Iranian boy prisoners go to school

Press, 7 September 1984, Page 20

Iranian boy prisoners go to school

From

SARAH PARKER

in London

Iraq has signed an agreement with two Swiss-based charities to establish a school for some of the hundreds of Iranian boy prisoners captured during the Gulf war. The school has already been built and is due' to open later this year at Ramade, aa camp just over an hour’s drive from Bagdad towards the Syrian border. According to the Internatical Red Cross, Iraq is bolding 7700 Iranian prisoners of war. Many hundreds of them are thought to be boys under the age of 16. Some are as young as nine or 10. When I visited Ramade earlier this month the schoolbuilding was ready for occupation, newly painted and proudly shown off by the officer in charge of the children’s section, Captain Awas Mohammed. He said that the two-storey bar-rack-type building had been built on the direct orders of Iraq’s President, Saddam Hussein. The building is the first tangible sign of the agreement signed between the Iraqi Government and the two main charities — Terre Des Homines and the Defence of Children International. Many; of the Iranian children can, despite their interrupted education, (read and write. Michael Rod, from Terre Des Hommes; which already runs programmes for children in need in 45 other countries, says he hopes the school will continue the children’s studies in languages, mathematics and vocational training, such as weaving and cooking. “It is important for these children tp continue learning something,” he adds. “At the moment there is nothing for them to do. School will help them mentally cope with life in the camp.’’ On his last visit to Ramade in December last year, he estimated there were more than 300 youngsters . there. Since then, there has been another major Iranian offen-

sive, and many more children have come to the camp. A few, like Ahmed Reza, appear very young. He told me he was only nine years old and went to fight after ' Khomeini guards started recruiting at his primary school. After only three days at the front, he was captured. He had seen many of his friends wounded and others killed, their bodies left “floating on the marshes.” He said he hadn’t fired a shot because his rifle had jammed. Another soldier, just 15, told me he had been too scared to shoot : Many told how they went to ( fight believing they would be helping behind the lines, but once the ’ offensive started they found them- ’ selves pushed in front of the ’ regular army. It is a familiar story. There have ' been reports of youngsters charg- ■ ing through minefields to clear the 1 way for the army, spurred on by . the belief that they wear around , their neck a special protection. “It ’ is the key to paradise given to us by Khomeini,” Ahmed says. It is in fact, a plastic identity disc. For many of the children at the camp, there is little to do except sleep in the barracks, which each ’ houses more than 50 boys. They often pray, they may also read. Over the past two years Red Cross workers who visit eight prisoner-; of-war camps in Iraq have been allowed to send in books. Michael Rod and the other Swiss representatives originally hoped the teachers in the school would be Iranian. One in four children interviewed said that being taught by Iraqis might place them under suspicion when they eventually returned home. But the Iraqi Government insisted that their own teachers are used. These are being trained to teach in Farsi, although Arabic and English are also expected to be used. '