Mujahideen al-Khalq

The Mujahideen al-Khalq is also known as the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), the Mujahideen al-Khalq Organization (MKO), or the The People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI). Its armed wing is called the National Liberation Army of Iran (NLA). The organization, which started in the 1960s, is a violent guerilla group that opposes the Islamic Iranian government.

The MKO began life as one of the most radical factions opposed to the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and during the 1970s carried out violent attacks against that regime. The group also targeted American interests in Iran, and is believed to have killed a number of Americans.

While aiding the overthrow of the Shah in the 1979 Iranian Revolution, it lost out in the subsequent power struggle and was prohibited from taking part in the post-revolutionary government because of its leftist leanings. Its initial mass protests and demonstrations were clamped down upon by the government and many (some say thousands) supporters and members were arrested and killed. Eventually MKO was driven from Iran and has had to operate from abroad since the early eighties.

Following the initial clamp down on its mass protests, the movement changed tactics and employed targeted assassinations and bomb attacks against representatives and officials of the Islamic Republic. It is difficult to estimate the exact extent of this campaign which still continues, as both MKO and the Iranian government have been accused of exaggerating their claims. The MKO's motive is supposed to be to further fund raising, while the Iranian government has been accused of trying to shift blame for events unrelated (see Haik Hovsepian). The movement has been accused of being responsible for a large number of assassinations and bomb attacks, including the killing of Mohammad Beheshti and Mohammad Javad Bahonar. The movement also launched several full scale military campaigns during the eighties and nineties, the largest of which was an attempt in 1988 to capture Kermanshah. The invasion force was nearly annihilated by Iranian military.

Initially together with some other Iranian exile politicians (like Abolhassan Banisadr) the MKO formed the National Council of Resistance (NCR). Nowadays the MKO is the only significant member organisation of the NCR and the NCR is essentially a front organisation of the MKO.

Since the Iran-Iraq war until the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, the MKO was supported by the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein, which offered military equipment, funding and bases to the organisation. After having initially the centre of the organisation in Paris, France, this was moved after a few years to be in Iraq, too. The group was heaviliy armed by the Hussien regime, given tanks and other weapons. It fought against Iran in 1980s war, and was also used against the Kurds in 1988.

After the American invasion of Iraq the MKO's weaponry was seized and they were placed under-armed guards in a camp outside Baghdad. The MKO has been officially designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation by the United States and is proscribed in the European Union. In June 2003, the group had some of its French properties raided, after suspicions that it was trying to shift its base of operations there. [1] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3010422.stm). This designation has not been accepted unanimously. Only in 2003, a hundred members of the United States Congress signed a letter calling for the lifting of this designation.

In early 2003, the MKO was forced by the U.S. military operating in Iraq to disarm and surrender or face destruction. In August 2004, despite the its own labbeling of the MKO as a terrorist group, the United States granted them Geneva Convention protection. This means they cannot be sent to Iran. Earlier Iran and the United Staets had been negotiating exchanging the MKO leaders for al-Qaida operatives held by Iran. This has lead to incresed speculation that the MKO may be used by the United States in operation against Iran.

Ideologically, the MKO is difficult to describe. While being initially based on an attempt to amalgamate socialist and Islamic thoughts, similar to the teachings of Ali Shariati the MKO was submit to a number of rapid ideological shifts (each allegedly accompanied by severe internal purges) and has developed a strong veneration of its leader couple Ali Rajavi and Maryam Rajavi, which some call personality cult. There have been allegation that the MKO were running prison camps within Iraq and were committing severe human rights breaches. To the Western world, the MKO tries to present itself as a pro-democratic and moderate political movement.

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