Abusing children in the context of expanding terrorism
In the cultish culture of MKO/NLA/NCRI, the family members living together would be equal to a potential cell to make conspiracy. The family institution would potentially would mean a centre of dissent and where the organisation could not extend its control, because of the affec-tion that exists among family members and therefore the family could be an impediment towards the absolute and total obedience to the leader. In order to destroy the families, Rajavi first ordered the “mass divorce”. Thereafter, the couples were separated from one another. Since all the hearts should be for the leader, one should not allow other affections to manifest themselves. At the same time, since the separated fathers and mothers could still see their children, therefore, the threat was still there, because the children were the result of the warm family centre and still a reason for con-necting the father and mother together. According to a former member, the children from the early days of their birth were under the control of the organisation. They could have no contact with the outside world and as of their childhood were put under organisational and ideological training. They were not allowed to choose their own way of life and destiny. They were not even allowed to choose their own toys and playmates. [99]
In the year 1991, the critical situation in the Persian Gulf, was a pretext for Maryam Ghajar Azedanlou [100], the then First Responsible of MKO to take the initiative to solve the problem of family. The fear and anxiety of mothers and fathers to save the lives of their children was a good pretext to separate the children from their parents, otherwise they would not allow such a terrible thing to happen. But the organisation step by step put in place its plan.
“All the MKO units instead of taking care of themselves against the ensuing threats of war were busy to transfer these children from Iraqi territory. [101] They divided these children into small groups and transferred them to other places via the Jordan border. It was at this moment that these children experienced their first sentimental shock. The children who for many years lived with their family members and friends separated from one another and took them in small group to different European and American countries, Canada and Australia. These children were living in MKO camps like the crowded pension house or they would give them to Iranian and non-Iranian families.” [102] Soureh Abbassi, who was one of the children taken from Iraq to Europe, in electronic publica-tion Mojahed, wrote the following on her memories of that time:
“I am 23 years old and I am one of the combatants of the Freedom city i.e. Ashraf, the ever last-ing and brave city… I would not forget the moment I was separated from my parents. It was very hard for me to leave the bosom of my mother. After leaving Iraq, me and my brother, went to Sweden. Finally we passed the very hard moment of deciding what to do and we decided to join the most principal centre of struggle against the Regime i.e. NLA and in this way we joined MKO.” [103] If these children were taken to Western countries through normal procedure, then the civil and administrative institutions would naturally have accepted to take care of these children and would allocate good sums of money for this purpose. In that case, the organisation could not make profits for itself and the children would not have been raised under the control of the organisation so that when they grew up they would devote themselves for the leader and the organisation. For these reasons, the organisation played another trick and created a number of front charity societies that apparently had no connection to the organisation. On the one hand life was miserable in the organisation’s camp in Europe (in particular in Germany and in the city of Köln) and on the other hand the organisation would collect money through these front charity centres. However, some years later all these front charity centres were prosecuted for fraud and extortion.
Margaret Thaler Singer in her book entitled “Cults among Us” states the following with regard to front associations created by the cults:
“There are a rather considerable number of organisations and associations who may approach us for soliciting money, but we should know that in reality they are not to be what they claim. In some instances these formations are front formations that have close connection to sects and other organisations that may use mind reconstruction (brain washing methods) for their own purposes that may cause considerable damage and even psychological injury to the people.” [104] In this connection, the German Federal Criminal Police (BKA) who kept the activities of these societies under its surveillance for many years, and in the light of reliable and unques-tionable documents obtained by the police of Köln, inspected 25 MKO centres in the German territory on 17 December 2001. Thereafter, Lousbert Wagner from Köln Police stated: “We were able to discover a wide secret system of fraud.”
“Focus” magazine published in Germany quoted German Federal Criminal Police officials as saying:
“Reliable information indicates MKO has, with prior intention, separated children from their families and brought them secretly to Germany and under the false pretension that they were orphan and homeless children and lodged them in the Child Care buildings so that it could receive Governmental financial aid and then to put the money collected in the organisation’s account.
... From the Code of Conduct of the Society for the Support of Iranian Homeless Children in Köln (IFKH) it was obvious that these children were kept under the strict supervision of Iranian mentors, so that the process of brainwashing of these children is under total control. The infor-mation obtained from this Society perfectly corroborates this matter.” [105] The formation of front organisations and societies was a tactic used by MKO. Before the proclamation of the New Ideological Revolution in the year 1985 there were few such organi-sations, but after that almost 200 front formations were created. One can infer from MKO publications that the organisation indirectly makes use of 170 of such front institutions not only for collecting money but for the following activities as well:
- Sending congratulatory, condolences and information sheets in support of MKO,
- Establishing contacts with politicians and personalities for collecting signatures of support for the organisation.
- Obtaining the authorisation for collecting money for “non profitable” expenses such as human rights and humanitarian purposes
- Organizing demonstrations in favour of MKO
At the same time we should know that the title of these societies and associations are not real and they do not belong to the guild or persons that they claim to represent. Ali Akbar Rastgou the former member of MKO in his book gives the names of 125 of these formations. [106]
Human Rights Watch reports on child abuse by MKO in the following words:
“Yasser Ezati was born on May 27, 1980, to Hassan Ezati and Akram Ghadim-al-ayam. He said that his father, also known as Nariman, was a well-known interrogator inside the MKO prisons. Yasser’s mother died during one of the MKO’s military operations.”
“Ezati moved to Iraq with his family at the age of three and grew up inside the MKO military camps. During the 1991 Gulf war, Ezati and other children inside the camps were separated from their parents and sent outside Iraq. During the next three years, Ezati lived with three dif-ferent families in Canada. These families were MKO sympathizers. In the summer of 1994, the MKO moved Ezati to Cologne, Germany, where he lived in a group-house for the MKO chil-dren. The organisation recruited Ezati for military training when he was seventeen years old and sent him to Iraq in June 1997.” [107]
“After the first six months in Iraq, I realized I had no desire to stay. In Europe I had an image of a democratic organization, but in Iraq I realized the extent of censorship and control. I want-ed to leave. I was repeatedly told the only way out was to go to Iran. I was too afraid to go to Iran.” [108] [BACK]