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A letter from Lord Avebury to Human Rights Watch |
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Friday, 27 May 2005 |
Date: Friday, May 27 @ 07:52:56 CDT
Topic: Political Support
Dear Mr Stork,
I have read the HRW report on alleged torture by the People’s Mojahedin
of Iran with a sense of déja vu, having had a correspondence with
Christopher George in 1994 and then with Kenneth Roth, Eric Goldstein
and Hanni Megally of HRW in 1997, concerning allegations made against
the PMOI by exiles in Germany who were interviewed by Elahe Hicks of
HRW.
You published those allegations without giving the PMOI an opportunity
of reply, and you have now done the same again. I am astonished, that
after the severe criticism the previous exercise attracted, you saw fit
to ignore such an elementary principle of natural justice a second
time, and with the same target.
The report doesn’t say how you selected the twelve former members of
the PMOI who were interviewed by telephone. Nor does it mention the
propaganda campaign waged intensively against the PMOI and its members
by the Iranian secret police under their Ministry of Intelligence and
Security. The persons interviewed by HRW had previously been identified
as agents by the PMOI.
The report claims that the allegations made by the interviewees were
corroborated by ‘other evidence’ but gives no indication of its source
or nature. No forensic evidence was sought or obtained to back up the
allegations of torture, which are treated as facts.
One of the interviewees was Kerim Haghi or Haqi, who had been
interviewed by Elahe Hicks on February 11 or 12, 1996, see reference in
the correspondence. Mr Haghi made similar allegations to Dr Maurice
Copithorne, the former UN Rapporteur, but Dr Copithorne was unable to
find any confirmation and published nothing on the subject.
According to the PMOI, Mohammad Hossein Sobhani, a key HRW witness, is
an Iranian agent, and they had published evidence in August 2002
showing that he was a team leader of the Ministry of Intelligence with
the task of training other members engaged in the campaign against the
PMOI. It is common knowledge that the Iranians have a nest of spies in
Germany.
When you were asked by Radio Farda, the Farsi language US government
radio operating from Prague why you didn’t contact the PMOI to ask for
their response to the allegations, you acknowledged that it was your
standard practice to allow those accused a right of reply, but you gave
no explanation of why you departed from that practice in this instance.
The interviewer evidently wasn’t aware that you had done the same thing
before with Elahe Hicks report, or he might have pursued the question
further. I would be grateful if you would now give me your explanation
for this extraordinary departure from HRW practice.
When you were asked about the PMOI’s invitations to visit their camps
in Iraq, you replied ‘This is the first I have heard of it’.
Considering that it was a major issue in my correspondence with your
predecessors in 1994 and 1997, that defies belief. I can’t believe that
HRW is so inefficient as to have lost all knowledge of such a
controversial matter, after being reminded of the numerous invitations
in several of my letters. I think you knew perfectly well that HRW had
been invited to visit the camps, but chose to deny it for political
reasons.
Your conduct of this investigation is disreputable and biased, and it
has seriously tarnished the reputation of Human Rights Watch, and
undermined public confidence in the integrity of your human rights work
as a whole. Whatever you may think of the PMOI politically, you have
broken elementary rules of fairness by publishing charges against them
which have no foundation in credible evidence, and without giving them
an opportunity of reply.
Yours sincerely,
Eric Avebury |
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