The affair of blockwork in Musel camp 2

During the captivity of Iranian soldiers in the camps of the Baath regime in Iraq, the army of this country put Iranian captives to drudgery pursuing various goals such as  taking away the power of thinking and creativity from the captives, controlling the captives more easily, creating such sentiments as humiliation, suffering, anxiety, failure and the like, carrying out construction projects such as building houses, digging wells, setting up camps, laying barbed wire, and entertaining captives . The Iraqis referred to Chapter III of the Third Geneva Convention, Article 89, Paragraph 3, regarding the drudgery of prisoners of war, and sometimes it was up to the captives to accept it, and they even paid wages for doing those hard tasks.

The blockwork was one of the actual and tangible forms of drudgery in POW camps. In late fall of 1981, the Iraqi commander of the Musel Camp 2 (Old Musel 1 or Kheybaries) Colonel Mohammed gathered the captives together and declared that according to the Geneva Convention, the captives were to do blockwork and get wages in return for their services. More than half of the captives of the camp did the blockwork for the Iraqis for a while without any protest. But some of the radical captives, namely, followers of Hezbollah in consultation with one another across the four sanatoriums, came to the conclusion that it was against the teachings of their prophet to work for the enemy and that those blocks might be used for trenching. Therefore, they decided against the blockwork: "One of the traitors was in charge of the blockwork. When it was the turn of the captives in our room to go to the blockwork, the night before he informed us that tomorrow is your turn to do the blockwork. The guys said: we have made up our minds not to do it. And he had wasted no time notifying the Iraqis. ”

The camp commander sent some officers to talk to the prisoners in order to convince them, but the prisoners stood put. Then, the commander himself came along with his officers and threatened to punish the prisoners if they did not cooperate. The commander of the camp got really frustrated and disgruntled after hearing the negative answer of the prisoners and seeing their resistance. Hence, a difficult and arduous period began for the prisoners of this camp.

The first thing they did, was to start beating up the prisoners of the same four sanatoriums. Ten captives from each sanatorium were taken upstairs and beaten up violently in the hope of getting at least one of them to express regret and remorse: " The guys who had taken the hint, tried to volunteer to be one of the next ten captives. In short a self-sacrifice competition commenced amidst the lads. They expected those who had been beaten and were no longer afraid of it, to return and volunteer instead of the weaker ones.

The enemy beat the first thirty captives taken upstairs hoping that some would volunteer to work, but when they realized that the beatings were in vain, he got demoralized from beating up the guys. Especially since they saw that the beaten up ones were looked up to by the rest  of the captives; The unbeaten ones, especially the weaker guys fell all over their heroes, kissed them, hugged them and in short, made much of them. Therefore, the Iraqis stopped beating them and tried to break their endurance with long-termed planning."

In order to break the endurance and stamina of the prisoners, they shut the doors of the sanatoriums the whole day long and opened them only for ten minutes a day, so that they could go to the bathroom: "It was in early January that they shut the door on us. Every evening, the doors were opened for ten minutes for captives to go to  the bathroom. The total time was ten minutes. Within this short spell, we had to take turns going to the bathroom as rapidly as possible. If ten minutes were over and someone was still in the bathroom or in the yard, he would be beaten no matter what exactly he was doing at the moment. "Most of the guys had been beaten up, and it was a rarity to come across someone who could have given the Iraqis the slip."

This situation continued for about four months. Although the captives during this time made efforts such as fixing the hose and extending it from the bathroom into the sanatorium and using the electric element to heat the water to fulfil their needs, but the successive tortures, the use of unpurified water for drinking, the malnutrition, the lack of sunlight and not complying with the most basic rules of hygiene predisposed them to diseases such as nervous breakdown, stomach ache and problems with the digestive system, renal  diseases and diseases involving bones and joints specifically arthritis.

The arrival of Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Torabi Fard and another 150  prisoners at the camp on 22^nd of April,1982 promised to improve the mutual behavior of prisoners and Iraqis towards each other. At the same time, the Red Cross delegation also visited the camp and suggested to the camp commander seeking help from Mr. Abu Torabi Fard to solve this problem: "During the three days that the delegation was in the camp, the doors of our room stood open... The commander had spoken with Haj Agha Abu Torabi and clarified the issue for him. Mr. Abu Torabi Fard promised to solve the problem. Therefore, as soon as the door was opened, Haji came to see us in person. The Iraqis were tired of constantly watching over us and wanted to solve this problem somehow. Haj Agha had asked the Iraqis for five days and requested that the room door stand open during that time.

A significant number of prisoners still did not trust Mr. Abu Torabi Fard, but heard his discourse and arguments: "You have fulfilled your duty and  God will preserve your  reward. From now  and on behave yourselves and do not provoke  the Iraqis. Because you are the assets of the revolution and you shall remain healthy to return to Iran. If there is a religious problem arising from drudgery for Iraqis, I will undertake its responsibility ,thus, you may accept the offer of Iraqis. What you have spiritually achieved is even greater than what the clergymen of the seminary might attain after 20 solid years of purging their inner selves and this assurance I give you with the utmost certainty. In captivity, we are all like runners who should reach the finishing line together. If someone falls back and is out of breath, you can't say I want to keep going ahead. If he is lagging behind, you are to blame , do you not agree that many people have become too exhausted to carry on in these four months, and many who are now on the other side of the camp, could have still been with us. Do not let the enemy divide you. And now the blockwork has stopped. This is not helping the oppressor. The blockwork will be used merely for the construction of buildings. We are too far from the frontlines, and you may rest assured that the blockwork will not be utilized for trenching. So what we can do the best is doing the blockwork and at the same time spreading our Islamic propagandas. "

In this way, the captives were convinced and started with the blockwork the next day. Meanwhile, Mr. Abu Torabi Fard himself picked up the shovel and began the work. With the completion of each blockwork, the captives let out a loud salutation (addressing the members of the Holy Family) and then recited the Quranic verse ^{"Wajl Farajham wa Ahlak Adaham wa Id Imam al-Khomeini wa Ansar Jiyush al-Muslimin".}

The commander of the camp, after hearing the motto involving Imam Khomeini, again resorted to  Mr. Abu Torabi Fard  and said to him:

"If an Iraqi prisoner in Iran speaks in favor of Saddam and wishes him victory and well-being, what will your government do with him? Do they allow him to do this or punish him? When you use   Khomeini's name in this way, what justification and explanation should I give to the higher authorities?"

Then Mr. Abu Torabi Fard spoke to the captives thus:

" In his speech the colonel mentioned Imam`s name preceded by the title Seyyed whereas he said Saddam`s name without any titles. In my opinion, what the colonel said, made sense. So I got his permission to gather the captives together and speak to them, and he granted  the permission. "

It was agreed that from that time onwards the captives would not salute the members of the Holy Family aloud in the yard. . A week later, the Iraqis issued a new order according to which captives didn`t have to do the blockwork unless they themselves volunteered to do so. After that, the problems were largely resolved, the doors of rooms stood open and life began to stir in them  again.

See also

• Captivity and captives
• Prisoners
• Musel camp 2
• Important events of Musel camp 2
• Goodbye Mr. Chairman (book)

Bibliography

Massoud Amirkhani