Hossein Lashgari
The first captive pilot and one of the oldest Iranian prisoners.
Hossein Lashgari was born on March 2oth,1952 in the village of Ziaabad, Qazvin. In 1971, after completing secondary education and obtaining the high school diploma, he was sent to the 77th Division of Khorasan for military service. During his service and while attending a joint exercise between the Air Force and the Army, he became interested in aviation and liked to be a pilot. Therefore, after completing his military service, he took the pilot school test and was hired by the Air Force. In 1975, he went to America to complete additional aviation courses and after receiving his pilot badge, he began to serve as an F5 fighter pilot.
How Lashgary was captured and his conditions of captivity
As political and border disputes between Iran and Iraq intensified, Saddam Hussein unilaterally canceled the 1975 Algerian agreement. Following this incident, Iraqi forces conducted military operations in Mehran and Qasr-Shirin areas as well as in Bazargan, Sobleh, Safaria, Rashidiyeh, Tawusiyah, Doborj and Feke checkpoints on September 26th,1980. With the invasion of Iraqi military forces into the country, Lashgary was summoned to Dezful Air Base to carry out flight operations with the aim of warding off the enemy forces. He, who was on leave with his family at that time, left them and went to Dezful to carry out the operation: "I returned to my wife again and said: Please listen to I have got to say carefully." .. My wife, who was surprised by my return, said: "Has something happened?"
I said that nothing is going to happen, but everything I say is just for your awareness. You should not worry yourself. If I am captured or martyred...
- Where do you want to go?
- I said that if something ever happened to me, I would like you to be brave and keep your chin up. [1]
On the 27th of September, Lashgari along with a number of other pilots, in the form of two flight squadrons, successfully carried out the operation to destroy the enemy's artillery in Zarbatieh area in response to Iraq`s operations in the border areas of Iran, but the Lashgari plane, which was targeted by the enemy forces could not possibly return : "Given the state of the plane, I was sure that I would not be able to return to the air base, while my left hand was on the throttle lever of the plane's engine, I took my right hand towards the jump handle (ejector), the nose of the plane was in the diving position and I was getting increasingly closer to the land. "I made the final decision and pulled the ejection lever while saying my ultimate prayer." [1]
Lashgari, who was the first captured Iranian pilot, was placed at the disposal of Iraqi intelligence for three months to evaluate the intelligence of Iranian pilots and their ability to withstand various tortures: "The interrogator often asked: How many planes do you have? How is the relationship between people and Khomeini? It would not make any difference to him If I said we had supposedly 300 or otherwise planes, he just wanted me to talk. My resistance to the torture had troubled him and moment by moment he grew more impatient." [1]
Until the end of the war, Lashgari endured the conditions of captivity in Abu Ghraib prison and Saad Ebn-e- Abi Waqqas prison in al-Rashid airbase, along with other prisoners, but when the war ended, he was separated from other prisoners: "The attitude of the Iraqis with me had changed a lot. They moved me with great respect and always addressed me as "Ya seyyedi" which meant "O sir". They were waiting for someone to come. On this occasion, the same lieutenant said to me: "Saddam Hussein has his greetings to you, today they will take you to a major general and your situation will improve."
On the order of Saddam, Lashgari was put under domestic captivity in the Yarmouk neighborhood of Baghdad, until the negotiations for the exchange of prisoners would be settled. Two years later, in August 1990, Saddam Hussein announced in a televised speech that he would withdraw from the occupied lands of Iran and the prisoners of war would be freed: "26th of August came and the first group of Iranian prisoners crossed the border and were welcome by Dr. Habibi , the first vice president. I was not among them and there was not even any news that would indicate that I would go today or tomorrow. Between 4,000 and 5,000 prisoners were exchanged daily between the two countries. After twenty days, 80,000 prisoners were exchanged, but there was still no news of my name. I kept asking the guards and Captain Sabet, about my time of departure, and they said they didn't know. The two countries announced that all the prisoners had been released and that there were no other prisoners. Within that spell, I was counting the seconds to return to the country and be with my family, but the fact they had not announced my name yet plunged me into despair."[1]
The sense of hopelessness cast a shadow over Lashgari's existence. At the same time, he had to endure the tension-causing behavior of the Iraqi officials and adapt himself to the food and health crisis, which was exacerbated by the Persian Gulf War and the Iraq`s economic embargo. On the other hand, the Iraqi government intended to weaken his resistance from within with proposals such as marriage and obtaining Iraqi citizenship, joining the Mojahedin-e-Khalgh forces and seeking asylum in a third country. In order to overcome this difficult situation and maintain his nonchalance, Lashgari decided to manage his time by recalling a memory involving his elementary school teacher: "One day he pulled me aside and said:: Lashgari, even though you are a smart kid and very studious, but you don't have a plan for your life and you are so confused! You sleep and play while studying and you study while sleeping. I promise you that you will not get anywhere in this country; Unless you have a plan for yourself."
Planning greatly reduced Lashgary`s mental and physical pressures. But loneliness and the absence of someone to talk to annoyed him a lot. To the extent that he got used to the two lizards,which came out of the ventilation tube for half an hour every day and played: "For two years or more, this was their job every day. I had become so dependent and fond of them that if one morning they were late, I would feel that I had no company, and that day I would be alone at the breakfast table, feeling depressed and sad... For the first time when the lizards were out and didn't come back, I felt homesick and started pleading with them that,’ what bad have I done to you that you didn't come today? Please do not leave me alone. I really said those things from the bottom of my heart under those circumstances. The next day when they came, I was delighted to see them again and thanked God." [1]
In early 1995, Taregh Aziz, the deputy prime minister of Iraq, met with the head of the World Red Cross in Geneva and informed that Hossein Lashgari was alive and that the Red Cross officials could visit him . The head of the Red Cross immediately got the written permission to meet Lashgari ready and asked Taregh Aziz to sign it. Finally, on June 13th,1994, the Iraqi government allowed the representative of the International Red Cross to meet Lashgari: "The representative of the Red Cross stood up and greeted me when he saw me. Mark Fisher introduced himself. Smiling, I said, "I am Hossein Lashgari, the first captured Iranian pilot." [1]
After this meeting, Lashgari found the possibility of correspondence and getting information from his family after 15 years, and to show his gratitude to God, he decided to memorize the entire Holy Quran until the end of his captivity. Although Lashgari was in the prison of Iraqi intelligence from the time the Red Cross found out that he was alive until the end of his captivity, his love for the Holy Qur'an and the connection with his family doubled his motivation to resist the difficult conditions.
In March 1997, during the meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Tehran, the issue of the exchange of the remaining prisoners between the authorities of Iran and Iraq was raised and the two countries reached a conclusion. In April 1998, Hossein Lashgari heard the news of the termination of his 18 years of captivity while he finished memorizing the Qur'an. At his request, before returning to the country, he visited the Holy Shrines and bid farewell to his innocent and martyred leaders. Finally, on April 17th,1998, he returned to his homeland and was given the epithet” The gentleman of all captives" due to having the longest period of captivity.
In the years after the captivity, Lashgari was always looking for the elevation of Iran and Iranians, and despite the carnal agony resulted from the years of captivity, he did not stop trying. His noble wife describes his ascension (how he passed away) as follows: The moment of his martyrdom was the bitterest moment of my life. It was the 19th of August 2009. We were having dinner and Hossein wanted to take our grandson Mohammad Reza out. He was fine and seemed to have no problem. He left and returned home after a few minutes. He said he wanted to sleep in the hall next to Mohammad Reza. I said good night and went up the stairs. When I reached the last step, I noticed that he was coughing badly. Because of the torture, he suffered from bronchitis and always coughed, but this time his voice was different. I looked down and saw that he was lying on his back. I don't know how I got to him. He was breathing very heavily and almost choking. His hand was in mine and his eyes were fixed on mine. I felt I was falling down a dark well. Hossein's eyes no longer saw my gaze, and moments later, rigor mortis began to set in...
Awards
Hossein Lashgari's memoirs have been published in the book entitled “ 6410” and his wife's memoirs have also been published in the book entitled "Days without Mirrors", the former of which ranked first in the 9th edition of the Holy Defense Year book.
See also
- Captivity and captives
- News of the release of pilot Hossein Lashkari in the press
- Torture in captivity
Bibliography
Vahid Amirkhani