Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka
Çapê-Rivista Stampti-Dentro de la Prensa-Baszn Özeti
In interviews, Mujahidin defectors
described a brutal side of the organization
in Iraq. where it had been based
since 1986.
. After the 1991 Gulf War. they said,
. the Iraq government ordered Mujahid- .
. in soldiers to help suppress revolts
against Saddam by Kurds andShiites.
"We were told that if the revolts succeeded
in overthrowing Saddam Hussein
it would be the end of our movement,"
said Karim Haghi, 42. a former
bodyguard of the Rajavis who is a
political refugee in Europe, in a telephone
interview. "Mrs. Rajavi told us
to kill them with tanks and try to preserve
our bullets for other operations."'
.
Hl!,gllisaid he was jailed, and eventually
escaped
Former members said they were
forced to divorce and some had their
children taken from them and sent to
families in Europe for adopHon.'
They said their passports were taken
from them and they were given new
identities, and they were forced at.
group meetings to confess their ..sins ....
sessions that were videotaped as evi- .
dence if members tried to defect.
Mohammed Hosein Sobhani, 42.
also a former bodyguard of the Rajavis,
said in a telephone interview that he .
was forced to divorce his wife. Their
daughter was taken out of Iraq when
she was 6 and adopted by an Iranian
couple in Denmark.
"They told my daughter. 'Your father
died in a Mùjahidin: operation,' and I
was forbidden to have any contact with
..her," he said, adding that he has since
tracked down his daughter, who is now
18." .
. " Meanwhile, the fate of the Mujahidin
in France is uncertain. French authorities
say those who are legal residents
have. a right to remain in France
and they have no intention of deporting
any of them to Iran, where they
would certainly be tried for treason.
Mrs. Rajavi, for example, has politic-
.al refugee status until 2006. As for her
.husband. who according to American
intelligence was last known to be living
in Iraq. there is no information on
his whereabouts or even if he is still
alive.
The !'lew York TImes
Shia leaders feel heat of the
people' s.anger
:;J ..
Top clergy struggle
to maintain authority
over extremists
urging them to
oppose coalition
efforts to run Iraq.
Charles Clover reports .
With daily violence against
coalition soldiers in the
Sunni Muslim region in central
Iraq, the country's
majority Shia population,
concentrated in the south,
appears increasingly divided
over whether to support or
oppose US-led efforts to run
Iraq.' .
Iraq's top-ranking Shia
clergy. collectively referred
to as the Hawza. report they
are under growing pressure
from extremist Shia religious
groups and rural Shia
tribesmen to take a stronger .
line against the' coalition -
and even to declare a jihad
(holy war) against the foreign
occupiers. .
The Hawza. which keeps a
strong spiritual hold on
Iraq's Shia, has maintained
an uneasy working relationship
with coalition forces
since the end of the war. 'But
it appears increasingly "pàralysed",
in the words of Dr
Wameedh al Nathmi, a political
scientist at the University
of Baghdad, and has
been fighting to retain its .
authority in the face of
direct challenges from radi- .
cal clerics.
"The people are every day
accusing the Hawza of being
aloof from reality. We are
under a lot of pressure,"
says Shei~h Ali al-Ruba'i, a
An Iraqi prays at a Shia holy shrine. Many Shia are angered by the way coalition forces treat people in their seàrch for weapons
representative of Ayatollah
Mohammed Ishaq Fayad,
one of three clerics who lead
the Hawza.
He says Iraq's Shia population
is feeling increasingly
hostile about how the coalition
is managing Iraq. complaining
not only of intrusive
weapons searches and
brutality by coalition soldiers,
but also that basic services
such as electricity and
water have not returned to
pre-war levels even two
months after the end of the
fighting..
"The coalition troops are.
taking dogs into' houses,
invading people's homes in
,their search for weapons.
When they. arrest someone,
they put a bag on his head,
handcuff him, and.leave him
.lying, in the sun. for two
'1(~\l.rS..Is t~s .$..~_.~~Y"they
. treat people in the USand in
:Europe?
, "Of course this will create;
problems. The Shia are ..
pressing the Ulama [clergy]
to be tougher withthe coali-
.' tion, even to declare a
jihad," he says. Last week,
the issue of weapons
searches triggered the first
anti-coalition violence in
Shia areas si~ce the end of
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