FRANCE DECIMATED THE MOJAHEDEEN KHALQ
PARIS 17 June (IPS) French anti-terrorist Police decimated early Tuesday on
Tuesday morning the Mojahedeen Khalq Organisation (MKO) by attacking its head
quarters in a Paris suburb, arresting at least 165 members, including Mrs.
Maryam Rajavi, co-leader of the Organisation with her husband, Mr. Mas’ood
Rajavi and Mr. Kazem Rajavi, a brother of the MKO leader, the Police said.
Mrs. Rajavi was latter released, sources said.
The operation, requested by Judge Jean Louis Bruguyeres, concerned several houses of the MKO members, but the most spectacular one was in the small town of Auvers Sur Oise, on the beach of the Oise River, where police found 1. 500.000 US dollars in the 100 notes, extensive amounts of computer and very sophisticated communication equipments.
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said the Mojahedeen Khalq Organisation, the main armed opposition to Iran's Islamic rulers based in Baghdad until the Americans disarmed it when they attacked Iraq, wanted to turn their base in Auvers into a "rear base" after losing its guerrilla base in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion.
"The real question is that why we did not act earlier and waited so longtime?" he told a French Television.
But a spokesman for the National Iranian Council of Resistance, the political wing of the MKO in London described the attack as a "despicable act, a blatant violation of the rights of refugees that has only been undertaken to appease and mollify the religious, terrorist dictatorship ruling Iran".
Police said it had also detained and 158 held for being questioned by counterintelligence experts.
According to the Interior Ministry’s statement, the sweep was carried out on the orders of anti-terrorism Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere for "criminal association aimed at preparing terrorism acts and for financing a terrorist enterprise".
This was the first time since the EU declared the Organisation a "terrorist" group that French authorities have moved to detain group members.
"The sites of the MKO's implanted in the Paris region "are considered organisational, logistical and operational bases of questionable financing", the Ministry statement said.
Mr. Rajavi, who’s whereabouts are not known, was an admirer of Grand Ayatollah Khomeini and an opponent of the Shah until the victory of the Islamic revolution, but fled to France with Mr. Abolhasan Banisadr, Islamic Iran’s first president and sat up residence in Auvers-Sur-Oise, after Mr. Khomeini ordered a brutal crackdown on the group, but left France for Iraq in 1986, joining Iraq’s dictator Saddam Hoseyn in war against Iran.
Journalists and diplomats where puzzled at both the size and depth of the operation in the one hand and its timing on the other, with some speculating that by almost decimating the group, France wanted to appease the Islamic Republic at a time that it is under intense international pressures, including from the US and the EU for its nuclear activities.
But other observers, knowing well the mentality of the French and particularly its Police, said the MKO might have been engaged in anti-French activities, possibly espionage, in favour of the now toppled Iraqi dictator, who had supported, financed and equipped the Organisation for years.
Meanwhile, German police on Tuesday foiled an attempted occupation of the Iranian Consulate General in the north German city of Hamburg, arresting 50 people in the process, the official news agency IRNA reported, quoting a Hamburg police spokesman.
"Some 20 people climbed over the embassy fence at 11 a.m., entering the compound. Four people managed to force their way into the consulate building and were arrested by Iranian security personnel", said Ralf Kuntz.
"A total of 50 people were detained by Hamburg police", he added, pointing to a number of arrests outside the consulate general after anti-Iranian government protestors spray-painted the exterior walls of the compound.
Other members of the Organisation gathered in front of the Iranian embassy in Berlin, chanting anti-Iranian slogans. Police dispersed them. ENDS MKO FRANCE 17603