Mosul camp 1
The Musel camp 1 was located 15 kilometers east of Musel and north of the Musel-Erbil road.
Geographical and architectural characteristics
This camp was like a castle and four towers were located in its corners. The barracks and rooms were located next to and between the towers and the courtyard was in the middle of the camp. The building had two floors and was ten meters high. The prisoners were kept on the first floor and the second floor was at the disposal of the Iraqis. This camp had an infirmary, a store , a tailor's workshop, a library, a barbershop, a pharmacy, a kitchen, and solitary confinement[1].
On average, 120 captives lived in each asylum. The camp building with dimensions of 130x190 square meters was built around a yard with dimensions of 100x160 square meters. A 4-meter wide cement street went to the end of the camp and another street crossed the middle of the yard and various trees had been planted inside the yard. On the left and right side of the building, there was a pair of 3-meter-wide covered-in porches. On the left side, there were six large rooms, two medium rooms and a small room for prisoners, a kitchen, a pharmacy and a doctor's examination room. On the right side, there were four large rooms, two medium rooms, one of which was a clinic, and two smaller rooms for prisoners, solitary cells, a tailor's workshop, a barbershop, a store, and a library. The dimensions of each room were 4 x 24 x 12 square meters[2].
Most of the prisoners lived in 10 identical large rooms; Six rooms were located on the left side (numbers 1 to 6) and four rooms were located on the right side (numbers 13 to 16). Their roof was supported by two rows of columns and each row contained three columns. Each room had two iron doors measuring 1.95 x 1.5 meters, one of which was always locked. The twelve windows of 0.50 x 75 meters that faced the outside were completely blocked with bricks, and the other twelve windows measuring 0.70 x 1.40 meters were equipped with bars and overlooked the inner courtyard . Each large room had 8 fans on the ceiling and two ventilators were installed in each large room and one ventilator was installed in the smaller rooms. Sixteen tube neon lights provided the barrack's lighting, and during the night, for security reasons, all the lights were on.
In the camp there were four staircases constructed lengthwise and one constructed width ways to access the upper floor, which were barred with cement blocks and were inaccessible to the prisoners . At last, at the beginning of 1990, the Iraqis set up five new barracks on the upper floor and took some of the prisoners to the upper floors [3].
History and dwellers of Musel camp 1
Once the Musel camp 2 could accommodate no more prisoners, the Iraqis opened the Musel camp 1 about late 1981. On 23rd and 26th of June 1982, 500 prisoners living in Anbar camp and then 74 Iranian civilians, whose captivity had not been officially established until then, were transferred from an unknown place to this camp on July 16th 1982. The first time the representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross visited this camp was on July 29th and 30th 1982. At that time, the number of Iranian prisoners settled in the camp was reported to be 574, but after some time, all these prisoners were transferred to other camps. At the beginning of August 1982, the first group of prisoners of the Ramadan operation, whose number was between 400 and 450, along with a number of others entered this camp, and four months after the arrival of the new prisoners (around November 25th 1982), the Red Cross representatives entered the camp and registered the captives[2].
In the middle of March of the same year, 600 prisoners were transferred to another camp; Then they placed all the remaining prisoners in the barracks on the right, and the barracks on the left remained empty. Some time later, some of the prisoners of the Musel camp 2 were brought to this camp. In the following years, the transfer of people (in groups of 50, 40 to 200 people) continued to this camp, but these transfers did not disrupt the order and solidarity of the prisoners living there, and finally, the total number of prisoners in the camp amounted to 1200.
In the report of June 4th 1984 concerning the Red Cross visitation from this camp, the number of Iranian prisoners was recorded as 1521[4].
Important events
1. According to the prisoners of the Musel camp 1, every day, Iraqi soldiers took some prisoners out of the barracks and tortured them. With the arrival of Muharram, specifically on October 18th 1982 from the first night, the mourning of the captives for Imam Hossein began. On the third night, Iraqi soldiers started beating up the prisoners and swearing at them. They locked up all the captives in their barracks and did not give them food and water. This situation continued for 7 days. On the seventh day, the prisoners of one of the asylums were able to unlock the entrance door and get out. Then the rest of the captives also came out of their shelters and entered the camp area; In this way, the camp was in the hands of the prisoners until the next day. At noon on November 28th, concurrent with the collective praying of the prisoners, Iraqi soldiers entered the camp and settled around the area equipped with makeshift weapons such as cables, batons, and sticks. Once the collective praying of prisoners ended, the Iraqi commander of the camp spoke to the prisoners and suddenly the soldiers started their attack and beat up the prisoners with every means they had. According to the prisoners, two or four of their number died martyrs in the clash and many anonymous captives were injured. After that, captives were imprisoned for up to a month and only had one hour of free time each day, and in the mean time the Iraqis whipped them with cables and hit them with batons. Some time later, the Iranian officers were taken to Anbar camp in Ramadi area and on 22nd of Bahman ( equal to February 10th) of the same year, about 500 prisoners of this camp were transferred to Musel camp 3. Some were also sent to Ramadi camp 7[2].
2. Following the Iraqi soldiers' attempt to plant informants among the prisoners, they brought one of these spies to the Musel camp 2. Despite the warnings and efforts of the captives to make him mend his ways, the spy went about his sordid business as eagerly as before until the prisoners decided to cut off his ears as a punishment, so some of the captives kicked up a brawl and after sneaking on the guy, effected the specified pealty.
The end of the camp
During the exchange of prisoners in the middle of the summer of 1990 , the vast majority of the prisoners of this camp returned to Iran exactly on the 26th and 27th of August.
See also
Bibliography
- ↑ Zikriai, Maryam Sadat (1390).LCs memories at the turn of the year. Mazandaran: Editing and Publishing Committee of the Congress of Generals and Ten Thousand Martyrs of Mazandaran Province.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Khaji, Ali (1391). Description of cages, prisoners of war camps. Tehran: Payam Azadegan.
- ↑ Kamvar Bakshaish, Javad (2014). Mosul prison Tehran: Surah Mehr.
- ↑ Azizi, Mojtaba (2009). "Looking at the situation of Iranian prisoners in Iraq". Tehran: Computer Research Center of Islamic Sciences.
To read more
Dai, Ali (2007). Violation of the rights of Iranian prisoners of war and the international responsibility of the Iraqi government. Tehran: Payam Azadegan.
Rahmanian, Abdul Majid (2011). Charter of purity and service. Tehran: Payam Azadegan.
Sharifi, Ismail (1378). Transformation in Captivity, Prisoners of War Administration Commission, Tehran: Ramin Publishing Cultural Institute.
Askari, Shadab (2014). The captivity of kindness, the narrative of honor and authority. Tehran: Atashbar affiliated with the Organization for the Preservation and Publication of Sacred Defense Values of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army.
Maryam Sadat ZAkariyayee