Those 23 people
The autobiography of liberated Iranian captive, Ahmad Yusufzadeh.
Those 23 people embodies the memories of Ahmad Yosufzadeh . when he was 16, he was taken into captivity along with 18 other Kermani teenagers and 4 other teenagers arrested by the Baath army during the Jerusalem operation. This book is just about 8 months of his captivity and narrates the events happened to those 23 people. The book is divided into one prologue and four chapters namely, spring, summer, autumn and winter.
In the prologue, he tells his story of battle, brothers, his mother and his best friend Hassan Eskandari.
The first chapter entitled Spring has 47 sections. From the time he struggled with himself whether to go to the war or not until the re-deployment to the frontline, with his friends despite the opposition of his mother and the commanders. The operation began and after all the progress, the news arrived that because Noor regiment on the adjacent battlefield had not acted in due course, they were surrounded by the enemy. If they resisted, the auxiliary force would arrive. But the auxiliary force never showed up and they all got arrested.
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After entering the POW detention center, he met an Iranian named Saleh, who was apparently in the service of the Iraqi forces, but inwardly he helped the Iranian forces. The interrogation started. Very soon, the operation was developed, and the case started. The prisoners were taken out of the prison one by one for interrogation. The interrogator's questions were the same as those in Basra, plus an important and vital question: Are you an army militant or Basij or Pasdar? Salih's guidance helped the Pasdar prisoners . Everyone pretended to be an army militant or Basij. It was my turn to be questioned. Unlike others who were questioned in the yard, the Iraqi officer took me out. I didn’t know where they were taking me and what plan they had in store for me. Everything and everywhere sounded scary and harrowing. I was transferred to one of the rooms down the hall. A soldier stood in the middle of the room. A short man whose name I realized was Foad, was sitting on the edge of the bed. He was playing with the buttons of his pocket-sized recorder which had a leather cover. He turned the recorder on and looked at me sternly for the first time and asked: What is your name?
- Ahmad
- What province are you from?
- Kerman
- Mr. Ahmad, how old are you?
- 17 years old.
He leaned forward. The strong smell of his perfume tickled my nostrils. He said: “I don’t really care how old you are. I record your voice here. And he pointed to his recorder and continued: “When I ask you how old you are, you are going to say 13.when I ask why you came to battle, you are going to say they forced you. Got it? That’s it.”
I flustered. The story of the day of the deployment came before my eyes and the voice of Qassem Soleimani, when he was pulling the younger ones out of the line, rang in my ears: Iraqis force young and teenaged captives to say that they have come to the battle against their will. I got calm. I prayed to God and Her Holiness Zahra to help me and answered Foad decisively: “But I am 17 and no one sent me here by force.” Foad got mad ,stood up and tried to speak to me in an avuncular tone: “Did Khomeini or Khamenei or Rafsanjani put these words into your head? I don’t want to hurt you. I am Iranian too. If you don’t listen to me, Esmail ( he pointed to a burly Iraqi sergeant) the Beast, will crush you down.”
Fouad reached for my chin and raised my head. Then he beckoned to Esmail, and suddenly I receive a formidable blow between my shoulders, and my body and face were covered with a shower of cable strokes. Fouad did not get the desired answers to any of his questions . On the other hand, he was not in the mood to start the game from the beginning. Inevitably, he turned off the tape recorder, called me some more names and asked Ismail to take me back to prison.
They first went to Basra and then to Baghdad. Saddam, after seeing the movie of teenaged prisoners, decided to release the young prisoners to show off in international forums. Therefore, the twenty-three were separated to be returned to Iran after meeting with Saddam: "On the morning of May 16, Abu Waqas [prison chief] came to the prison and important words were exchanged between him and Saleh... Saleh came and said he was ready. Go... the van was waiting at the corner of the street. We rode to an unknown destination... we entered an area that was different from other parts of Baghdad. After a while, the car stopped in front of another door, similar to the one we had got past... We entered into a large room... We had entered into a building similar to what was designated as a palace in books... we passed through a security gate. In another place, we were physically inspected and forced to take off our belts and put them in a corner. A moment later, we entered a large hall where a large oval table could be seen in the middle... At a distance of a few meters around the table, many sturdy athletic soldiers and officers were gathering around. Journalists were standing in a corner with cameras. Abu Waqas quickly reached Saleh and said something to him. Saleh, surprised, got up and told us: Mr. Seyed Rais is coming now. Get up everyone... The sound of the soldiers ` boots striking together was heard from behind and the photographers rushed towards the sounds. From a distance, we saw a man in a military uniform holding the hand of a girl in white and coming towards us. We got electrified. We were in Saddam's palace! The man who had attacked our homeland and rained missiles on our cities. [Saddam] first expressed his regret for the start of the war between the two countries of Iran and Iraq, and then made a pacifist gesture and said: Today we want peace and groups from the United Nations are also striving after this goal. But the Iranian regime is not willing to succumb to peace! He then said to us: All the children in the world are our children. The Iranian regime should not have sent you to the frontline to get killed at this age. Battlefield is not the right place for you teenagers! You should be in school now and study well...
Taking pictures with Saddam Hussein was too hard and hateful. But we were captives, and we had no choice but to do as we were commanded. We stood together behind his chair with much reluctance. I was feeling awful. I didn’t want to be in that picture. I kept my head down. Everything was ready to take a historic picture but one thing was amiss. A smile on our face to set a friendly mood. Saddam shrewdly started to change our facial expression. He asked us: “Which one of you can tell a joke?” no one responded. He said: “so Hella tell a joke. But Hela raised her head from her drawing paper for a short moment and said in her childish tone: Nope!. Saddam's plan to make us laugh failed. But Hela's childish tone made us laugh and the photographers captured the unwanted smiles of two or three of the children in time. The meeting was over. Saddam left and we returned to Baghdad prison.
The second chapter, summer is divided into 12 sections. In Ramadan, everyone fasted despite the difficult conditions. At the end of Ramadan, those 23 people were transferred and taken to the north of Baghdad; They heard that the Iranian fighters had carried out the Ramadan operation and were going to bring new prisoners to the Baghdad prison, so they evacuated the intelligence center. The new prisoners and 23 people were taken to the barracks al-Rashid, and then returned to the intelligence center. Later, they learnt that they were going to meet up with the Red Cross representatives. They got a little hopeful, but the reporter never returned.
The third chapter, autumn, is divided into 3 sections. One of the sections is about artwork in prison. Later, as it grew colder, they asked for overcoats for which in return, they got us some outworn and, in some cases, torn overcoats. ‘
Whatever they were and wherever they had come from, they could protect us against the drily cutting cold of Ramadi. Afterall embedded in barbed wires, we could not ask for anything more than a travesty of health!’ Seyyed Club is the last section of this chapter. Seyed Abbas Saadat was a wrestler in his city. He had tried to establish a wrestling gym by putting some mattresses together and providing the bare necessities required for training wrestlers.
The last chapter Winter is divided into 11 sections and narrates returning the prisoners from Al-Rashid camp to intelligence center, the rumor of sending prisoners to France, listening to radio to get the news concerning Iran, hunger strike for 5 days and the eventual return of the prisoners to Remadi camp.
The final section of the book contains photographs and attached documents including the text of Ahmed Yousefzadeh's letter to Saddam Hussein in 1375(1996) .
Those 23 people was published by Soreh Mehr publisher in 1392(2013). In a note on this book, the Supreme Leader wrote: " During the last days of 1993 and the beginning of 1994, I was charmed by the sweetness of this eloquent, attractive and artistic writing and I could actually identify with these young and caring men. I send my greetings to this talented writer and to those twenty-three people Indeed, I take my hat off to the magnitude of their souls and express the terms of my profound gratitude. Once again, I saw Kerman through the door of this book, as I have seen and known it for a long time. Such a picturesque image just like a timeless tapestry!”