AP, PARIS , June 28, 2008 _ Thousands of supporters of an Iranian Opposition group called on the European Union and the United States to remove the organization from terror blacklists at a massive rally Saturday outside Paris.
The Paris-based National Council Resistance of Iran _ an umbrella group that includes the blacklisted People’s Mujahedeen of Iran or PMOI _ was removed from Britain’s list of banned terror groups earlier this week.
But PMOI leader Maryam Rajavi said the group’s status in the U.S. and EU was hindering its ability to fight for regime change in Iran.
In a speech at the Paris rally, she called the terrorist labels “unjust.”
“Do not deprive the world from the most effective means to combat the religious fascism and terrorism,” Rajavi, dressed in a blue suit and headscarf, told the boisterous crowd. “Instead, side with those who can bring the Iranian people freedom.”
The organization said more than 70,000 people attended Saturday’s rally at an exhibition center in the northern Paris suburb of Villepinte, including many people bused in from neighboring countries in Europe. Some participants arrived from the U.S., Canada and countries in the Middle East and northern Africa, it said. There was no independent confirmation of the PMOI’s crowd estimate.
British lawmakers removed the PMOI from the country’s terror list on Monday, after a seven-year campaign by the group. The move gives the group more freedom to organize and raise money in Britain.
Fifteen British lawmakers were in Paris for Saturday’s rally, including former Home Secretary David Waddington, organizers said.
Waddington said in a speech to the rally that the British decision was “an important step,” and that he had attended the Paris gathering to “celebrate.”
“Now the PMOI can get on with its work,” he said later in a telephone interview.
Although the PMOI participated in Iran’s Islamic Revolution, it later became opposed to the clerical government. Members of the group moved to Iraq in the early 1980s and fought Iran’s Islamic rulers from there until the United States invaded in 2003. American troops have since disarmed thousands of PMOI members.
The group says it renounced violence in 2001 and should no longer be listed as a terrorist organization.