Takrit camp 15
One of the detention camps of Iranian prisoners in Iraq.
Takrit camp 15 was set up in the summer of 1988. The prisoners of this camp, who were hidden and missing, were captured by the enemy after the acceptance of Resolution 598 by Iran and the large-scale attack of Iraq in July or early August. The prisoners of the camp were composed of army, IRGC, Islamic militia and civilian forces.
Geographical and architectural characteristics
Takrit camps were near one another. Takrit camp 15 consisted of two completely similar parts. Each of these parts had three blocs and each bloc had three sanatoriums. As a result, it consisted of six blocs and eighteen sanatoriums. The Iraqi authorities of the camp separated all three sanatoriums from other parts using barbed wire. The sanatoriums had dimensions of about 4 meters high, 20 meters long, and 6 meters wide. The building was made of reinforced concrete, the roof and floor of the sanatorium were made of concrete, and its exterior was made of bricks. Each sanatorium had three or four windows that opened to the courtyard. There was a concrete canopy in front of the sanatorium. Barbed wires 10 meters wide and 6 meters high surrounded this camp [1].
Camp facilities
Since the Iraqis had not shown the Takrit camps to the Red Cross, they were more open to harshness and torture, and the camps lacked many facilities because they were being accommodated for the first time. On the first day of entering the camp, more than 160 captives were accommodated in each sanatorium with a capacity of 50 people. When the prisoners arrived in the middle of July 1988, they were not allowed to leave the sanatorium for two days. The break-time was from 10 am to 4 pm. Iranian prisoners in this camp faced many restrictions. The meat consumed by Iraqis was decayed and you could find worms in it. After 6 months of captivity, the prisoners had been allowed to take a bath for the first time. In the first days, there was no bath and the prisoners built a bath by themselves. Eac of the nine sanatoriums, had about 10 to 13 showers and one toilet fountain. None of the sanatoriums had ventilation system. The sanatorium's lighting was provided by lamps whose keys were outside the sanatorium and inside the guard's room. One year after their arrival at the camp, the captives were allowed to use a small part of the yard in front of each sanatorium as a garden to grow vegetables .
Persecution in this camp was also a matter of routine: "At Takrit camp 15, beatings and harassment started seriously. They removed our clothes and for three months, we were without clothes and only in a pair of shorts. During this period , we were allowed to go to the bathroom only once. Most of us contracted scabies. They did not provide us with medicine. There was no treatment. After three months of nakedness, they gave us a handful of old and tattered clothes."[2] And "the solitary confinement of the Iraqis was one meter by one meter. Its height was low and one could not stand up. Sometimes they took off the prisoner's clothes and put him naked in solitary confinement. "When the captive came out after two days, he was crumpled like paper and could not stand up straight for several hours because of the pain." [3] (→ Takrit camp 15 facilities)
Important events
1. With the efforts of Mojahedin-e-Khalgh members in the camp and propagandizing against the Islamic Republic system and trying to recruit troops, a conflict broke out between the prisoners and the Iraqis, which was accompanied by the beating of the prisoners and the Iraqis opening a volley of shots above the heads of prisoners. This conflict caused the Mojaheddin members to leave the camp, and the Iraqis also put a lot of restrictions on the fulfilment of the basic needs of the prisoners.
2. Among the other important events of this camp, there was a conflict due to the mourning for Imam Hossein in the month of Muharram 1989, when the Iraqis entered the sanatorium and interrupted the ceremony and insulted the Saints and Imams. The Iraqis shot the prisoners and imprisoned them in the sanatorium for three days. In this conflict, three prisoners were martyred and eighteen people were injured.
3. The hunger strike lasting for three days was one of the other important events of the camp, which took place following the short temper of the Iraqi guard, and with the sympathy and unity of the forces, the Iraqi soldier was whipped and the camp commander apologized [4].
4. On the morning of January 1989, one of the prisoners named Mohammad Fathi was arrested while escaping from the ring of barbed wire. In the misty morning air, he was about ten meters away from the barbed wire when a guard outside the camp-yard spotted him. With the shouts of the guard, the anti-riot tanks immediately arrived at the camp and took him to the camp after a lot of beating. After the military trial, this prisoner was stripped naked and hung on a flagpole in the cold weather of January. Following this incident, other prisoners were also tortured and abused. This happened on Friday and it became known as Black Friday among the prisoners of Camp 15. (→ Important events of Takrit Camp 15)
End of the camp
The prisoners of this camp were registered and exchanged by the Red Cross during the prisoner exchange days in September 1990. According to the report of the International Committee of the Red Cross, at the time of the exchange of prisoners, about 2300 Iranian prisoners had been registered in this camp[1].
Bibliography
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Khaji, Ali (1391). Description of the cage. Tehran: Surah Mehr, p. 248.
- ↑ Askari, Dawood (1370). 25 memories. Tehran: Hozeh Henry, p. 19.
- ↑ Natiq, Sasan 2015). Seyyed of sanatorium 15, memories of Seyyed Jamal Setaredan. Tehran: Surah Mehr, p. 148.
- ↑ Ahmadzadeh, Mikaeel (2008). Camp 15, Takrit. Tehran: Shahid., p. 157.
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Asghar Hasanpour