Takrit camp 16

One of the detention camps of Iranian prisoners in Iraq.

Camp 16 of Takrit was set up in early November 1988. It was only during the exchange of prisoners that the existence of this camp was revealed to the Red Cross. Camp 16 was located exactly in front of Camp 12 (Takrit Camp 12) and Camps 11 (Takrit Camp 11), 14 (Takrit Camp 14) and 15 (Takrit Camp 15) were located around it.

Geographical and architectural characteristics

Takrit camp 16 consisted of two main parts: there were two extensive silos in the first part and another three large silos were located in the second part plus an annex consisting of 25 small prisons.; the five large sheds measured  6 meters high, 20 meters wide and 6 meters long.

The main part: This camp had five large sanatoriums measuring 20 x 60 meters and 6 meters high. The rigid structure of the building was  a truss. Sanatoriums 1 and 2 were separated from the other three sanatoriums by barbed wire. The width of this barbed wire was about 4 meters. The walls of the sanatoriums were made of galvanized sheets, the middle of which was filled with unolith. Its roof was also made of straw wire (a type of building structure that is used to make the roof of places impermeable). It had a large sliding door. The camp was surrounded by 17-meter-wide barbed wire,   also with a high voltage cable between the barbed wire .

Annex: Near Camp 16 and at a distance of 200-300 meters from this camp, there was another set of 25 rooms, which was completely separated from Camp 16 . This building, which was known as the four-walled building among the prisoners, was built within a year before the exchange of prisoners following the arrival of 200-300 prisoners, and the number of prisoners in it reached 1000 by September 1989. This square building had a 2 x 3  meters wide corridor leading to the outside. After entering through this corridor, there was a courtyard in the middle of the building, which was covered with sand, and the adjoining rooms were located around this courtyard. 30-70 captives lived in these rooms. In front of the rooms, there was a one-meter-wide  porch. Also, the rooms were 50 cm from the ground and there were two steps from the yard to the room. In April 1990, the walls of some rooms were destroyed and as a result of their integration, seven rooms were constructed.

Camp facilities

To ventilate the sanatorium, in addition to the window, which was installed close to the ceiling, there were about five fans. Of course, it was   the same windows providing the lighting of the sanatorium . Ventilation was done in the annex through windows that were in every room. These windows were approximately one meter by one meter and opened to the yard. Apart from these, there was no other opening; Also, a ceiling fan was installed for each of the rooms, which was used for ventilation if the Iraqis agreed.

Considering that Takrit 16 was a military camp, the floors of the sanatoriums were made of concrete. At first, sponge mattresses were provided to the prisoners, but because the prisoners did not have access to the toilet at night, it caused a mess as regarded hygiene, and this made the prisoners  throw out the sponge mattresses and be content with the concrete floor until after some time Iraqis  provided them with blankets to furnish the sanatorium . There was a kitchen for the whole camp, which was located between five sanatoriums; There were three sanatoriums in the front and two sanatoriums in the back, and the kitchen was next to the two sanatoriums in the back. The kitchen was run by Iranian prisoners who were responsible for cooking food for the prisoners.

Shortly after the establishment of the sanatorium, there were two WCs with eight toilet fountains and eight showers, one of which was shared by sanatoriums 1 and 2 . But later, separate toilets were built for each sanatorium, which were located next to the sanatoriums and between them. Also, they had put a 17-kilogram tin container inside each of the sanatoriums so that it could be used for urination from the time the lights were turned out until the next morning at 8 a.m . Also, seven or eight attached toilet fountains were installed next to the bathroom – booths .

At first, the bathroom with eight showers was only in sanatoriums 1 and 2. But later, the bathroom was provided for other sanatoriums. The water tank  was placed on the ceiling of the bathroom. with five marks that only had a tap and no showers. Bathing was done in turns and the prisoners did not have access to hot water.The annex bathroom was located in a room of 9 square meters, without a shower and was separated by a wall with only a few taps. In fact, they were divided into smaller rooms, some of which also had doors. But most of the time, the prisoners did not have access to hot water. There was no bucket of water in annex 16; Therefore, prisoners took their drinking water with them to the sanatorium in a glass during the night .

A small room named infirmary was located near the exit door and next to the kitchen. But the health situation in the camp of the unregistered was in an acute condition; Thus, due to the lack of sanitary facilities and severe lack of medicine, lice spread in the camp and diseases such as scabies, dysentery, tuberculosis, renal diseases, etc. were prevalent in the camp. Dysentery claimed more casualties from among prisoners. Among its victims  were Jamshid from Mashhad and Alisha from Shiraz; Of course, they gave antibiotic pills in the infirmary, and some of the Iranian captives such as   Ali Yousefzadeh from Tabriz and Behzad Atrafkar Roshan, who was a medical student, worked in the infirmary. To protect the camp, in addition to four guard towers and the ring-shaped barbed wire around the camp, past the sliding door and inside the sanatorium, two rooms had been  installed for the guards. Also, to protect the annex, a guard room had been installed in the courtyard of the annex next to the bathroom and toilet. Prisoners were deprived of  facilities such as barbershop, and cultural facilities such as books and libraries or pen and paper. The presence of pen and paper in sanatoriums was prohibited and was criminalized.

History and dwellers of Takrit camp 16

The number of people living in this camp was about 4000 . While  the exact statistics of the people transferred to this camp and also the number of prisoners who were transferred from this place to other camps are not available, the International Committee of the Red Cross claims that at the time of the exchange of prisoners in 1990, the number of Iranian prisoners registered in these camps reached about 3270 people. The most important transfer of prisoners to this camp was on June 27^th 1989, when the prisoners of Takrit camp 12 were moved to this camp. Also, on January 19^th, 1988, about 200 prisoners of Takrit camp 12  were transferred to this camp. On August 5^th, 1989, the annex was evacuated and the prisoners living in this place were divided into two groups; They sent some to the main part of the camp and the others to camps 18 (Takrit Camp 18) and 20 (Takrit Camp 20) and allocated the annex to scabies patients. The prisoners transferred to the Takrit camp 16 were mostly those who were captured by the enemy after the ceasefire and in a situation where peace had been established; Most of them belonged to the forces of the 77th Khorasan Division, 21st Hamza, and 40th Sarab Brigade. These people were captured in the last days of August 1988 in areas such as Sharhany, around the Do-Borj River . About 700 people lived in each sanatorium, the majority of whom were army soldiers, but there were also some IRGC and the Islamic militia members among them (← History of Takrit camp 16).

Important events

1. The escape of two prisoners from Takrit camp 15 (→ Takrit Camp 15), which was a short distance from camp 16, caused the Baathists to be too harsh on the prisoners of camp 16; So that they incarcerated the prisoners for three days and did not allow them to leave the sanatorium even to use the toilet.

2. It just so happened that once the Iraqis had not brought water for two or three days and captives were immensely thirsty. Most of the them were suffering from dysentery and had to drink water. They picked and carried one of the prisoners of Mashhad, who had lost his strength due to severe dysentery and looked gaunt and emaciated in every sense of the word

,  to the long and crowded queue for the bathroom, when they heard that the water tanker had arrived. The driver made an excuse and kicked the water bucket on the ground. Thirsty and sick prisoners threw themselves on the ground to drink the spilt water on the cement floor. The prisoner of Mashhad was martyred in this incident. In general, more than ten prisoners of this camp died of dysentery.

3. One of the most important events of this camp was the holding of collective praying in the second silo. It was done  by a brave cleric named Mohammad Reza Shams, known as Reza the Preacher.

4. Abrisham Chi and a number of Mojahedin-e-Khalgh members came to the camp to attract prisoners, but were faced with the severity  and the strong reaction of one of the prisoners named Ahmad Khazali known as Ahmad Shushi, and feeling rejected and downcast they got lost . (→ Important events of Takrit camp 16)

End of  the camp

The exchange of prisoners of camp 16 started on  September 18^th, 1990, and on the same day, the names of the prisoners were entered into the Red Cross list. With the exchange of prisoners, this camp was also evacuated and shut down.

Bibliography

To read more

Azadegan Blog of Camp 16 in Takrit at takrit16.blogfa:com

http://dehnamaki.com

Vahid Agha Karami