Self-Sacrifice (30 page)

I was stunned. ‘This is the former Vice President of Iraq’, I spluttered. ‘What possible reason has President Schulz given for this ban?’

‘I cannot answer that question,’ said the official, ‘you’ll need to take it up with the President.’

‘Put me through to the President straight away,’ I said, but the official told me that the President was not available. Clearly, having landed this bombshell, he had made himself scarce, unwilling to have to confront me with his arguments for the ban.

I immediately called Alejo Vidal-Quadras. He was outraged and said that he would try to track down Schulz. We decided to rearrange the conference in another venue in central Brussels. We asked al-Hashemi to remain in his hotel until we could come back with new arrangements.

Dr al-Hashemi was staying in a suite at the Steigenberger Grand Hotel in Avenue Louise. I immediately jumped in a parliamentary car and headed down to see him. When I arrived there were several bodyguards posted in the corridor outside his suite. They ushered me in.

Dr al-Hashemi was pleased to see me, but clearly deeply concerned by this turn of events. ‘How can the President of your Parliament do this to me?’ he asked. I told him that it didn’t surprise me in
the slightest. I had no doubt that the Iraqi ambassador to the EU had informed Maliki, and Maliki had got directly in touch with Schulz, denouncing Dr al-Hashemi as a terrorist and pointing out that he was under sentence of death. This would be enough to panic the German socialist Schulz, who was ever keen to avoid any diplomatic incident that might have dented his own reputation. Rather than question the veracity of Maliki’s claims, Schulz had simply taken the easy way out and instructed that Dr al-Hashemi should not be allowed to enter the European Parliament. It was a great betrayal of the European Parliament’s claim always to fight for justice.

Just as we discussed this, there came a loud knock on the door and al-Hashemi’s Belgian lawyer was ushered into the room. He had a message from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior, because of the unfortunate situation that had arisen over Schulz’s decision to ban Dr al-Hashemi from entering the European Parliament. As the visa for al-Hashemi had been issued on the basis that he was formally invited to the European Parliament, it now seemed that his visa was no longer valid. We asked him to explain what he meant by this and he said, ‘Basically, if you no longer have a valid visa, you could be arrested and deported to Iraq at any moment.’ He explained that the Belgian government simply wanted to inform al-Hashemi about this, but did not intend to take any action against him.

This was shocking news for Dr al-Hashemi and for all of us. I had invited him to Brussels in good faith and he had come on the understanding that he would be safe from arrest and deportation. Now, because of Schulz, it seemed that he could be arrested and deported at any minute and sent back to face the gallows in Baghdad. This had suddenly become a life or death issue. Nevertheless Dr al-Hashemi remained calm and continued to discuss the matter in an unruffled manner.

Dr al-Hashemi was pondering whether to head straight back to the airport in Brussels to catch the next available flight to Istanbul, but we cautioned against this, as it seemed possible that he might be stopped at border control, although we argued that it was quite unlikely that the Belgian government would create any serious problem for Dr al-Hashemi. Just then, a famous French politician, Bernard
Kouchner, former Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of Nicolas Sarkozy and founder of Médecins Sans Frontières, joined us in the increasingly crowded room. Kouchner and al-Hashemi were old friends and they hugged each other warmly.

All of us now began a discussion about what to do next. I explained that we had managed to rearrange the conference in a large hall in the centre of Brussels. I said that whatever Dr al-Hashemi decided to do, he should at least take the opportunity of addressing the conference and the media, otherwise we would be seen as handing complete victory to Maliki. The lawyers meanwhile were in discussion by telephone with the Minister of the Interior. They explained that Dr al-Hashemi was a political target of Maliki’s and was not on the Interpol Red List. Here we had to solve two problems: firstly, to ensure the security and safe return of Dr al-Hashemi, and secondly to prevent Maliki from making any political gains by cancelling our conference. With the help of the lawyers and our Belgian friends, we successfully neutralised the threat to Dr al-Hashemi’s safe return to Turkey. To ensure that the conference went ahead, we changed the venue from the European Parliament to the Residence Palace. I chaired that conference. The keynote speaker was Dr al-Hashemi and several distinguished politicians also spoke, such as Sid Ahmad Ghozali, the former prime minister of Algeria, Yves Bonnet, former Director of the French DST (French Intelligence Service), Lord Maginnis of Drumglass from the UK, Tahar Boumedra, Paulo Casaca, Professor Tanter and Colonel Wes Martin. The conference was a resounding success.

As I sat in an anteroom with the former Iraqi Vice President waiting to make our entrance, we could suddenly hear shouting and noise from the main chamber. This went on for several minutes and we were informed that agents of the Iraqi and Iranian regimes had tried to infiltrate the meeting to cause trouble, and had shouted and become violent when the Residence Palace security guards forcibly ejected them.

Calm having been restored, we entered the room to a standing ovation from the audience. I introduced Dr Tariq al-Hashemi, and he then spoke eloquently about the deteriorating situation in Iraq, citing specific cases of human rights abuse and explaining how the
judiciary had become corrupted by Maliki and did his bidding. He also provided an in-depth report on the problems that thousands of innocent Iraqis are facing resulting from false reports that led to their arrests, with their cases remaining in limbo for years. He showed a short film of his visits to many of these prisons and his pledge to the inmates to help. He explained how many of these inmates had been tortured and threatened to make them deliver forged confessions on TV. Dr al-Hashemi said most of those arrested were innocent, while the real criminals were roaming free with the security organs being fully aware of what was going on.

Dr al-Hashemi told the conference how Nouri al-Maliki seemed determined to carve out a role for himself as Saddam Hussein’s worthy successor. Angered by critics in the press who had highlighted the spiralling violence and human rights abuses in Iraq, Maliki had banned Al-Jazeera and nine Iraqi TV channels, eight of which were Sunni. Without licences, news crews from the banned channels would be arrested if they attempted to operate in Iraq.

Iraq’s descent into another sectarian civil war, prompted by Maliki’s determined efforts to marginalise the Sunni population, had become an embarrassment to the US, who regarded the Iraqi Prime Minister as their adopted son. US State Department assertions that they were leaving behind a ‘functioning democracy’, following the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, now had a hollow ring.

Dr al-Hashemi said that mass demonstrations against Maliki had been going on in six of Iraq’s provinces and most of the major cities for the past four months. Hundreds of thousands of protesters were pouring onto the streets, particularly following Friday prayers, to demand an end to sectarian oppression, human rights abuses and arbitrary executions. Maliki had tried to stem the protests by offering talks, bribes and concessions, but all to no avail. In desperation, he turned to his real sponsors, the Mullahs in Iran, who willingly dispatched their menacing Minister of Intelligence, Heydar Moslehi, who was more than happy to advise Maliki on how Iran deals with street protests and demonstrations.

I thanked Dr al-Hashemi for his presentation and reminded the audience that Maliki runs one of the world’s most corrupt regimes. Despite the restoration of oil production to an all-time high with an
estimated $8 billion in earnings in the previous year alone, much of this money simply disappears. The infrastructure, devastated during the US invasion and the insurgency, has never been restored. There are only around four hours of electricity a day in Baghdad and most major cities. Many people do not have access to fresh running water. Sewerage systems have broken down. Pollution is rife. Baghdad is one of the world’s filthiest capitals. And to cap it all, youth unemployment is running at around 30%. An entire generation has lost faith in the corrupt and oppressive Maliki government.

I then chaired a press conference for Dr al-Hashemi, where he presented documents and video clips showing the involvement of Maliki and his office in torture and flagrant human rights violations. In the press conference Dr al-Hashemi said he was ready to return immediately to Iraq and appear before a fair court, if a true opportunity was provided for him to prove his innocence and the innocence of his bodyguards who had been brutally tortured.

Following the press conference we set off for the airport. I was extremely nervous. If the Ministry of the Interior had given orders for Dr al-Hashemi to be arrested and deported to Iraq, his fate would be my direct responsibility. I had invited him to Brussels. His deportation and execution in Iraq would be a devastating blow for which I would hold myself responsible. At the airport I went with him to passport control at Terminal B. As we approached the border control officer with Dr al-Hashemi at the front, followed closely by bodyguards, his lawyers and me, we were becoming somewhat conspicuous. Other travellers were stopping to stare at our strange procession.

The border control officer examined Dr al-Hashemi’s passport and boarding pass. He then looked at me and said, in English, ‘What are you doing here?’

I replied, ‘I am with Dr al-Hashemi, simply to wish him bon voyage.’

‘Then please step back out of the way,’ said the officer, rather abruptly. He stamped Dr al-Hashemi’s passport and he was through. One of his lawyers accompanied him to Istanbul to ensure that there were no problems, but it seemed that everything was OK. I shouted my great thanks and best wishes to Dr al-Hashemi and headed back out of the airport. It had been a tense time.

Several hours later I was informed that Dr al-Hashemi had arrived safely in Istanbul and I breathed a great sigh of relief. It had been a difficult and nerve-racking experience, but we had demonstrated that we were able to stand up to Maliki and provide a platform to his most important opposition figure. The news of Dr al-Hashemi’s trip sparked a hugely positive reaction in the Arab media and an angry one from Maliki’s government!

38

Interviews with PMOI Refugees in Camp Liberty, September 2014

Nasser Khademi

‘My name is Nasser Khademi. I was born in Tehran in 1981. I was a first year student of Physics at Tehran University when I left my studies and joined the PMOI. I can say that I have known the PMOI ever since I remember. My father was Hamid Khademi and my mother Fereshteh Azhadi, both leading members of the PMOI.

After the 1979 revolution, Khomeini started suppressing the freedom movement in Iran. The PMOI clandestinely managed to continue its political activities in exposing the Mullahs’ plans for over two years. On 20 June 1981, when the last possibilities of political activity had been denied, the PMOI had to resort to underground operations. I was five months old at that time. My Mum, Dad and I used to live in the Sattar Khan district in a second storey apartment. When I was a year and a half old, my grandmother moved in with us. I don’t recall any of the events and what I know is the result of what I have heard and the research that I have done. Because of my Mum’s busy schedule my grandma was the person who took care of me.

On 2 May 1982 Khomeini’s Revolutionary Guards found our home. Our house was surrounded at 9 am. Back then, just like now, the crime of being a Mojahed was execution, so the Revolutionary Guards without hesitation started firing at our house. Our home was under attack for several hours. The guards started firing using light weapons. With my Mum and Dad firing back, they realized they couldn’t enter the house and they started using rocket launchers and then brought in a helicopter to continue firing on the house. It wasn’t important to them that the house was in a residential and densely populated area of Tehran. They left the house in ruins. My Mum and Dad along with my grandmother were killed in the attack. My Mum had hidden me to avoid me getting hurt. The only eye-witness was
a woman who had posed as a Khomeini supporter and had entered the house with the Guards. She said when she entered the house the whole house was destroyed by fire and the bodies of the martyrs were scattered all over. She had noticed that one of the Guards had taken out a child who was barely alive; I was that child.

As a result of the rocket attacks on the house I was wounded in my legs, stomach and head and was rendered unconscious. To cover up their crime they had put me in the ambulance with the rest of the bodies and transferred me to a hospital nearby to remove the shrapnel from my body. I still carry some of the shrapnel in my body and the scars on my face and body are still visible. They transferred my Mum, Dad and Grandma’s bodies to Evin Prison and placed them for display in front of the prisoners, and that same night they broadcast the images of their dead bodies from state-controlled television. They then buried the bodies in a shallow mass grave outside Tehran.

After months of following up by my remaining grandparents the Guards had told them they had buried the bodies in Khavaran Cemetery. This was the place where the martyrs of the 1988 massacre were also later buried. No one really knows the exact location where my Mum and Dad have been buried. I once heard that when my other grandmother had gone to visit the site and while looking for my father’s body had reached under the soil and found part of the shirt that my Dad was wearing when he was killed. I am not sure of the authenticity of this occurrence. I never saw the shirt and no one was willing to talk about this issue. Maybe the trauma of the situation had made it impossible to pursue.