Takrit Camp 19

One of the detention camps of Iranian prisoners in Iraq.

Takrit 19 is also known as the camp of unregistered officers due to the presence  of  many Iranian officers as captives. This camp was set up after the formalization of the ceasefire between the parties and with the arrival of 400 ranking Iranian  officers  on September 30^th, 1988, and the Red Cross had not visited this camp until the day of the exchange of prisoners.

Geographical and architectural characteristics

This camp was rectangular in shape and had a total of 9 sanatoriums, which were divided into three rows of buildings and each row had three sanatoriums, and the distance between the buildings was 50 meters.

The sanatoriums were approximately 8 x 30 meters and 4 meters high. Almost 40 people lived in each sanatorium. The lighting   was provided  by 4 large lamps and 4 moonlight lamps, and all the prisoners were given beds. The doors of sanatoriums opened facing each other. The Iraqis had connected the walls of the two asylums with a fence door, and when the prisoners were inside the sanatorium, this door was closed and the prisoners could use the space between the two sanatoriums. In the space between sanatoriums 1 and 4 and 4 and 7, an area was allocated to playing football and volleyball, respectively.

Camp facilities

Each sanatorium had three or four fans and only one side had three windows that were protected by a round and corner shaft and opened to the courtyard. The floor of the asylum was concrete at first and the prisoners sat on it, but after a while each captive was given a bed .

The kitchen was located on the north-western side, and four taps were installed between it and sanatorium number 7 for washing dishes, which were difficult to use in the summer due to the lack of water and in the winter due to the extreme cold. Iranian prisoners managed the kitchen and cooked the ration food for the entire camp .

There were about six toilet fountains for the entire camp, located near the kitchen and bathroom. Due to the lack of sanitary facilities, the prisoners spent many hours in the toilet queue.

At first, the asylum did not have a night toilet, and from five in the evening when the whistle was blown until tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock, tin containers that usually leaked were used as night toilets, but later they provided a bucket to the prisoners, which they put it in the corner of the sanatorium and used it in case of emergency. Ten showers were installed in a room measuring approximately 4 x 4 meters, which was used as a bathroom. Of course, there was an earth heating device in the bathroom. The camp bathroom was located next to the kitchen and the toilet.

Due to the fact that the camp was considered one of the camps of the Unregistered, it lacked some facilities such as medical ones. Scabies and renal diseases were common in this camp. But among the prisoners, those who were familiar with medical matters, despite the lack of medical and health facilities, looked after the sick. To protect the camp, in addition to the guard towers, there was a room near the bakery where the Iraqi soldiers of the camp were stationed. Also, in order to protect the camp, a ring-shaped barbed wire was stretched around the camp, approximately 20 meters wide and 2 meters high, and there were land mines between these barbed wires and on the ground. Behind sanatorium 7, that is, between the back wall of sanatorium 7 and the barbed wire, a room was installed to lock up the prisoners.

There was a small room  between sanatoriums 1, 2,  4, 5,and 6, used as a barbershop and one of the prisoners was in charge. Due to the malnutrition of captives and with Iraqi`s consent in the second year a bakery had been built in the southern part of the kitchen, which rendered services exclusively to Takrit camp 19. One day a week, flour was provided to the captives to bake some kind of small cookies for the captives. The bakery was run by the prisoners themselves. In this camp, the presence of cultural items was also prohibited, but the prisoners learned Arabic and English from newspapers such as Al-Ghadesiya, which were found in the camp, to fill their free time . (← Takrit camp 19 facilities)

History and dwellers of Takrit camp 19

Most of the prisoners of this camp were captured during the enemy attacks on July 21^st,1988 and July 31^st,1988, some during the Mersad operation, and some after the ceasefire on September 1^st,1988. A number of Iranian forces, who was captured in the Beyt-ol-Moghaddas operation in 1986 and was kept in Takrit camp 11 (→ Takrit Camp 11) for about two years, after being transferred to Al-Rashid Barracks (→ Al-Rashid Prison) along with the captured officers in operations on July 21^st,1988, July 31^st,1988 and September 1^st,1988, they were transferred to Takrit camp 19 (→ camp). While the number of old prisoners was 17, the prisoners of these operations were scattered in sanatoriums. However, a number of officers who was captured after the acceptance of the Resolution  on September 1^st,1988, were present in the 6th sanatorium, and for this reason, this sanatorium was called the Sanatorium of guests. The officers of this camp were from the armored divisions of Shiraz, 21st Hamza, 77th Khorasan, 58th Zolfaghar, 92nd Ahvaz, and 81st Kermanshah, and were scattered in all sanatoriums. Only at the end of the captivity, two of the IRGC commanders were transferred from Takrit 15 (Takrit camp 15) to this camp (History of Takrit camp 19).

Important events

On one of the days of 1988, Iraqi officers beat up an Iranian pilot, and the prisoners went on a hunger strike in response to this incident. The hunger strike lasted nearly 24 hours. When the Iraqi commander, who was the second lieutenant of intelligence service, came to the camp and promised that this incident would not happen again, the strike was discontinued. Among other important events of Takrit camp 19 was the digging of a tunnel by some of the prisoners of this camp. In order to escape from the camp and inflict a strong blow on the enemy, several prisoners decided to dig a tunnel beneath the old toilets of the camp, which was located next to the barbed wire. They started the work at the end of 1988 and finished it in June 1990; Then they planned and prepared supplies   for a group to escape from the camp in order to be able to carry out the escape plan in the autumn season, but the escape plan was canceled due to the exchange of prisoners between Iran and Iraq. One of the prisoners of this camp was also sentenced to 6 months of imprisonment for having a map of Iraq. After serving his time and, three months later than his inmates he was exchanged with Iraqi prisoners and returned to Iran (← Important events of Takrit camp 19)

End of the camp

In 1990, according to the report of the Red Cross Committee, during the large exchange of prisoners in August and September, 346 prisoners had been  registered[1]. When the exchange of prisoners began, for every 500 to 1000 soldiers, 20 to 35 officers were also exchanged. ; Thus, the prisoners of this camp were exchanged from  September 16^th,1990 to  September 26^th of the same year and the camp was shut down .

See also

• Camp

• Education

• Unregistered and missing prisoners

To read more

Jafari, Mojtaba (2016). Takrit the inferno. Tehran: Surah Mehr.

Masoumeh Jafarzadeh