Library: Mujahedin-e Khalq in International Documents

One of the most clear-cut examples of western governments’ double standards, especially the United States, towards terrorism, is, without a shadow of a doubt, their behavior towards the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as MEK and NCRI) in the past three decades. In a blatant violation of international laws, MKO members were granted asylum while the group was designated as a terrorist group.

The MKO’s headquarters in France was placed under police protection, while the French authorities were well aware of their crimes and background. The group was allowed to hold meetings and gatherings in European countries, while it was proscribed as a foreign terrorist organization. Although the western organizations were increasingly revealing the human rights violations inside the MKO, no efforts were made to rescue the members from the claws of the cult’s cruel leadership. MKO, which was once playing the role of an excuse for the US government to invade Iraq, was declared as the “protected persons” by the same government after the 2003 invasion of the Arab country.

Although many experts have revealed the groundless claims of the MKO regarding Iran’s nuclear energy program, these baseless claims had been widely used in anti-Iran propaganda. Whenever they needed to pressure the Iranian side in their political negotiations, some Europeans used the terrorist group’s members in London, Washington, Paris, and Geneva to stage protests and chant slogans against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Despite the support western governments have been providing for the MKO, they themselves have disclosed some facts about the group in terms of some international reports and documents.

The US Government, Human Rights Watch, independent Iran experts and think tanks have all documented the cult-like and abusive practices carried out by MKO against its own rank and files and some of its major terrorist attacks against Iranians. A review on these documents and reports could be of some use to the researchers, journalists, and politicians who are unaware of the group. Historical documents reveal that, when the MKO embarked upon its armed struggle in Iran and when its leaders escaped to France, some western governments vainly counted on the terrorist group being able to influence Iranian internal issues. After some years of the group’s presence in Europe in 1994, the US Department of State prepared a report detailing the structure, activities, external support, and history of MKO.

The report described MKO “a mosquito” in comparison to Iran and explained the group’s alliance with Saddam Hussein and joining the Iraqi dictator in his brutal repression of the 1991 Kurdish uprising. The report also mentioned MKO’s acts of sabotage and their violent attacks in Iran that murder civilians. A 2005 study by the Human Rights Watch described MKO’s extensive human rights abuses against its own members. The report unveiled many inhuman and cult-like practices within the MKO, such as mandatory divorce and the enforced separation of children from their parents. In mid-2009, the Rand Corporation published a monograph titled “Mujahedin-e Khalq in Iraq: A Policy Conundrum”. Written by a team of four who worked for 15 months in the US and Iraq, the report presents the most thorough analysis to date of the MKO’s cult-like practices. It says, “Rajavi instituted what he termed an ‘ideological revolution’ in 1985, which, over time, imbued the MKO with many of the typical characteristics of a cult, such as authoritarian control, confiscation of assets, sexual control (including mandatory divorce and celibacy), emotional isolation, forced labor, sleep deprivation, physical abuse, and limited exit options.” There are lots of other internationally known documents that perfectly reveal the terrorist nature of MKO group and indicate how unpopular and isolated the terrorist group is in the eyes of the Iranian people, both inside and outside of the country, as well as all the people around the world.

It doesn’t matter whether MKO is taken off the terrorist list, it doesn’t even matter whether the US and some other western countries provide support for it, a leopard cannot change its spots. In this book we have tried to gather such reports and documents which confirm the terrorist nature of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization.