Nutrition

Food ration and describing the status of nutrition among Iranian prisoners in Iraqi camps.

Nutrition is one of the essential needs of humans and is the most important factor for survival and longevity. Correct and balanced nutrition not only enables the phenomenon of physical growth and leads to health and longevity, but also sees to the intellectual growth and the development of our mental forces faculties. Nutrition influences human life from birth to death.

Definition of food

Food is a solid or liquid substance that, after being eaten and digested, creates heat and energy and causes tissue repair, growth and development, and regulation of vital functions. All living beings need food to survive. Human food should include proteins, fats, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins and water to ensure the growth and health of body cells.

Food ration

All the food that a person consumes during the day and night to meet the needs of his body is called food ration.

Food rations for each captive

The Iraqi Baath regime provided two daily rations to all Iranian prisoners. Three meals were given in Takrit 12 and Takrit 16 camps. Dinner was usually broth; Beans were given only on Fridays. Atai states:

"Iraq's regime provided two daily rations to all prisoners; One is breakfast, which consists of tea and soup, and the other is lunch, which is usually some rice plus something similar to stew. If the amount of food that was delivered to the kitchen was divided by the number of prisoners, each prisoner would receive one third of a normal meal. Besides the food each captive usually received two or three pieces of some bread named “Samun’.

Saleminejad states:

"The amount of food ration for each captive was specified: for example, 54 grams of rice, 2.5 grams of tea, etc., however, they did not feel duty-bound as to provide the very above-mentioned ration. The lack of food rations was such that if a meal was distributed a little late, the prisoners would quickly become weak and nearly faint.

Khaji says the following about the nutritional status of the prisoners of Ramadi Camp 1 (Camp 6):

"During the first 5 months since this camp was set up, food was prepared and given to the prisoners twice a day, which included only tea for breakfast and 6-7 spoonfuls of rice for lunch, along with two loaves of bread or two and a half loaves. After 5 months, soup was added to breakfast. Later, they would give broth along with lunch."

Describing the nutritional status of Iranian prisoners in Iraq

What has been mentioned frequently in the diaries of LCs stands for the poor state of nutrition in the camps. Iranian prisoners were deprived of most of the foods containing vitamins, proteins, etc.

Saleminejad states:

"Although the unfavorable and inappropriate condition of the food of the prisoners was the main subject of the reports of the representatives of the International Red Cross visiting the Iranian prisoners' camps,  it never made  the Iraqi Baath regime improve the quality and quantity of the food they served to Iranian captives. The prisoners had learned that during captivity, they could not hope to fully satisfy their hunger and there were certain categories of food such as fruit, they knew they were not going to get to eat as long as they were in captivity.

This situation was much worse in the  camps not visited by  the Red Cross representatives.

"Breakfast" status

Saleminejad ,  remarks the following on the breakfast of prisoners:

"The prisoners' breakfast, which was usually given between eight and nine in the morning, consisted of eight to twelve spoonfuls of soup or lentil soup, which was eaten with half of the daily bread ration... Breakfast broth or soup was prepared in the evening of the previous day  and the next morning, after it was warmed up a bit, it was distributed through the barracks. This issue was the cause of many group diarrheas in the hot days of the year. Keeping food for several hours, without observing sanitary principles, was the main cause of such diseases. Of course, in some camps, the cooks would wake up early in the morning and put the cauldron on to cook the breakfast broth"

Lunch status

Saleminejad states:

"Lunch, which was generally served about twelve o'clock or one o'clock, consisted of about eight to ten spoonfuls of rice, together with some turnip stew or split peas stew, which, as there was no meat, the prisoners mixed it with the rice. One day a week, instead of rice, beans were served. The ingredients of the stew were water, oil, onions, and probably frozen meat, and sometimes green beans, okra, or lentils,  were added to it.

Kerami says the following about the status of lunch in the 3^rd Bloc of Anbar camp:

"Lunch consisted  of six spoonfuls of rice per person, plus a few spoons of such  food as stew, which was prepared in proportion  to the season, and ingredients such as turnips, eggplant, okra, root beet leaves, and pumpkin were used to prepare stew. Later, with the initiative and suggestion of Iranian cooks, they served stew before turning in so that the boys could have dinner as well. Of course, a part of the stew was poured over the rice for lunch so that the rice would not be dry and tasteless."

Dinner status

Although in some camps, such as Mousel, there was no mention of dinner until the end of the captivity, but in other camps, dinner was also given to the prisoners. Saleminejad stated:

"Dinner every night consisted of some thin broth, without  chickpeas or kidney beans, with some bread. On friday nights, chicken was served. Each chicken was distributed among about ten to twenty people; That is, for a camp of 1800 to 2000 people, a total of ninety chickens were cooked. In the Ramadi  camp 13, chicken was distributed approximately once  a month. On friday nights, sometimes a thin soup of kidney beans was served, where each person's share was approximately some water and six beans. Sometimes the captives made kebabs by separating the dinner slabs of meat and baked dough from the bread so that they could eat something new and different.

How prisoners used "vegetables" and  made desserts

According to Saleminejad

"There were no vegetables in the diet of captives, but the prisoners themselves tried to build a very small garden in the yard of some camps. At first procurement of seeds for the prisoners was very difficult, but later, representatives of the Red Cross prepared seeds for them. Hanout( a kind of North African aromatic spice) was another source of vegetable seed supply. Cultivation of all kinds of vegetables , carrots ,cucumbers and even fruits  greatly contributed to the nutritional status of some of the Iranian prisoners.

Sometimes a very small amount of fruit was distributed among the prisoners. For example, every four captives were given an orange or a pomegranate or some grapes. Khaji recalls about the Ramadi  camp 1 (Camp 6):

"During the first 5 months since the establishment of this camp, dessert was served two or three times a week, which generally included an orange for two or three people, a medium-sized bunch of grapes for 8 to 10 people."

Jafari says the following about the Takrit camp:

The dessert  usually consisted of some stale and flaccid cucumbers, which each person got half and sometimes one cucumber." Eisa Murad states: "They served dessert once and sometimes twice a week, of course, their intention was to satisfy the Red Cross officers  For example, two or three small and low-quality watermelons for 50, 60 people or a 10-centimetre cucumber for each captive would make up the  dessert.

Bread status

"The daily ration of each prisoner for breakfast and lunch was 1.5 to 2 pieces of bread called Samun

. This type of bread was similar to French rolls, with the difference that it was hard and black and doughy inside. The captives had different opinions about the type of its flour. The things the flour was thought to be made of included wheat, corn, date stone or a mixture of all. Only the top layer of this type of bread, which was cooked very badly, could be eaten and eating it per se was likely to cause all kinds of digestive problems. Because of the dough in the middle of the bread, the prisoners would cook and eat the dough after separating it on the steam to satisfy their hunger. "In many cases, the prisoners would dry that dough in order to prepare Halva(a traditional confectionary popular in Iran and Middle East) with it."

Rahmanian states:

"The bread they gave us was dry on the surface and doughy inside, which caused problems for the patients suffering from stomach ulcer. In the camp of Musel 4, the departed Haj Aziz Babaei and Haj Reza Javadi's job was that in the morning when they received the bread, they separated the bread quota of these patients and cut the bread with a piece of tin that they had shaped into a knife. They took them to the kitchen, away from the eyes of the Iraqis, and baked them on  stoves , then they would divide them among such patients, consulting their lists.

"Tea" Quota

Saleminejad remarks as follows:

"The distribution of tea once a day was part of the food program of the prisoners. Each person's ration was half a glass of rather sweetened tea  which was served in the morning or with dinner. In some camps, by obtaining some electric wire, the prisoners managed to secretly make an electric kettle and prepare  hot tea in the cold season."

Drinking water status

The drinking water was supplied from the well in the camps .It was salty and dirty, and in all probability contained all kinds of microbes.

Cutting or reducing the food ration of captives

Sometimes, the Iraqis used to reduce or even cut the food ration of the captives in order to punish or physically weaken them:

"Generally, after any opposition or conflict in the camp, the food ration was cut or reduced to cause physical weakness, and eventually to break the prisoners."

Unhealthy food and diseases caused by it

In many cases, the captives suffered from diarrhea due to the use of expired canned foods:

"It was the eve of Noruz 1987. The food that night was spoiled. Out of 1,800 people who were in the camp, about 1,300 people got diarrhea and kept  vomiting." (→Unhealthy food in captivity)

Making sweets

Jafari says the following about the Takrit camp:

"We used to make so-called sweets by frying shredded pieces of Iraqi bread."

No spoons

In some cases, in prisons or detention centers, there were no spoons and prisoners had to eat with their hands. Abad says the following about the absence of spoons in Tanumeh Prison:

"... stick your four fingers together so that food does not fall out and then take a bite..."

Jafari says the following about the second day of his captivity, in the barracks of the 1st Corps of the Iraqi Army, located in the city of Al-Amara:

"Breakfast consisted of a dish full of cooked and runny rice and lentil mixture; what they called soup! "They ate the food without a spoon, with pieces of paper and identification cards, and some with money."

Using a special vessel known in Iraq as Ghase

Karami says the following about this vessel:

Qasea, which  some prisoners also called Ghose, is a vessel 40 cm long and 25 cm wide, whose outer edge was 5 cm high. This vessel was designed to hold the ration food of 10 captives.

Saleminejad , states:

"Due to the lack of plates, pots and the like, the captives formed food groups of ten or twelve people among themselves and shared the same table for every two or three daily meals... At the beginning of captivity, each food vessel was for 12 people, but  later  a quota including a glass, a plate and a zinc spoon was provided to each captive.

See also

• Cooking and kitchen
• Feeding captives
• Vegetables and desserts in captivity
• Prisoners' food ration

• Ghase (vessel)

Resources for further study:

Nobrani, Amir (1391). Gain and pain Tehran: Payam Azadegan.

Soheila Ali Yan