UP TO DATE NO.

63 JANUARY 2014

PUBLICATION OF AAWA-ASSOCIATION

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=46871&Cr=Iraq&Cr1=#.UwdALM6mVi1

Ban appoints Jane Holl Lute to aid relocation of Iranian exiles in Iraq
Un.org,, January 5, 2014 Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Jane Holl Lute as his Special Adviser for Relocation of Camp Hurriya Residents Outside of Iraq. Camp Hurriya, located near the Baghdad airport, is home to some 3,200 Iranian exiles, many of them members of a group known as the People's Mojahedeen of Iran who have been in Iraq since the 1980s. Since 2011, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) together with the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), has been trying to find relocation opportunities outside Iraq for all camp residents. So far, the international community has secured relocation to third countries for only 311 residents.

Jane Holl Lute

In her new role, Ms. Holl Lute, a citizen of the United States, will work with a wide range of stakeholders, in particular Member States, to assist in relocating the camp residents, according to a statement from Mr. Ban's spokesperson. Among her previous roles, Ms. Holl Lute served as the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support and Assistant Secretary-General for Mission Support in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO). Ms. Holl Lute most recently held the post of US Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. She was also the Executive VicePresident and Chief Operating Officer of the UN Foundation and the Better World Fund, among other positions. The newly appointed UN official will work with Mr. Ban's Special Representative in Iraq and UNAMI head, Nickolay Mladenov, who last week reiterated that the Iraqi Government bears the responsibility for protecting the camp's residents, as part of an agreement it signed with the UN in 2011. Camp Hurriya, as well as Camp New Iraq (formerly Ashraf) which had previously housed the group, have been targeted for violent attacks.

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http://www.uniraq.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1567:unami-half-yearly-report-on-human-rights-january-to-june2013&Itemid=605&lang=en

UNAMI Half Yearly Report on Human Rights January to June 2013

Uniraq.org, January 20, 2013 The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released the Half Yearly Report on Human Rights, covering the period from January to June 2013. Extract from the report (PDF file): [...] 11.1 Camp New Iraq (Camp Ashraf)/ Camp Hurriya (Camp Liberty) In accordance with the memorandum of understanding signed with the Government of Iraq in December 2011, UNAMI continued to conduct daily monitoring visits to Camp Hurriya, where more than 3,000 members of the Peoples Mujahedin Organization of Iran/Mujahedin-e-Khalq (PMOI/ MeK) an organisation formally listed by a number of States as a terrorist organisation are currently based. On 9 February and 15 June Camp Hurriya was subjected to rocket attacks. In the first attack, eight residents were killed and, according to staff at the Government-run clinic in the Camp, a further 71 were injured. As a result of the second incident, two residents lost their lives. The SRSG publicly condemned both attacks and called on the Government of Iraq to take appropriate measures to ensure the protection and safety of the residents. In the aftermath of the February attack the residents leadership demanded, inter alia, to return to Camp Ashraf and that they be provided with large T walls for all accommodation blocs and amenities (totalling some 17,000 large T walls), personal protective equipment (PPE) for each resident, and 380 bunkers in addition to the 120 already present in the camp. By the end of the reporting period, the Government of Iraq had provided 296 bunkers and 591 small T-walls but had refused the residents leaders request for a return to Camp Ashraf, for personal protective equipment and for large T walls. UNHCR has continued to work towards identifying individuals in need of international protection and durable solutions for the residents of Camp Hurriya. As of 30 June 2013, 1,604 individuals had been identified as requiring international protection. However, UNHCRs efforts to find durable solutions for the residents have been hindered by the noncooperation of residents, such as the boycotting of UNHCR interviews. In March, the Government of Albania offered to accept up to 210 residents for resettlement. However, the PMOI/MeK refused the names accepted by the Government of Albania, and insisted that it should decide who should be resettled there. As a result by the end of June, UNHCR had facilitated the resettlement of 71 residents only. Similarly, in April the Government of Germany decided to accept up to 100 residents for resettlement. At the time of writing, preparations were underway to relocate the first group some time in July. UNAMI has continuing concerns about human rights abuses committed by the PMOI/MeK leadership within Camp Hurriya against the residents. These claims have been made to United Nations Monitors during interviews with residents who had managed to leave Camp Hurriya, as well as in a number of private discussions with residents who still reside in the Camp despite the leaderships attempts to prevent such discussions. The PMOI/MeK, which has a hierarchical and authoritarian structure, imposes a number of severe restrictions on the residents rights, including the right of freedom of movement within the Camp and the right to leave the organization, the free right of association, along with restrictions on contacts with family members (including those residing in Camp Hurriya), on access to basic communications, and on access to medical care and treatment. [...] Link to the report (PDF file): http://www.uniraq.org/images/humanrights/ HRO_Human%20Rights%20Report%20January%20-% 20June%202013_FINAL_ENG_15Dec2013%20%282% 29.pdf

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http://www.nejatngo.org/en/post.aspx?id=7552#.Uwdecs6mX5p

The 40-year-old MKOs New Year Resolution: Regime Change!

nejatngo.org, January 09, 2014 By Mazda Parsi Its been near 4 decades that the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO) embraces the Regime Change Option against the Iranian government. The group names every New Year whether according to Iranian calendar or the Christian calendar as the year of the overthrow of the regime. In order to accomplish its so-called objective the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iranthe MKO has had various bed fellows including Saddam Hussein the deposed Iraqi dictator. The group was Iraqi Baaths intelligence and military aid during the eight years of a destructive war between Iran and Iraq. They perpetrated countless random terror acts to assassinate Iranian officials and civilians. Immediately after the cease fire was signed by Iran and Iraq, the MKO leaders launched the notorious Eternal Light Operation ( Forough e Javidan) across Iranian borders in the vain hope of reaching Tehran in three days Massoud Rajavi the leader of the MKO had planned a three -day operation to seize Tehran and change the Regime! The operation was like a mass suicide. A large number of the group members were killed. The group was harshly defeated and forced back in the arms of its Iraqi landlord Saddam Hussein. Then, in 1991, the MKO continued offering services to the land lord by aiding him with suppressing Kurdish uprising and Shiite Intifada in Iraq where most former members of the group recall the infamous Maryam Rajavis quote Take the Kurds under the tanks and save your bullets for the Iranian soldiers.! However, the MKOs long time loyalty to the enemy of Iranian people did not accomplish anything at the end. Following the American led invasion of Iraq, the Iraqi dictator fell off power. The MKO was disarmed by the American army. The group leaders now had to answer a large number of questions in the mind of the rank and files who were promised an armed violent regime change in Iran. Faced with an ambiguous dreadful fate in camps in Iraq members of the cult of Rajavi witnessed the collapse of the mirage Regime Change in Iran the Rajavis had painted for them in many years. Defection from the group was on the rise and Iraqi newly established government didnt want Saddams mercenaries on its territory. The leaders of the MKO strived to make new allies in the region ranging from Saudi Arabia to Israel. The new mutual teamwork included terrorist and spying operations against Iran in exchange for receiving financial, military, and intelligence support. Meanwhile the groups propaganda played its leading part in derailing the Wests diplomatic efforts to engage in negotiations with the Iranian government. Conversely, despite the MKOs hard work to gain the worlds support for its so-called desire for regime change in Iran the situation of the group as a cult of personality deteriorated , day after day. The process of the groups expulsion from Iraq has started and is ongoing although a bit slowly. There is an increasing growth in the number of defectors from the groups cult-like structure. Therefore, today the main issue for the group leaders is to maintain the structure of the cult which guarantees its survival. At least during the past decade, the MKO has resorted to different powers in the world not for the sake of regime change but for its own survival. Regime Change is not a promise anymore; it has been reduced to a New Year resolution on the MKO propaganda websites even if it is repeated three times.

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http://orientalreview.org/2014/01/08/is-the-us-preparing-to-stash-3000-terrorists-near-the-ukrainian-border/

Is the US preparing to stash 3,000 terrorists near the Ukrainian border?

orientalreview.org, 08 January , 2013 After removing the extremist organization Mojahedin-eKhalq (MEK) from its list of terrorist organizations in 2012, the US State Department has been unsuccessfully trying to move militants from this group out of Iraq and closer to sites that are being readied for future armed hostilities. be willing to accept its members for resettlement within their own borders. At present, MEK militants are being housed at a former American military base near Baghdad, and their camp has more than once been the target of rocket attacks in recent months (the latest incident was on Dec. 27, 2013). Mojahedin-e-Khalq militants blame the Iraqi authorities for the attacks, but the latter have denied any involvement.

Romanian Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean listens to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Brussels, December 3, 2013 Romania would be an auspicious location for 3,000 of these militants, specifically the city of Craiova, which is located near the Bulgarian border. Massoud Khodabandeh, who was previously a highly placed leader within the Mojahedin-e-Khalq, referred to the Bulgarian press in his claims that the issue of their resettlement was discussed during the meeting between the American secretary of state, John Kerry, and the Romanian foreign minister, Titus Corlatean, in Brussels in early December 2013. Early last year, Albania and Germany announced their willingness to accept a few hundred of the 3,000 fighters. However, the MEK insists that all the members of the group be resettled together in one area, something to which the governments of these countries have not been prepared to agree. Despite Hillary Clintons decision to the contrary, the MEK is still considered a terrorist organization in Iraq and Iran. Iraqs Shiite government, which rose to power after the US invasion in 2003, has an adversarial relationship with the members of the Mojahedin-e-Khalq and insists that any countries that provide the group with support also Who is the Mojahedin-e-Khalq? The MEK is a militant organization that is waging an armed struggle against the Iranian regime. The group has been responsible for the deaths of about 50,000 people, including the assassination of the president, prime minister, and dozens of senior Iranian officials. After its relocation to Iraq in 1986, Saddam Hussein often received assistance from the organizations members during the Iran-Iraq war and also employed them to suppress the Kurdish separatist movement. From the beginning of the US campaign against Saddam Hussein, the organization became a focus of interest of the American government. In 1994 the State Department sent Congress a damning 41-page report conclusively proving the MEKs status as a terrorist organization, and as a result, the group was included in the State Departments 1997 list of terrorist organizations. The report specifically stated, It is no coincidence that the only government in the world that supports the Mujahedin politically and financially is the totalitarian regime of Saddam Hussein. After the American military invasion in 2003, the group

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came under US control. The MEK actively lobbied to be removed from the official list of terrorist organizations, and the US put its members to use as part of Americas clandestine commando operations against Iran. It has now emerged that the Bush administration secretly brought members of the MEK to the US for military training that included signals intelligence and other skills related to covert espionage. Presumably the program ended just before the Obama administration took office. Apparently, the MEK was then placed under the control of Mossad, which utilized it to kill Iranian nuclear scientists. Thanks to an article by Justin Raimondo, the writer and founder of the Antiwar.com website, the group was dubbed Hillarys Terrorists. It is obvious that the Mojahedin-e-Khalq is not a peaceful organization. In fact, it would be better compared to the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, or Jubhat al-Nusrah, other groups which also enjoyed the tacit support of the United States until they became too unruly. In addition, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan have still been unable to extricate themselves from the aftermath of the MEKs activities within their borders. One can only guess at what awaits Romania should this army of 3,000 militants come calling at its door. Harboring so many fighters so close to Ukraine, a country that has been afflicted with EuroMaidan fever for the past month and a half, could pave the way for any number of coercive scenarios for regime change. Source in Russian: http://www.regnum.ru/news/ polit/1752035.html Translated with abridgments by ORIENTAL REVIEW

http://www.aawa-association.de/index.php/2013-05-23-15-50-38/1104-dna-m-popa

Open Letter to the Romanian Parliamentary Committee for Free Iran

Aawa-association.de, January 11, 2013 Dear Mrs Popa, by your home page - www.freeiran-romania.org -, we took notice of the Comitetul Parlamentarilor Romani Pentru Iranul Liber. As an Iranian -exileassociation from Germany, we also campaign for human rights and democracy in Iran. However it is conspicuous, that the statements and reports on your home page nearly exclusively deal with the well known claims and demands of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation (MEK/MKO/PMOI). The MEK has no political significance inside Iran and is not the right way forward to get involved with a free and democratic Iran. Similar to the other european support-organizations, like the Deutsch Solidarittskommitee fr einen freien Iran (DSFI), The British Parliamentary Commitee for Iran Freedom - http://iran-freedom.org/ - or Friends of a Free Iran in the European Parliament, the Comitetul Parlamentarilor Romani Pentru Iranul Liber seem to be just another lobby-organization and mouthpiece of the MEK. Such a commitment only aids the MEK and not the people inside Iran. A first step showing real humanitarian commitment could be, urging the Romanian government to take some refugees from Camp Liberty and save them from further attacks. In contrast the MEK at any cost tries to keep their members together, to easier indoctrinate and control them. At the moment the Liberty-residents pay the price of permanent fear of further attacks and deaths. The fact, that again and again European politicians feel up to disseminate those contradictory and escapist demands of the MEK without reflecting about seem to militate for the PR and lobbying of the MEK. With such a blind commitment you run the risk of losing your political credibility as some European politicians hat to learn already. For much background information about the lobbying of the MEK, please contact us.

With best regards, AAWA Association e.V. Dipl. Ing. Ali Akbar Rastgou (Chairman)

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http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_01_10/US-to-flood-Romania-with-terrorists-6396/

US to flood Romania with terrorists

voiceofrussia.com, 10 January, 2014 Washington may turn Romania into a hotbed of tension, which will prove quite a headache both to Romania proper and the neighbouring countries. The point is the United States is making efforts to move several thousand members of the People's Mujahedin of Iran organization (Mujahedin-e Khalq) from Iraq to Romania. The so-called civilized society's care for radical Islamists is due to the fact that the Mujahedin see their mission in fighting Iran, which the West also seeks to weaken by all means available. By Ilya Kharlamov Both Iran and Iraq see Mujahedin-e Khalq as a terrorist organization. The armed wing of the organization, the National Liberation Army of Iran, is believed to have founded the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which brings together all of Iran's opposition forces. Those who opposed the rule of the Shah of Iran started their resistance in the middle of the 1960s on a romantic idea of building a class-free socialist society, but as time went on, the idea degenerated into mass-scale terrorist attacks and acts of sabotage. The Iranian authorities' sharp rebuff caused Mujahedin-e Khalq to move to the neighbouring Iraq, whence it launched armed attacks on Iran during the Iran-Iraq War and helped the Iraqi regime to quash Kurdish rebellions. Mujahedin-e Khalq went on with its attacks on Iran in the subsequent years taking advice from and controlled by the United States. But the impressive "record of service" (some 50,000 people killed, including Iran's top-echelon officials) proved no hindrance to the EU and US recent decision to strike Mujahedin -e Khalq off their list of terrorist organizations. The EU and the US obviously proceeded from the assumption that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", although the two saw Mujahedin-e Khalq as terrorists just a short while ago. Washington's plan to deploy the Islamists in Romania is inappropriate at the very least, says Russian expert in Oriental Studies Boris Dolgov, and elaborates. "If the Romanian leaders have certain doubts, and they will certainly question the correctness of the decision, then they should stiffly oppose the move. The organization acts against Iran, Tehran sees it as terrorist, Mujahedin-e Khalq is known for numerous terrorist attacks and life attempts. Besides, the US plan is at variance with the recent trend towards improving relations between Washington and Tehran. Also, a presence of Islamic militants will serve to aggravate tension in the region. It's obvious that peaceful coexistence with the people of other religions is the last thing the Islamists will think of when arriving in Romania". So far, the US attempts have proved futile, even though Romania heavily depends on Washington. The US sees Romania as an important nation in terms of its geopolitical interests, and has been patronizing Bucharest throughout the post-Soviet period. But the pay Washington has demanded seems clearly excessive. Yet, when the US State Secretary John Kerry met with his Romanian counterpart Titus Corlaean in Brussels in December, they took up the issue of moving the Mujahedin in question to Romania, according to some reports. A year earlier, Germany and Albania said they were prepared to accommodate Mujahedin-e Khalq militants. But the organization chiefs insist on a compact settlement of all three thousand militants, who are currently making their home at a US military base in Iraq. But the Albanian and German authorities see this as too dangerous. The terrorist leaders are in a stalemate. They are welcome nowhere, while in Iraq they have been coming under rocket fire recently. The organization activists put the blame at the current Iraqi government's door, namely because the Iraqi Cabinet has been openly demanding that the terrorists be removed

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from the country. Action on the US plan is fraught with danger, but is highly improbable, points out an expert with the Moscow-based Institute for Strategic Studies and Analysis, Sergei Demidenko, and elaborates. "A transfer of a large group of people, drilled ideologically and militarily, to an unstable European area will clearly add no quiet to the area. But Romania will hardly approve the scenario, since Bucharest realizes that Romanians will otherwise have to deal with people of specific mentality, oriented to fighting the non-Moslems, or kuffar, which is about the only thing they can do at all. But if the events do follow that scenario, this will only serve to further aggravate the situation around Islamic radicalism in Europe, the more so since the European security services can do nothing to counter Al-Qaeda militants who are active in southern Europe". Of course, one may admit by a stretch of imagination that sticking to its friends in trouble is kind of noble of the United States; the more so since the US is due to build a military base in Romania, where the militants could be accommodated at first. Also, the recent agreement on Iran's nuclear programme involving the United States will hardly prove a watershed event in the Iran-US standoff. Washington has not forgone up the plan to deploy its missile defence system in Europe to defend the West from Iran's missile strike. Whether to accept the members of an organization, placed on a par with Taliban and Al-Qaeda, or not depends wholly on the Romanian government, which will likewise be solely responsible for its decision. The authorities of the neighbouring Ukraine will also have food for thought. The well-trained fighters may prove effective as a force to change the government or at least rock the unstable situation, for they are not used to sitting idly.

http://news.antiwar.com/2014/01/29/mujahedin-e-khalqopposes-iran-deal-pushes-sanctions/

Mujahedin-e Khalq Opposes Iran Deal, Pushes Sanctions

News.antiwar.com, January 29, 2014 The Mujahedin-e Khalq has been called a lot of things over the years: terrorists, a cult, even (by themselves) a government-in-exile. One thing that is undeniable at this point is that they wield considerable influence among US officials past and present, and that lobbying heft is being thrown behind stopping the Iran nuclear deal.1 Former Governor Howard Dean (D VT), a major MeK enthusiast, was among the speech-givers at a recent sponsored briefing that condemned the deal, saying any deal must be conditioned on imposing some sort of deal on Iraq to deal with MeK exiles there. Former US Special Envoy Robert Joseph concurred, and blasted the current deal as appeasement. The MeK is putting a lot of effort behind the same Senate sanctions bill that the Israel Lobby is so staunchly behind. 2 The bill would violate the Iran deal by imposing new sanctions, and would effectively kill negotiations. While the depth of the MeKs funding of this is, like much of their lobbying, strictly off-the-record (Gov. Dean openly refused to answer questions about how much he was paid for his statement), the group appears to still envision itself being the benefactors of US-imposed regime change in Iran, and is willing to pull out all the stops to see to it that diplomacy does not succeed and rapprochement remains impossible. References: [1] [2] http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/iranian-groupsamerican-supporters-favor-new-sanctions-slam http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/12/20/mekpurchases-27-us-senate-votes-for-war-with-iran/

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http://www.nejatngo.org/en/post.aspx?id=7574#.UzKdC4XD_ac

Letter to Guterres from former MKO members

Nejat association, January 28 2014 Letter to Antnio Guterres UNHCR from former members in Eastern Azarbaijan province in Iran Honorable Antnio Guterres UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva As your Excellency are aware, Camp Liberty in Baghdad, the temporary camp for nearly three thousand members of the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) subjected Thursday night 26 December 2013 to a terrorist attack by rockets and mortars. According to PMOI this attack caused death of 4 of the camp residents and wounding 71 others, many of them in critical condition. The PMOI has published the names and photographs of the killed, but not the names of the wounded. We, the undersigned, as a group of former members of PMOI in Eastern Azarbijan province (Northwest of Iran), express our support for the request of the families of the residents of Camp Liberty to ask your honor, as UN High Commissioner for Refugees and international authority are responsible to solve this issue, as well as the competent international bodies, especially the International Committee of the Red Cross and its office in Iraq to obligate the leadership of the PMOI to announce the names of the wounded residents in this incident by any appropriate means, such as informing the families or to allow the wounded to contact or meet their families because according to international humanitarian laws and basic principles of human rights, they are worried about the health and status of their relatives residing in the refugee camp. We believe that lifting the cultic and organizational restrictions are the basic and fundamental way to liberate captive members in Iraq, from an organization that has known as a reactionary cult with dictatorial internal relations, as has been emphasized in recent UNAMI report for the first half year of 2013, where indicates: UNAMI continuing concerns about human rights abuses committed by the PMOI/MeK leadership within Camp Hurriya against the residents.The PMOI/MeK, which has a hierarchical and authoritarian structure, imposes a number of severe restrictions on the residents rights, including the right of freedom of movement within the Camp and the right to leave the organization, the free right of association, along with restrictions on contacts with family members (including those residing in Camp Hurriya), on access to basic communications, and on access to medical care and treatment. We also announce our support for the request of a group of families of the residents of Camp Liberty to speed up the transfer of the residents from Iraq, where there are daily killings of many innocent people in terrorist incidents or in bloody sectarian clashes, to the third countries specially the sick and wounded, while nearly third of them have documents of residency or asylum in European countries or North America. We join these families to call international bodies, especially the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to put their utmost efforts to urge the member states towards resettling the residents to the third countries as soon as possible. We would like to express our deep appreciation and gratitude in advance for your efforts in this regard, and informing the families about the fate and status of their relatives in Camp Liberty. a group of former members of PMOI in Eastern Azarbijan province (Northwest of Iran) 27 January 2014 Signatories

www.aawa-association.de
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UP TO DATE NO. 63 JANUARY 2014

Publication of Association AAWA e.V. Responsable: Dipl.-Ing. Ali-A. Rastgou Postfach 90 31 73 D-51124 Kln E-mail: info@aawa-association.com