Library: The Watchlist 4 & 5

This Is Not History to Us:

Terror Victims’ Families Are Looking for Justice Stince the beginning of the 1980s, thousands of Iranian citizens have fallen victims to a series of terrorist operations by the radical leftist terrorist group Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization.

Not only has this group ever denied its terrorist actions, but it has been proud of them as documents of saber rattling against the country’s political system and its supporters. The families of terror victims almost never had the opportunity to achieve justice. After launching a wave of assassinations against ordinary Iranian citizens during the so-called “armed phase of resistance”, in which thousands of people were killed simply because of their support for the ruling political system, the leaders and many members of the MeK fled to European countries such as France and found a spot there to continue their activities against the Iranian nation.

Soon after, they sided with the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hossein and acted as his private army during the Iran-Iraq war. Being based in the Iraqi garrisons and camps, this group was engaged in destructive activities against the Iranian people simultaneous with planning violent actions from European cities. During the 1980s, due to the chaotic atmosphere created by the actions of terrorist groups inside Iran and then the eight-year war with Iraq, it was not possible for the survivors and families of terror victims to fulfill their rights through a fair trial.

Unfortunately, after the end of the war, this demand was put in the shadow of the economic movement to improve the situation of the country and compensate for the destruction caused by the war. The overthrow of Saddam’s regime in the early 1980s sparked this hope in the heart of families of terror victims to, in addition to witnessing the elimination of this group, bring about justice to the killers of their beloved ones. However, the US support for this group in Iraq prevented that hope to be realized. The US did not stop there and prepared the ground for the MeK’s relocation to Albania by removing them from its terrorist list.

As a result, this small country in South-Eastern Europe, as a second-hand option and a country which is strongly influenced by the US government, sheltered a notorious terrorist group. The Western countries’ dual standard in dealing with terrorists on one hand, and the arrest of a number of terrorist groups’ leaders and their trial by the Islamic Republic government in recent years on the other hand, led the families and survivors of terrorism in Iran to the conclusion that justice could not be brought about through the very countries which support terrorists. It is the primary and indisputable right of the Iranian citizens, just Like other citizens around the world, to ask the country’s authorities to prosecute the individuals who killed their relatives. Justice will be implemented for the survivors and victims of terrorist attacks in Iran and those who committed such heinous crimes will ultimately be punished. This is not history to us.