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Mojahedin-e Khalq –
Capitulation or Co-operation?
What is really going on in Iraq?
15 May 2003
US
soldiers have forced the MKO to agree a ceasefire and to hand over their
weapons to coalition forces. The US has since reiterated its political view
that the MKO is a terrorist entity. However, they have also said that the
group will not be taken as prisoners of war and that their status has not
yet been decided. The USA’s intransigence toward the MKO could yet leave the
US State Department in a very sticky position.
Iran-Interlink’s interpretation of the latest developments concerning the
MKO are that they are using the US demands for them to surrender their
weapons as a way to re-invent their status in western eyes. The MKO's willingness
to hand over their weapons to the US forces is in order to force
the coalition forces to take responsibility for them and to take care of and
protect them as though they were an innocent group which had inadvertently
found themselves trapped in the war. It is a clear attempt to whitewash
their past history of collusion with Saddam Hussein and their crimes against
the Kurdish and Shiite populations in Iraq.
Their own propaganda states that they have taken sanctuary with coalition
forces. This view is reinforced by the US statement that they will not be
treated as prisoners of war. The MKO propaganda machine will now go into
overdrive to show this so that they will be taken off the list of terrorist
entities in the US, UK and Europe. It also forces the coalition forces to
deal with them as a whole entity and find them an alternative place to go
(rather than breaking them up and dispersing them in some way).
Iran-Interlink stresses that the MKO claim to have handed over their weapons
is a lie. They have bunkered most of their armaments underground in
different areas and are waiting for the situation to change. It is not the
first time they have done this. Whenever the MKO have faced destruction they
have held their hands up and cried foul and shouted 'save us we are
innocent, all we are doing is trying to overthrow the Iranian regime'. It
has worked in the past. It may work again if their bases are not searched
thoroughly (using western intelligence and information from former members)
and if their stated position is not analyzed and examined in depth based on
past knowledge of this organization. Iran-Interlink is certain that more
evidence will be found than is already known about the MKO's propensity to
hide 'things' (material or otherwise). In the end the MKO are not doing what
they say they are. As an anti-imperialist organization it is vital that they
don't fool the west again.
In particular it is vital that Massoud Rajavi, the MKO
leader, is brought out of hiding and made to answer for the past deeds of
the organization he heads. After 16 years in Iraq and as a close friend of
Saddam Hussein, Rajavi is playing a waiting game. He is betting that the USA
will do nothing and the war will pass into history and that he can
subsequently continue to fool the west as before about his methods and
motives.
The coalition forces must facilitate full and independent investigations
into MKO camps and arrange full and free access to people and documents
there so that Rajavi’s crimes are exposed. The many allegations of former
members, of Kurds, Shiites and others against Rajavi must be investigated.
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