Self-Sacrifice

by Struan Stevenson

  This final massacre at Ashraf was as avoidable as it was predictable; myself and many members of parliament, congressmen, senators and leading judicial and military figures in Europe and America had warned for months that a massacre was imminent. In late August, intelligence reports from inside Iran made clear that the Mullahs saw the Syrian crisis and the West’s ineffectiveness as ideal cover for a brutal strike. Despite warnings to US Secretary of State John Kerry and others of the inevitability of an attack, no action was taken to protect the unarmed men and women in Ashraf, who subsequently forfeited their lives.

  Having achieved their objectives in Ashraf while the West continued to bicker and dither over the crisis in Syria, I warned that we could now expect similar pre-emptive action against the 3,000 residents in Camp Liberty. Despite being under the supposed protection of the UN, these refugees had suffered several vicious mortar attacks leading to 10 deaths. All evidence pointed to the involvement of the Iraqi regime and their Iranian allies in these attacks.

  I warned that as Ban Ki-moon, Ashton and Obama wrung their hands in feeble impotence, the killing of the innocent would continue apace. Tehran and Baghdad, both supporters of the brutal Assad regime in Syria, were rubbing their hands together in glee that the West could simply ignore the gassing with chemical weapons of over 1,400 people in Damascus and the scorching of school children with napalm in Aleppo. What perfect cover for their own vicious assault on Ashraf! I said that to ignore this criminal and barbaric attack on Ashraf would be to give the green light for a full-scale massacre at Camp Liberty. The Ashraf agony could have been avoided if the West had heeded the warnings. The liquidation of Liberty would inevitably follow unless al-Maliki and his Iranian sponsors were held to account now. ‘Maliki and his Nazi thugs must be indicted for war crimes,’ I said. ‘The West must sever all further aid to Iraq until Maliki has been arrested.’

  The case of the seven hostages has not yet been solved. Their fate remains a mystery. Despite clear evidence that showed they were being held in Baghdad by the Iraqi government immediately following the massacre, the Americans did nothing to seek their release. In fact the Americans first said privately, and then publicly, that the hostages had been taken to Iran on the first day of their captivity, despite the fact that the PMOI, UNHCR, the EU envoy in Baghdad and Baroness Ashton had all confirmed that to their certain knowledge the hostages were still in Baghdad.

  Encouraging news arrived in late 2013 that the Spanish courts had indicted Faleh al-Fayadh, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s top Security Advisor, for war crimes. This move clearly confirmed Maliki’s role in these crimes against humanity. The Spanish courts accused Faleh al-Fayadh as the ‘person responsible for grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention (GCIV) and First Additional Protocol committed as from May 2010 in the latter’s capacity as Chairman of the “Ashraf Committee” attached to the office of Prime Minister al-Maliki, and in particular for his alleged involvement in the massacres of 8 April 2011 and 1 September 2013 of “protected persons” under the Fourth Geneva Convention residing in the city of Ashraf (Iraq), in conjunction with the reported offences of 35 murders and 337 cases of wilful injury on 8 April 2011 and 52 murders and 7 abductions on 1 September 2013, along with torture and bodily harm to Ashraf residents.’

  The Order also stated that ‘Killings, injuries, noise bombardment, denial of food and healthcare – nothing can happen at Ashraf without the knowledge of the Committee members and in particular of Faleh al-Fayadh. In the civil and military hierarchy he was the person in charge of the operation on 8 April 2011 under the orders of the Prime Minister, who is Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi armed forces. In security matters throughout the country, including Ashraf, Faleh al-Fayadh is the person in charge.’

  According to the court decision, ‘On 1 September 2013 the Iraqi military forces surrounding and occupying Ashraf permitted the cold-blooded massacre of 52 residents – of the roughly 100 residents who had not been forced to move to “Camp Liberty”, all with protected person status under the Fourth Geneva Convention. A further seven “protected persons” were abducted during this assault and have yet to be released, and neither have the Iraqi authorities said where they are. Property belonging to the residents was looted, several buildings were destroyed with explosives and one was burned down.’

  This breakthrough indictment came as a blow to Maliki, who continued to lie and deny involvement in the series of massacres and abductions that had targeted the unarmed and defenceless refugees in Camps Ashraf and Liberty. The charges were also an acute embarrassment to the State Department officials in Washington who, instead of holding the Iraqi Prime Minister to account, had accepted Maliki’s lies and lamely tried to provide cover for his crimes. Maliki had, contrary to the Erbil Agreement signed shortly after the last Iraqi elections, retained control of all of the key Iraqi ministries of Defence, Interior, Intelligence Services and Police. He therefore could not deny responsibility for atrocities carried out, almost on a daily basis, by his military and intelligence networks, including the series of attacks on Ashraf and Liberty and the abduction on 1 September of the seven hostages. Sadly, many EU governments and even the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Baroness Ashton – had taken their lead from the US State Department and made pathetic comments about a lack of evidence to prove Maliki’s guilt. The Spanish court’s decision blew such comments out of the water.

  The charges by the Spanish courts opened a new chapter, which may hopefully, one day, lead directly to an indictment of Maliki himself. As such, I applauded the initiative of Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, who called on the hundreds of PMOI hunger strikers worldwide, many of whom had been on hunger strike since the massacre of Ashraf residents on 1 September, to call off their protest. I applauded the hunger strikers for their courage and fortitude in bringing global attention to the horrific crimes against defenceless Iranian dissidents who were supposed to have been under the protection of the Iraqi government.

  With 8,000 Iraqis killed in 2013 in almost constant terrorist outrages, Maliki’s answer was a system of secret prisons, mass executions, torture and repression. His sectarian dictatorship was driving Iraq relentlessly towards civil war. And yet Maliki had been the preferred choice of the US State Department. The PMOI and NCRI began a big campaign in the US to condemn Maliki’s policies and to convince Washington to distance itself from him. In September and October 2013, before Maliki’s trip to Washington, the Congress, Senate and many distinguished Americans condemned this visit and urged Obama to put pressure on Maliki to release the seven hostages.

  The Iranian community turned up in their thousands outside the White House during Maliki’s meeting with Obama, capturing many headlines in the media. These protests soured Maliki’s visit to Washington, and as a result he cancelled several meetings and returned to Baghdad a day earlier than scheduled.

  Now others were beginning to realise that the favouring of Maliki had been a grave mistake. Maliki’s frosty welcome in Washington in November 2013 was a clear manifestation of this changing view. His reception can be compared to the warm welcome given to Massoud Barzani, President of Iraqi Kurdistan, in Turkey in November that year. Barzani was now increasingly viewed as the most important political figure in Iraq, and one who could play a key future role in ending the deadly spiral towards civil war.

  The upshot of the final atrocity at Ashraf was predictable. The 42 survivors and witnesses of the 1 September massacre were quickly moved to Camp Liberty and the Iraqi authorities finally achieved their objective of seizing the property of the camp’s residents, worth millions of dollars. Buildings, vehicles, electrical goods and generators were looted. The final act of a criminal conspiracy was laid bare for all to see. Homicide, slaughter, abuse, kidnapping and robbery of defenceless men and women, listed as asylum seekers and refugees, had all been tolerated and condoned by the UN, US and EU; this was a shameful chapter in human history and the situation was f
ar from being resolved.

  32

  Interviews with PMOI Refugees in Camp Liberty, September 2014

  Reza Haft Baradaran

  ‘My name is Reza Haft Baradaran and I was born on 24 May 1952. I graduated studying cinema from the School of Television and Cinema. I was studying French literature in 1981 when Khomeini carried out a “cultural revolution” and closed all the universities in Iran. On 22 February 1982, when I was in my office, the Revolutionary Guards and Ministry of Intelligence forces suddenly arrested me; this is despite the fact that I had ten years of experience in Iran’s state-run television. But I was also making a film with a couple of my friends that during Khomeini’s rule would never have been approved or allowed to be broadcast. We had made three long movies and a number of long documentaries, showing them in private gatherings. These films revealed how freedom lovers were tortured and murdered, and how the country’s wealth was plundered. The films also invited and encouraged people to join in protests and uprisings.

  Following the 1979 revolution I came to know the PMOI very closely indeed. At the same time I also came to know Khomeini’s men who had gained control over state-run TV. The opposing behaviour of these two groups quickly made me realise that Iran’s society was heading towards a huge battle and I had to choose sides. On the one hand I saw Khomeini and his forces that had just gained power and were busy “recruiting” to consolidate their rule. They suggested I take the post of production manager of programmes aired by Channel Two (which was a very profitable post); just on one “simple” condition that involved my cooperation in identifying and annihilating dissident forces, especially PMOI supporters.

  On the other hand I also had relations with the PMOI and their leader, Massoud Rajavi, who described freedom as the crown jewel and the main objective of the revolution; he sought freedom for everyone, all groups, short of taking up arms. I chose the PMOI, despite the bloody path laid out before me. One day I witnessed the execution of pregnant women and the rape of schoolgirls on the night of their execution. The justification for this barbarity from the jailers was that these girls should not go to heaven without first having experienced the pleasures of marriage.

  My choice was the PMOI because I was witnessing the Mullahs’ theocracy and intolerance and I knew it wouldn’t take long for the Iranian people to be plunged into fundamentalism. Another issue helped me make this decision even faster. From the very first days of the 1979 revolution I was approached to go as a filmmaker to Afghanistan along with a delegation of individuals hand-picked by the president and Khomeini’s office. Our secret mission was to recruit Afghan forces that would then spread Iranian influence inside Afghanistan. The Mullahs’ regime said that they would prepare non-Iranian independent reporter’s documents for me and if I was arrested I should deny everything. They proposed to give me a huge amount of money for this mission. I didn’t accept their offer, but I quickly realised that this fundamentalist entity had not only targeted the freedoms of the Iranian people, but they were also seeking to spread their malign influence to other countries. Very soon an organisation was formally established by Khomeini’s regime and given the name of “Supporting Liberation Movements”. Witnessing such things convinced me that the only solution was the PMOI.

  As I have said, in February 1982 I was working at the Network 2 TV station when IRGC and plainclothes agents of the Ministry of Intelligence suddenly raided my office, arresting me in front of my colleagues, yelling that my crime was buying and selling narcotics. I was immediately blindfolded and taken to the torture chambers of Ward 209 in Evin Prison, where I was placed on a torture bed, which I had read and heard a lot about but I had no experience of. Therefore I could see with every single cell of my body how inhumane this fundamentalist ideology was.

  At first they began hitting my bare feet and other parts of my body with hoses so my skin would become swollen, and then they used electric cables which had open wires so that my swollen skin would rupture and my muscles would literally spill out and my bones would be exposed. When they brought my pregnant wife and one and a half-year-old daughter to the torture room to put more pressure on me, I came fully to understand the line of separation that had been traced between the PMOI and Khomeini’s evil ideology. With my swollen feet so badly bruised that it was almost impossible to walk, nevertheless they made me carry my baby daughter and forced me to walk around the torture room, hoping that I would stumble in pain and fall. Under such torture it wasn’t important for them what I had done or had not done. However, their hysterical hatred against the PMOI and Massoud Rajavi himself was astonishing for me to see.

  I was transferred from solitary confinement to the general ward (each room was 6 x 6 metres with 130 inmates in Ward 2 of Evin Prison, 2nd floor, room 5). Seeing the diverse social background of those arrested made me realise why the IRGC was so hysterical in their hatred. From university professors, freedom-loving military personnel, administrative employees, engineers, workers, small business traders and a widespread spectrum of college and high school students, they all represented the broader social hatred toward Khomeini’s regime. Khomeini came to realise that the only way to remain in power was to fill this social void with brutality and repression.

  I was sentenced to five years in jail. However, I was released three years later as a result of a huge bail paid by my family through an intermediary. Following my release from prison, having two small daughters, housing and financial problems kept me busy for some time. They had denied me the right to work and no private firm would dare to hire me. Finally, with the help of my friends, I was able to afford the cost of leaving the country through the mountains, going first to Turkey and then to the bases of the National Liberation Army of Iran inside Iraq. In the course of this escape I was ambushed no fewer than nine times by the Mullahs’ regime forces, but each time I miraculously survived.

  I later sent my two little girls, 11 and 9 years old, abroad so that their lives would not be compromised because of me and so they would find their own paths. This was probably one of the hardest decisions of my life. Two children whom I had so many big dreams for, I was now leaving in the hands of fate. On 22 October 1992, I saw that my little girl, Saba, had followed her older sister’s path just a few months later and joined the PMOI and come to Ashraf. It was like someone had given me the world.

  I truly loved Saba. She had been brought to prison 40 days after she was born and remained in prison until she was about two years old. The day I saw her in Ashraf was amazingly refreshing, but little did I know that a very hard test was on the horizon. On 8 April 2011, I had plans to see my older daughter and say happy birthday to her. However, from the very early hours of that day Maliki’s forces began to attack Ashraf under orders from the Iranian regime and made my wishes vanish into thin air. I was informed that my little girl, Saba, had been shot in the leg and that I must accompany her to a hospital in Baghdad. When I saw her I realised how dangerously injured she was. She was losing a lot of blood. They could have taken her to a hospital much sooner and with simple surgery they could have saved her life. But they didn’t, and they made me and her choose between Saba’s death and succumbing to the Iranian regime’s demands of leaving the PMOI.

  There was a surprising level of coordination between the Iraqi doctor at the Ashraf hospital and the Iraqi security forces. The Iraqi officer, by the name of Major Yaser, turned a simple 90-minute trip to Baghdad into a 14-hour wait. He and another intermediary came to me to say that if I chose to separate myself and my daughter from supporting “Rajavi” they would let my daughter undergo surgery at the best hospital in Baghdad and then we would be sent to any country we wanted, the US, France or any other European country. Just separate yourself from “Rajavi”, they said. Their message was very clear and so was the decision made by Saba and I; I told the Iraqi officer that we are guests in your country and we don’t want anything special, just take us to the hospital soon, please. Saba summoned all of her remaining energy before she died and said,
“Dad, why didn’t you punch him in the face so that he wouldn’t dare to repeat what he said?”’

  33

  Paris

  The first big PMOI Rally I attended was in June 2007. It was held in a huge aircraft hangar near Paris. The PMOI stage a mass annual rally every June, and the momentum gradually built up over the years so that now they attract over 100,000 ex-pat Iranians from around the world. The list of speakers is formidable, with former Prime Ministers, ex-Presidents, parliamentarians, senators, congressmen and women, former US State Governors, former FBI and CIA Chiefs, military generals and renowned international celebrities. Addressing an audience of this size can be a daunting and exhilarating experience.

  Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Vice President of the European Parliament, accompanied me to my first PMOI Rally in 2007. At this time there were around 50,000 supporters in attendance, and as we approached the venue in Villepinte, north of Paris, we could see row after row of buses filling all of the surrounding car parks and even spilling out onto the hard shoulder of the nearby Autoroute. Inside, the vast hall had been decked out with banners, flags, balloons and streamers and giant screens and loudspeakers conveyed the speeches to the excited audience. Alejo and I watched bemused as film footage was screened of heavily armed and uniformed PMOI soldiers marching and riding on tanks dating back to the 1990s when they had a conventional army in Iraq. There were resounding cheers from the audience at the warlike messages that accompanied these films.