NCRI, September 23 – A 130-page report, the outcome of a research conducted by an interparliamentary group of the European Parliament regarding the Human Rights Watch’s allegations against the PMOI was presented in a conference on Wednesday, September 21, at the European Parliament headquarters in Brussels.
The conference was organized by Friends of a Free Iran and it was chaired by the First Vice-President of the European Parliament Mr. Alejo Vidal Quadras.
After the HRW report was published, a group of MEPs, lawyers and jurists launched an independent investigation on the report. For this purpose, an EP delegation went to Camp Ashraf to carefully examine the allegations mentioned in the report. Wednesday’s conference, "Mission Report: People’s Mojahedin of Iran" aimed to present the results of the research done by this fact-finding mission.
Mr. Alejo Vidal Quadras, First Vice-President of the European Parliament, opened the conference with remarks citing the results of the EP fact-finding mission’s investigation. He said the HRW report was merely a political statement victimizing the PMOI in a mis-information propaganda campaign. "The PMOI is the most active opposition group that poses the biggest threat to the Iranian regime," he said. "This organization must be taken into account in any equation on Iranian issues."
Paulo Casaca, co-chair of the Friends of a Free Iran Committee and head of the EP delegation to NATO, said, "Our delegation’s trip to Ashraf leaves no doubt that there is no document substantiating HRW’s allegations against the PMOI. Our in-situ investigations determined that HRW’s claims were groundless. Just one case is enough to discredit the report. HRW had said a person had apparently been murdered, but his family rejected such a thing."
Andre Brie, member of the Foreign Relations Committee of the European Parliament, who was also a member of the delegation that visited Ashraf, described the HRW report against the PMOI a "despicable measure" for defaming the Resistance against Iran’s tyrannical rule. He said, "The report is unsubstantiated and totally groundless. We did not see a single case of abuse in Ashraf. There was a frank, sincere, humane climate in Ashraf that was an interesting experience for me." He said the PMOI’s inclusion in the terror list was scandalous and called for the removal of the terror tag.
Professor Raymond Tanter, former staff member of the US National Security Council and chairman of the Iran Policy Committee, called the HRW report an instrument in the mullahs’ hands used to tarnish the PMOI’s image.
Tanter condemned the report and added: Removing the PMOI’s name from the terror list would help spread democracy in Iran. The PMOI is the Iranian regime’s main enemy, that’s why delisting them would mean that regime change in Iran has been placed on the agenda. We must support an Iranian opposition that is able to organize demonstrations and strikes in Iran. This force is the PMOI a member of the National Council of
Resistance of Iran coalition. Mr. Lars Rise, member of the Norwegian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee who has also traveled to Ashraf City, said: In Ashraf, I held
firsthand interviews with many individuals who were fluent in European languages. I believe this investigation was much more documented than the HRW’s telephone interviews. Like my colleagues, I believe that all of HRW’s allegations against the PMOI are invalid and unsubstantiated. We examined all the cases at point but none of them were valid.
Mr. Rise also called for the removal of the PMOI from the terror list.
Struan Stevenson, co-chair of the Friends of a Free Iran parliamentary group and Vice President of the Christian Democrat-Conservatives Group in the European Parliament, stressed that by issuing a fabricated report, HRW has rendered itself a stooge of the mullahs’ regime. He said: It is surprising that the mullahs’ regime violates human rights every day, but Human Rights Watch doesn’t pay as much attention to them as to the PMOI.
Mr. Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman of the NCRI Foreign Affairs Committee, was also among the speakers at the conference. He said: The Human Rights Watch report against the PMOI betrays human rights principles. The report is a handful of lies prepared by the mullahs’ Intelligence Ministry but indirectly published by HRW. The reports compiled by the Norwegian and British parliaments and the Washington-based Iran Policy Committee as well as the testimonies by US officers who had spent a year in Camp Ashraf, Iraq, attest that the report and its consequent propaganda campaign were nothing but politically-motivated measures against the Iranian Resistance.
Ms. Azadeh Zabeti, a lawyer in Britain, said, "In our visit to Ashraf we looked into all allegations raised by Human Rights Watch. Our research showed that this report has been the outcome of a very complicated propaganda campaign by the Iranian regime’s Intelligence Ministry to tarnish the image of the Iranian Resistance." Ms. Zabeti recounted numerous examples of false allegations mentioned in the report.
Mrs. Danielle Mitterrand, president of the France Liberte Foundation, said in a message to the conference, "I know your meeting is examining the Human Rights Watch report about the PMOI. France Liberte believes that this report, compiled in a faulty manner, certainly taints HRW’s credibility." She added that the report had political motives and was unsubstantiated.
Mr. Eric Sutas, president of the International Organization against Torture, also sent a message in support of the conference in which he condemned acts of terrorism and suppressive measures against members of the Iranian Resistance.
