Iranian opposition group denounces expulsion order

Associated Press
December 10, 2003
BY: MARIAM FAM

CAMP ASHRAF, Iraq - Iraq-based members of an Iranian opposition group denounced on Wednesday a decision by the U.S.-appointed Governing Council to expel them from the country by the end of the year, claiming the move will boost Iran's interests in Iraq.

"The vast majority of the Iraqi people ... support (our) presence in Iraq," said a statement released on Wednesday by the group, Mujahedeen Khalq, at its camp northeast of Baghdad.

On Tuesday, the 25-seat Governing Council said Mujahedeen Khalq members must leave Iraq by the end of the year and that the all group's offices will be closed down.

"The statement merely reflects the fantasies and illusions of the mullas' regime, which regards ... (us) as the biggest obstacle to its export of fundamentalism and establishment of a satellite theocratic dictatorship in Iraq," the statement said. The council's decision was "dictated by the ruling clerics in Tehran," it added.

The Mujahedeen Khalq is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. Its well-armed force, which for years fought Iran's Islamic rulers from Iraq with the backing of Saddam Hussein's regime, was disarmed by U.S. forces in Iraq soon after major hostilities in the war ended on May 1.

The Governing Council said it had decided to expel the paramilitary group because of "the black history of this terrorist organization and for the crimes it had committed against our people and our neighbors."

The council also said that the group's money and weapons will be confiscated. The funds will be used to compensate "victims of the bygone fascist regime."

Iraqi individuals and institutions are free to sue the Iranian opposition group "for crimes against the Iraqi people and demand compensation from its funds inside and outside Iraq," the council said.

On Wednesday, U.S. troops were guarding Camp Ashraf and Mujahedeen Khalq officials said they were not allowed to speak to reporters.

The Mujahedeen Khalq was allied with Iran's late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's Islamic fundamentalists during the 1979 revolution that overthrew the pro-American dictatorship of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. But the new government soon banned the Mujahedeen Khalq and other groups that advocated a secular regime.

During the 1970s, the group was accused in attacks that killed several Americans working on projects linked to the Shah's security services, although the group denies targeting Americans.