Survival of Abu-Ghraib Jail

This entry is part 2 of 10 in the series Survival of Abu-Ghraib Jail

Dr. Ala Musa Hasan | Exclusive to iKurd.net

Incarceration Since the 1960s, the Faili Kurds have suffered many an injustice and cruelty, by going through arbitrary and illegal deportations. However, the 1980s deportation was the most intensive and brutal exile because it was a “state robbery”.

Almost all Faili Kurds families suffered multiple losses in terms of their properties, finances, social status, citizenships, legal status, identity, social network, and their youths. Thousands upon thousands of their handsome and intelligent youths were rounded up from their homes, schools and work places, and they were placed at the Abu-Ghraib Jail with no legal procedures.

During the time that I was at Abu-Ghraib Jail , the number of the Faili youths who were in detention was between 7.000 to 8.000 male youths. They were University and high school students, government employees, athletes, self-employed, singles and married guys. I was the youngest and the smallest guy there, and they used to ask me all the time why that I am hear, and I had no answers for them.

At Abu-Ghraib Jail, we faced many humiliation, discrimination, and emotional and mental cruelty. We were forced to get up every morning at 6:00 for the routine morning check.

Every morning, the Jail guards used to round us for the routine morning count, which did not make any sense for us, because we were firmly reserved in a highly secure Jail, and we were not allowed to go out during the day. We were kept inside dark cells with few windows and we never saw the sun since we were positioned there.

Through those windows, we used to observe the criminals every morning being free until sundown walking around the Jail field, playing football and engaging in other activities, and we were not allowed to do any of that. We were placed in large cold and filthy cells full of bugs. Each cell had about 200 youths and it was very congested. The bathrooms and the shower rooms were very filthy and they had no doors and no hot water it was cold all summer and winter time.

They used to provide us with two meals, and it was a potato soup and solid rock bread that you can break someone’s skull with it. I was the youngest detainee at Abu-Ghraib Jail, and I was so afraid to be there and I looked hopeless and helpless all the time.

I was so frightened to be with those youths, because they were older and bigger than me, so I kept my distance from them, and I used to sleep in the cell’s hallway near the bathroom because no one would want to be near the bathroom’s awful odor.

I used to perceive those youths crying inside the bathrooms feeling depressed and hopeless all the time. You can feel the high level of anger and hostility in the air, and it was so obvious among some of those youths. Those youths were like timed bomb that they were ready to go off any time.

Almost every day, there were fights going on among those youths for any small reason and I was so scared to witness that. Every night I used to cry in my sleep and my top pajamas used to get so wet with my tears. Every night I used to dream about my mother and I was hugging her and complaining to her about my life in the prison.

One day, I had a very sad dream, that I will never see my mother and family again, so I felt so depressed and sad that I could not take it any more, and I really believed that I will never leave this institution and be with my mother and family once more, thus, I decided to commit suicide.

I had a pencil sharpener in my bag, because when I was arrested, I was coming home from school, so I had my school belonging with me. So, I took out the razor blade of the pencil sharpener in order to cut my wrist inside the bathroom, but I was not successful.

I did cut my wrist, but it was not deep enough to do the job, and I got so scared so I changed my mind about killing myself. I will continue to write about the events that occurred at Abu-Ghraib Jail, because the whole world needs to know what really happened to the Faili Kurds youths, and this information should be documented to our new generation, because the new generation has the right to know what really happened to their relatives, brothers, uncles, cousins, parents, and their ethnic group.

Dr. Ala Musa Hasan, a Canada-based Faili Kurd, PHD Candidates in Clinical Psychology.

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