For the past 4 decades Iran has been one of the worst violators of Human Rights in the world. Since the 1979 revolution Iranian regime has been condemned 63 times by the UN bodies for violation of Human Rights.
The US Senate voted almost
unanimously last Thursday to impose new sanctions on Iran. The legislation
cracks down on Iran’s activities including their missile development programs
and human rights abuses. This is the first time that Iran has been targeted for
violation of Human Rights.
“Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and
annually thereafter, the Secretary of State shall submit to the appropriate
congressional committees a list of each person the Secretary determines, based
on credible evidence, on or after the date of the enactment of this Act (1) is
responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of
internationally recognized human rights committed against individuals in Iran
who seek (A) to expose illegal activity carried out by officials of the
Government of Iran; or (B) to obtain, exercise, defend, or promote
internationally recognized human rights and freedoms, such as the freedoms of
religion, expression, association, and assembly, and the rights to a fair trial
and democratic elections; or … “ Reads part of the bill
For
the past 4 decades Iran has been one of the worst violators of Human Rights in
the world. Since the 1979 revolution Iranian regime has been condemned 63 times
by the UN bodies for violation of Human Rights.
Given
the articles of the new bill about violation of human rights, and based on the
actions of Iranian authorities in the past 4 decades, all the Iranian officials
must be sanctioned.
One
case in point is the massacre of MEK* members
and other political prisoners which all of Iranian officials were involved. In
1988, the Iranian regime massacred more
than 30,000 political prisoners, most of whom were members and supporters of
the main opposition group, the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or
MEK). All the current and previous officials of the regime were directly
involved in the massacre. Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iranian regime issued
a religious
decree ordering the massacre. His intention was to purge the
country of any opposition, notably the MEK. Khomeini's decree set up a committee
of four men which were tasked with vetting the ideological standing of
prisoners. Many prisoners were only questioned for a few minutes by the
committee. Those refusing to renounce their affiliation with the MEK were sent
to the gallows.
“Whoever
at any stage continues to belong to the MEK must be executed. Annihilate the
enemies of Islam immediately!…Those who are in prisons throughout the country
and remain steadfast in their support for the MEK are waging war on God, and
are condemned to execution … It is naive to show mercy to those who wage war on
God,” reads part of the decree.
For
more than three decades, Iran ignored the slaughter, until this year in the
presidential election when Ebrahim
Raisie one of the perpetrators of the massacre and a member of
death committee, was selected as one of the main candidates. MEK supporters
inside Iran carried out widespread campaigns revealing Raisie and his role in
the massacre.
Immediately, the issue of massacre of MEK members surfaced, forcing regime
officials, one after another, to confess to the bloodbath.
“Regarding
MEK and all the militant groups, the ruling is the death sentence … Imam
(Khomeini) has said this … their verdict is death sentence …” Ali Fallahian,
the former Iranian intelligence Minister, confessed in an interview.
“First,
you should bear in mind that their (MEK’s) ruling was death punishment; and if
the religious judge did not sentence them (MEK) to death, his ruling has been
illegal … so all of us should acknowledge that the verdict for a Monafeq [the
term used by the regime to call a MEK member or sympathizer] is death sentence,
this was both Imam’s fatwa and his verdict …” Fallahian said in the interview.
Last
August an audio tape of
a meeting between the late Ayatollah
Montazeri, the former successor to Khomeini, and the death committee
was revealed and shed light to the carnage. The news of the revelation was
covered in the international media.
“The
publication for the first time in Iran of an audio recording from nearly three
decades ago has reopened old wounds from the darkest period in the Islamic
Republic. In the summer of 1988, thousands of leftists and supporters of the
Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) organisation were executed in a massacre of
political prisoners.” The Guardian reported.
“I
urge the UN High Commissioner on human rights to immediately set up an
independent committee to investigate the 1988 massacre and subsequently put
those in charge before justice. I urge the UN Security Council to make the
arrangements for prosecution of the regime’s leaders for committing crime
against humanity.” said Mrs. Maryam Rajavi,
the president elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in her message on
the 29th anniversary of the massacre.
With
adoption of the new bill the time has come to hold the mullah’s regime
accountable for crimes against humanity.
“Full
implementation of these sanctions against the Iranian regime must be completed
with urgent actions against officials in charge of executions, torture and
particularly the massacre of political prisoners in 1988. Topping the list is
Ali Khamenei, the mullahs’ supreme leader.” Said Maryam Rajavi in another
message.
More about MEK:
A Long Conflict between the Clerical Regime and the MEK
The
origins of the MEK date back to before the 1979 Iranian Revolution., the MEK
helped to overthrow the dictatorship of Shah Reza Pahlavi, but it quickly
became a bitter enemy of the emerging the religious fascism under the pretext
of Islamic Republic. To this day, the MEK and NCRI describe Ruhollah Khomenei
and his associates as having co-opted a popular revolution in order to empower
themselves while imposing a fundamentalist view of Islam onto the people of
Iran.
Under
the Islamic Republic, the MEK was quickly marginalized and affiliation with it
was criminalized. Much of the organization’s leadership went to neighboring
Iraq and built an exile community called Camp Ashraf, from which the MEK
organized activities aimed at ousting the clerical regime and bringing the
Iranian Revolution back in line with its pro-democratic origins. But the
persistence of these efforts also prompted the struggling regime to crack down
with extreme violence on the MEK and other opponents of theocratic rule.
The
crackdowns culminated in the massacre of political prisoners in the summer of
1988, as the Iran-Iraq War was coming to a close. Thousands of political
prisoners were held in Iranian jails at that time, many of them having already
served out their assigned prison sentences. And with the MEK already serving as
the main voice of opposition to the regime at that time, its members and
supporters naturally made up the vast majority of the population of such
prisoners.
As
the result of a fatwa handed down by Khomeini, the regime convened what came to
be known as the Death Commission, assigning three judges the task of briefly
interviewing prisoners to determine whether they retained any sympathy for the
MEK or harbored any resentment toward the existing government. Those who were
deemed to have shown any sign of continued opposition were sentenced to be
hanged. After a period of about three months, an estimated 30,000 people had
been put to death. Many other killings of MEK members preceded and followed
that incident, so that today the Free Iran rally includes an annual memorial
for approximately 120,000 martyrs from the People’s Mojahedin Organization of
Iran.
The
obvious motive behind the 1988 massacre and other such killings was the
destruction of the MEK. And yet it has not only survived but thrived, gaining
allies to form the NCRI and acquiring the widespread support that is put on
display at each year’s Free Iran rally. In the previous events, the keynote
speech was delivered by Maryam Rajavi, who has been known to receive several
minutes of applause from the massive crowd as she takes the stage. Her speeches
provide concrete examples of the vulnerability of the clerical regime and
emphasize the ever-improving prospects for the MEK to lead the way in bringing
about regime change.
The
recipients of that message are diverse and they include more than just the
assembled crowd of MEK members and supporters. The expectation is that the
international dignitaries at each year’s event will carry the message of the
MEK back to their own governments and help to encourage more policymakers to
recognize the role of the Iranian Resistance in the potential creation of a
free and democratic Iranian nation. It is also expected that the event will
inspire millions of Iranians to plan for the eventual removal of the clerical
regime. And indeed, the MEK broadcasts the event via its own satellite
television network, to millions of Iranian households with illegal hookups.
MEK’s Domestic Activism and Intelligence Network
What’s
more, the MEK retains a solid base of activists inside its Iranian homeland. In
the run-up to this year’s Free Iran rally the role of those activists was
particularly evident, since the event comes just a month and a half after the
latest Iranian presidential elections, in which heavily stage-managed elections
resulted in the supposedly moderate incumbent Hassan Rouhani securing
reelection. His initial election in 2013 was embraced by some Western
policymakers as a possible sign of progress inside the Islamic Republic, but
aside from the 2015 nuclear agreement with six world powers, none of his
progressive-sounding campaign promises have seen the light of day.
Rouhani’s
poor record has provided additional fertile ground for the message of the MEK
and Maryam Rajavi. The Iranian Resistance has long argued that change from
within the regime is impossible, and this was strongly reiterated against the
backdrop of the presidential elections, when MEK activists used graffiti,
banners, and other communications to describe the sitting president as an
“imposter.” Many of those same communications decried Rouhani’s leading
challenger, Ebrahim Raisi, as a “murderer,” owing to his leading role in the
massacre of MEK supporters in 1988.
That
fact helped to underscore the domestic support for the People’s Mojahedin
Organization of Iran, insofar as many people who participated in the election
said they recognized Raisi as the worst the regime had to offer, and that they
were eager to prevent him from taking office. But this is not to say that voters
saw Rouhani in a positive light, especially where the MEK is concerned. Under
the Rouhani administration, the Justice Minister is headed by Mostafa
Pourmohammadi, who also served on the Death Commission and declared as recently
as last year that he was proud of himself for having carried out what he
described as God’s command of death for MEK supporters.
With
this and other aspects of the Islamic Republic’s record, the MEK’s pre-election
activism was mainly focused on encouraging Iranians to boycott the polls. The
publicly displayed banners and posters urged a “vote for regime change,” and
many of them included the likeness of Maryam Rajavi, suggesting that her return
to Iran from France would signify a meaningful alternative to the hardline
servants of the clerical regime who are currently the only option in any
Iranian national election.
Naturally,
this direct impact on Iranian politics is the ultimate goal of MEK activism.
But it performs other recognizable roles from its position in exile, not just
limited to the motivational and organization role of the Free Iran rally and
other, smaller gatherings. In fact, the MEK rose to particular international
prominence in 2005 when it released information that had been kept secret by
the Iranian regime about its nuclear program. These revelations included the
locations of two secret nuclear sites: a uranium enrichment facility at Natanz
and a heavy water plant at Arak, capable of producing enriched plutonium.
As
well as having a substantial impact on the status of international policy
regarding the Iranian nuclear program, the revelations also highlighted the
MEK’s popular support and strong network inside Iran. Although Maryam Rajavi
and the rest of the leadership of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran
reside outside of the country, MEK affiliates are scattered throughout Iranian
society with some even holding positions within hardline government and
military institutions, including the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Drawing
upon the resources of that intelligence network, the MEK has continued to share
crucial information with Western governments in recent years, some of it
related to the nuclear program and some of it related to other matters
including terrorist training, military development, and the misappropriation of
financial resources. The MEK has variously pointed out that the Revolutionary
Guard controls well over half of Iran’s gross domestic product, both directly
and through a series of front companies and close affiliates in all manner of
Iranian industries.
In
February of this year, the Washington, D.C. office of the National Council of
Resistance of Iran held press conferences to detail MEK intelligence regarding
the expansion of terrorist training programs being carried out across Iran by
the Revolutionary Guards. The growth of these programs reportedly followed upon
direct orders from Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and coincided with
increased recruitment of foreign nationals to fight on Tehran’s behalf in
regional conflicts including the Syrian and Yemeni civil wars.
In
the weeks following that press conference, the MEK’s parent organization also
prepared documents and held other talks explaining the source of some of the
Revolutionary Guards’ power and wealth. Notably, this series of revelations
reflected upon trends in American policy toward the Islamic Republic of Iran.
And other revelations continue to do so, even now.
MEK Intelligence Bolstering US Policy Shifts
Soon
after taking office, and around the time the MEK identified a series of
Revolutionary Guard training camps, US President Donald Trump directed the State
Department to review the possibility of designating Iran’s hardline
paramilitary as a foreign terrorist organization. Doing so would open the
Revolutionary Guards up to dramatically increased sanctions – a strategy that
the MEK prominently supports as a means of weakening the barriers to regime
change within Iran.
The
recent revelations of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran have gone a
long way toward illustrating both the reasons for giving this designation to
the Revolutionary Guards and the potential impact of doing so. Since then, the
MEK has also used its intelligence gathering to highlight the ways in which
further sanctioning the Guards could result in improved regional security,
regardless of the specific impact on terrorist financing.
For
example, in June the NCRI’s Washington, D.C. office held yet another press
conference wherein it explained that MEK operatives had become aware of another
order for escalation that had been given by Supreme Leader Khamenei, this one
related to the Iranian ballistic missile program. This had also been a
longstanding point of contention for the Trump administration and the rest of
the US government, in light of several ballistic missile launches that have
been carried out since the conclusion of nuclear negotiations, including an
actual strike on eastern Syria.
That
strike was widely viewed as a threatening gesture toward the US. And the MEK
has helped to clarify the extent of the threat by identifying 42 separate
missile sites scattered throughout Iran, including one that was working closely
with the Iranian institution that had previously been tasked with weaponizing
aspects of the Iranian nuclear program.
The
National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) led by Maryam Rajavi is thus
going to great lengths to encourage the current trend in US policy, which is
pointing to more assertiveness and possibly even to the ultimate goal of regime
change. The MEK is also striving to move Europe in a similar direction, and the
July 1 gathering is likely to show further progress toward that goal. This is
because hundreds of American and European politicians and scholars have already
declared support for the NCRI and MEK and the platform of Maryam Rajavi. The
number grows every year, while the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran
continues to collect intelligence that promises to clarify the need for regime
change and the practicality of their strategy for achieving it.
