Self-Sacrifice
Authors: Struan Stevenson
Self-Sacrifice
First published in 2015 by
Birlinn Limited
West Newington House
10 Newington Road
Edinburgh
EH9 1QS
Copyright © Struan Stevenson, 2015
The moral right of Struan Stevenson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form without the express written permission of the publisher
ISBN: 978 1 78027 288 7
eISBN: 978 0 85790 868 1
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Set in Sabon at Birlinn
Printed and bound by
Gutenberg Press Ltd, Malta
Dedication
This book is dedicated to Maryam Rajavi and countless other sisters and brothers of the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran with whom I have had the privilege to work and campaign. Their self-sacrifice and the self-sacrifice of the PMOI over decades has been an inspiration.
Contents
Illustrations
Struan Stevenson meeting Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani of Kurdistan
Struan with PMOI protesters outside the UN headquarters in Geneva
More than 100,000 people attending the 2013 PMOI rally at Villepinte, Paris
Struan with PMOI protesters outside the White House, Washington D.C., 2006
Alejo Vidal-Quadras and Struan welcome Mrs Rajavi to the European Parliament, Brussels
Struan hosts a press conference in Brussels for Iraqi Vice-President, Dr Tariq al-Hashemi, in 2013
Struan and Sheikh Dr Rafie al-Rafaee, the Grand Mufti of Iraq, in 2014
Struan with Patrick Kennedy at an NCRI rally at Villepinte, Paris
Struan addressing the ‘illegal’ PMOI rally in Berlin, 2005
Friends of a Free Iran meeting in the European Parliament, Strasbourg
Struan meeting President Massoud Barzani of Kurdistan
Struan with President Talabani of Iraq, Baghdad, 2011
Struan at the PMOI’s International Women’s Day Rally in Berlin, March 2015
The landscaped grounds and gardens of Camp Ashraf
Mud and rock-strewn ground surround flimsy portacabins at Camp Liberty
Acknowledgements
My great thanks to my many friends in the PMOI and the Iranian resistance for their encouragement in persuading me to write this book, and for the many hours they spent editing and correcting facts, dates, times and places; and in particular, for their friendship and kindness over many years.
Foreword
by
Patrick J. Kennedy
Former Member of the US Congress for Rhode Island
Struan Stevenson’s remarkable book details the horrors of repression, torture and execution in Iran and the strange acquiescence of the West in the face of irrefutable evidence of the Mullahs’ desire to deploy nuclear weapons and to sponsor terror across the Middle East and worldwide. In
Self-Sacrifice: Life with the Iranian Mojahedin
, the author outlines his own role as an elected member of the European Parliament, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the main Iranian opposition movement at a time when they were listed as a foreign terrorist organization. More than three decades ago, my father – the late Senator Ted Kennedy – stood alongside Nelson Mandela and the ANC when they were listed as terrorists. Like Stevenson, he was prepared to put his reputation on the line in his fight for freedom, democracy and human rights.
Self-Sacrifice: Life with the Iranian Mojahedin
is perhaps the first such book in which the author takes the reader through his personal experiences to show how, as a British Conservative MEP, he ended up getting to know, engaging with, trusting and supporting the People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI), despite all the allegations levelled against the organisation. In the course of an interesting and sometimes difficult journey, he even heard the allegations repeated by government officials who sought to discourage him from supporting the movement. He had to conduct his own research and investigations, studying the merits of each allegation and concluding that they were false and originated from Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, to be distributed by Tehran’s lobby and unintentionally repeated by others. Stevenson further demonstrates how these allegations have been used by governments to justify their policy of appeasing the Iranian regime.
Struan Stevenson faced threats and smears from the Iranian Mullahs and even from countries closer to home. His vivid chronicle berates Western countries that were prepared to follow a policy of
appeasement so that they could continue to do business with one of the world’s most evil regimes. His harrowing account of the abject betrayal by the West of 3,400 Iranian refugees trapped in Iraq should stand as a shocking indictment of US, EU and UN policy in that country. In his role as President of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iraq he courageously exposed the corruption and brutal sectarianism of the Iraqi Government, encouraged and endorsed by the Iranian Mullahs, and warned that it would lead to civil war. In repeated visits to Iraq he met with political leaders and warned that the Iranian regime was exploiting the insurgency to extend its toxic influence across the region.
Stevenson intersperses each chapter in his book with harrowing interviews conducted with survivors of Iran’s medieval prisons, detailing the cruelty, torture and executions that continue to this day. His brilliant narrative and in-depth research have laid bare the stark choice we face between the past and the future. He demonstrates clearly that the theocratic dictatorship in Iran is the key problem in the Middle East and should never be regarded as part of any solution. He argues forcibly that Iran’s future as a just and stable democracy can only be achieved through support for the main opposition movement, the PMOI.
Stevenson’s exposé of Western ineptitude will leave readers horrified. This is a book that should be read carefully by opinion-formers and decision-makers around the world and by students of foreign policy. There is much we can learn from Stevenson’s disturbing account of mistakes, duplicities and blunders that have led directly to the rise of ISIS (Islamic State) and the catastrophic events that now engulf the Middle East.
1
Brussels
When does a person reach their tipping point? For me it was the hanging of a 16-year-old girl in Iran for ‘acts incompatible with chastity’. Atefeh Rajabi Sahaaleh was hanged in public from a crane in the city of Neka in August 2004. She had been raped and tortured for three years by a 51-year-old former Islamic Revolutionary Guard member turned taxi-driver. He was sentenced to 100 lashes and she was arrested, tortured and then hauled before Neka’s local chief religious judge Haji Rezai. Atefeh was so outraged at the injustice of her treatment that she tore off her headscarf and threw one of her shoes at the judge, committing the ultimate offence of contempt of court. The judge not only sentenced her to death but acted as her executioner as well, placing the rope around her neck before the crane dragged the child, choking, into the air. Judge Rezai stated that this would ‘teach her a lesson and silence her sharp tongue.’
I was sitting in my office at the European Parliament in Brussels when my senior Parliamentary Assistant at that time, Ingrid Kelling, came in to tell me that the Ambassador to the EU from the Islamic Republic of Iran had arrived for our pre-arranged meeting. Ingrid showed him in and I asked him to sit. He thanked me warmly for agreeing to meet him and launched into a lengthy discourse on the achievements of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. I held up my hand to silence him. ‘Mr Ambassador,’ I said, ‘last week your country hanged a 16-year-old girl in public. This was an outrage against all of our core European values of human rights, the rights of women and the rights of children. I am utterly appalled at this barbarous crime. I have watched in dismay as your country has condoned torture, stoning, amputations and public executions. I can no longer stand on the sidelines. I do not want any explanation or attempts to justify this crime from you. I would ask you now kindly to leave my office and I can assure you that you will not be welcome here again.’