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
The Representative of the International
Committee of the Red Cross in Iran
The Representative of the United Nation's
High Commissionaire for the Refugees in Geneva
The Special Envoy of the UN Secretary
General in Iraq
The Secretary General of the Amnesty
International
|