Radio

Radio

The most important means of communication between captives and the outside world. In the Iraqi camps, it was forbidden and difficult to get any news, especially from Iran. Therefore, having a radio was both a crime and had dangerous consequences. But since the prisoners were far from all reliable sources of news outside the camp, the news about the country, especially the war and its fate, was very important to them. In fact, the radio was considered to be the link between the prisoners and Iran and the biggest source of encouragement for the prisoners. Obtaining the radio, hiding and keeping it, and reading the news were some of the processes pertaining to the radio in the Iranian prisoners of war camps in Iraq.

Ways of accessing the radio

Accessing the radio was one of the most dangerous tasks that prisoners braved in Iraqi prisons. This was usually done by captives who outsmarted the Iraqis and stole from them, and the stolen radio was used by an organized team under the supervision of a camp manager or leader. Excluding special cases such as civilian prisoners who had their own radios, or political figures such as Engineer Seyyed Mohsen Yahyavy, Deputy Minister of Oil, who had a radio, the most important way to access a radio in the camps was theft whose certain examples can be traced in the diaries of the LCs as follows:

1.The first radio that reached the prisoners in the Mosul camp was the broken dilapidated radio of an Iraqi guard: it was 1981. Three months had passed since we were in the camp. I saw an Iraqi guard holding a broken radio. He was tinkering with it to make it function. I turned to one of the Arabic-speaking inmates and remarked ‘ The Iraqis can easily get themselves new radios ,so how come this guard is tinkering with such a dilapidated one? The security guard heard me and slammed the radio hard next to the trash can. I secretly went and snatched the pieces of the radio and after three months, with great difficulty, we repaired it and finally got it working. It was very difficult to work with this radio. There were a lot of crackling sounds and it was difficult to receive the news. Until one day, along with Qasim Kompany, we entered the camp warehouse by pushing aside the plates that were used as doors. Our initial intention was to get paper and pens, but while rummaging through different parts of the warehouse, we found eight radios and most importantly, some hands-frees. We hid the radios in the hatches of the warehouse to use them over time.

2.One of themost interesting cases in which a radio was stolen, happened in the infirmary of the Mosul camp Nr.1. Three prisoners of this camp planned to lift the radio of an Iraqi doctor medical assistant. Shakibzadeh, who himself played a role in this incident, recounts:

That night, I malingered and was taken to the hospital. After an examination, the  doctor prescribed an injection for me. Just when the injection was being given, one of the inmates accompanying me to the hospital, snatched the radio from the  doctor's table and we left the hospital. Of course, at that time, we already had a small radio that worked with  battery, but the new radio worked with electricity, and we wanted to use this radio when we had no  access to a battery or when the battery was discharged lest we might miss some news pertaining to Iran.

3. Of course, in those days, it was far less difficult for the inmates to leave the sanatorium for the camp hospital at night, and if one of us felt sick, he could readily go to the hospital which was for the most part run by Iranian captives. . That night, I malingered and was taken to the hospital. After an examination, the doctor prescribed an injection for me. Just when the injection was being given, one of the inmates accompanying me to the hospital, snatched the radio from the doctor's table and we left the hospital. Of course, at that time, we already had a small radio that worked with battery, but the new radio worked with electricity, and we wanted to use this radio when we had no access to a battery or when the battery was discharged lest we might miss some news pertaining to Iran."

4.One of the other significant cases of obtaining the radio was its theft from an Iraqi guard. The prisoners noticed that one of the guards had a radio and carried it around and he usually put it down somewhere in the middle of the 2nd floor. The buildings of the camp had two stories. This sentinel guarded the upper floor. Each floor was about six meters: "One day the guard had placed his radio on the edge of the second floor;and some of the captives decided to lift the radio however it was. Thus, they got on top of each other and one standing upon the shoulders of another when the sentinel was a little far away and heedless, they hit the radio with the handle of a mop and brought it down. Henceforth, the program of using the radio became known as "Sofre Ba Barkat Abul Fazl (PBUHS.)" and with the grace and care of His Holiness, we did very well, and during the next period, we had procured another five or six radios. and actually we were able to bring one of them to Iran with us."

5."When we were in Baghdad, we had a Kurdish guard. We were 180 people, about 150 of whom were Kurds. This guard brought us things like cigarettes and other cheap items. The guys talked him into bringing us a radio. They gave him a rather expensive wrist –watch and in return he got us a small radio, for which he could have lost his life if he had been nabbed."

6. "Once a grocery car came to the camp and stopped in the middle of the intersection of the camp area. The driver got out to unload the goods. There was a radio on the dashboard. Ali Najafi (known as Ali the Pharaoh; a nickname given to him by the Iraqis ) loitered around him and tried to distract his attention .At the right moment, Ali opened the car door and lifted the radio. The driver realized that his radio was missing, but he did not dare to tell anyone, because he knew the security would nettle him. Unfortunately, the wind got out and the Iraqis found and seized the stolen radio..

7. "One of the captives went to the doctor's room and took a radio from there. His name was Mohammad Hasan Bayati from Mashhad. Bayati said that I went into the room before the doctor and took the radio and the doctor did not notice when he came. I had hidden the radio under my shirt and left the room with it. The doctor went and told the Iraqis that he did not have a radio. They searched inside the asylum and harassed dwellers a lot. There was an old radio about whose origin we did not have the slightest idea. The captives removed the outer cover of the radio and put the old radio inside the cover of the new one and handed it over to the Iraqis, and that's how the affair ended."

Maintenance

Hiding and keeping the radio was as important as getting it. If the Iraqis found a captive in possession of a radio, they would punish him severely because they wanted the prisoners to be isolated from the outside world. In addition to the sanatorium itself and its hiding places, such as the lamps on the ceiling, cisterns and bathrooms, and even cellar, there were other places to stow and hide the radio. This was done with the utmost care so that it would not be exposed in case of sudden or intrusive Iraqi visits and there would be no problem for the entire camp. Setting the news down and its perusal.

Setting the news down and its perusal

What mattered a lot, so far as setting the news and received information down was concerned with, was the procurement of paper. At one point, we utilized the white wrappings of the meat distributed in the camp. The captives cut the wrappings to the size of an A4 sheet and wrote news on them. The use of wrappings had several advantages: first, they were very light and easy to maintain; The second advantage was its ability to be used multiple times. The writings on it were easily wiped with water and some detergent. Therefore, the procurement of paper was no longer a primary concern. At other times, paper was used. The news was set down on paper precisely and word for word. Even things such as laughter, crying, clapping of the audience and the like were specified in the edited text so that the captives could form a more vivid and concrete picture. For example, at the time of Imam Khomeini's death, a moment-to-moment report of the funeral ceremony was set down, mentioning the smallest details, which sometimes reached fifteen pages. Those who were in charge of setting down news were nicknamed "Karam al-Katbin"(Scribes) by their inmates. In each sanatorium, two people were responsible for this work and they had to be characterized as trustworthy, courageous and fast scribes (similar to short hands). These people had to be sufficiently reserved not to express their joy and sadness when hearing happy news such as victory in military operations or sad news such as the death of the Imam, so that their countenances would not give away the type of news. Scribes wrote the news in tiny letters from the left side of the paper to the right; They left a one-line space, then continued from right to left to the bottom of the page. Again, they would come up zigzag and fill the empty lines. No one knew the time and place of this process, except for the three people who were directly involved in this work. In the first year of captivity, the work was done at night; Over time, to increase the security , this work was transferred to days. On this score some initiatives too were adopted. For those who set down the news , a team was assigned to take care of them inconspicuously i.e without them knowing, because if one sheet of the hand-written newspaper fell into the hands of the Iraqis, it would put the whole camp into trouble. This issue was so important that even fighting with the Iraqi guards was allowed so that the document would not fall into the hands of the Iraqis. In the next step, the news was coded so that if a piece of paper fell into the hands of the Iraqis, they could not find out what it contained. Even the ordinary prisoners did not understand the content of the news. For example, we used to code the Islamic Republic as "C" or Saddam as "KH" and none of the political figures and officials of Iran, Iraq and the United States were mentioned in the news, and only the scribes and readers of the news in the sanatorium comprehended those codes .Once the news was thoroughly set down, it was entrusted to those in charge of perusing them to the captives most gingerly

Special cases

1. The news of the liberation of Khorramshahr and the news of Imam Khomeini's death marked a turning point and made history pertaining to the topic of radio.

2. The Iraqis broadcast the news of Iran's radio to the prisoners only once during the captivity in the Mosul camp, and that was due to the explosion of the Republican Party Office; the Iraqis were under the impression that following the explosion, the Islamic Republic would soon collapse.

3. Different ways to supply the radio battery were tried; ranging from trading and exchanging rings and necklaces with some Iraqi Shia guards to requesting wrist-watch batteries from representatives of the Red Cross and charging the batteries with saline water or boiling water.

4. Of course, in the diaries of the LCs, one or two cases have been mentioned where a soldier or a lady brought a radio to the camp during the first years of captivity, which was used for a while .

See also

• Media and news
• Death of Imam Khomeini
  

To read more

Hidden embankment 5. Glossary of terms and expressions of Iranian prisoners in Iraq (1374) Tehran: Headquarters for handling freedmen's affairs

Mirshamsuddin Fallah Hashemi