Displacement and transfer of captives

The idea or ideas behind the displacement  of captives:

After the settlement of the prisoners in the camps and their resistance against the enemy's demands, and their greater solidarity, one of the important courses of action taken by the Baathists was the displacement and transfer of the prisoners.

The importance of displacing prisoners

The importance of this issue was so great that despite the security risks of displacing prisoners, and its costs, they never stopped it even after the ceasefire.

The Baathists wanted to achieve their desired goals by moving and transferring prisoners.  Those goals included:

• Disrupting the organizational structure among the captives;
• Having a pernicious effect on the mentality of the captives;
• Prevention of the Red Cross representatives from visiting the captives;
• Establishing a new camp with specific goals;
• Causing discord and detachment amidst prisoners;
• Punishment of transitional prisoners.

When captives or a group of captives had to be moved to another place by the Ba'athist order, they would have to pack all their belongings including clothes, forks, spoons, glasses, plates or razors and such supplies as sugar, washing powder…etc. into their own bundles along with a couple of blankets within a very short time. However, in some camps carrying the above-mentioned belongings was forbidden for the captives. (actually in unregistered camps which had not been visited by the Red Cross representatives, the only item the captives were allowed to take away, was the clothes they wore, thus besides the humiliation and hardships of displacement, they had to part from their inmates of whom they had grown so fond in the course of time)

But the bleak and vague future that awaited for the captives was even more formidable than the aforementioned hardships of displacement as the captive did not have the slightest idea about the new place they were moving him to. Will the new place be worse than here or better? Will I live alone or with other captives?  Will my new inmates be as honest, sincere and faithful as the present ones? And dozens of other similar questions crossed their minds. The displacement and transfer of captives sometimes involved individuals, and sometimes a group and in a few cases all captives of one camp were moved to another.

Reasons for moving prisoners

• The person or persons being active and influential among the captives;
• the occurrence of a mutiny or brawl;
• Transferring old prisoners to another place for the entry of new prisoners;
• Transferring the prisoner due to accidental disclosure of his rank or position;
• Personal reasons such as the presence of close relatives in another camp;
• Sickness;
• Exchange of captives.

One day, they lined us up  and called  one hundred and fifty names and  accordingly separated them from the rest of the captives. Again, I was the 16th or 17th captive whose  name was called.

For example, in the Musel camp, the Iraqi officer  after calling out the names, remarked so:

"We have decided to reduce the number of captives in this camp. So those whose names I have already called, will be moved to another camp."

But that is what happened on the face of it; These one hundred and fifty people had a few

characteristics in common. Afterward we were ordered to go inside the sanatorium and prepare ourselves for the departure.

The speculation process began, everyone would make a comment and try to analyze the subject. Finally, we didn't come to any particular conclusion. But later we found out that the Ba'athists separated these one hundred and fifty people from the others on the basis of three specific criteria led to the formation of three categories:

First: The captives that the spies had introduced to the Ba'athists. The captives in question were camp and sanatorium activists and were  in charge of engendering unity and solidarity among the captives and performing various programs in the camp.

Second: Those who had some kind of responsibility. For example, the sanatorium functionary, sports official, kitchen official, etc. Naturally the Iraqis considered them as problematic cases in the sanatorium.

Third: People who were closely associated with the first and second groups and in some cases contributed to the performance or execution of the plans made by people of the first two categories. For example, they wrote an article or held different ideological classes.

Changes in displacement

During the first few years of the captivity, Iraqis   displaced the captives at random and moved them to another camp and tried to separate those in   army from the Islamic militia members, but over time and with more experience, they identified the people using their informants and spies. So the transfer of captives could happen more systematically.

Classification of the Captives displacement and transfer

• initial;
• from one camp to another camp;
• from one bloc to another;
• from one sanatorium to another;
• delinquents and convicts;
• from camp to the infirmary involving the patients and injured;
• from camp to a sanctuary such as the Holy Shrine;
• exchange;
• from one camp to another settling on a temporary basis .

Initial transfer

When a warrior was captured, he was usually transferred to Aghabe in the early hours and sent  to the nearest city after the initial interrogation process. The captives of severe injuries were transferred to military hospitals such as al -Rashid Hospital, Tamuz, and captives who were  lightly  injured or uninjured, were transferred to intelligence headquarters, Baghdad prisons or POW camps.    

“A week passed. On the evening of the eighth day, Iraqi agents came and prepared  to move us somewhere else. We boarded the special buses which were used to carry the injured and moved to an unknown location. From the bus speaker the  Arabic songs  were played so loudly. We protested and asked them to play the Quran. The Iraqis, whose numbers were six, mocked us. The pitch of the loud-speaker was increased. Our insistence did not work. We had to grin and bear it. It was getting dark , and as we were sleeping in the rear  of the bus, we could take no notice of the terrain through which we were passing, we could only see the tops of the electricity posts and trees and upper floors of the apartments that flashed quickly in front of  our eyes. The bus stopped in one or two of the places on the way for rather a  long time. The Iraqis ate and we hit the road again. It was about 11pm when the bus entered the area after passing two checkpoints. After stopping, they set us down the bus with a stretcher. By crossing several corridors, we entered a large hall with beds on both sides. Some other captives were lying on the beds and seemed surprised at our sight. While passing  the beds, we heard different things. One said, "How are you brother?" Another said, "Don't be upset ... trust  God ..." We realized that they were Iranian and in the same plight just like us. We had to sleep on the floor due to lack of space. Many Iraqis gathered around us and talked with each other and laughed.

We demanded water and food as we were awfully hungry and thirsty. One of them called an Iranian captive and asked him to see what we wanted. We told him that we had not had water and food since yesterday noon, and that the floor of the hall was cold, and we would need at least one blanket spread under us. The Iranian captive had us know with a shrug of shoulders that we ought not to have any expectations from the Iraqis,   and then translated our requests to the Iraqis. They just allowed us to have water and said that this is a military hospital and is subject to the regulations of the army, we can't give you food and blankets right now.                                                                                                                                        

The Iraqi commander with several officers and guards entered the trench and rapped out some violent orders. The translator rendered the commands of the Iraqi commander as follows: "get up as gently as a lamb, go to the head of the trench. And then get on the truck. I don't repeat myself anymore; on the way you  behave yourselves and cooperate with the guards . Try not to cause any problems. Anyone attempting to escape or do any heroic stuff, will be sure to get killed right away, and his corpse won`t be ever returned to Iran, so if you take my advice, you can hope to be moved to a better place under good conditions. " Immediately they  took us out of the trench and moved us away ...

Camp to camp transfer

They usually whistled to gather us together for counting.

One day the whistle was sounded at an unusual time and we got together at the sanatorium. The commander of the camp entered the sanatorium with his soldiers and one by one looked at the faces. We didn't know what they were up to again. He asked the age of some and wrote the names of those who were fifteen to seventeen. He wrote the names of nearly four hundred captives including mine. One or two days later, the buses came and the registered people boarded, and after a month and a half of living in Musel, we left the camp.

Bloc transfer

Transferring captives from one bloc to another

Among the captives in Romadi, one person had turned a traitor and was collaborating with the Baathists and harassed the captives a lot. We had no choice but to punish him. The Baathists identified 24 people, including me, as leaders of the punishment of the spy, and we were transferred and actually banished from Bloc two to Bloc one for about three and a half years.

An hour after the punishment of the traitor, the deputy warden came with some soldiers and prison guards; They read my name, Abdul Saheb, and a few other people from the sanatorium 1, and the names of a few others from other sanatoriums and said: "Collect your things and sit outside." From all the sanatoriums, seventy or eighty people suspected to have had a hand in the punishment of the traitor, or who they thought , had disrupted their security measures, were separated and taken to block 3 which had a newer door and walls than ours, and no prisoners had lived in it until then.

A couple of days later, they brought another group of about thirty or forty  people there and they thought that by separating these captives from those of block 2, they could render the captives of this bloc more obedient than before.

From one sanatorium to another

Transferring prisoners from one sanatorium to another (the disadvantages and hardships of this type of transfer were less than other types.)

Delinquents and convicts

Their transfer from the camp to intelligence headquarters

Prisoners who, from the perspective of the Baathists, had committed violations and crimes such as rebellion, fighting, trying to escape, having a radio, etc., were transferred to the intelligence headquarters for trial and punishment.

“I think that since around 1986 onwards, several cases of these convictions were observed in the Musel camp 4. As far as I remember, the first one was the arrest of two of our friends named Hafiz-ollah Fazayely and Hossein Naseri Mojarrad. From whom while being physically inspected, materials were discovered that were used in various events , and  their possession had been criminalized by the Iraqis. They were sent to Baghdad for trial and did not return to the camp until they were released at the end of the war.

The Sick and Injured  

Transferring critically ill prisoners from the camp to a hospital outside the camp and returning after recovery or burying them in case of martyrdom.

Pilgrimage transfer

Transferring captives to sanctuaries or holy places

The authorities of the prisoners of war camps sometimes took captives on a pilgrimage. After the resolution 598 in the fall of 1988, by order of Saddam, many prisoners of the camps were taken to visit Karbala and Najaf in a one-day trip.

Exchange of captives

During the period of captivity, for various reasons, including disability, old age, etc., a number of prisoners was exchanged, and in August 1990, the majority of prisoners was exchanged, mainly the transfer of prisoners who were exchanged by land was done by bus, and the injured and the Sick were transferred via air.

Transfer of captives on a temporary basis

Two days prior to the anniversary of the death of the Imam (PBUHS), all the prisoners of Takrit 5 were taken to the officers' annex and said that we were their guests for the next three days, and sure enough they showed a lot of hospitality to us, but, what the enemy was driving at was not solidarity among captives, but rather the purpose of that displacement was to preclude us from holding the mourning  ceremony  for the departure of Imam khomeiny. The most frequent type of displacement was the one from one camp to another except for initial and exchange types which involved almost every captive.

The methods and means of displacement

Prisoners were transported by train ( known as the  animal tour), and military buses and trucks, sometimes in cases where the camps were within walking distance, the transfer was done on foot.

The trucks of the Ba'ath army, howling and kicking up dust, moved along the unfamiliar and unpaved road bump to bump leaving a new track  behind. The road was not an unfamiliar one to  the bad-tempered Iraqi truck drivers, and they drove forward without any fear or consideration. Maybe this was the first time they were carrying captives. They pushed forward to unload the cargo as soon as possible. But where to? The destination was unknown, the more they pushed, the further we got away from our homeland.

Three days later, on July 14th, 1989, at noon when we were outside, the Baathists were in a hurry to send us back inside. We figured that there was something fishy going on

. From behind the window, I saw some military trucks in front of the camp. They had brought   new captives. Of course, the war was over and there were not supposed to be any new prisoners. But what we meant by new prisoner was a prisoner coming to the Anbar camp for the first time. We did not know at which operation they had been taken into captivity, we only guessed that they came from the nearby camps because they were brought in trucks. If they had come from far away. They would have been brought on buses. Each sanatorium accommodated four captives.

How Baathists treated the captives during displacement process

• Insulting and beating up the captives at the starting point;
• Making the deathly tunnel of horror at the destination;
• Imprisonment of the captives for a few days at the destination;
• Prohibition of captives from talking at the destination for a while;
• No food and water for the newly arrived captives at the destination.

“When we arrived near the gate, they blindfolded us with a piece of cloth so that we could not see anywhere. Then, while they passed us through the tunnel with the guards standing on both sides, they hit us on the head and face with their fists. Getting punched blindfolded was really unjust and outrageous as we failed to see the direction of blows, and therefore were unable to parry them.

Out of all the soldiers who had beaten us, it was now the turn of the soldiers who were standing at the door of the bus and just like bus-conductors who have to make sure that no one gets on without a ticket, they made sure that no captives got on the bus unless they had been thoroughly beaten up They inspected our belongings and after that, they flung us all hungry and thirsty into a sanatorium and shut us in .

Hardly an hour had passed since the buses stopped when twenty or so people stood in two rows facing each other wielding clubs, sticks and cables   and making an alley-like passage for us to pass from the rear of the bus to the front of the sanatorium. They ordered us to get off the bus. No one was willing to pass through this alley. Two similar alleys were opened in front of the two neighboring sanatoriums, which no one yet dared to pass. With no harmony, one person from each bus was pushed down so that the next people would go down by themselves and pass through the alleys, soon the sound of sticks, cables, and clubs hitting skin and bones  accompanied by the moans and screams of the captives would resound the whole camp.

The buses stopped next to the camp. Because the curtains were drawn, we could not see outside and had no news from outside. The captives were put down one by one. When it was my turn to get off, I took my things and got up; I got off the bus like a passenger getting off the bus at the  terminal. At once, I saw red hat soldiers who had made a 56 meter corridor on both sides of the bus door as far as the camp gate and wielding sticks and big  thick cables to welcome the  captives. Seeing so many armed  soldiers reminded me of the first days of captivity, when wherever we went, cable-wielding soldiers stood on both sides to welcome us. They pushed us one by one and jolted us   through the tunnel of terror. Sticks and cables fell like rain on the heads and bodies of the fasting prisoners and no one could get away with them. I don't know how I got through all those blows, but I know that no part of my body was left unscathed. The prisoners were taken off the bus one at a time at short intervals so that all the soldiers could focus their blows on only one person at a time and no one could slip through their hands .

Optional transfer

In some camps, especially from 1985 onwards, the officials of the camps allowed the captives dwelling in sanatoriums or blocs to be displaced in small numbers and with full supervision. And voluntary transfer out of the camp was only done when a close relative was a prisoner in another camp.

Hajilu said: "According to the major`s order from now on the captives were at liberty to change their sanatoriums or blocs. Anyone can request to be moved to their desired sanatoriums or blocs. Of course, the functionaries should plan so that the total number of prisoners in the sanatoriums would remain the same." Upon hearing this news, everyone heaved a sigh of relief. This freedom would solve some problems, especially in arrangement of cultural programs, it could be planned in such a way that the balance of human resources in sanatoriums would be the same and deficiencies would be eliminated. For example, if a sanatorium had two or three religious eulogizers and another sanatorium had none, an exchange would do the tick.

Welcoming and seeing off prisoners

The captives were overwhelmed with grief because of the intimacy existing between them when it came to parting from their friends, and they were worried about their uncertain future. So they tried their best helping their friends supplying them with their own meagre provisions ,lest they might go hungry during the displacement process. However, the Iraqis would not permit any captives to depart from the camp with anything but their own belongings.

When the new prisoners arrived, a warm though stealthy welcome was one of the programs of the captives due to the prohibition of communication with the new prisoners.

The night of the 29th of December 1985 coincided with the birthday of Imam Hassan Askari (RIP.) and I had my last theatrical performance that night at sanatorium number 15. It was not bad, the house laughed. At the end of the night, there was also a program involving the captives who were supposed to be displaced. There were six or seven of us who had requested to change our sanatorium. The sanatorium functionary spoke and thanked everyone for all their efforts to make sanatorium 15 one of the best sanatoriums in every way. In terms of prayers, hymns, theatrical performances, socialization and, discipline. Then he asked everyone to forgive his shortcomings and those of the officials, and also, mentioned  that this ceremony was  to bid  farewell to the captives about to be transferred to other sanatoriums. When he finished speaking, the other captives came   and hugged us. And they said goodbye and asked for forgiveness. In the meantime, one of our inmates named Abolfazl Mahmoudi from Isfahan, who was a religious eulogizer, recited the lines below in a heart-rending tone:

The night of separation has come, fellows forgive us, fellows forgive us.

The impact was so instantaneous as the whole sanatorium started weeping bitterly, I don't know what happened, we were all sobbing and hugging each other, and I was reminded of the farewell nights during the operations.

Also see

• Captivity and captives
• Prisoners
• Iraq's imposed war against Iran
• Intelligence
• Musel camp 4

Bibliography                                                                                                                    

Hossein Karamy