Iraq's interim leaders decide to expel Iranian People's Mujahedeen

Agence France Presse
December 9, 2003

BAGHDAD, Dec 9 - Iraq's interim Governing Council decided unanimously Tuesday to expel the several thousand members of the People's Mujahedeen, branding the Iranian opposition force a "terrorist organisation".

"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," said an official statement.

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 money would "be given to the compensation fund for victims of the former fascist regime" of Saddam Huusein.

"Iraqi individuals and bodies have the right to bring complaints against this organisation for its crimes and ask to be compensated by the funds this organisation has both inside and outside the country," the council said

The group's central Baghdad offices have been deserted for more than a month, security guards at a neighbouring hotel told AFP.

The People's Mujahedeen, or Mujahedeen-e Khalq Organization (MKO) 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.

Several thousand Mujahedeen militiamen were disarmed by US forces following the fall of Baghdad in April and barred from undertaking military operations.

Around 4,000-5,000 people were grouped in Camp Ashraf, the main Mujahedeen base in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, where they were screened for terror activities.

The US army announced in September that it had detained 3,856 members of the Mujahedeen.

The group kept out of the US-led war, although their bases were bombed by US warplanes. After lengthy negotiations, it struck a deal with the US-led coalition and withdrew to Camp Ashraf.

Mujaheeden officials denied reports that splinter elements had fled to the mountains separating Iran and Iraq.

Washington announced on April 22 it had reached a ceasefire with the Mujahedeen. The following day officials of the group said the agreement allowed it to keep its weapons and carry on its activities in Iran from Camp Ashraf.

But US officials denied the claim when hundreds of military police took control of Camp Ashraf in June and the Mujahedeen was consolidated.

The group was a well-armed fighting force that, with backing from Saddam, had continued a guerrilla insurgency against the hardline Islamic government in Tehran since 1988.

Both the United States and Iran consider it a terror organisation.

The United States also banned the group's political wing, the National Council of Resistance of Iran activities, and froze its bank accounts.