|
French
police have stormed
the bases of MKO in that country and arrested about
165 people, including Maryam Rajavi, Massoud’s
spouse and their President-in-exile, along with his
brother Saleh Rajavi. The larger compound raided in
Vincent van Gogh’s town of Auvers-sur-Oise is
about 2 acres (or 9,600 square yards) large and houses
30 buildings. Not even “K” members of the
organization are housed here and everyone at the compound
holds a high ranking position. (Mojahedin members
are ranked based on several levels, K stands for Kandid
or “Candidate” members, those who have been
principally accepted as members but are awaiting formal
initiation.)
Considering
the fact that the group is run by only a very limited
number of senior members, arrest of 150+ such members
is certainly a blow to their ability to function normally.
However the key will remain as to the conclusion awaiting
Massoud Rajavi. He IS the organization and without
him there is no MKO, but the opposite is also true
that as long as he is in charge (and he is always
in charge, regardless of other organizational formalities),
MKO will remain a factor and in its current format,
minus some members or in a different size and/or set-up.
I
first met Massoud Rajavi as a young kid shortly after
the revolution of 1979. In their building in central
Tehran, when they were still called Jonbesh (movement)
as Rajavi had declared they can not use “organization”
until formal structures were in place, they had a
dining room in the basement. The upper floors were
all classified by their floor numbers and the higher
in the organizational charts you were, the higher
you could move up leaving the very top floor (I believe
4th) for the members of “central committee”
and their entourage. I was so young and small that
after hanging around for days, nobody cared where
I went, but I still had not built the courage to go
to that top floor.
Finally
I gathered enough nerve to consider climbing that
final flight of stairs one day but as I started my
ascent, I looked up and coming down the stairs was
a group of 6 to 8 people following Massoud and his
second in command Mousa Khiabani (later killed in
a heavy battle with the regime). He was very nice
to me, jokingly wondering how I had gotten to the
upper floors as I joined them going down the stairs
ending in the lunch room and eating a meal of bread,
feta cheese and black fresh dates. After that day
my nickname was “bacheye markaziat” or “central
committee’s kid” and I got even more access
to do as I wanted around that building, including
being there on the day Yasser Arafat paid a visit.
A few short months later, they evacuated that building
and that arrangement was dead forever.
Anyone
who has ever met him will tell you about Rajavi’s
piercing eyes. He constantly watches every little
detail happening around him and never misses even
a single point. He is the epitome of a cult leader,
taking away your sense of who you are and replacing
it with his own “trance” almost instantly.
A friend once joked that if you ever gave him a 2
hour television spot, he could hypnotize the entire
nation of Iran and as much as I hate to admit it,
he may have had a point. After all, "brother
Massoud" single handedly rebuilt an organization
that was at most about 100 member strong to seriously
contesting the presidency of the country within a
short year or so, before being banned by Ayatollah
Khomeini and built a large following after that unseen
by other organizations within Iranian left.
I
have had my own issues with the MKO. I started categorizing
them as a “terrorist organization” after
another incident; I was being “interviewed”
by an agent of Canadian Security Intelligence Service
(CSIS) as my life was threatened again. He turned
the conversation to MKO (the threat was by supporters/agents
of the government and nothing to do with them) knowing
of my connections to various leftist organization.
I insisted he doesn’t need to worry about them
but then he asked “suppose Massoud orders all
their supporters tomorrow to attack certain targets
all over the world, do you think they’ll do it?”
I said “without a doubt” then hesitated
for a second and continued “I guess that’s
why you need to keep an eye on them” he just
nodded. The truth is if he orders them, they are well
proficient in doing anything, including acts of terror
and violence. One member has already set himself on
fire in protest to Maryam’s arrest. Who knows
what may be next.
But
despite my problems with the group, it’s ideology,
structure, leadership and methods, I certainly hope
this isn’t used to strengthen the position of
Iranian government in any way. Furthermore, it would
be a sin and a crime if any of it’s rank and
file members are forced to or are handed over to Iran.
Let the leadership as well as others suspected of
crimes or support of any misconduct be tried in a
fair and open forum and if convicted, the guilty must
serve their sentence in a place other than where the
obvious and only penalty is death.
UPDATE
- As of now, June 18th @ 4:20 PM PST, all those arrested
except 26 people have been released and at least 4
other people have set themselves on fire with the
possibility of one being dead and others seriously
injured. I suspect the demonstrations will get even
more aggressive if the stuation isn't somehow resolved.
Pedram
Moallemian is a political and human rights activist
based in California. He welcomes your feedback at
pedram@writeme.com.
Pedram’s web log can be found at www.eyeranian.net
Index: Current Articles + Latest News and Views + Book Reviews +
Letters + Archives
|
