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French Try to Stop Iranian Protestors
AP ^ | 6/19/03 | ELAINE GANLEY

Posted on 06/19/2003 3:09:03 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo

PARIS - Paris police rounded up nearly 100 members of an Iranian exile group Thursday to stop them from setting fire to themselves in protest of a French crackdown on their organization.

Three people from the group, the Mujahedeen Khalq, doused themselves with flammable liquid and set themselves on fire in Europe on Thursday — two in Rome and one in Bern, Switzerland. That raised the group's number of self-immolations to seven, even as its leaders appealed for a halt to the practice.

The Mujahedeen Khalq has been protesting in the streets of Paris and other European cities since French police mounted raids Tuesday on their headquarters and other offices.

The French government said the raids were intended to stop the group, fiercely opposed to the Muslim clerical government in Iran, from attacking Iranian diplomatic missions in Europe and elsewhere. The Mujahedeen Khalq has denied the allegations.

The woman who died Thursday set herself on fire a day earlier in Paris, judicial officials said on condition of anonymity. Her identity was not immediately known.

Another woman and a man who burned themselves in front of France's counterintelligence agency in Paris on Wednesday remained in critical condition.

On Thursday, two Mujahedeen Khalq members set themselves afire in front of the French Embassy in Rome. Another set himself ablaze in Bern, Switzerland, after failing in an attempt the day before. The three were severely injured.

Horrified by the grisly spectacle of protesters bursting into flames on the streets of Paris, police on Thursday detained 94 Iranian demonstrators gathered near the Iranian Embassy and elsewhere in Paris. Demonstrations by the group have been banned.

One of the group's co-founders, Maryam Rajavi, issued a statement from detention urging members not to resort to suicide. She was one of 22 people still being held from the raids Tuesday after four others were released.

That point was reiterated by Rajavi's supporters at a news conference later Thursday. The group denied that the violent actions were an established tactic, but some members said the self-immolations were driven by desperation.

"These are spontaneous acts by people who believe the only hope for the future of Iran ... is being jeopardized," said Farid Soulimani, from the National Council of Resistance, the Mujahedeen's so-called parliament in exile.

The group also accused the French government of negotiating with Iran to extradite their jailed co-founder. "To expel Maryam Rajavi would be like condemning her to death," Soulimani said.

Earlier Thursday, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said extradition was not the purpose of the crackdown, but declined to say whether officials would consider deporting those detained back to Iran in the future.

On Tuesday, some 1,300 French agents swarmed into the longtime headquarters of the Mujahedeen, which has been based in France since falling out with the Iranian government shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The group started as a Marxist guerrilla group fighting the regime of the Shah. Despite its leftist leanings, however, it respects Islamic traditions, and women supporters often wear traditional headscarves.

The group's armed wing, based in Iraq (news - web sites), is being disarmed by the U.S.-led occupation forces under a May agreement.

The government has been slow to explain why it suddenly cracked down on a group that had been in France for so long.

Since the raids, government officials have accused the group of trying to set up a support base in France to compensate for losses in Iraq.

In the fullest explanation yet, France's counterintelligence chief said on Wednesday that the group was planning attacks on Iranian diplomatic offices in Europe and elsewhere.

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said in an interview published Thursday in the newspaper Le Monde that the raids on the Iranian exile group were "in our national interest."

The police operation was aimed at "dismantling the nerve center of an organization qualified as terrorist by the European Union (news - web sites)," Raffarin said.

Police initially detained more than 150 members of the Mujahedeen Khalq and seized more than $8 million. The group denies U.S. and European claims that it's involved in terrorism.


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: france; frogflambe; iranianexiles; mujahedeenkhalq

1 posted on 06/19/2003 3:09:03 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
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To: Mr. Mojo

2 posted on 06/19/2003 3:10:40 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
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To: Mr. Mojo

3 posted on 06/19/2003 3:11:48 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
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To: Mr. Mojo

4 posted on 06/19/2003 3:12:54 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
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To: Mr. Mojo
Whom should we root for?

On one hand, any enemy of the French and Iranians should be a friend of FReepers; on the other hand, we are disarming these guys in Iraq and they have communist sympathies.
5 posted on 06/19/2003 3:18:16 PM PDT by 7 x 77
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To: Mr. Mojo
Can you say PASSIVE AGRESSIVE!!!
6 posted on 06/19/2003 3:22:28 PM PDT by 7 x 77
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To: 7 x 77
Whom should we root for?

Well, as far as I can see the difference between the Iranian terrorist group and regular terrorist groups is the Iranian group is only killing themselves and not taking innocents with them. You'd have to be pretty desperate to set yourself ablaze. Perhaps the reason they are marxists is because they don't know that anything else is out there.

7 posted on 06/19/2003 4:15:10 PM PDT by McGavin999
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To: Mr. Mojo
Ah ha... another meaning for 'being known as a hot head'.
8 posted on 06/19/2003 4:34:57 PM PDT by CommandoFrank (Peer into the depths of hell and there is the face of Islam!)
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To: CommandoFrank

9 posted on 06/19/2003 4:38:57 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
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To: Mr. Mojo; CommandoFrank

Smoking!

10 posted on 06/19/2003 4:41:18 PM PDT by csvset
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To: csvset

11 posted on 06/19/2003 4:43:45 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
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To: Mr. Mojo
These folks are adding a burden to the local burn ward.
12 posted on 06/19/2003 4:50:44 PM PDT by csvset
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To: csvset
Flaming lefties, the lot of 'em.
13 posted on 06/19/2003 5:04:19 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
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To: Mr. Mojo
Paging Charles Darwin please pick up the white courtesy phone
14 posted on 06/19/2003 5:07:01 PM PDT by clamper1797 (Per caritate viduaribus orphanibusque sed prime viduaribus)
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To: Mr. Mojo
let them burn, who gives
15 posted on 06/19/2003 5:41:47 PM PDT by Norse
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To: clamper1797

16 posted on 06/19/2003 5:48:38 PM PDT by Stultis
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To: Mr. Mojo
Instead of stopping them, the proper response would be to give them more gasoline and matches.
17 posted on 06/19/2003 8:12:01 PM PDT by Chu Gary
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To: Stultis
Chuck appears to be eyeing one of his test subjects and thinking "and yet another confirmation."
18 posted on 06/19/2003 8:25:09 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
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