TEHRAN, 27 July 2004 — The Iranian government gave a cautious warning to the United States yesterday after the main Iranian armed opposition group claimed the US-led coalition had granted its militants in Iraq protected status. “I have no information about the truth of such a thing,” government spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh told reporters, the day after its public enemy No. 1 boasted it was now immune from being handed over.
But even though Ramazanzadeh said the “hypocrites” - as the People’s Mujahedeen are referred to by the Iranian regime - have “never told the truth”, he did warn Washington against making any concessions toward the group. “The attitude toward the hypocrites in Iraq will show the truth of the claims from anybody who claims to be fighting terrorism globally,” he said. “We hope the ones who accuse others of supporting terrorism act honestly themselves,” he added, a clear reference to fresh US allegations of an Iranian link to the Al-Qaeda network.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran said Sunday it had received notification from coalition commanders that People’s Mujahedeen fighters confined to camp in Iraq since last year’s US-led invasion had been accorded recognition as protected non-combatants under the fourth Geneva Convention. No confirmation from the US-led coalition was immediately available.
Iran has been pushing for repatriation of the several thousand Mujahedeen fighters under US military guard at Camp Ashraf northeast of Baghdad, and last December Iraq’s coalition-installed interim leadership voted unanimously to expel them.
The People’s Mujahedeen set up base in Iraq in 1986 and carried out regular cross-border raids into Iran, with which Iraq fought a bloody war between 1980 and 1988. The group also participated in Saddam Hussein’s crackdown on an uprising by Shiites and Kurds in 1991.
Several thousand Mujahedeen militiamen were disarmed by US forces following the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in April 2003 and barred from undertaking military operations. Both the United States and the European Union have officially listed the group as a terrorist organization. But their fate has been a prickly question for Washington as it prosecutes its worldwide war on terror, with some US officials espousing their possible use against Iran — lumped into an “axis of evil” by US President George W. Bush — should “regime change” in Tehran become a formal US policy.
The National Council statement said that the coalition had undertaken to provide continued protection for the Mujahedeen fighters at Camp Ashraf. While recognition as protected individuals removes controls on the fighters’ movement, potentially allowing them to emigrate to third countries, a National Council official said all were likely to stay as they wanted to remain close to Iran.
Meanwhile, more than 100 Iranian journalists, some wearing symbolic rope shackles, yesterday protested against the closure of three reformist publications, saying they saw signs of a renewed press crackdown. Two liberal dailies and a monthly magazine were closed by the hard-line judiciary this month, accused of insulting officials, spreading lies, endangering national security and other accusations. Human rights groups say Iran has more journalists in jail than any other country in the Middle East. Mohammad Reza Bahonar, deputy speaker of Iran’s conservative-dominated Parliament, yesterday said the judiciary had a duty to tackle the media.
“Journalists must have professional security ... but that does not mean that the judiciary should not confront the newspapers because their staff may become unemployed,” he told the official IRNA news agency. But Nobel Peace Prize laureate and human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi pointed to the death in custody last year of Canadian-Iranian photographer Zahra Kazemi as an example of the treatment journalists can face in Iran. Kazemi died of a blow to the head after being arrested for taking photographs of Tehran’s Evin prison where most political dissidents are held.
“Zahra Kazemi with her death registered a truth which was too big for her camera,” said Ebadi. A reformist columnist said a power-hungry group was trying to strip the reform camp of its mouthpiece and mobilization apparatus ahead of presidential elections in mid-2005. Iranian government yesterday volunteered to help the judiciary find out who killed Kazemi. The judiciary on Saturday acquitted an Intelligence Ministry agent accused of killing Kazemi and moved to close the case, prompting protests from Ottawa, human rights groups and lawyers representing Kazemi’s family who want the case reopened.
