NCRI – Australian Parliamentarians, human rights activists, and jurists expressed support for the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran and the National Council of Resistance of Iran in a conference in Queensland on December 15.
The gathering was organized by the Center for Iranian Refugees, Queensland, and the Australian Association in Defense of Freedom and Human Rights in Iran. The conference was chaired by Senator Andrew Bartlett, the first Vice-president of the Australian Democratic Party.
The speakers offered their support to the PMOI members residing in Camp Ashraf, Iraq, and called for an end to the Iranian regime’s meddling in Iraq.
As the first speaker, Dr. Jocelyn Scutt, barrister and a prolific Australian author criticized the prevailing silence over human rights violations in Iran and raised her concern over the plight PMOI members in Camp Ashraf. She revealed the Iranian regime’s conspiracies against the camp’s residents and called on the coalition forces of their responsibilities under the Fourth Geneva Convention. She condemned the abduction of two PMOI members in Iraq by agents of the clerical regime last August and stressed that this was yet another clear violation of human rights by terrorist dictatorship in Iran. She ended her remarks by a famous word from Mahatma Gandhi that love and truth will always prevail and dictators are eventual losers although they may appear invincible.
Concerned with the unjust terror label against the PMOI, Peter Murphy, founding member of the Search Foundation and the organizer of the Movement for Peace and Justice in Sydney, stressed that there was no justification to maintain the main Iranian opposition movement in the list of terrorist organizations. He denounced the religious dictatorship in Iran for its meddling in Iraq and conspiracies against Camp Ashraf. He reminded the participants that 16 months of investigations by various U.S. bodies into the status of PMOI members in the camp proved that not a single one of them had been involved in any terror activities and therefore they were recognized as protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Ms. Fredricka Steen, chair of the Romero Center, the biggest refugee organization in Queensland with experience of helping refugees from Iran, described Australian policy on Iranian refugees as shameful. She said it was outrageous that the victims of repression who had fled the mullahs’ tyranny had to face yet more pressures by the government in Australia.
Rejecting the terror label against the PMOI as being unlawful, Terry Fischer, a distinguished lawyer from Queensland expressed doubts as to how an organization could be labeled as terrorist while 120,000 of its members and supporters been executed for their struggle for freedom and democracy. He described resistance against the tyranny in Iran as a legitimate right and called for immediate removal of the PMOI from the terror lists.
Islamic fundamentalism, its threats and its anti-thesis was discussed by Lesly Hunt, another distinguished Lawyer and human rights activist as the next speaker. She spoke about Mrs. Maryam Rajavi’s anti-fundamentalist views which is needed to be supported in contrast to repressive ideas spread by the religious dictatorship in Iran.
Representatives of the Iranian communities in Queensland also addressed the event and condemned mullahs’ meddling in Iraq. In a declaration which was read out in the conference they expressed their support to the PMOI.
The event ended with a piece of traditional Persian music played by artists from Queensland.
