Editorial

Welcome to the May 2005 edition of Survivors' Report.

Survivors' Report is now one year old. However, rather than congratulating ourselves on getting it this far and resting on our laurels, we prefer to take the view that not enough has been done yet to expose the realities surrounding the Mojahedin Khalq cult and its leaders.

Survivors of the Rajavi Cult began writing this publication in English, and now also in French, with the determination to get information into the public arena. This is highly specific information and to that extent we are proud of our 'propaganda' document. From the start we knew that by concentrating only on the Mojahedin we would leave ourselves open to accusations of benefiting the Iranian regime by attacking its enemy. But we believe the opposite is true. We have seen that the regime benefits from the continued existence of the Mojahedin with its extreme agenda of violence and totalitarian leadership because it allows the exclusion of the peaceful, democratic opposition as well as the reformists inside the regime while the hardliners and the Mojahedin take the ground and create false extremes. Removal of the Mojahedin from the equation will facilitate the emergence of real democratic opposition to the clerical rulers both inside and outside Iran.

But simply publishing information about the Mojahedin has never been our only aim. We are determined that among the talk of terrorism and politics and fundamentalism, the voices of the victims of this organisation should also be heard loud and clear. Above all else, we want the world to recognise that the Mojahedin has committed and continues to commit grave violations of human rights against its own membership.

In this, it seems we have been very effective. The Mojahedin is now not only recognised internationally as a terrorist organisation, it is also acknowledged as a cult and as having sinister internal behaviour which is under investigation by more than one international human rights body.

In the meantime, Survivors' Report will continue to expose the Mojahedin and its leaders. We thank you for your support.