Letter of the Iranian Pen Club to the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

The Honourable President of the ICRC

Mr Jacob Clique Berger   

Initially we wish to express the sincere gratitude of the Iranian Pen Club for your and your colleagues’ humanitarian efforts around the world.

Human rights activists and researches that presently cooperate with the Iranian Pen Club are those who directly or indirectly have benefited from the humanitarian relieves of the ICRC in Ramady Camp or in Abu-Ghraib Prison in Iraq, after being freed from Mojahedin-é Khalq Organisation (MKO); but today we are concerned about our friends in the Ashraf Camp in Iraq.

As you are aware, in various reports by the Human Rights Watch, the European Union, the British Government, the US State Department, the Canadian Foreign office, and many other sources as well as the worldwide media, the deeds and practices of the MKO and its leader Mas'ud Rajavi have been categorised as terrorist, cultic, and violating the bases of human rights. Some documentation is enclosed to this letter in this regards. Therefore, we urge you to pay attention to our concerns as well as those of the families of the MKO members for the destiny of our offspring, our siblings, our spouses, and our friends who are held in Ashraf Camp by a destructive cult. Those who have defected from the organisation and are held at the Temporary International Presence Facilities (TIPF), as well as those who for any reason have not been able to flee the MKO and are still kept in their base, must be protected by the ICRC and the World Declaration for Human Rights; and we urge you to help them by any means you can.

Mr Jacob Clique Berger

You are aware that after the fall of the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and since September 2003, TIPF was established provisionally alongside Ashraf Camp. The purpose was to locate those who defect the organisation at the first instance interviews by the American Forces. In those days the total number of people confined within the Ashraf Camp was 3855 while today only 3450 are remaining there. From those defected members who managed to get themselves to TIPF, more that 350 have succeeded being sent to their own country (Iran) or some European countries with the help of various governments, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Iraqi ministry of human rights. But unfortunately it is more than a year now that the process of freeing from the Camp – the total number makes to around 200 so far – has been stopped or intensely slowed down.

It is also worth mentioning that the MKO is considering the freedom of its members and their departure from Iraq as a grave threat to its existence and consider it as an encouragement to the remaining members to defect this terrorist cult. The leadership of the MKO has launched a fierce destructive propaganda against the TIPF in order to neutralise it. This is done on two ways:  

a)    The organisation is inducing its members that TIPF is another Abu-Ghraib run by the US Forces where men and women are tortured and are even subject to rape by the America soldiers. This trick is the same method which the leadership of the MKO is utilizing in order to frighten the members, particularly the women, and stop them to defect the organisation the same way they used to stop them under Saddam Hussein’s regime.

b)    Next, the MKO has entered a more complicated stage and describes the TIPF as a centre for the ministry of intelligence of the Islamic Republic of Iran and is trying to make a big story out of the act of leaving the MKO and joining the TIPF.

Of course it was known from the beginning that the non-stop psychological warfare of the MKO against TIPF and the people living there is due to the real fear that they have for their existence in Ashraf Camp; because this could end up to the total dismantlement of the Camp. Additionally, speeding up the process of people from leaving the organisation to being able to move from Ashraf Camp to TIPF and then to Iran or a European country and being able to tell about the brainwash sessions practiced within the organisation, was a further trouble as far as the MKO was concerned.

It is essential to point out the fact that the Amnesty International (AI) has expressed its concern over the events carried out inside the Ashraf Camp. Also, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) has issued a report on 18 May 2005 which points out many cases of systematically violating human rights inside the MKO since 2002. The report done by the HRW is based on the former members' testimonies now living in Europe. A copy of the report is enclosed.

Mr Jacob Clique Berger

Therefore, bearing in mind the regional and international treats of the MKO towards their prime victims (that is the discontented members that are working with the organisation now); we urge you and your colleagues as the officials of an international body to meet the following demands:

1)    According to articles 25 and 26 of the fourth convention of Geneva which had enabled the MKO's presence in Iraq, the members could freely have contact with their families. But unfortunately, both the members and their worried and suffering families have been deprived from such benefits. Therefore, we insist that the pressure be mounted against the MKO to lift any obstacles.

2)    In addition to the families in Iran, there are some more families in European countries who are unaware of their offspring in Iraq for many years.

3)    One of the most bizarre methods practiced within the MKO is the daily sessions of brainwashing called the Current Operations. This in practice makes people ready for committing acts such as self-immolation. We think that the AI, the ICRC, the US Forces protecting the Ashraf Camp, and the UNHCR are responsible in this regards and the upcoming consequences.

4)    The Iranian Pen Club has become aware through its corresponding about the efforts made by the Iraqi ministry of human rights for preventing the violation of human rights within the MKO. We would be more that pleased to learn that we could benefit from your cooperation and assistance too.

5)    We are prepared to hand over the names and particulars of the discontented members and those who wish to defect from the organisation as well as necessary files and documents. We would be most pleased to have a meeting with you or your colleagues in the office of the ICRC in European countries and be able to present our stories and documents in person.

With many thanks and regards

The Iranian Pen Club

Postfach 90 06 63

51116 Köln

Germany

info@iran-ghalam.de

kanoon-ghalam@hotmail.de

00491759726840      

00491639087523

Copy to:

The United Nation's General Secretary

The Human Rights Watch

The Minister of Human Rights of the Republic of Iraq

The Representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva

The Representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Iraq

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