Concern at US/UK support for MKO terrorist group

Concern at US/UK support for MKO terrorist group

IRNA (Iran's state news agency)
April 28, 2003

The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) has accused the US and UK of double standards by giving tacit support for the Iraq-based Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MKO) terrorist group, IRNA reported from London.

"This continuing blind-eye shown by the US and the UK governments towards MKO activities within their borders and in US-administered Iraq exhibits not only a shameful lack of consistency but a complete deficit of ethical motivation," the London-based commission said.

It expressed its deep concern about the ceasefire declared last week between US forces and the anti-Iranian terrorist group, saying it was the "latest inconsistent application of the definition of terrorism" by Washington and its allies.

IHRC voiced further alarm that the MKO had been allowed to retain their weapons and compared the US support for the terrorist group against action taken in Iraq against other groups, like Ansar al- Islam.

It reminded the US and UK that they had both designated the MKO as a terrorist group, for carrying out bombings around the world. It had a long-established status as a proxy of Saddam Hussein's regime and participated in the brutal crushing of Iraq's 1991 post-war uprising.

The IHRC, set up as an independent human rights research organisation in 1997 for both Muslims and non-Muslims, said that it fears that the MKO will be granted "carte blanche the freedom to continue its terrorist activities."

It also expressed alarm about Britain and America's duplicity and the "message it will send out to the wider Middle East in this critical period."

The MKO was first designated in 1997 by the US Secretary of State as a terrorist group among 30 foreign organisations that "engage in terrorist activities that threaten the security of the United States." In Britain, it was proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000.