‘Achieving milestones toward a free Iran’

OPINION:

It is a great honor to be with you here today from Washington, D.C. The cry for liberty and our support for you, Madame Rajavi, and all of your colleagues, could not be stronger and could not be louder. We thank you for your leadership, your courage, your vision, and your faith, which has inspired us very greatly. Especially pleased that we are able to address the freedom fighters in Iran who are in harm’s way every moment and who are not hiding, but are in open resistance on the streets of Iran. We have enormous respect for you. Your welfare and safety are our primary objective.

You know, what is amazing about this meeting this year is not just the technology, and Madame Rajavi and your colleagues, I commend you for the ability to communicate the way we are communicating under all the challenges that you have overcome. So, wonderful job and congratulations to all the many people who have worked on it. To all our international friends and colleagues, again, we are honored to be with you here today.

One of the amazing things about this event is it is not an anniversary. We are not memorializing a past event. What we are doing is looking to the future. We are pursuing a goal and achieving new milestones every year towards a free and democratic Iran. Today, we take another step in that direction. I want to echo Governor Ridge’s comments thanking the Albanian officials, the president, the prime minister, whose, in Pandeli’s words, actions speak louder than words. The heroic work that the Albanian people and its leaders have done to protect the MEK is legendary. Goes back to what they did during World War II, and we thank them and honor them for the safety, leadership, and courage that they have provided.

We look at some of the positive things, again, that have been noted by many of the speakers: the Congressional resolution here in Washington just a short time ago, bipartisan, as the support for freedom in Iran has always been; and, the trial that started yesterday in Belgium for Assadollah Assadi who takes on the new title of diplomat-terrorist. You would have to leave it to a criminal enterprise like the regime in Tehran to actually inaugurate the role of a diplomat-terrorist. And that is only one of many active against the forces of freedom. But the fact of his trial in Belgium as we speak here today is very significant. It goes to the accountability issue which I would like to return to in a moment.

The other event, just a few weeks ago in June, was a finding by the International Atomic Energy Administration, which is really the U.N., and I quote, “Iran has continued to increase its stockpile of enriched uranium and remains in violation of its deal with world powers.” That is not the United States speaking, that is not the MEK speaking, that is the United Nations. No great surprise that the regime that signed that agreement could not be trusted.

I would like to close by just returning, Mrs. Rajavi, to something that you said. You talked about the crimes of this regime and its members: 120,000 people massacred, MEK members; 30,000 political prisoners killed; terrorist attacks on Ashraf 1 and 2, thousands and thousands of people wounded and killed and maimed. And you said something which I know is very close to you but also close to every one of us on this conference. There has to be accountability. Someone has to make the decision and have the resources and the willpower to hold these criminals responsible. This is a crime of such magnitude that it cannot be written off with a truth commission. It cannot be written off with a book or a footnote or a movie. These are crimes of the most serious nature. They rival by their evil and intent Nazi Germany, what happened in Bosnia, Rwanda, and many, many other places.

We should establish a world-class crimes against humanity documentation center. We should analyze the evidence that you have already collected. In fact, I have seen some of it in Ashraf 3. We should record the testimony of victims and eyewitnesses. There needs to be a systematic forensic examination, recording and documentation, with video and digital evidence. Like our technology here today, the people who committed all these crimes, who murdered thousands and thousands of people, they did not do it secretly. They did not even do it very cleverly. They did it with great arrogance. The arrogance that highlights evil. So, the documentation is very available. Their emails, their texts, their statements, pictures, photographs, videos. That all should be put together in a documentation center, maybe even by a third party to enhance its credibility. And at some point, as we mark more and more milestones, these people should be brought to justice like the individual now being tried in Belgium. Thank you very much, Mrs. Rajavi. Thank you for your leadership and your inspiration.