Here is a letter typed by a detainee who was released today from the Kahrizak detention center. This is his story that I just finished translating for those of you who cannot read it in Farsi.
I do not know where to start. There is so much to tell about the Iranian Guantanamo but very little time. I apologize but I am in a rush and must leave quickly. Right now that I’m writing this, it is 8 minutes past 1 AM on 6 Tir (July 28). By a miracle, several of us today escaped death.
I just got in from a hospital and right away I came to my PC to write this blog. They arrested me on 18 Tir (July 9). I’m 21 years old. As I’m writing this, I still cannot believe that they let me go. On 18 Tir (July 9), me and a friend of mine were taking part in a protest. As we rode on one motorbike, my friend was filming using his cell phone. Several plain clothed men started beating us. This poor lady came to our rescue but they beat her as well. They threw us in a minibus filled with others who were beaten and injured just like us. The minibus took us to the police station. They had beaten us so badly that we didn’t know where we were.
They made us stand against a wall. I stood next to my friend. Then a big plain clothed man came over and picked out every other person from the line up and kicked us into the minibus. That was the last time I saw my friend. They took the rest of us to Urdugah Kahrizak – camp Kahrizak. You will never believe it. We were in a room with 200 other people who were beaten and injured. I could hear everyone’s cries of pain. I kept asking myself what are they planning to do with us? May be tomorrow we will all go to jail.
Going to jail would have been better than where we were. We had no room to sit and the walls and doors were covered with blood. I began thinking about my friend. My friend wasn’t one of those strong kids who could handle a place like this. During all this, those who were in the room started crying because someone had died. But you are not going to believe me when I tell you that we were all stuck to each other and could not move to go see who had died.
At that point, plain clothed guards came into our room, broke the light and began beating us in the dark. They beat anyone they could reach. This continued for 30 minutes. Couple of people fainted from the beatings and perhaps even died. Then the guards turned on several flash lights on our faces and said if you don’t shut up, we will stick these batons inside your behinds. I couldn’t believe it. I thought I was having a nightmare.
The Sadist, who seemed to be the ring leader, picked up the dead person, put the body against the wall, used a flash light on the face of the dead person and said if you don’t shut up, you will end up like this person; not a peep out of you. If you are still alive by tomorrow, so be it, otherwise, oh well…
He said you are all moharebeh (?). Do you all understand what moharaebeh means? One of the thugs who was standing in front of a 16/17 year old grabbed him by the neck and said tell them what moharabeh means. The teenager said I don’t know. The tug said f--- you, for not knowing, then began beating the boy and kept repeating tell them the meaning, tell them, tell them… The guard continued beating the boy until the teen fainted. The guard said Moharebeh means the devil. It means a violator. He then continued beating the boy and a couple of people began shouting at him. The guard then turned on them and began beating them as well.
In the room we were in, at least four people died before daylight. The guard yelled there is no toilet and no tooth brush. Do your business right where you’re standing. This continued for several days and many things happened but I have no time to explain it now. I do not know how much time had passed because we were always standing in the dark and whenever they would open the door, the flashlight they threw in our eyes were unbearable to our retina.
Because they did not want all of us to die from starvation, they would throw us one sack of leftover food with broken pieces of bread mixed in with rice. One of the detainees who said he was a doctor was in charge of splitting the food among us so that we would all get a small morsel which we ate with a voracious hunger. I knew this doctor and a few others from their voices because I couldn’t see anyone in the dark. Days later, the Sadist came, brought a couple of light bulbs with him and transferred us to outside of the camp. For us, it was a sense of freedom – the blue skies and the rays from the sun were new to us.
I have to tell you that the reason they let us out was so that we would clean the feces in the room. Excuse me for writing in this manner but in several weeks or months when the rest of my cell mates are freed from camp Kahrizak, they will be able to better explain how we were treated. And I am certain that this camp at certain times was much worse than Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib prison.
Anyhow, the sadist told those of us who were released that we were lucky that we didn’t even have to go to court. As it turns out because of yesterday’s unusual riots, they decided to throw us out of the camp to make room for others. At midnight, I immediately borrowed a cell phone from someone on the street and called my family to pick me up. But what you must not forget is the thousands of us in camp Kahrizak who are still living in abhorring conditions.
Also, here are the names of those who were in the room with me and died. I have memorized their names. Perhaps if these animals had taken my cell mates to a hospital, they may have survived.
- Hassan Shapouri (student)
- Reza Fatahi (student)
- Milad Faghed Ghamili (26 years old)
- The 16/17 year old that I explained about how the Sadist beat him was taken away by the Sadist. But the doctor in the room said that the teen was bleeding from the ears and mouth and unfortunately he died.
- Morteza Solhshour
- Mohsen Entezami
Also, I have the names of many people who were detained with me at the camp. I will tell you their names in my blog within a few days.
Dear God, please release all Iranians and all those who want their freedom. I know that there is a good possibility they will close this camp because many have been killed here.
Reza Yavari (my pseudonym)
July 28
1:10 A.M
In the hopes of freedom from Kahrizak
Note: When Reza wrote this, he had no news of the outside. Here is what happened later that day: The leaders ordered closure of Kahrizak center. However, the current Iranian regime is brutal and thousands are still being tortured as I write this. My heart bleeds for them every day and there is nothing I can do except to tell as many people as I can what these monsters are doing to my people.
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