Iranian Mujahedeen reject expulsion order from Iraq's interim leaders

Agence France Presse
December 10, 2003

BAGHDAD, Dec 10 - The Iranian opposition People's Mujahedeen rejected Wednesday a decision by Iraq's interim leaders to expel thousands of its members.

"Such a statement has no executive guarantees and only paves the way for terrorist activities by the mullahs' regime against, the Mujahedeen in Iraq, a spokesman for the group said in a written text.

The Mujahedeen said its "presence in Iraq as a country under occupation is in the context of the Geneva Conventions" and accused Tehran of dictating the decision to the interim Governing Council in Baghdad.

"The statement merely reflects the fantasies and illusions of the mullahs' regime, which regards the People's Mujaheeden Organization of Iran as the biggest obstacle to its export of fundamentalism and establishment of a satellite theocratic dictatorship in Iraq."

An official statement released in Baghdad on Tuesday said: "The Governing Council unanimously decided to expel from Iraq by the end of the year the People's Mujahedeen because of the dark history of this terrorist organisation."

The statement did not say where the people would be sent when they are expelled, but that its offices would be closed and its arms and financial resources confiscated.

The Mujahedeen, some 4,000-5,000 of whom had been regrouped and disarmed at a sprawling base northeast of Baghdad following the March-April invasion, have since September been considered prisoners by the US-led coalition

The group set up base in Iraq in 1986 and carried out regular cross-border raids in Iran, with which Iraq fought a bloody war between 1980 and 1988.