Iraq to Expel More MKO Members after Arab League Summit
TEHRAN (FNA)- Another group of the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) members who were under the Iraqi government's pressures to leave Camp Ashraf are due to be expelled from the camp after the Arab League summit in Baghdad.
The fourth stage of the MKO expulsion from Iraq will be done after the end of the Arab summit in Baghdad late March, an Iraqi official said.
Vice-President of the Diyala Provincial Council Sadeq al-Husseini told the Habilian Association - formed of the families of the Iranian terror victims - on Wednesday that they have received United Nation's agreement to embark on the fourth stage, adding that they are awaiting for the end of the summit to probably carry out the fourth and fifth stages simultaneously.
Al-Husseini emphasized that all the MKO elements will be expelled from Camp Ashraf according to the planned schedule.
To date, nearly 1200 members of the cult were transferred to Camp Liberty which lies northeast of Baghdad International Airport, in three groups of 400 each, on February 18, 8, and March 20.
The relocation is in line with the memorandum of understanding signed on 25 December between Iraq and United Nations to temporarily transfer them to a former US military base for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to determine their refugee status.
The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.
Before an overture by the EU, the MKO was on the European Union's list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze. Yet, the MKO puppet leader, Maryam Rajavi, who has residency in France, regularly visited Brussels and despite the ban enjoyed full freedom in Europe.
The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of EU parliamentarians said in a recent letter in which they slammed a British court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list. The EU officials also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).
Many of the MKO members abandoned the terrorist organization while most of those still remaining in the camp are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so.
A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report accused the MKO of running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations.
According to the Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.
The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran's new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.
The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.
The terrorist group joined Saddam's army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.
Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.
The MKO has been in Iraq's Diyala province since the 1980s.
Iraqi security forces took control of the training base of the MKO at Camp Ashraf - about 60km (37 miles) north of Baghdad - in 2009 and detained dozens of the members of the terrorist group.
The Iraqi authority also changed the name of the military center from Camp Ashraf to the Camp of New Iraq.