Maryam Rajavi: Call for Justice; End Impunity for Perpetrators of Crimes against Humanity in Iran and Syria

A conference was held on Saturday, November 26, in Paris, in the presence of Maryam Rajavi. In her speech, she said:

Prime Minister Ghozali,
Honorable ministers, senators and mayors,
Distinguished jurists, 
Honorable spokesmen and envoys of the great nation of Syria and the heroic city of Aleppo,
My warmest greetings to you all.

We are holding this gathering at a time when the Iranian Resistance has successfully completed its major initiative to date, which was the safe and secure relocation of all members of the PMOI and a major part of the body of the Iranian people’s resistance movement from Camp Liberty to Europe. In this crucial endeavor, our Resistance prevailed over the malice and objectives of the Iranian regime. In the end, the regime’s countless political and intelligence schemes proved futile. And, the mullahs failed to accomplish their objectives even after conducting successive terrorist and rocket attacks against the residents. Therefore, the Resistance’s final victory in this project provides one of the most important indications that the clerical regime has weakened and is close to its ultimate demise.

Today, the mullahs who plotted extensively to annihilate all the members of the PMOI at Camp Liberty, have suffered a serious setback and there is not a day when they do not lament about the dangers of the rise of the PMOI’s popularity within Iran.

In contrast, the tempered steel, namely the PMOI heroes who remained steadfast for the past 14 years in Ashraf, and the valiant commanders of Ashraf and Liberty, have embarked on a new phase of progress and advancement with ever greater resolve and increasing passion as prospects of victory shine brighter than ever.

As Massoud Rajavi said, “The spirit of a Mojahed is unwavering, whether in Evin prison or Camp Ashraf, Camp Liberty or anywhere else; A Mojahed is a freedom-fighter and belongs to the Iranian nation’s great army of freedom; resolute, firm and steadfast under any circumstances, at any time and at any place.”

We have not forgotten the 141 noble men and women who died in the criminal attacks waged by Khamenei and Nouri al-Maliki’s henchmen. We will never forget the nine PMOI members who were taken hostage. Pursuing justice at an international court for these killings and the plundered properties of the residents of Ashraf is part of the broader rights of the Iranian people. We would never give up on striving for restitution.

Dear friends,
Another sign of the Resistance’s progress and growth is the escalation of popular protests and strikes in Tehran and other major cities of Iran.

There are weeks when nearly ten protests are held in front of the mullahs’ parliament. Bazaar merchants are on strike in a number of cities. Students stage protest gatherings at their universities. Political prisoners stage hunger strikes in Tehran’s Evin, Gohardasht in Karaj and other prisons.

People whose properties have been stolen by regime-affiliated institutions stage repeated protests in front of government centers. Recently, Rouhani’s Interior Minister revealed that various groups of people had taken to the streets and staged a total of 200 acts of protest in Mashhad alone (capital of the northeastern Province of Khorassan Razavi, and the second largest Iranian city). These are protests against the regime’s plunders.

These cries of protest are directed at the very pillars and foundations of the clerical regime. The problem is not limited to the unfair layoffs, the unpaid wages and salaries, and the various forms of discrimination and injustice. The main problem is the very existence of a regime that persistently generates such misery, fraud and devastation.

This is what our people want: Such circumstances of despotism, poverty and regression must be replaced by freedom, happiness and progress.

Today, both factions of the regime have failed to achieve their most important objectives in signing the nuclear agreement. Everyone recalls that the six world powers, especially the United States, gave in to the regime’s demands and granted them numerous concessions in return for just a single retreat. At the time, I warned against giving the mullahs such unjustified concessions, which abandoned the implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions and prevented the complete dismantling of the regime’s nuclear program.

Yet, the nuclear agreement, which could have provided an opportunity for the regime to overcome some of its crises, has now become detrimental. Khamenei describes it as “purely damaging” while Rouhani’s promises for the post-JCPOA era have proven hollow.

One year after the lifting of sanctions, poverty and hunger continue to haunt our people more than ever. In the meantime, the regime’s internal factions have begun settling scores against each other by disclosing a plethora of internal and external secrets, instances of financial fraud, as well as ethical scandals. Today, the mullahs are no longer able to control their own internal factions or contain social protests, as they previously did.

The mullahs are at a crucial impasse, to the extent that they have started raising doubts and questions about the regime’s future. So, our people are doing their part by staging daily protests. What are they seeking? They are seeking the overthrow of the Velayat-e Faqih regime through their great uprising for freedom.

Under such circumstances, the Iranian regime is trying to preserve and protect the West’s defeated policy of appeasement. They want Western governments, and especially the United States and the EU, to continue their previous years’ policy which has helped the religious tyranny survive in Iran and carry on with its war and terrorism around the region. After the US presidential elections, however, the people of Iran, the Iranian Resistance, and Middle East nations and states expect that the new US administration would revise its policy of the past three decades and particularly of the last 16 years.

The US policy on Iran and the region during this time was based on rapprochement with the mullahs despite countless disastrous fallouts, including a devastated Iraq, a blood-drenched Syria, and the blocking of the road to change in Iran. It is not without reason that the ruling mullahs are so frightened by the approaching end of what they describe as a “golden era.”

The mullahs’ windfall gains from the misled policies of the US were significantly crucial to their rule. Today, they explicitly say that the new US cabinet could be a cabinet of “terror.” Khamenei expressed his deep fear by saying: “We are pondering how to get the country passed through the likely problems.”

The mullahs’ agents and lobbies are also doing whatever they can to prevent or delay this overhaul. As far as outside factors are concerned, indeed, what could have been more helpful to Tehran than the US policy of appeasement? Let us take a look at what happened:

The bombing and disarming of the PMOI in Iraq was the mullahs’ most important demand;
Opening up the path for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to gradually occupy Iraq;
Allowing the Iranian regime to use Iraq as a launching pad for spreading its terrorism and war to the rest of the region;
Violating Washington’s commitment to protection and security of the PMOI in Ashraf and Liberty;
Remaining silent and passive on repeated massacres of the PMOI;
Reaching out to the religious dictatorship in the midst of the Iranian people’s uprising for freedom, and giving concessions to the Iranian regime during the nuclear talks.

Is it not true that it was the mullahs’ suppression of the people of Iraq and Syria that caused the rise and expansion of Daesh?

Is it not true that allowing the mullahs to send their agents and troops to Syria created such catastrophes, including the destruction of a country, carnage for hundreds of thousands of people, millions of refugees, and the scourge of terrorism and insecurity in the heart of Europe and the United States?

We have said this repeatedly for years, and I will repeat it again, that the worst mistake committed by the United States in the region was its appeasement of the mullahs ruling Iran. Now, the region can move towards peace and tranquility to the extent that the US distances itself from this disastrous policy. Likewise, the European Union may have a positive impact on the situation in Iran and the Middle East to the extent that it makes its political and commercial ties with Tehran contingent on an end to executions.

Let me sum up the expectations that we, our people, and the rest of the region have from the international community.

Our demand is for the international community to end its policy of giving concessions to the Velayat-e Faqih regime. Our demand is to end the silence and inaction over the crimes of the Iranian regime in Iran and throughout the region. What we seek instead is their respect for the Iranian people’s quest for freedom.

Dear friends!
In conjunction with the escalation of domestic and international tensions for the regime, the Justice Seeking Movement for the massacred political prisoners has posed a major challenge to the mullahs through its expansion both inside Iran and abroad.

In recent months, the Iranian Resistance exposed new information obtained by its members and supporters inside Iran regarding the identities of more victims and more murderers.

On the international level, the JVMI committee — “Justice for the Victims of the 1988 Massacre in Iran” – announced its launch in Geneva. The official registration of the US joint Congressional resolution condemning the massacre of political prisoners in 1988 and the calls by various parliamentary groups across Europe were valuable steps, which I hope would advance at a faster pace and bring about the ultimate achievement.

This call for justice has targeted the foundations of the religious dictatorship, and this is why the Velayat-e Faqih regime is so vulnerable to it. This is an awakening and a call to all the oppressed.

The things that happened in Khamenei’s special torture chamber in Kahrizak, especially in 2009, as well as the crimes committed against the imprisoned youths, must be exposed and brought to light. What was the story behind the deaths of the physicians who worked at Kahrizak?

The war crimes committed during Khomeini’s eight-year war, the systematic executions of our Arab compatriots, and the killings of groups of our Sunni countrymen and the oppressed people of Baluchistan and Kurdistan; Our Baha’i compatriots and women who are suppressed due to their faith, and the chain murders of the 1990s.

Yes, all of the cases of the past three decades must be investigated.

Under the mullahs’ rule, many cries have been suffocated, much blood has been spilled unjustly, and many rights have been trampled. Now the time has come for seeking justice for the spilling of blood and the trampled rights, and of course for the most fundamental right of the Iranian people to freedom and sovereignty.

At the heart of this Justice Seeking Movement lies the objective of uprooting the oppressors. The main demand of the Justice Seeking Movement is the overthrow of the Velayat-e Faqih regime in its entirety. This is the primary goal of the people of Iran, and we can and we must achieve it.

Dear friends,

Today, Khamenei has increasingly and deeply tied the fate of his corrupt regime to the carnage haunting the people of Syria. He tried in vain to justify the regime’s aggression and bloodshed under the pretext of defending the Holy Shrine (of Hazrat Zeinab). Now, he is failing to unite even the internal factions of the regime over the continuation of this filthy war.

The war in Syria has nothing to do with the people of Iran and their national interests.

You heard chants of thousands of Iranians in their demonstrations commemorating Cyrus the Great in Pasargadae, who cried out, “I want to sacrifice my life for Iran, not the Gaza Strip, not Lebanon!” Because everyone knows that Khamenei’s warmongering in Iraq, Syria and Yemen is only intended to maintain the veil of repression over Iran and to preserve the rule of the Velayat-e Faqih regime.

I reiterate that, in diametric opposition to the mullahs, we and our people stand side-by-side with the courageous and honorable people of Syria. We consider their innocent children as our own and we feel their pain and suffering. We shed tears for their devastated cities. We are restless because they are homeless. We see ourselves as the citizens of the blood-drenched Aleppo.

Aleppo is one of the centers of civilization, which is now persevering under horrifying bombardments in continuation of its 6000-year legacy. Aleppo is the epitome of suffering and endurance of our human world; and Aleppo will rise once again in freedom and prosperity despite what the criminals have done to Syria and despite the shameful policies of appeasement.

Syria is not alone. Syria lives in the hearts of the people of the world and no doubt it will triumph and it will be liberated.

Dear friends,
As for the present crisis in the region, any solution seeking to end war and instability and to address the problem of Daesh (ISIS/ISIL) in particular must factor in the need for ending the regime’s meddling in the region and especially in Syria. Nothing is more catastrophic than cooperating with the Iranian regime in the fight against Daesh. This would only strengthen the Iranian regime and support its terrorism while nourishing Daesh politically and socially.

The fight against Daesh is inseparable from fighting the mullahs and the IRGC. The more the mullahs are pushed back, the closer Daesh will come to its demise.

We urge all nations and states in the Middle East to evict the Iranian regime from the entire region. We also caution Western governments against giving any form of assistance to the crisis-riddled regime of Iran. We advise them against acting as a crutch for the crumbling Iranian regime by cutting deals with the IRGC. Instead, they should recognize the Iranian people’s Resistance for regime change, freedom and democracy.

My fellow compatriots,
This movement relies on its own and its people’s suffering and sacrifice. This principle has always illuminated the movement’s path. Continuing the fight, vigorously paving the way, trailblazing through sacrifices, and showing an astonishing degree of resolve by human beings move us along the road to victory.

These are the brilliant principles Massoud Rajavi established for this movement and educated the PMOI, generation after generation, including those who stepped into this struggle years ago, and the passionate, young men and women who are rising up today to realize the seemingly impossible. This is the will power that has protected our movement and kept it firm and strong despite the hideous situation in the region and the world. This resolve will aid the movement — more than it did in the past — to pave the road for the Iranian people’s triumph as domestic and international conditions change.

Indeed, nothing but ultimate victory is conceivable for such men and women.
Rest assured, those who do not want anything for themselves will achieve everything for their people.

With determination and exuberance, prepare for the overthrow of the religious tyranny in 1,000 bastions of struggle for freedom, 1,000 Ashrafs.

Yes, set up 1,000 Ashrafs to establish freedom and popular sovereignty in Iran, a free republic that will respect freedom, separation of religion and state, and gender equality, and one that abolishes the death penalty.

The day of freedom for the people of Iran and the day of peace and tranquility for the region is within reach.

Hail to the Iranian people;
Hail to the martyrs;
Hail to freedom.