Memeorial of Iranian dissdients killed in Iraq held in Paris

A ceremony to honour 23 Iranian dissidents who died in an Iranian attack on Camp Liberty, Iraq, earlier this week was held in Paris today. 

On 29th October, at least 80 rockets were launched by President Hassan Rouhani’s regime into Camp Liberty, home to over 3000 members of the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), or the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI). 

A host of world leaders, including US Secretary of State, John Kerry, have publicly condemned the “brutal” attacks. 

A host of speakers took to the stage at the headquarters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Auvers-sur-Oise, north of Paris, to pay tribute to the 23 slain. 

President-elect of the NCRI, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, opened the ceremony with a speech praising the courage and determination of the casualties. She claimed that the massacre represented an “attempt in vain to save [Khamenei’s] regime from certain downfall.” 

Ms. Rajavi also held both the United States and United Nations “officially and legally responsible”, alongside Iranian lackeys within the Iraqi government, for the attack: “It has been four years since they signed a Memorandum of Understanding, declaring Camp Liberty as a ‘Temporary Transit Location (TTL).’ The United Nations has so far betrayed its committments to the residents of Camp Liberty,” she declared. 

A video of the attack and its immediate aftermath was shown to the audience after Rajavi’s speech. 

The former Prime Minister of Algeria, Sid Ahmed Ghozali, was also in attendance, explaining that the Algerian people shared in the PMOI’s pain. “Our hearts are broken”, he stated, for our brothers and sisters in the struggle for freedom. While refering to the deadly July 2009 assault on Camp Ashraf by Iraqi forces, home of the Iranian Resistance prior to their relocation in 2012, Ghozali also lambasted international actors – the United States and United Nations – for not doing more to protect Iran’s dissident population. 

Former Vice-President of the European Parliament and President of the International Committee ‘In Search of Justice,’ Dr. Alejo Vidal Quadras, afterwards stated that the international community could be confident in the threat posed to the Iranian government by the PMOI after this latest attack. Dr. Vidal Quadras claimed that the assault was a testament to the level of disturbance the PMOI was causing the regime both inside and outside of the country. 

Moreover, it was as a direct result of the abilities and preparedness of the Camp Liberty residents, he claimed, that more residents were not killed. Judging by the size and scale of the rocket attack, it was the regime’s ultimate intention to massacre all PMOI dissidents, not 23. 

The event was marked by a photo exhibition commemorating the 23 dead and a flower-laying ceremony. Rajavi said that the Iranian regime had “launched a missile attack on the heroes and heroines [who are] holding up the standard of this regime’s overthrow and freedom of the people of Iran higher and firmer than ever.”