Thirsty Sands (Part 26)

2020-2-2

Thirsty Sands (Part 26)

Jafar Rabiei

Design: Ali Vaziri

First published in 1991

Publishing House, Islamic Propagation Organization

Printed at the Aryan

According to our on previous experience, we realized that we would be obliged to their favor as in the past! In the vice-commander's room there were several Iraqis: officers and non-commissioned officers. A sergeant who cold to some extent talk in Persian came toward us with a list in his hand and said, "you are criminals, and I will now announce your crimes so that Amer may decide what to do about you." He read the names of three of us and our so-called crimes. Reading the name of the fourth he said: "'You are Rafsanjani!"[1] Surprised, our friend asked, "Me?" The Iraqi sergeant said, "yes, you".

We have been reported that you make speeches in his (Mr. Rafsanjani's) guise in the sleeping halls. Now I will show what it means to be in his place!"

Then he turned to the guard standing beside him and said, "tell the rest that Hashemi Rafsanjani is here". The guard went to the door and announced this with a loud voice to the soldiers standing in the courtyard. The soldiers fervently ran towards the room. It appeared that they had really expected to see Mr. Hashemi there, but when they faced with the innocent face of our friend, they realized that they had been ridiculed by the guard. So, some of them returned and some started beating up our friend.

That night they retuned us gain into the prison and kept us. I there for five days. During this period the Iraqis intended to gather some information concerning the situation of our friend, but they did not succeed. When we were finally returned to the halls, it was the turn of our other friends who were in turn taken to the prison.

The time passed by in this manner. On the early days of Aban 1363 (October 1984), news was carried in the Arabic language Iraqi newspapers, with a banner headline reading, that "Iranians have massacred the Iraqi POWs."[2] However, we knew that the survival of the Iraqi regime depended on lying and so we did not pay attention to such propaganda of the enemy. We guessed that after a few days this would be clarified like other issues and then pushed into oblivion. But with the passage of time the propaganda blasts of the enemy did not lessen and in fact all the media of the arrogant power joined in with Iraq to add flavor to such new with detailed reports of a fanciful kind. The propaganda of the enemy came to be so extensive and exaggeratedly harmonized that in a short period of time the international community were forced to take notice and react in favor of the Iraqis. Among those who officially condemned the treatment by Iran of Iraqi POWs and described the Iraqis' treatment of Iranian POWs as humanitarian was the president of the Red Cross. Two more of us were taken out soon enough after all this fuss and brought back bleeding and beaten up. The two could not stand erect any longer after their beatings and fell down to the ground. And irony of ironies! At this same moment the radio was broadcasting the statement of the Red Cross chief who had termed the Iraqi treatment of Iranian prisoners "humanitarian". That moment was enough to make it very clear to us what the real meaning of humanitarianism was in the eye of the people.

With the passage of time the volume of enemy propaganda increased, until finally the United Nations accepted the request of the Iraqi regime to inspect the condition of Iraqi POWs in Iran. Were we not as well prisoners of war? Were the Iranians living in Iraqi detention camps of Iran dreadful than the medieval dungeon in other parts of Iraq not captives? Yet there were several occasions in Iraqi camps when they massacred our dear POWs, martyred several and wounded or maimed hundreds of others.

To be continued…