Fact-finding Mission to Camp Ashraf by Members of European Parliament Debunks HRW report on MEK
On September 21, 2005, André Brie and Paulo Casaca, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) published “People’s Mojahedin of Iran: Mission Report” following an official fact finding visit to Camp Ashraf. The fact-finding mission was prompted by a May 2005 Human Rights Watch report on the MEK. The EP members conducted a full investigation into the alleged human rights violations by the MEK contained in HRW report.
To this end, unlike HRW, which relied only on 12 hours of telephone interviews with 12 individuals with well-established ties to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), in addition to extensive research, a delegation of MEPs visited Camp Ashraf in Iraq, held face-to-face private interviews with PMOI members and officials, and conducted impromptu inspections of the sites of alleged abuses.
The report found the allegations contained in HRW report unfounded, procedurally flawed, and substantively inaccurate.
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US Commander in Charge of Camp Ashraf Rejects HRW’s Allegations against MEK
On May 27, 2005, Col. David Phillips ‘‘Griffin-6’’, commander of the 89th Military Police Brigade and responsible for the safety and security of Camp Ashraf in that capacity from January-December 2004, wrote a letter to Mr. Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, regarding Human Rights Watch’s May 25, 2005 report on alleged human rights abuses inside Camp Ashraf, home to nearly 3,400 members of the MEK. Col. Phillip’s letter was subsequently sent to members of US Congress and later published in the Congressional Record.