Thirsty Sands (Part 28)

2020-2-18

Thirsty Sands (Part 28)

Jafar Rabiei

Design: Ali Vaziri

First published in 1991

Publishing House, Islamic Propagation Organization

Despite the passage of one week all the signs of torture could be very well observed on his body. At every corner of the Oate, a large number of the POWs gathered around the delegation and made their statement. Crowd was so tense that the Iraqi guards were not able to discern who talked to the members of the delegation.

After the delegation left the camp, the POWs were indeed happy and satisfied at being able to accon1plish their duty at this stage: telling the world the fact about the Iraqi mistreatment of the Iranian POWs. The Iraqis, however, were insanely enraged at this, as was clear fron1 their angry looks. A few days after the delegation left, the Iraqis announced for the first time after five years that keeping pen and paper was allowed. Before this, even having a piece of card board was considered a big crime by the Iraqis. There were many POWs who had undergone torture with Iraqi cable and batons for this crime.

The Iraqi regime after the passage of a long time since the announcement of the false news of the massacre of Iraqi POWs in Iran, still continued their propaganda, while we waited for the final report of the U.N delegation assigned to investigate the situation of POWs in the camps to be published. Finally, waiting came to an end and the statement was published. The Iraqis did not mention the content of the statement in their newspapers and only by calling it unjust in their commentaries of their newspapers displayed protest. What we gleaned nevertheless from the contents of the statement was that the U.N had accused Iraq of torture and Iran of conducting propaganda on the Iraqi POWs. With the announcement of this news more happiness overtook the camp. We were all assured that the several months of propaganda of the Iraqis was no more than a lie. Despite this we knew that the U.N delegation had not fully observed impartiality since they considered the brutal tortures of the Iraq is at the same level as propaganda work of Iran on the Iraqi POWs and condemned both.

From that day on the behavior of the Iraqi became somewhat moderate, and they reduced their bodily and mental pressures and tortures against the POWs. This event was considered a great experience for the POWs as well as the Iranian officials active in handling the POWs’ affairs. Whenever the question of the POWs was set forth at international level and our government, entered the scene from a position of power,       the Iraqis were compelled to reconsider their behavior and stop their brutal tortures, even though temporarily.

The situation of the camp continued in this same way until Tir, 1364 (July 1985).

In the middle of the spring of 1363 (1984) a rumor was spread in the camp over the exchange of a number of disabled and injured POWs from the Iraqi side. After a few days with the presence of the Red Cross members in the camp, this rumor found expression. The Red Cross officials announced that 120 POWs would be cx­ changed. My name and the names of a number of other friends were in the list. It was arranged that this number be exchanged in groups of 30 men in four stages.

The first group of Iranian POWs returned to Iran in Khordad. My name and the names of 29 others were in the list for the second stage. All the POWs were happy with our return to Iran. They believed that the release of even one POW who could carry the voice of their innocence to Iran was God’s blessing; and I should sincerely confess that this kind of freedom was not the heartfelt desire of mine and most of my friend.

One day before our being moved from the camp towards Iran, the Red Cross members met and spoke with each of the exchanged person privately and in the presence of an Iraqi officer. When I entered the room of the Red Cross, after customary ceremonies I filled a special form. Then the Red Cross official said, “if you wish, you can take asylum in Iraq or any other foreign country”. With this silly proposal suddenly the 29 months of my captivity the moments of captivity, and all the scenes of how I was beaten despite all those wounds on my body, the nights of captivity when the boys were left alone bleeding in the hall, all these passed like a flask across my mind.

This offer by the Red Cross was like a burning stick poured over the fire of my hatred, the hatred which the Baathist regime had kindled in my heart by making aggression against the Islamic Revolution.

I noticed that the Red Cross representative and the Iraqi officer were waiting for my response. Addressing them I said, “No, I would like to return to my own country.” The Red Cross representative said. “If you are thinking of the consequences of taking asylum, I should say that we can assure you that everything has been coordinated and there would be no problems for you.” His impertinent, futile insistence had astonished me. I found him to be an extraordinary fool, since he did not prove to be an impartial member of the Red Cross. I controlled myself with difficulty and said, “I want to return to my own country.”

The End