He repeated the allegations of Zebari about the role of the PMOI in repressing the Kurds and the Shiias and added: ‘The MEK are hated by the Kurds and by the Shiites, although not by the Sunnis. Iran is threatening to launch rocket attacks on Ashraf if we don’t do something. We need to act.’
This was quite a paradox, because I had seen Zebari’s letter to the Dutch courts and I also knew that the PUK, the party of Talabani, after cementing strong links with the Mullahs in Tehran, had begun to repress the PMOI members in Iraq, even going as far as launching armed attacks against them. Dozens of PMOI members were killed in those unprovoked attacks. The PUK also boasted of handing over PMOI members to the Iranian regime, who were later executed (Agence France-Presse, 13 April 1991).
The next morning we emerged from our concrete bunkers to face another day in Baghdad. We were heading for the US Embassy, a vast complex covering hundreds of acres inside the Green Zone, and a routine target for terrorist mortar attacks. We had to go through tight security checks to get into the Embassy compound, and then we were led in to a large study and offered seats while tea and coffee were prepared. In due course US Ambassador Jim Jeffrey and a senior American diplomat stationed in Iraq, Ambassador Lawrence Butler, arrived.
I thanked the US ambassadors for their time and hospitality, and told them of my fears that Maliki was rapidly becoming a dictator, having breached the Erbil Agreement and seizing all of the key state powers for himself; I said he had clearly demonstrated his willingness to do the bidding of the Iranian Mullahs and to abuse his position as Prime Minister by ordering repeated violent military assaults on Ashraf and subjecting the residents to constant psychological torture.
Ambassador Jeffrey opened the proceedings by stating:
The EU are our real partners. Iraq will be a major player in the new Middle East that emerges from the current upheavals. There is a fledgling democratic system here, rocky but beginning to come together. Security is improving. Attacks are down by 90% and US casualties are down. Electricity demand is rising faster than their system can cope with. Oil production is up from 2 million barrels a day to 2.1 million barrels per day and will reach 2.3 million barrels soon. In two to three years it will reach 3 million barrels per day. Iraq has around two thirds of the oil of Saudi Arabia, but there is a shortage of oil infrastructure because it currently has to be funded out of the capital budget. The US will certainly withdraw by the end of this year, although we will continue to train the police.
I agree with Mr Stevenson on the need for the Erbil Agreement to be fulfilled. I participated in the drawing up and signing of that agreement and it is not acceptable that the three sensitive ministries have yet to be filled. Having said that, Maliki asked Ayad Allawi to draw up a list of five candidates and to choose one of them to be the Defence Minister. Allawi drew up the list, chose a candidate and submitted it to Maliki. Maliki agreed and then Allawi changed his mind and said he no longer wanted this candidate. So Allawi is as much to blame for the hiatus as Maliki.
Iran is the most negative about it, as they don’t want Allawi getting his hands on any power. Muqtada al-Sadr is an awful person and he leads an awful party who are in thrall to Tehran. He won 39 seats and does Iran’s bidding.
It was quite astonishing that the American Ambassador was clearly trying to whitewash the role of Maliki in destroying the Erbil Agreement, while simultaneously trying to shift the blame onto Ayad Allawi. He said:
The MEK claim that they are protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention, but they know this to be untrue, as it was rescinded in writing together with all of their other rights of protection by the US military when our combat operations in Iraq ended. There will be no US forces left in Iraq by the end of this year, and the MEK cannot look to us for protection. They seem to think that the US Seventh Cavalry is going to come riding over the hill to protect them, but it is a dream. The Iraqis could cut off their electricity and water supplies during the summer when temperatures soar above 50 degrees centigrade and the camp will be finished. It doesn’t only need military force to end Ashraf, and the MEK has to realise this.
When Ambassador Jeffrey was confronted with my protests at the irresponsible attitude of the US in this humanitarian issue, he changed his tone and said: ‘Look, we are keen to help and we are keen to ensure that no-one will use military force to put pressure on Ashraf.’
I was dismayed, not only by the reluctance of the Americans to denounce Maliki as a criminal dictator, but also by their parroted criticism of the Ashrafis. They almost seemed keen to justify the massacre of the Ashraf residents three weeks earlier, and to whitewash the inaction of the US military in failing to fulfil its commitments. It seemed as if they were also keen to renege on their guarantee of protection that the US military had pledged to every single Ashrafi. This was certainly a betrayal, and it depressed me to think that we were now being confronted by an ultimatum to close Ashraf by the year-end, and that the Americans were even backing this. However, the attitude of the Americans simply strengthened my resolve not to give up, but rather to campaign even harder to protect the residents of Ashraf and to find a peaceful solution to their plight.
1. Salim al-Jabouri became President (Speaker) of the Iraqi Parliament in September 2014.
2. Colonel Wes Martin, a commander of US forces in Ashraf, testified under oath in a hearing in the Congress that when he was in Iraq, he showed this letter to Zebari and asked him to confirm it and Zabari said, ‘Yes, I have written this letter’.
24
Interviews with PMOI Refugees in Camp Liberty, August 2014
Hossein Farzanehsa
‘My name is Hossein Farzanehsa. I was born in 1953 in an educated, prosperous family in Tehran. My father was one of the supporters of Prime Minister Dr Mohammad Mossadegh who was overthrown in an Anglo-American coup in 1953. My high school years coincided with the emergence of resistance organisations against the Shah. I entered university in 1972, which coincided with the celebrations of the coronation of the King. I was arrested and spent 15 days in jail. Two years later my brother Majid entered teacher-training college, and in 1976, due to his political activities, was arrested and sentenced to life in prison.
In prison he joined the PMOI. Once, when I had gone to visit my brother in jail, accidently I saw the leader of the PMOI, Massoud Rajavi, who was there with other prisoners to see their families. The families of the political prisoners played an important role in freeing their loved ones. Maryam Rajavi was responsible for coordinating the families of the political prisoners. Every Tuesday when we went to Qasr Prison, she used to give us specific guidelines to contact human rights organisations and journalists. My mother and I went to visit my brother Majid in prison every Tuesday.
After the revolution, the regime’s attempts to monopolise power led to severe restrictions of civil liberties. On the other hand the Mojahedin National Movement in Tehran and other provinces started to form and grow. At this time all my family members were actively involved in the Mojahedin National Movement. My brother Majid was responsible for the student movement in Tehran, my sister Mahshid and I were active in the University of Tehran. My mother was active in the workers’ movement and would accompany the Mojahedin to give speeches at different factories. Alireza and Fatimeh who were twins were active in the student movement as well.
Along with the growth of the Mojahedin National Movement the Khomeini regime kept on limiting people’s freedoms on a daily basis; this went on until 20 June 1981. On this day in an unannounced demonstration, over 500,000 people in Tehran rallied, demanding their freedom. Khomeini ordered his guards to fire on the demonstrators, leaving many dead, and many more were arrested. My brother and sister Alireza and Fatimeh, who were only 15 at the time, along with my mother, were arrested. My mother managed to escape the guards after a few hours, but Alireza and Fatimeh were both put in prison for three years.
Following this event, the security forces would attack people’s homes, and after arresting supporters o
r members of the PMOI, they would execute them. On 8 April 1981, my sister Mahshid and her husband Mohammad Moghadam, who were accompanying Massoud Rajavi’s Deputy, Mousa Khiabani, and Massoud’s wife, Ashraf Rajavi, were killed. After the martyrdom of my sister, the Revolutionary Guards attacked our home and arrested my father. They took my father and showed him my sister’s body. They pressured him to cooperate with them but he resisted. At the age of 62 they put him in prison, where he suffered three heart attacks. They kept on taking him out of the prison and bringing him back time after time. He died of a heart attack in 1985.
The Revolutionary Guards killed my brother Majid on 9 June 1982 in Tehran. In August 1982 the house that I was living in was attacked, and five PMOI members were martyred as a result. I was able to escape the mayhem and go to another home. After a few months my friends helped me to go to Turkey, where I was able to reunite with the Mojahedin. In 1988, during the operation Eternal Light, my brother Alireza who was 23 years old at the time and was released from prison in 1985, was martyred. My wife Soraya Adibi was also martyred in that operation.
Years later, during the siege on Ashraf in 2008, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I had to wait for a month for an anaesthesiologist to come to Ashraf to have an operation. The lack of access to treatment in Ashraf and Liberty has caused serious problems for me. My cancer has spread, reaching a point of no return, and as a result I have to suffer on a daily basis.’
25
Erbil
We flew out of Baghdad on 28 April 2011 and headed to Erbil, capital of Kurdistan. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) had maintained peace and stability for the past decade by sealing their border with the rest of Iraq, patrolling it with over 130,000 fierce Peshmerga militia. By stopping the incursion of terrorists and suicide bombers who were wreaking havoc on an almost daily basis throughout the rest of Iraq, the KRG had been able to develop healthy economic growth and relative prosperity. Kurdistan had also become a safe-haven for tens of thousands of refugees displaced by the Iraqi insurgency, and despite a lack of adequate housing, schools, hospitals and basic commodities, the Kurds were, nevertheless, willing to open their doors to Christians, Turkmen, Shabaks, Yazidis and other persecuted minorities who were fleeing for their lives.
Our first meeting was with Dr Barham Saleh, the KRG Prime Minister. He said: ‘The quality of life here in Kurdistan is better than elsewhere in Iraq. We are moving towards 24 hours per day electricity supply from a position of only 12 hours last year. We should manage 18 hours per day this summer. But the PUK and KDP dominate Kurdish politics, and the “Facebook Generation” wants something different. The Opposition protesters demand an end to corruption and better services and jobs. We have had 60 days of riots in Iraq. Two clerics who were at the centre of calls for the overthrow of our government have been released from prison, actually against my better judgement, but this shows that the KRG cannot influence the independence of the courts here. There is not a single person in detention for political offences in Kurdistan.’
We went on to meet with the Speaker of the Kurdistan Parliament, Dr Kemal Kerkuki, before driving for some distance out of the bustling metropolis of Erbil to the Presidential Palace in Salahaddin, where we were met on the imposing steps of the huge building by President Massoud Barzani. The President is an impressive person. He wears a traditional Peshmerga military commander’s khaki uniform with a colourful turban on his head, making him seem taller than he actually is. President Barzani said: ‘The uprisings in the Middle East mark a major turning point for the entire region. We have some major challenges in Iraq and I have only a two-term presidency. Terrorism is now our major problem, together with lack of services and corruption.’
I pressed the President on Ashraf. His response was very different to what I had heard from his party colleague Zebari in Baghdad and from the President of Iraq, Talabani, both of whom were Kurds. He said: ‘This was a very sad and appalling affair. Thousands of people took refuge in Ashraf and it was shameful to do this to them. They must be protected. It is their right as long as they are our guests in Iraq and until there is regime change in Iran. I have told Maliki this, and expressed my deep concern.’
When we returned to Erbil, I was informed that Dr Ayad Allawi, the leader of al-Iraqiya and the actual winner of the last elections in Iraq, had travelled to Kurdistan to meet me. We met in a business room of our hotel, and Dr Allawi stated: ‘The massacre at Ashraf was a black mark on Iraq’s movement towards democracy. The human and moral side of this issue has been violated. These people should have been protected. It was done simply to please Iran.’
Dr Allawi told me that he had written to Maliki expressing four points:
1. The need for Iraq-Iran talks on Ashraf.
2. The need for talks between the Iraqi government and the MEK leadership in Ashraf.
3. The need for involvement of the UN in these talks.
4. The need for the involvement of the international community.
He continued:
We need an absolute assurance from Iran that they will stop meddling in our internal affairs. I would be happy to see the 3,400 Ashraf residents repatriated to the EU, but I fear that will take a long time. We need an interim solution, but not one that involves intimidation, killing and physical harm being used as a political tool. This does not represent a move towards democracy. This represents a move towards dictatorship!
Unfortunately it seems what Maliki is doing in Iraq is supported by the UN and the US. There were nine conditions agreed in the Erbil Agreement. None of them have been implemented. Instead, we have a series of oppressive institutions set up under the direct control of Maliki. He has two or three brigades and an intelligence outfit similar to the one Saddam used to have, as well as a so-called anti-terrorist group. All are answerable to Maliki and take their orders directly from him. When al-Iraqiya agreed to share power with him we did so in good faith, all to no avail.
There has been no division of labour. The economy is stagnant; the security situation is actually getting worse; 81 police and military personnel have been killed by pistols with silencers, at roadblocks and checkpoints, in the past 16 days.
I want to recreate the Erbil initiative again, but the international community fails to deal with this in a proper way. Meanwhile there are demonstrations across Iraq with many people killed and injured. Maliki responds by using sheer force against his own people. Many are arrested and held in secret prisons where they are tortured. We have a dictatorship in the making. I fought Saddam Hussein for 30 years and will never support a new dictatorship taking his place. We look to the EU for help.
Tehran had a red line on me becoming Prime Minister and that is why Maliki got the job. There is also huge corruption. This is a socialist economy. There is no free market.
We left Erbil from its spectacular new, marble, $500 million international airport, convinced that the autonomous region of Kurdistan has become a model of stability and economic progress for the rest of the Middle East to emulate. The Kurdish Regional Government has overseen massive inward investment, and the booming oil and gas industry has provided rapid economic growth. Erbil, the Kurdish capital, is now a mirror image of Western cities, with shopping malls, designer stores, luxury hotels and fine restaurants. Kurdistan stands as a shining example of what is possible in the rest of Iraq, if peace could be restored and a government of national salvation put in place. The Kurds also have a much more open society and a tolerance of alcohol which is missing in the rest of Iraq, so the cafes and bistros bustle with tourists and business people of every conceivable culture and religion. Terrifyingly, this haven of peace and prosperity has become a key target for the ISIS terrorists, and at the time of going to press, the Kurdish Peshmerga were fighting ferociously, assisted by US and coalition air strikes, to defend the borders of Kurdistan from an Islamic State incursion.
The oil sector in Kurdistan is, of course, a source of great wealth. Kurdish officials predict that Kurdistan could surpass Libya
’s output by 2019 by producing two million barrels per day, putting it on the list of oil-producing giants. But oil is a mixed blessing. It has strained relations with Iraq’s central government in Baghdad, who regard many of the lucrative new Kurdish oil contracts as illegal. This has led to frequent violent clashes in the disputed border city of Kirkuk, which sits on top of one of the biggest oil fields in Iraq, ownership of which is claimed by both Baghdad and Erbil. As tensions mount, so pressure for Kurdish independence surges; it has long been a Kurdish dream to establish a ‘Greater Kurdistan’ connecting all of the Kurdish-inhabited areas of Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria. Indeed, the Kurdish diaspora is now reckoned to number over 40 million people worldwide, perhaps one of the greatest ethnic populations on earth with no actual homeland.
While Turkey and Iran remain opposed to the creation of an independent Kurdistan, the Turkish government has nevertheless pragmatically opened its borders with Iraqi Kurdistan and encouraged massive inward investment. It is largely Turkish businesses that have built the new infrastructure in Erbil and other Kurdish cities. Construction of a new oil pipeline linking Kurdistan and Turkey was completed in 2014.
All of this is a far cry from the horrific violence and oppression suffered by the Kurds under Saddam Hussein. Saddam’s Ba’ath Party launched the infamous Anfal Campaign against the Kurds in 1986. This genocidal operation continued until 1989, and included the use of ground offensives, aerial bombing, systematic destruction of settlements, mass deportations, firing squads and chemical warfare. It is estimated that up to 100,000 non-combatant civilians, including women and children, were killed. The total death toll during Operation Anfal amounted to over 180,000. Around 4,500 Kurdish villages were razed to the ground. Schools, hospitals, mosques and churches were flattened.
Self-Sacrifice Page 14