Baghuba camp

One of the detention camps of Iranian prisoners in Iraq

Baghuba camp 18 was one of the camps for the unregistered Iranian prisoners, which was established in 1988 in one of the eastern provinces of Iraq, called Diyali, centered in the city of Baghuba, and in a military garrison called Al-Abbas. This camp was located 59 kilometers away from Baghdad and had an area of about 17 thousand kilometers and was surrounded by barbed wire. In terms of climate, Baghuba camp was located in a hot and dry region, where the summers were extremely hot and the winters were cold and bone-chilling.

Geographical and architectural characteristics

This camp consisted of three main blocs one annex, and  the castle, between which there was barbed wire preventing the prisoners  from moving within them. The camp was surrounded by first a series of concrete walls and then a series of circular barbed wire. Their distance from the wall was about 8 meters and the approximate width of the barbed wire was  6 meters. There were five sanatoriums in this camp, three of which were big and the other two were small. Large sanatoriums accommodated 1100 captives and small sanatoriums accommodated around 500 to 600 people.

The main blocs

Shortly after  the arrival of Iranian prisoners at this camp, they were placed in the courtyard of the asylum. The sanatoriums had approximate dimensions of 100 x 30 x 10 meters. Two other sanatoriums were located near this place, after a few months and their reconstruction, a number of prisoners was transferred to this new place and the congestion of the sanatoriums was reduced. These two new sanatoriums were smaller than the previous ones. This sanatorium was a place to keep tanks and armored personnel carriers, and as a result, it did not have the necessary facilities to keep prisoners, and all the prisoners were barefoot and not even provided with slippers. Each sanatorium had two large garage-like doors; so that heavy vehicles such as trailers or tanks could easily pass through them. These sliding  metal doors were placed across the sanatorium. The roof of the sanatorium was gabled and covered with plates similar to old shutters.

Annex

This part consisted of three wards and each ward had three sanatoriums (9 sanatoriums in total). The annex was newly built and clean and tidy compared to other parts. Its building was concrete and its exterior was covered with bricks. The total number of captives residing in this area was nearly 600 ; There was also one parasol in front of all the sanatoriums.

Castle

The third part was called the castle. The castle was a brick building with high walls that were about 4 meters high and thick. The length of this building was about 75 square meters and its width was 4 square meters. This part had 24 rooms of different dimensions, which were arranged in a circle, and the area in the middle of these rooms was the camp yard; So people could only see the sky. The rooms were placed about 10 cm above the ground. In front of the rooms, there was a one-meter porch. There was also a field in the space between the sanatoriums where the prisoners played football . This part of the camp, which housed the least population, had very difficult conditions and unlike the other two parts, it was a place where captives were punished and tortured. On the average  300-400 prisoners lived in this camp.

Camp facilities

The main sanatorium did not have windows, ceilinged fans and ventilators for ventilation. The walls were also metal; Therefore, in order to ventilate the main sanatoriums, the prisoners left the large entrance doors open, while each adjoining sanatorium had 5 or 6 windows that were located on one side and facing the camp area. Since this was a military camp, its floor was made of concrete, and the prisoners used the blankets provided to them to furnish it. The kitchen was located on the left side of sanatorium 5 and the food of all parts of the camp was prepared there by the Iranian prisoners. The kitchen was also in the form of pre-fabricated sanatoriums, without windows and with three roof doors or hatches, slope and like the roof of sanatoriums.

Shortly after the arrival of the prisoners, there was no toilet in the asylum; Therefore, prisoners were forced to use a part of the asylum as WC. Of course, each sanatorium had 5-6 separate toilets outside. The lack of water in the bathrooms was common and some of the them did not even have doors and blankets were used as a makeshift. In front of the path that separated sanatoriums 1, 2, 3 from 4 and 5, the toilets of sanatorium 1 And 2 were located. The distance between sanatoriums 1, 2, and 3 was approximately 20 meters and the distance between sanatoriums 4 and 5 was approximately 50 meters. Of course, there was a separate toilet for each ward of the annex. The walls   were made of white cement and were healthier than other toilets   in the previous sanatoriums. Also, separate toilets were built in the castle  , which were located in the southern part of the castle and next to the rooms. Each sanatorium had three or four bathrooms of one meter by one meter. The bathroom was located on the southern side next to the sanatorium and did not have a shower. Hot water was not available to the prisoners. To take a bath, prisoners took turns, and for this, they  exposed a bucket of water to the sunlight  to warm it up. (Toilet)

The sanitary conditions in the camp of the unregistered captives were very bad. The whole camp was infested with lice. The lack of medical facilities led to the outbreak of scabies, dysentery and tuberculosis, which could not be  treated seriously. Of course, there was a room called infirmary in the camp area past the guard room and between the annex and the castle, which had very limited medical facilities. The infirmary was run by one of the Iranian prisoners who was a clinic technician. In addition to the four guard turrets, which were located at the corners of the camp, and the ring-shaped barbed wire around the camp, there was also a guard room at the beginning of the entrance and to the left of the main door. . Of course, in the castle, the guard room was located at  its entrance .

Baghuba camp 18 was one of the camps of the unregistered captives, and because of this, was devoid of a series of facilities, including barbershop, library, tailor's workshop and store.  There was no drinking water in this camp, and the prisoners carried water with them in aluminum glasses, which were provided to them, and since there was no bucket in the sanatorium to dispose of their defecation, they had to use these glasses as a container in case of emergency. They had to use the glasses for defecation, and they had to wash the same glasses so that  in the morning they could drink water or tea in them. (→ Baghuba camp facilities)

History and dwellers of Baghuba camp 18

Baquba 18 was one of the last camps for Iranian prisoners in Iraq, which was formed following the transfer of prisoners from Camp 17 (Nahravan) in 1988. In the following months, a number of prisoners living in Takrit camps such as 15 (Tikrit Camp 15), 14 (Tikrit Camp 14), 12 (Tikrit Camp 12), 11 (Tikrit Camp 11) and 16(  Tikrit camp 16), was transferred to this camp, most of whom  were army prisoners or soldiers.

Of course, there were 5-6 religious   minorities among the army prisoners. On October 6^th 1989, a number of prisoners from Camp 11 (Takrit Camp 11) was transferred to this camp.

On August 5^th 1989, they evacuated the annex of Camp 16 (Takrit Camp 16) and the resident prisoners were divided into two groups and most of the patients with scabies were transferred to Camp 18 (Takrit Camp 18) and 20 (Takrit Camp 20). ; Also, the prisoners of Camp 12 (Takrit Camp 12) were transferred to Camp 18 (Takrit Camp 18) on two occasions the first on September 8^th and 16^th 1989 and the second on October 15^th 1989.

The exact   number of prisoners living in this camp is not available, but the report of the Red Cross indicates that in August 1990 and at the time of the exchange of prisoners, there were about 5250 Iranian prisoners, which was 13.4% of all Iranian prisoners, and  It was considered one of the most populated camps after all (→ Baghuba camp chronology).

Important events

After the death of Imam Khomeini (RIP), Iraqi officers went  to the sanatorium and tried to get  the prisoners to start celebrating and enjoying themselves. But the prisoners stood put. In the evening, the officers returned to the sanatorium and repeated their morning speech, but when the prisoners showed their displeasure and protest, they shut the sanatorium . On the fourth day, the door was opened and the officers gave the prisoners the food ration of four days then and there, and the door was closed on them for the next two days.

After announcing the news of the prisoner exchange agreement, some of the prisoners of the camps, especially the unregistered ones, tried to punish the spies who collaborated with the enemy during the captivity. The conflict between the prisoners and the spies continued for several days, but the Iraqis did not show any particular reaction until August 26^th 1990 when  they  entered the conflict to support the spies. The Iraqis tried to control the situation by means of bullying the captives and opening a volley of shots above their heads. In this conflict, Hossein Pirayande was killed with a bullet. After the martyrdom of Hossein Pirayande, the prisoners went on a hunger strike lasting for three days, and after 3 days, the hunger strike ended with the commander's promise that the prisoners' demands would be met. Of course, the commander also promised that the body of Hossein Pirayande would be returned to Iran during the exchange of prisoners, but he did  not keep his promise and the body of Martyr Hossein Pirayande was returned to Iran  11 years later. Besides Hossein Pirayande, Jafar Jafari from Zanjan died of tuberculosis in this camp; One of Kerman's guys died due to lack of penicillin test in late 1989 and was buried in Iraq.

End of  the camp

The prisoners of this camp were registered in the Red Cross list  September 21^st 1990 at the same time as the exchange of prisoners, and the camp was shut down following the evacuation of the prisoners.

• See also camp

Bibliography

Masoumeh Jafarzadeh