In this regard an enormous amount of disinformation material have been spread around by agents of the Iranian regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) in recent months.
In an effort to maintain restrictions on the activities of the Iranian Resistance, the mullahs have used every means to keep the unjust terror label it. The report by the Washington based Human Rights Watch in May 2005 was one such clear example of the mullahs’ ploy.
The European Parliamentary group, Friends of a Free Iran, carried out a detailed study of HRW allegations and below is a note from the first Vice President of the EP regarding its findings:
Human Rights Watch report on People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran, released in May 2005, prompted the compilation of this report (“People’s Mojahedin of Iran” – Mission Report).
The report ostensibly dealt with alleged rights abuses by the PMOI, but amazingly, far beyond the mandate of a human rights organization, it proffered a very serious political recommendation: do not support Iran’s main opposition.
This political statement was all the more disconcerting considering the growing international concerns about the conduct of the clerical regime in Iran and increasing calls to abandon the policy of appeasement towards Iran, which led to the blacklisting of the PMOI in the first place.
We at the European Parliament decided to conduct a full investigation into the alleged human rights violations by the PMOI contained in HRW report.
To this end, unlike HRW, which relied only on 12 hours of telephone interviews with 12 suspicious individuals, we felt obliged to conduct a comprehensive study to fully address every aspect of this issue.
In addition to extensive research, a delegation of MEPs visited Camp Ashraf in Iraq, held face-to-face private interviews with PMOI members and officials. It also conducted impromptu inspections of the sites of alleged abuses.
We found the allegations contained in HRW report unfounded and devoid of any truth. We also came to the conclusion that HRW report was procedurally flawed and substantively inaccurate. Moreover, in the course of our study we became aware of an elaborate and complex misinformation campaign by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), against PMOI.
HRW recommendation against supporting the PMOI is clearly related to growing calls for the removal of the organisation from terrorist list. I disagree with HRW recommendation. In hopes of moderating the clerical regime, Western countries unjustly labelled the PMOI as terrorist, undermining their own principles and moral values. Therefore, justice requires that PMOI is removed from terrorist list.
Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca
European Parliament
First Vice President
