ARNHEM, The Netherlands -- A cult, say dissident former members, is by far the best word to describe the inner workings of the MKO.

MKO, the leading Iranian terrorist group, more than 150 of whose members have been detained by French police.

Five dissidents of the movement, formally known as the Mujahedeen Khalq Organization of Iran, have gathered to discuss its fatal flaws in a small flat in this city in the Netherlands, where one of them has been granted political asylum.

"The Mujahedeen are anything but democratic," Karim Haggi Moni, a former "cadre" of the movement who became a dissident in the early 1990s, told AFP.

"The Rajavis (Mujahedeen commander Masud Rajavi and his wife Maryam, who is now in French police custody) behave like they're God's representatives on Earth and are responsible to no one. They brook no criticism. It feels like being in a cult," said Haggi Moni, who used to head Maryam's bodyguards.

Haggi Moni, a man in his early forties who first joined the Mujahedeen one year before Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, said the Rajavis forced all the couples who lived in a Mujahedeen camp in Iraq -- where the movement enjoyed Saddam Hussein's protection -- to split.

"All the men were separated from their wives and children. They also forced us to break all contact with our friends," he said.

Mohammad Hossein Sobhani, a former member of the Mujahedeen's Central Council in Iraq who now lives in Germany, concurred.

"The idea was to prevent spouses from giving each other support, and to compare notes on what they thought of the movement," Sobhani said.

Dissidents in both Germany and the Netherlands say they were forced to write detailed reports about their private lives, and also to report about other members to help leaders detect any "suspicious behaviour".

The five dissidents who answered AFP's questions, all members of the Iran Peywand Association, a group active in the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Germany, had originally joined the Mujahedeen to pursue an ideal: that of unseating first the shah, then the Islamic government who succeeded him.

In order to retain control over militants, Mujahedeen leaders would jail them, inflict repeated beatings, and subject them to "discussions" with cadres that could go on for dozens of hours, they said.

"When I was in Europe, in France, I was forced to stay in a house rented by the Mujahedeen with no TV, no radio, no newspapers, and I was not allowed to learn French. The objective was to keep me dependent on the movement," Haggi Moni said.

Despite the threats they face, the dissidents say they will continue to speak up against the Mujahedeen: "An organization that tells its members to set themselves on fire when one of their leaders is arrested -- and we know this was an order -- is potentially extremely dangerous," said one.

A woman has died from her wounds and several other Iranians were in serious condition Saturday after setting themselves on fire in a spate of self-immolations to protest the French crackdown.