Left-Extremist Endeavours

"Nationaler Widerstandsrat Iran" (NWRI - "National Resistance
Council of Iran")
- Representation of the "People’s Mujahiddin of Iran" (MEK) -
- Basic data for Germany -
Founded: 1981 (in Paris)
Headquarters: Cologne
Leadership: Speaker for Germany
Members: about 900 (1998: approx. 900)
Publications: inter alia, "Modjahed" ("Religious Fighter"),
weekly
As in previous years, the most active element within the spectrum
of opposition was "Nationaler Widerstandsrat Iran" (NWRI -
"National Resistance Council of Iran"), the world-wide political
arm of the "People’s Mujahiddin of Iran" (MEK). Highlights of its
propaganda activities were several demonstrations and rallies
held by up to 4,500 supporters of the organization from Germany
and abroad on the occasion of the World Economic Summit in
Cologne in June. With chanted slogans and on posters, demonstrators
called upon the representatives of the G8 countries to
stop "the appeasement policy vis-à-vis the terrorist mullah regime"
and to break off all economic and political relations with
Iran. At the central event on 18 June, also a speech by Maryam
RADYAVI (whom the NRWI in 1993 had elected the "future (female)
President of Iran") was transmitted live from the MEK
headquarters in Iraq. For the first time for years, violent clashes
with police forces occurred alongside a meeting that, contrary to
legal provisions, had not been notified to public authorities.
NWRI supporters continued their systematic fund-raising activities
(house-to-house and street collections) carried out on the
pretext of providing refugee aid.
Despite its extensive propaganda activities and contrary to its
own statements, the NWRI is losing ground. This is due, in particular,
to the policy of the Khatami Government, which is popular
with the Iranian population and even further reduces the little
popularity enjoyed by the MEK among Iran’s population and Iranians
living abroad. Within the Iranian opposition-in-exile, the
MEK has had an isolated position for years since it disparages all
other groups as "agents of the regime" and claims to be the "only
democratic alternative" to the Iranian regime. In reality, however,
the organization itself has a considerable democracy deficit,
which is coupled with a heightened propensity to use violence.
This is evidenced by the strictly hierarchic cadre structure, in
conjunction with a sect-like leadership cult centred around the
couple Massoud and Maryam RADYAVI, by the propagandization
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