Captive martyrs

The Iranian prisoners who were martyred in the camps and how they were martyred

Introduction

Shahid is an Arabic word  derived from the root "shahada" in rhyme with "faeel" whose infinitive is "shahadat" meaning to  "witness", "to be present" and "to give testimony". .  . God says in the Holy Qur'an: "O Prophet, never think that those who were killed for the sake of God are dead,indeed they are alive  provided with sustenance by their Lord." (Al-Imran/154)  Captive martyrs refer to people who were captured by the enemy and during the years of captivity either died martyrs of torture, illness, malnutrition and the like or were martyred in camp incidents.

The fighters who were captured by the Baathist forces were kept in two types of camps: the camps that had been set up in the early years of the war and the Red Cross had visited them and recorded the names of the prisoners. In these camps, the health conditions, medical care and facilities   were at a better level than other camps, and in case of martyrdom of prisoners, the Iraqi government was obliged to respond and inform   the Red Cross about their martyrdom. However, a number of camps was established from 1988 onwards, which were known as the camps of the Unregistered, and the Red Cross had no knowledge of their existence. The prisoners who were kept in the camps of the latter type had the least facilities and when they were martyred , they were buried as Unregistered and the Iraqi government was not accountable to any international organizations.

Khalil Fatehi is one of the prominent captives   in a camp visited by the Red Cross and was martyred under the torture of the Iraqis in the incidents of the camp. He was tortured because of his involvement in the incident of setting fire to the food warehouse and the disappearance of some weapons and ammunition in the Musel camp 2; After accepting responsibility for the work, he was removed from the camp and about a month and a half later, the World Red Cross Organization informed his family that Khalil had been  martyred in Iraq on May 21^st 1983 and was buried in Musel 2. Among other prominent martyrs who were captives in Iraq for many years, but about whom the Red Cross did not know , was Mohammad Javad Tondguyan. He, who went to visit the Abadan refinery with two of his deputies, Engineers Yahyavy and Bushehri, were captured by the Iraqis in Darkhoin, near Abadan. Despite all the efforts, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran failed to obtain some intelligence regarding his condition until after years the news of his martyrdom under torture transpired and was verified.

Martyrdom in the protests of the camps not visited by the Red Cross

The agent or spies of Monafeghin who were present in the camps often caused conflicts. After the announcement of the agreement between Iran and Iraq regarding the exchange of prisoners, in a number of camps of the Unregistered, the prisoners tried to punish the spies who had collaborated with the enemy and harassed the prisoners during the captivity. In particular, this process was more intense in Baghuba camp 18 and continued for a few more days until on August 26^th, 1990, a conflict between prisoners and informants began. On this day, the Iraqis entered the camp-yard to support the informants and tried to stabilize the situation by opening a volley of shots over their heads . During this conflict, one of the prisoners named Hossein Pirayande was injured by a bullet fired by Iraqi soldiers and died immediately. That day the situation was brought under control, but the prisoners went on a hunger strike for three days. The body of Hossein Pirayande was returned to Iran after eleven years. In Baquba camp  after some time in August 1982 there was a conflict between the prisoners and the Iraqis. The conflict led to shooting and two of the prisoners named Mohammad Rasouli from Tuiserkan and Amir Bamirizadeh from Bushehr were martyred.

Martyrdom due to illness in the camps not visited  by  the Red Cross

In most of the camps where Iranian prisoners were kept, the poor health conditions and lack of access to medicine and medical care, as well as the poor quality of food and sanitary supplies, caused the spread of infectious diseases such as dysentery, tuberculosis, and the like, and this was the cause of death of a large number of prisoners, who was not registered in the list of the International Red Cross. Alisha was one of the captives of Shiraz in Takrit camp 16, who contracted dysentery and died due to the lack of its treatment. A prisoner named Jafar Jafari from the city of Zanjan was infected with tuberculosis in Baghuba Camp 18 . When his condition worsened, they took him to the Baghdad hospital, but he died in the hospital and his body was not brought to the camp. Among the wounded in Camp No. 9 in Ramadi, there was a prisoner named Motamedi from the 55th Airborne Brigade of Shiraz, who was shot by a bullet that had hit his head and entered his skull. He was agonizing ; When a doctor came to the camp, he examined him, but it was no use and at last he passed out on 29^th of March 1985 while saying the morning prayer, his mouth foamed and he stopped breathing. The Iraqis came a few hours later and buried him in the cemetery in front of the camp.

According to the announcement of the Red Crescent, the exact statistics of the number of prisoners who was martyred in Iraq due to illness, protest and camp incidents or torture was 564 people (387 people do not have a captivity number, 119 people have a captivity number, 38 people do not have a file in the Red Crescent, and 20  people are anonymous or unidentified), the bodies of some of them, such as Hossein Pirayande, Khalil Fatehi, Mohammad Javad Tondguyan, have been returned to Iran. Of course, this point should be kept in mind that some of the captives must have died martyrs sometime since they were captured till they were transferred somewhere safe in the rear and they must have been buried right there and then  ;this could have happened collectively or individually. Later on ,once dug up they were subsumed under the martyrs of the Holy Defense rather than captives.

See also

• Hossein Pirayande
• Tondguyan, Mohammad Javad
• Baghuba camp
• Fatehi Aqbalag, Yaqoub (Khalil)

Bibliography

Vahid Agha Karamy