Self-Sacrifice Read online

  Another woman named Razieh Ayatollahzadeh Shirazi, a student who had joined the PMOI during the Shah’s time, was pregnant and had been tortured. In Ward 311 there used to be a bakery, the heat from which transferred to the floor of the prison. She said the heat would eventually kill her baby. Three weeks later, her baby died. She said the baby’s death was the price we pay for freedom. Her husband had already been executed. In 1985 she was executed too.

  I got to know a 45-year-old mother named Rezvan Rafipoor in Ward 240. She was tortured every three weeks in order to extract information from her about her daughter. The severe beatings had left horrible bruises on her body. She was then taken to “the dormitory”, a special ward for political prisoners. After experiencing that ward, she was so distraught that she said it was impossible for her to reestablish contact with other people. When her cellmates were asleep, she got a rope, placed a bucket under her feet and hanged herself. One of my friends found her and screamed. The guards cut her down but it was too late.

  I was pregnant when I was imprisoned. They even forbade me from giving birth at a regular hospital. My baby spent one year in prison with me and then was looked after by my parents. When I was freed after three and a half years, I fled with my baby to Iraq and joined the resistance in Ashraf.’

  9

  Strasbourg

  In the autumn of 2004 we decided to arrange for Mrs Rajavi, in her capacity as President-elect of the NCRI, to come to the European Parliament to address a meeting of the all-party Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup (FoFI), which I co-chaired with Paulo Casaca, a Socialist MEP from Portugal and a close friend. Together we had set up FoFI for the purpose of backing the restoration of democracy, the rule of law, human rights, women’s rights, the abolition of the death penalty and the abolition of nuclear weapons in Iran. On behalf of FoFI we had both travelled widely throughout the Middle East, Europe and the US in pursuit of our objective of having the PMOI taken off the various terror lists. Indeed we went to the United States on many occasions, to the Congress and the Senate. Paulo Casaca, Alejo Vidal-Quadras and other colleagues also on several occasions travelled to Iraq to visit Camp Ashraf, where at that time over 3,400 key frontline members of the PMOI were stuck as defenceless refugees under the fragile security of the occupying US military forces. These refugees were under constant threat of attack or eviction.

  Paulo and I met many obstacles during our campaign. We were vilified in the media by Iranian intelligence with spurious press articles, accusing us of being ‘friends of terrorists’. Obscure advertisements naming the PMOI as a terrorist organisation appeared in parliamentary magazines and news journals in an attempt to smear us. They sometimes provided a website address, but any attempt to make contact was always met with silence. There was never an answer; the web addresses were bogus as these ads were all placed and funded by Iranian Intelligence (MOIS). They are afraid of the PMOI. They know it is the only threat to their stranglehold on Iran. That is why they became hysterical when they heard that meetings with Mrs Rajavi were taking place within the European Parliament.

  The Mullahs also threw endless resources into backing bogus NGOs in Europe such as the Nejat (Saviour) Association and the Edalat (Justice) Society. Their task was to spread lies and false news about Camp Ashraf residents and the leadership of the resistance, and to traduce parliamentarians like me, Paulo Casaca, Alejo Vidal-Quadras and other opinion-leaders who backed the PMOI. The lengths the regime was prepared to go to and the resources it was prepared to invest in demonising us demonstrated the PMOI’s effectiveness and status in Iran.

  The FoFI meeting on 15 December 2004 was held in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, because Mrs Rajavi was still under strict travel restrictions following her arrest by Chirac. We deemed it safer for her to travel internally by car in France from the PMOI headquarters outside Paris, to Strasbourg. (Some months later, in June 2006, a French court cancelled the ludicrous travel restrictions imposed by the Chirac government.) The meeting was attended by more than 150 MEPs and Mrs Rajavi for the first time proposed her Third Option, a clear prospect to resolve the Iranian crisis, which had caused anxiety on a global scale. She said:

  In response to the Iranian crisis, two options are regularly proposed: either compromise with the Mullahs’ regime, in a bid to contain or gradually change the regime. Western countries have pursued this policy in the past two decades. Or overthrowing the Mullahs by way of a foreign war, similar to what occurred in Iraq. No one is interested in a repeat of the Iraqi experience in Iran. But, I have come here today to say that there is a third option: change by the Iranian people and the Iranian Resistance. With the removal of foreign obstacles, the Iranian people and Resistance would have the ability and the preparedness to bring about such change. This presents the only way to avert a foreign war. Offering concessions to the Mullahs is not the alternative to a foreign conflict and will not dissuade them from pursuing their ominous intentions.

  Encouraged by the success of this visit, in the autumn of 2005 we decided to arrange a meeting for Mrs Rajavi with the majority European People’s Party-European Democrats (EPP-ED) Group in the European Parliament. I had been elected 2nd Vice President of the EPP-ED Group following the 2004 European parliamentary elections, and I sent a formal written request to our leader Hans-Gert Poettering. Hans-Gert agreed to place my request on the agenda for a future meeting of the Bureau or Cabinet of the Group, which consisted of all eight Vice Presidents, together with the Group’s Treasurer Othmar Karas and President Hans-Gert himself.

  At the Bureau meeting in June 2006, controversy raged. I made a strong case for inviting Mrs Rajavi, based on the fact that she was leading a democratic opposition movement who could replace tyranny and the threat of nuclear war with respect for human rights, the rights of women, an end to torture and the death penalty and the eradication of nuclear weapons; my initiative was fiercely opposed by Othmar Karas from Austria. Indeed while I was addressing the meeting, Othmar’s mobile phone began to ring and he rather noisily took the call. The blood seemed to drain from his face. ‘That was my Chancellor – Wolfgang Schüssel. He has just received a call from Javier Solana [the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs] who is in Tehran trying to negotiate a nuclear pact with the Mullahs. They have heard that we are thinking about inviting Mrs Rajavi to the European Parliament and have demanded that we do no such thing, otherwise they will pull out of the nuclear talks!’ News of our intended invitation to Mrs Rajavi had clearly leaked, and it had not taken long for the Iranian embassy in Brussels to pick it up and transmit it to Tehran, causing a major flap. Hans-Gert Poettering said that we should adjourn any decision on the invitation until each of us had time to discuss it with our respective political delegations, and if necessary with our party leaders.

  Later that day, 29 June, the EPP-ED Group left for a three-day conference in Bordeaux, and that same evening I found myself at the top table with the rest of our Group Bureau at a dinner in the beautiful Château Smith-Haut-Lafitte. During the course of the dinner I left to go to the toilet. Having washed my hands and as I was heading for the exit, I noticed Elmar Brok, the President of the all-powerful Foreign Affairs Committee, having a pee amongst several other men at the urinal. Elmar is a large, rotund and florid German with a shock of blond hair and a beady glass eye. I said, ‘Hello, Elmar’ on the way past. Glancing over his shoulder, he shouted: ‘Stevenson, you must not invite this woman Rajavi to the European Parliament.’

  ‘Why not?’ I replied.

  ‘Because Angela Merkel says so,’ he shouted.

  ‘Well, I don’t take my orders from Angela Merkel,’ I said.

  Elmar exploded. ’Well I do,’ he screamed, spinning to face me and peeing down the leg of the man next to him in the process.

  I hurried out of the Gents, leaving behind shouts of exasperation from the man who had been soaked and Elmar’s grumbling apologies! Back at the dinner table I recounted the whole sordid tale to Hans-Gert and the other Bureau Members, to h
oots of delight and roars of laughter.

  The following day, Hans-Gert told me that he had received a telephone call from a very agitated José-Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission. He confirmed that Javier Solana, pleading with him to try to stop Mrs Rajavi coming to the European Parliament, had also contacted him. It seemed that I had triggered an international incident. Sure enough, during the course of the day I was told by my good friend Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Senior Vice President of the European Parliament and an MEP from Spain, that he had received a telephone call from his own party leaders ordering him not to support the invitation; even Hans-Gert Poettering had been telephoned by Angela Merkel with the same message. It was beginning to look as if my plans for Mrs Rajavi’s visit were about to unravel.

  During this hiatus, a colleague in the EPP Group, Michael Gahler MEP, a former German junior diplomat, began what became an almost hysterical and obsessive campaign against Alejo Vidal-Quadras and me, because of our support for Mrs Rajavi and the PMOI. Despite the fact that he was a member of the same political family as us, he courted support from other political groups in the European Parliament, repeating false allegations which originated from the Mullahs and raising petitions and signatures on letters, which sought to denigrate our activities. Gahler continued this obsessive activity for all the years I served as an MEP, making himself appear increasingly irrational in the meantime.

  The intervention of the many European government leaders who tried to prevent Mrs Rajavi’s visit served to underline the clear importance of the PMOI and Mrs Rajavi to the Iranian regime. All this fuss for a 30-minute speech! Since the majority of the EPP Group’s bureau was in favour of her visit, the Group chair, Hans-Gert Poettering, had sent her a formal invitation, but we were under tremendous pressure. Mrs Rajavi was supposed to address our group meeting on Tuesday 4 July. She was already in Strasbourg on the Monday evening in preparation for her intended speech, but when she became aware of the situation, she ended the crisis with an amazing initiative.

  Hans-Gert received a letter from Mrs Rajavi saying that she would not like to do anything that might jeopardise the nuclear discussions in Tehran and that she was therefore willing to postpone any intended visit to the EPP Group until later. So the pressure on the group was lifted. Mrs Rajavi came to the European Parliament on 5 July and spoke in a press conference organized by FoFI, with me, Alejo and Paulo. She said: ‘The situation has been temporarily resolved, but nevertheless once again we are dancing to the Mullahs’ tune.’ She warned that the likelihood of any meaningful success in the nuclear talks was extremely limited; and so it turned out to be. Despite all the threats and warnings from the Iranian regime, the nuclear talks ended with no agreement. The Mullahs were insisting that their uranium enrichment programme was only for peaceful purposes and would continue without interruption. Solana returned to the EU with his tail between his legs, once again outmanoeuvred by Tehran.

  I decided to use this humiliation of our EU appeasement policy to resurrect the controversial invitation to Mrs Rajavi. This time, no credibility could be given to the threats from the Iranian embassy and from the Mullahs in Tehran. The EPP-ED Group’s Bureau, under the leadership of Hans-Gert Poettering, bravely agreed to my request and a formal invitation was sent to Mrs Rajavi. A date was set for her address to the entire group of 268 MEPs in Strasbourg.

  On the day of her visit, the protocol service of the European Parliament had arranged for her to be met at the VIP entrance. She arrived amid tight security in a convoy of cars. Alejo Vidal-Quadras and I presented her with a bouquet of flowers and we led her along the red carpet to the EU flags, where official photographs were taken, with more than a dozen other senior MEP supporters. Mrs Rajavi’s address to the EPP-ED Group was profound. She outlined the Iranian Resistance’s viewpoints for the future of Iran in a ten-point plan:

  1. In our view, the ballot box is the only criterion for legitimacy. Accordingly, we seek a republic based on universal suffrage.

  2. We want a pluralist system, freedom of parties and assembly. We respect all individual freedoms. We underscore complete freedom of expression and of the media and unconditional access by all to the Internet.

  3. We support and are committed to the abolition of the death penalty.

  4. We are committed to the separation of Religion and State. Any form of discrimination against the followers of any religion and denomination will be prohibited.

  5. We believe in complete gender equality in political, social and economic arenas. We are also committed to equal participation of women in political leadership. Any form of discrimination against women will be abolished. They will enjoy the right to freely choose their clothing. They are free in marriage, divorce, education and employment.

  6. We believe in the rule of law and justice. We want to set up a modern judicial system based on the principles of presumption of innocence, the right to defence, effective judicial protection and the right to be tried in a public court. We also seek the total independence of judges. The Mullahs’ Sharia law will be abolished.

  7. We are committed to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and international covenants and conventions, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture, and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women. We are committed to the equality of all nationalities. We underscore the plan for the autonomy of Iranian Kurdistan, adopted by the NCRI. The language and culture of our compatriots from whatever nationality are among our nation’s human resources and must spread and be promulgated in tomorrow’s Iran.

  8. We recognise private property, private investment and the market economy. All Iranian people must enjoy equal opportunity in employment and in business ventures. We will protect and revitalise the environment.

  9. Our foreign policy will be based on peaceful coexistence, international and regional peace and cooperation, as well as respect for the United Nations Charter.

  10. We want a non-nuclear Iran, free of weapons of mass destruction.

  These positions are all meant to herald the establishment of a genuine and enduring democracy in Iran, to which Mrs Rajavi has dedicated her life. She said, ‘We are not fighting and making sacrifices to be able to grab power. We have not even set our sights on sharing power and the ability to govern. Our biggest mission is the establishment of the people’s sovereignty and democracy . . .’

  10

  Interviews with Political Prisoners Refugee Camp, Tirana, Albania, May 2014

  Mohammad Hossein Ebrahimi

  ‘My name is Mohammad Hossein Ebrahimi. I was 15 years old when I was arrested in 1981. I was sentenced to three years imprisonment in a kangaroo court, but actually ended up being imprisoned for four years. My main crime was that my heart was beating for Massoud Rajavi, I was told. In the prison, I heard about the death of my brother, Mehdi. He was 19 and I had seen him several times before in the prison. We could see each other from a window at the top of our cells. The last time I saw him he was smiling and very happy. I realised later it was because he had been informed that he was to be executed, and he wanted to show his high morale.

  Later I heard the Revolutionary Guards had gone to my parents and they took them to the woods in the north of Iran, where they said they would show them their son. But instead they gave them his body. I also heard that my other brother had been executed as well. Later, my only sister was executed. Her husband’s brother is now here in Tirana, after being transferred from Camp Liberty.

  In 1988, during the massacre in Iranian prisons, 30,000 PMOI prisoners were executed, including my remaining brother Ali Akbar, who was 29 years old. In fact all of my family members were supporters of the PMOI. My father died. My mother now lives in France. My mother and I are the only ones left from my family. After spending four years in prison, I was released and escaped with the help of human smugglers to Camp Ashraf in Iraq.

  I also have a touching memory of my friend Abdal when
we were both in prison. I was imprisoned at Gorgan, but was transferred to Gohardasht prison at the time. Gohardasht’s construction had begun during the time of the Shah, but was completed during Khomeini’s time. It has 1,000 solitary confinement cells. The cells were about 1.5 metres by 2 metres wide. There was a window with small holes that I would get a tiny amount of light from every day. Many of the prisoners were mentally tortured. One colleague, Razaq Farkhondeh, was so psychologically damaged that, upon his release, he committed suicide.

  We were held in strictest silence. We tried to communicate with the other cells, but it was virtually impossible. If you were caught talking you would be badly beaten. I had heard there was a way to communicate using Morse code, by tapping on the adjoining walls, but I didn’t know what it was like and how to use it.

  In that three-storey prison, we could hear tapping noises (Morse-code signals) coming from the floor above and the floor below. One day I heard something from the adjacent cell and so brought my mouth very close the wall and tried to speak to the person in that cell. While pretending to sing, I used certain words to ask his name. The prison guards would check on us routinely and if they suspected we were talking to each other they would drag us out of our cells and beat us.

  But on this particular day I heard a muffled response from the other side of the wall, so I realised we could talk in this way sort of vaguely. I asked the other guy if he could understand Morse and he said yes. I said, “Could you teach me?” He replied, “Yes, do you know the Morse alphabet?” I said no. He tried to teach me and I managed to learn the Morse alphabet in four days. He then taught me how to use different signs for each letter. I had to memorise all this in my head, because we were not allowed to have papers or pencils.’

  11

  Tehran

  It was Anton Chekhov who said: ‘Love, Friendship and respect do not unite people as much as a common hatred for something.’ How very true in the case of Iran, where a common hatred towards the tyrannical Mullahs was beginning to unite the people in passionate opposition to their oppressors. But distinguishing friends from enemies was a skill sadly absent in Europe at the beginning of the new millennium, at least in the context of EU policy towards Iran.