, and save your bullets for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps
The Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution , often called Revolutionary Guards, is a branch of Iran's military, founded after the Iranian revolution...
."
In the following years the PMOI conducted several high-profile assassinations of political and military figures inside Iran, including Asadollah Lajevardi
Asadollah Lajevardi
Asadollah Lajevardi, was the warden of the Evin Prison in Tehran Iran from June 1981 until 1985 when he was replaced due to complaints of other clergy. He was assassinated by supporters of the People's Mujahedin of Iran on August 22, 1998.-Career:Asadollah Lajevardi was born in Tehran on 1935...
, the former warden of the Evin prison, in 1998 and deputy chief of the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff
General Staff
A military staff, often referred to as General Staff, Army Staff, Navy Staff or Air Staff within the individual services, is a group of officers and enlisted personnel that provides a bi-directional flow of information between a commanding officer and subordinate military units...
, Brigadier General
Brigadier General
Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...
Ali Sayyad Shirazi, who was assassinated on the doorsteps of his house on April 10, 1999.
In Iraq after the 2003 invasion
After the 2003 invasion of Iraq2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
, PMOI camps were bombed by coalition forces because of its alliance with Saddam Hussein. On April 15, U.S. Special Forces
United States Special Operations Forces
United States Special Operations Forces under United States Special Operations Command are active and reserve component forces of U.S. Military...
brokered a ceasefire agreement with the leaders of the PMOI and entered into a ceasefire agreement with the coalition after the attack. Each compound surrendered without hostilities. In the operation, the US reportedly captured 6,000 PMOI fighters and over 2,000 pieces of military equipment. This was a controversial agreement both in the public sphere and privately among the Bush administration due to the MEK's designation as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.
In the operation, the US reportedly captured 6000 MEK soldiers and over 2000 pieces of military equipment, including 19 British-made Chieftain tanks. The MEK compound
MEK Compound (Fallujah, Iraq)
The MEK Compound in Fallujah, Iraq is a large compound used by the U.S. Marines from 2004 to 2009. Prior to Marine occupation, the Iranian dissident group called Mujahideen-e-Khalq used the MEK as a training camp, but turned it over to the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne on May 11, 2003 after the...
outside Fallujah became known as Camp Fallujah and sits adjacent to the other major base in Fallujah, Forward Operating Base Dreamland. Captured MEK members were kept at Camp Ashraf, about 100 kilometers west of the Iranian border and 60 kilometers north of Baghdad.
After a four-month investigation by several U.S. agencies, including the State Department, only a handful of charges under U.S. criminal law were brought against PMOI members, all American citizens. The PMOI remains listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the Department of State. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared PMOI personnel in Ashraf protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention
Fourth Geneva Convention
The Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, commonly referred to as the Fourth Geneva Convention and abbreviated as GCIV, is one of the four treaties of the Geneva Conventions. It was adopted in August 1949, and defines humanitarian protections for civilians...
. They are currently under the guard of US Military. Defectors from this group are housed separately in a refugee camp within Camp Ashraf
Camp Ashraf
Camp Ashraf or Ashraf City is situated northeast of the Iraqi town of Khalis, about 120 kilometers west of the Iranian border and 60 kilometers north of Baghdad, and is the seat of the People's Mujahedin of Iran in Iraq...
, and protected by U.S. Army military police (2003-current), U.S. Marines (2005–2007), and the Bulgarian Army(2006-current).
On January 1, 2009 the U.S. military transferred control of Camp Ashraf
Camp Ashraf
Camp Ashraf or Ashraf City is situated northeast of the Iraqi town of Khalis, about 120 kilometers west of the Iranian border and 60 kilometers north of Baghdad, and is the seat of the People's Mujahedin of Iran in Iraq...
to the Iraqi government. On the same day, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced that the militant group would not be allowed to base its operations from Iraqi soil.
Iraqi government's crackdown
On January 23, 2009, and while on a visit to Tehran, Iraqi National Security Advisor Mowaffak al-Rubaie re-iterated the Iraqi Prime Minister’s earlier announcement that the MEK organisation will no longer be able to base itself on Iraqi soil and stated that the members of the Organisation will have to make a choice, either to go back to Iran or to go to a third country, adding that these measures will be implemented over the next two months.Eleven Iranians were killed and 500 injured in a July 29, 2009 raid by Iraqi security on the MEK Camp Ashraf
Camp Ashraf
Camp Ashraf or Ashraf City is situated northeast of the Iraqi town of Khalis, about 120 kilometers west of the Iranian border and 60 kilometers north of Baghdad, and is the seat of the People's Mujahedin of Iran in Iraq...
in Diyala province of Iraq. U.S. officials had long opposed a violent takeover of the camp northeast of Baghdad, and the raid is thought to symbolize the declining American influence in Iraq. In the course of attack, 36 Iranian dissidents were arrested and removed from the camp to a prison in a town named Khalis where the arrestees went on hunger strike for 72 days, 7 of which was dry hunger strike. Finally, the dissidents were released when they were in an extremely critical condition and on the verge of death. http://iranliberty.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=963:36-ashraf-residents-hostages-released-on-72nd-day-of-hunger-strike&catid=33:ashraf&Itemid=81http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=33654http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hundreds-of-ashraf-residents-in-urgent-need-of-medical-care-us-unami-must-intervene-to-end-inhumane-siege-of-ashraf-84689077.html
The Iraqi government had earlier denied anyone died when they took control of the camp, which has been home to the People's Mujahideen for two decades. Other accounts list said a dozen had been killed. According to Simaye Azadi, there main channel, many attacks got filmed and uploaded on websites like youtube.
2003 French raid
In June 2003 French police raided the PMOI's properties, including its base in Auvers-sur-OiseAuvers-sur-Oise
Auvers-sur-Oise is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. It is associated with several famous artists, the most prominent being Vincent van Gogh.-History:...
, under the orders of anti-terrorist magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguière
Jean-Louis Bruguière
Jean-Louis Bruguière was the leading French investigating magistrate in charge of counter-terrorism affairs. He was appointed in 2004 vice-president of the Paris Court of Serious Claims . He has garnered controversy for various acts, including the indictment of Rwandan president Paul Kagame for the...
, after suspicions that it was trying to shift its base of operations there. 160 suspected PMOI members were then arrested. In response, 40 supporters began hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
s to protest the arrests, and ten immolated
Immolation
Immolation, from Latin immolare, "to sacrifice", originally "to sprinkle with sacrificial meal" , in modern English since the 16th century may refer to:* Fire sacrifice** Holocaust * Cremation...
themselves in various European capitals. French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
(Union for a Popular Movement
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, and one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party...
) declared that the PMOI "recently wanted to make France its support base, notably after the intervention in Iraq", while Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, head of France's domestic intelligence service, claimed that the group was "transforming its Val d'Oise centre [near Paris]... into an international terrorist base".
U.S. Senator Sam Brownback
Sam Brownback
Samuel Dale "Sam" Brownback is the 46th and current Governor of Kansas. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1996 to 2011, and as a U.S. Representative for Kansas's 2nd congressional district from 1995 to 1996...
, Republican of Kansas and chairman of the Foreign Relations subcommittee on South Asia, then accused the French of doing "the Iranian government's dirty work". Along with other members of Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
, he wrote a letter of protest to President Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
, while longtime PMOI supporters such as Sheila Jackson-Lee, Democrat of Texas, criticized Maryam Radjavi's arrest. However, the PMOI members were quickly released.
A "bargaining chip" between Tehran and Washington?
During the Iraq war, U.S. troops disarmed the PMOI and posted guards at its bases. The U.S. military also protected and gave logistical support to the MEK as U.S. officials viewed the group as a high value source of intelligence on Iran. The PMOI is credited with revealing Iran's nuclear program in 2003 and alerting Americans to Iranian advancements in nuclear technology.The same year that the French police raided the PMOI's properties in France (2003), Tehran attempted to negotiate with Washington. Iranian officials offered to withdraw military backing for Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
and Hezbollah, and to give open access to their nuclear facilities in return for Western action in disbanding the PMOI, which was revealed by Newsnight
Newsnight
Newsnight is a BBC Television current affairs programme noted for its in-depth analysis and often robust cross-examination of senior politicians. Jeremy Paxman has been its main presenter for over two decades....
, a BBC current affairs program, in 2007. The BBC uncovered a letter written after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 where Tehran made this offer The proposition was done in a secret letter to Washington via Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. According to the BBC, the U.S. State Department received the letter from the highest levels of the Iranian government . According to Lawrence Wilkerson
Lawrence Wilkerson
Lawrence B. "Larry" Wilkerson is a retired United States Army Colonel and former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell...
, former chief of staff of Secretary of State Colin Powell
Colin Powell
Colin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...
, interviewed by the BBC, the State Department initially considered the offer, but it was ultimately rejected by the office of Vice President Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
.
Nuclear issue
The PMOI and the NCRI claim to be the first entities that revealed Iran's nuclear activitiesNuclear program of Iran
The nuclear program of Iran was launched in the 1950s with the help of the United States as part of the Atoms for Peace program. The support, encouragement and participation of the United States and Western European governments in Iran's nuclear program continued until the 1979 Iranian Revolution...
in 2002, which has turned to be a major concern for the US and some of its allies today. Recently on Feb 20, 2008, the NCRI claimed to have revealed another nuclear site of Islamic Republic. This claim has never been independently verified.
Designation as a terrorist organization
On December 14, 2006, Time Magazine published an article about PMOI and reported: "In 2003, French anti-terrorist police raided Maryam RajaviMaryam Rajavi
Maryam Rajavi is an Iranian politician who is President elect of National Council of Resistance of Iran, a front group for People's Mujahedin of Iran, since 1993. She is the wife of Massoud Rajavi, a founder of the People's Mujahedin of Iran...
's place in Auvers-sur-Oise, securing millions of euros and taking Maryam Rajavi
Maryam Rajavi
Maryam Rajavi is an Iranian politician who is President elect of National Council of Resistance of Iran, a front group for People's Mujahedin of Iran, since 1993. She is the wife of Massoud Rajavi, a founder of the People's Mujahedin of Iran...
and some of her collaborators into custody. Several of Rajavi
Rajavi
Rajavi is an Iranian surname which may refer to:* Kasem Rajavi - Iranian political activist in exile, brother of Massoud Rajavi.* Massoud Rajavi - Iranian political activist suspected in terrorism....
's followers set themselves on fire to protest her arrest, confirming official French concerns about the cultish nature of the group."
On September 14, 1981, Time Magazine published an article about PMOI and reported: "The Mujahedin platform focused on anticapitalist, anti-Western slogans. It demanded the nationalization of all foreign businesses run by Iranians and continuation of the anti-imperialist struggle, especially against the U.S.
Western intelligence sources doubt that the Mujahedin, though superbly organized, have as many followers as they claim. "They are not a popular movement," one analyst asserts. "Their ideology is not understood by the masses. They are capable, of carrying out terror operations but not of governing Iran.""
On April 21, 1997, Time Magazine published an article about PMOI and reported:
says Michael Eisenstadt, an Iran expert at the Washington Institute on Near East Policy. "If they were to achieve power, it is unlikely they would give it up."
On August 28, 1988, New York Times published an article that after chemical attacks by PMOI against western Iranian cities, Alireza Jafarzadeh
Alireza Jafarzadeh
Alireza Jafarzadeh is a media commentator on the Middle East and an active dissident figure to the Iranian government. He is best known for revealing the existence of clandestine nuclear facilities in Iran in 2002...
as then public spokesman for PMOI in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
said:
The Mujahedeen claimed to have inflicted 40,000 Iranian casualties.
On July 13, 2003, New York Times published an article that in 1991 when Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
used the PMOI and its tanks as advance forces to crush the Iraqi Kurdish people in the north and the Iraqi Shia people in the south, Maryam Rajavi
Maryam Rajavi
Maryam Rajavi is an Iranian politician who is President elect of National Council of Resistance of Iran, a front group for People's Mujahedin of Iran, since 1993. She is the wife of Massoud Rajavi, a founder of the People's Mujahedin of Iran...
as then leader of PMOI's army forces commanded:
On December 14, 2006, Time Magazine published an article about PMOI and reported: "By the mid-1980s, the group (PMOI) had cozied up to Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
, who provided them with funds and a compound, Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad. The U.S. government has accused the group of helping Saddam
Saddam
–Saddam is an Arabic name which means "One who confronts", other meanings include: "One who frequently causes collisions", "Powerful collider", "One who causes a collision that had bad results", "Powerful confronter", "One who frequently crashes", or "Powerful commander"...
brutally put down Iraqi Kurdish people in the early 1990s, and of launching numerous attacks inside Iran."
On January 05, 2009, Time Magazine published an article about PMOI and reported: "Despite its position on the U.S. terrorist list since 1997, and reports by former members of abusive and cultlike practices at Ashraf, the MEK has gathered support from some surprising places abroad — especially since the U.S. invasion — by pitching itself as a viable opposition to the mullahs in Tehran. "They have been extremely clever and very, very effective in their propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
and lobbying
Lobbying
Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by various people or groups, from private-sector individuals or corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or...
of members of Congress," says Gary Sick
Gary Sick
Gary G. Sick is an American academic and analyst of Middle East affairs, with special expertise on Iran, who served on the U.S. National Security Council under Presidents Ford, Carter, and for a couple weeks under Reagan as well...
, a Persian Gulf expert at Columbia University's Middle East Institute and the author of All Fall Down: America's Tragic Encounter With Iran. "They get all sorts of people to sign their petitions. Many times the Congressmen don't know what they're signing." But others, Sick adds, "are quite aware of the fact that this is a designated terrorist organization, and they are quite willing to look the other way for a group that they think is a democratic alternative to the Iranian regime.""
On May 18, 2005, Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
published an article about PMOI and reported: "Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
alleges that the Iranian exile group known as Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) has a history of cultlike practices that include forcing members to divorce their spouses and to engage in extended self-criticism sessions.
More dramatically, the report states, former MEK members told Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
that when they protested MEK policies or tried to leave the organization, they were arrested, in some cases violently abused and in other instances imprisoned. They were held in solitary confinement for years in a camp operated by MEK in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
under the protection of Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
. MEK representatives in the United States and France, where MEK is headquartered, did not respond to NEWSWEEK
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
phone calls and an e-mail requesting comment.
The new Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
report does allege strange and sometimes brutal behavior by the group's leaders and internal security apparatus.
According to Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
, following this 1988 military defeat, the Rajavi
Rajavi
Rajavi is an Iranian surname which may refer to:* Kasem Rajavi - Iranian political activist in exile, brother of Massoud Rajavi.* Massoud Rajavi - Iranian political activist suspected in terrorism....
's leadership of MEK became increasingly authoritarian and cultlike. According to an MEK defector's memoir, Rajavi
Rajavi
Rajavi is an Iranian surname which may refer to:* Kasem Rajavi - Iranian political activist in exile, brother of Massoud Rajavi.* Massoud Rajavi - Iranian political activist suspected in terrorism....
claimed to have a mystical relationship with a prophet known as Imam Zaman, who is Shia Islam's version of the long-awaited Messiah. In order to better cement their relationship with their leader, and hence ultimately their Messiah, Rajavi then instructed his followers to divorce their spouses. The group had already established a practice of "self criticism," under which members were asked to undergo their own personal "ideological revolution" by confessing personal inadequacies in cultlike confession sessions.
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
says the testimony of former MEK prisoners paints a grim picture of how the organization treated its members, particularly those who held dissenting opinions or expressed an intent to leave the organization.
Other witnesses told Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
claimed it was the practice of MEK interrogators to tie thick ropes around prisoners' necks and drag them along the ground. One witness told investigators: "Sometimes prisoners returned to the cell with extremely swollen necks--their head and neck as big as a pillow." In a statement accompanying its investigative report, Joe Stork
Joe Stork
Joe Stork is an American political activist and Deputy Director for Middle East and North Africa at Human Rights Watch. He holds an M.A. in International Affairs/Middle East Studies from Columbia University.-Career:...
, a Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
expert on the Middle East, commented:
MEK's Human Rights record
In May 2005, Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
claimed that the PMOI were running prison camp
Prison camp
Prison camp may be:* Concentration or internment camp* Federal prison camp, low-security facility among those on list of U.S. federal prisons* Labor camp* Death or extermination camp* Prisoner-of-war camp...
s within Iraq and were committing severe human rights violations against former PMOI members. The report described how the PMOI was held under tight control of the husband and wife team of Masoud and Maryam Rajavi
Maryam Rajavi
Maryam Rajavi is an Iranian politician who is President elect of National Council of Resistance of Iran, a front group for People's Mujahedin of Iran, since 1993. She is the wife of Massoud Rajavi, a founder of the People's Mujahedin of Iran...
. The report prompted a response by the PMOI and a few friendly MEPs (European MPs), who published a counter-report in September 2005. They noted that HRW had "relied only on 12 hours interviews with 12 suspicious individuals", and stated that "a delegation of MEPs visited Camp Ashraf in Iraq" and "conducted impromptu inspections of the sites of alleged abuses." Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca
Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca
Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca is a Spanish Member of the European Parliament, and a radiation physicist. He was elected on the People's Party ticket and sits with the European People's Party group....
(PP
People's Party (Spain)
The People's Party is a conservative political party in Spain.The People's Party was a re-foundation in 1989 of the People's Alliance , a party led and founded by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, a former Minister of Tourism during Francisco Franco's dictatorship...
), one of the Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament, alleged that Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) was the source of the evidence against the PMOI.
Prompted by the FOFI document, Human Rights Watch re-interviewed all 12 of the original witnesses, conducting private and personal interviews lasting several hours with each of them in Germany and the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, where the witnesses now live. All of the witnesses restated their claims about the PMOI camps from the 1991-2003 period, saying PMOI officials subjected them to various forms of physical and psychological abuses once they made known their wishes to leave the organization.
According to Mohsen Kadivar
Mohsen Kadivar
Mohsen Kadivar is an Iranian philosopher, University lecturer, cleric and activist. A political dissident, Kadivar has been a vocal critic of the doctrine of clerical rule, also known as Velayat-e Faqih , and a strong advocate of democratic and liberal reforms in Iran...
and Ahmad Sadri
Ahmad Sadri
Ahmad Sadri is a Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Lake Forest College. He has been the James P. Gorter Professor of Islamic World Studies since 2007. Sadri received a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Sociology from Tehran University, an MA and PhD from the New School for Social...
writing Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
,
Countless first-rate analysts, scholars and human rights organizations -- including Human Rights Watch -- have determined that the MEK is an undemocratic, cultlike organization whose modus operandi vitiates its claim to be a vehicle for democratic change.
In an interview with RFERL escaped MEK leader Abdul Latif Shardouri (aka Abdollatif Shadvari) who says he had been in the MEK for 25 years stated that his family thought he was dead because he had had no contact with them during those 25 years. "Using the telephone, mobile phone, Internet, and even listening to radio is forbidden in the organization."
The issue is, as [MKO leader Massoud] Rajavi has said many times, whoever wants to escape from Ashraf will be punished with death and execution. Not only me, but many of my friends who are now in Ashraf don't have the possibility to leave the camp. Escape is the only way.
Hunger Strike
The Ashraf City camp was attacked by Iraqi forces on 28 July 2009. They had depended on the American forces for protection. When Americans withdrew to bases, the Iraqi government stated they weren't bound by previous agreements. At least 11 died, and a hunger strike ensued among the People's followers.See also
- Baluchi Autonomist MovementBaluchi Autonomist MovementThe Baluchi Autonomist Movement was an ethnic Baluchi guerrilla movement in Iranian Balochistan led by Mowlawi Abdul Aziz Mollazadeh in the 1980s. The movement was supported by the Iraqi government. The BAM's main demands were limited autonomy and economic concessions for Iranian Baluchis...
- 1988 Massacre of Iranian Prisoners1988 Massacre of Iranian PrisonersThe 1988 executions of political prisoners in Iran refers to the systematic execution of thousands of political prisoners across Iran by the government, starting on 19 July 1988 and lasting about five months...
- Arms sales to Iraq 1973-1990Arms sales to Iraq 1973-1990-Imports of conventional arms by Iraq 1973-1990, by source:Values are shown in millions of US dollars at constant estimated values. "Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact" includes Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania...
- Ali Sayad ShiraziAli Sayad ShiraziAli Sayad Shirazi was chief-of-staff of the Iranian forces during Iran's 8-year war with Iraq. He was assassinated in 1999. Prior to that, he had a central role in suppressing the armed rebellion in Kordestan province in 1979.-Background:...
- Guerrilla groups of IranGuerrilla groups of IranSeveral leftist guerrilla groups attempting to overthrown the pro-Western regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi were notable and active in Iran from 1971 to 1975. The groups shared a commitment to armed struggle, but differed in ideology...
- Iran–Iraq War
- Massoud RajaviMassoud RajaviMassoud Rajavi , is the president of the National Council of Resistance of Iran and the leader of People's Mujahedin of Iran , an opposition organization active inside and outside of Iran. After leaving Iran in 1981, he resided in France and Iraq...
- Maryam RajaviMaryam RajaviMaryam Rajavi is an Iranian politician who is President elect of National Council of Resistance of Iran, a front group for People's Mujahedin of Iran, since 1993. She is the wife of Massoud Rajavi, a founder of the People's Mujahedin of Iran...
- Camp AshrafCamp AshrafCamp Ashraf or Ashraf City is situated northeast of the Iraqi town of Khalis, about 120 kilometers west of the Iranian border and 60 kilometers north of Baghdad, and is the seat of the People's Mujahedin of Iran in Iraq...
- Masoud Banisadr
- MEK Compound (Fallujah, Iraq)MEK Compound (Fallujah, Iraq)The MEK Compound in Fallujah, Iraq is a large compound used by the U.S. Marines from 2004 to 2009. Prior to Marine occupation, the Iranian dissident group called Mujahideen-e-Khalq used the MEK as a training camp, but turned it over to the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne on May 11, 2003 after the...
- Richard PerleRichard PerleRichard Norman Perle is an American political advisor, consultant, and lobbyist who began his career in government, a senior staff member to Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson on the Senate Armed Services Committee in the 1970’s...
- Saddam's Trial and Iran-Iraq War
- 1991 uprisings in Iraq1991 uprisings in IraqThe 1991 uprisings in Iraq were a series of anti-governmental rebellions in southern and northern Iraq during the aftermath of the Gulf War. The revolt was fueled by the perception that the power of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was vulnerable at the time; as well as by heavily fueled anger at...
Official
- Official Website of the PMOI
- Website of the National Council for Resistance (NCR)
- National Council of Resistance of Iran - Foreign Affairs Committee
- U.S. Department of State: MEK Profile