Only six individuals decided to leave Ashraf
Mullahs react to PMOI members’ persistence by staging ridiculous show on state TV using four defectors
NCRI – On Wednesday afternoon, April 15, the mullahs’ official news agency IRNA reported, “Four members of the Monafeqin grouplet (a derogatory term used by the Iranian regime to refer to the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran – PMOI/MEK) regretted joining the grouplet and announced their defection on Wednesday.” The news agency claimed, “The four individuals who have come out of Camp Ashraf, the main headquarters of the Monafeqin in Iraq, with the help of Iraqi government, spoke today at the building of the National Security Advisor of Iraq about their memories and acknowledged before domestic and foreign media in Iraq about organized mistreatments by the Monafeqin grouplet. They made shocking revelations about the situation inside the Camp.”
This marked a bitter failure of the clerical regime and forces affiliated to it in Iraq following their intense efforts in the past months. They wishfully thought that a wave of defections and repentance would pursue following pressures and suppressive measures against Ashraf residents especially after the transfer of protection of Ashraf over to Iraqi forces. This has left the religious fascism ruling Iran in great shame and embarrassment.
The Iraqi National Security Advisor, who allowed the meeting with the press take place in his office yesterday, has been claiming since February that absolute majority of Ashraf residents, if they were given freedom of choice, would leave the PMOI and return to Iran.
In line with this claim, the Human Rights Ministry of Iraq since March has been holding private interviews with every single one of the people in Ashraf to offer them two choices; go to Iran or a third country.
According to our information, until the end of the working hour on Wednesday, the Iraqi authorities had interviewed 2,600 Ashraf residents. They were told that if they decide to leave Ashraf, they would be provided with necessary facilities to either return to Iran or go to a third country. However, the PMOI members residing in Ashraf declared that they will go nowhere and their only choice is to remain in Ashraf. There were only six – only 0.2 percent – who decided to leave Ashraf and they were taken by Iraqi forces to Baghdad.
The historic resistance by the PMOI members in Ashraf against plots by the clerical regime and wholehearted support by Iranians inside the country and the international campaign in defense of Ashraf, has left the regime in a very difficult situation and helpless. In these circumstances, the regime hastily took three of the defectors out of six to a ridiculous TV show to counter widespread support. By doing this, the regime is trying to justify suppressive measures against Ashraf residents and prepare the grounds to intensify pressures on them.
On March 30, the Iraqi National Security Advisor, Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie, told Al-Hurra TV: “Interview with these people (Ashraf residents) is currently underway. We believe, I mean the reports indicate that majority of them want to return to Iran.” Two days later on April 1, he told the Iranian regime’s Abrabic language Al-Forat TV: “We will in fact separate these people from their leaders. Absolute majority of them we believe want to return to Iran voluntarily.” Last February in Tehran, in a joint press conference with the Revolutionary Guard Saied Jalili, Secretary of the regime’s Supreme National Security Council, he said: “Majority of the residents in Camp Ashraf want in their hearts to go back to Iran and we are trying to prepare a list of these people to send to the government of Iran to make preparations for their return.”
On March 21, al-Rubaie told Al-Iraqya TV: “We think that there is a group of 15, 20 or 25 who lead and control the rest. Majority of the rest are brainwashed, they want to go back to their country if the pressure is taken off from them. If we take away these people, those who brainwash, then perhaps majority of them will go…”
One of the four people on the TV show yesterday by the name of Abbas Badfar, recounted a scenario for a “mock escape” to carry out a “suicide” mission on behalf of the PMOI among Iraqi. He arrived in Camp Ashraf just before the war in 2003. On November 19, 2008, while there were no Iraqi presence in Ashraf and the U.S. forces were in charge of Ashraf protection, he went to the American forces and after one week he was handed to the Iraqi forces.
The ridiculous story about the suicide mission or self-immolation among Iraqi forces was previously presented by al-Rubaie used for another deserter by the name of Maki Rafii. However, after the Iranian Resistance’s revelations, they were forced to use this scenario for another deserter.
In a statement on January 19, 2009, al-Rubaie said, “One of the Camp Ashraf residents has surrendered to the Iraqi forces and said that he was dispatched by the organization [PMOI] to carry out a suicide mission after entering the headquarters of the Iraqi security forces.” This refers to Maki Rafii who wanted to leave Ashraf according to a written request by him. On January 13, 2009, after he was provided some money by the PMOI he left Ashraf to Iraqi forces stationed at the entrance of the Camp. The U.S. forces arrived at the scene and took him with themselves. After two day, he was handed to the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights to deal with his case.
On March 21, speaking on Al-Iraqya TV, al-Rubaie changed his story about this case and said that two people left Ashraf and “they are with us. One of them says that we were helped to flee [Ashraf] and I was told to set fire on myself when I am inside Iraqi army base and then say that the Iraqi army set me on fire.” Abbas Badfar is now assigned to repeat this nonsense. It is not clear what has happened to the previous person. Despite heavy charges by him, it is not known why he has disappeared.
The other three, Jaafar Ebrahimi, Valiallah Khodabandeh Loui and Ali Kaki, who repented in the TV show last night and repeated dictated allegations by the clerical regime against the PMOI, decided to defect on April 5, 6 and 8 respectively during their interviews and went to Baghdad together with Iraqi forces.
Jaafar Ebrahimi who arrived in Ashraf in July 2002, a few months before the war, ridiculously claimed: “During the years he was in Camp [Ashraf] no international human rights body visited the organization.” This is while, on August 26, 2008, a delegation by the International Committee of the Red Cross that was on a visit to Camp Ashraf, privately met and talked with him.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
April 16, 2009