Self-Sacrifice (32 page)

In due course, the driver arrived and I squeezed into the rear of a small Volkswagen. We tore off down endless backstreets in Erbil, until finally we entered a cul-de-sac, at the end of which several turbaned imams were standing, mobile phones in hand. They waved my driver into a parking place and then led me up a flight of stairs to a small room, filled with around a dozen people, at the end of which stood the Grand Mufti. He greeted me warmly and thanked me for agreeing to meet him.

The Grand Mufti is deeply committed to peace and freedom. He condemned the bombings and killings that take place daily in Iraq. He admitted that al-Qaeda were certainly involved in these atrocities. On the other hand, he told me the West must also realize that al-Qaeda were not the only terrorists. He stated that al-Maliki’s special militias, sponsored by Iran, were setting off car bombs and assassinating political opponents on a daily basis. According to him, the ‘Mukhtar Army’ was directly connected to this series of atrocities, and was controlled by al-Maliki. They apparently manufactured the car bombs, which were then exploded outside Sunni mosques in Baghdad and other cities. Al-Qaeda was blamed for these bombings and the West believed this simplified version of reality.

At the end of our meeting I shook the Grand Mufti’s hand warmly and asked him if he would be prepared to come to the European Parliament in Brussels to give evidence about the oppression of the Sunni population by Maliki at a special human rights conference. He readily agreed.

I also met Dr Salim Abdullah al-Jabouri, Chair of the Human Rights Committee in the Parliament, who has now been appointed its President (Speaker). He informed me that 50,000 people were in government prison camps, and apparently even more in secret prisons. Another 3,000 people were being held in urban secret jails. He promised to send me a complete dossier of human rights abuse that he has uncovered. He said that he would also be willing to come to Brussels to address a meeting of the Delegation for Relations with Iraq to speak about the human rights situation in the country.

The meeting with President Massoud Barzani took place in the President’s Palace in the mountains of Salahaddin, and discussion ensued about the demographic issues affecting the Christians in Bartalla. President Barzani stated that he would ask Baghdad to set up a special committee to find a solution to the Christian/Shabak problem, which he considers ‘very sensitive’. Concerning Syrian refugees, President Barzani renewed the Kurdistan Regional Government engagement of offering much needed shelter and hospitality. I informed him of my recent letter to Baroness Ashton asking that EU aid should be directed to Erbil, where it was needed, rather than to Baghdad. President Barzani walked with me to the front steps of his palace as I was leaving. I took this opportunity to raise with him the appalling massacre of 52 PMOI refugees in Camp Ashraf and the taking of seven hostages. The President gripped my arm. ‘This was a foul crime,’ he said. ‘I have protested to Maliki and demanded the release of the hostages. I will do everything in my power to secure their release.’

The KRG Prime Minister, Mr Nechirvan Barzani, gave me the impression of being a young, dynamic and highly intelligent politician; the Minister for Foreign Relations, Mr Falah Mustafa, accompanied him. The Prime Minister told me that one of the recent achievements of the KRG was to stop the so-called ‘honour killings’, courageously announcing that these were ‘dis-honourable’ and that anyone involved would be prosecuted for murder. I also raised with him the question of the massacre at Camp Ashraf. He said that he condemned such violence, but that he was reluctant to offer a refuge in Kurdistan for the 3,400 PMOI refugees in Camp Liberty.

I visited Kawergocek Refugee Camp, around 45 minutes from Erbil, and was introduced to Whycliffe Songwa, the UNHCR Senior Field Coordinator, and to the Mayor of Khabat District, Rzgar Mustafa. They described to me how the KRG opened the borders with Syria in August 2013 and were immediately flooded with Kurdish Syrian refugees fleeing the civil war from the Jazeera region of Syria and from Aleppo itself.

On my return to Brussels I wrote to Baroness Ashton recommending that the European Commission should send extra funding to Kurdistan for the ‘winterisation programme’ for Syrian refugees. The money should be sent directly to the NGOs who are actively
helping the Syrian refugees in Iraq, I said. It was deeply impressive for me to have seen for myself the extent of the aid being provided to refugees by the Kurds. Little did we realise that their situation would become even more precarious in the months ahead with the sudden emergence of ISIS – the Islamic State.

In the European Parliament I suggested to my own officials that we should organise a Human Rights Conference on Iraq in February or March 2014, to which we could invite the Chair of the Human Rights Committee from the Council of Representatives, Mr al-Jabouri; the KRG Minister for Human Rights and Sheik Dr Rafie Alrafaee, the Grand Mufti, in order to highlight the dire situation in Iraq.

40

Interviews with PMOI Refugees in Camp Liberty, September 2014

Khadija Borhani

‘My name is Khadija Borhani, I am 45 years old and I was born in Qazvin. During the Shah’s time my whole family was opposed to the monarchical dictatorship, and that is how I became aware of politics from early childhood. I was introduced to the PMOI through my brother Mehdi in 1977; I was only ten years old. In 1981, at 13, I was arrested by the Revolutionary Guards and transferred to the medieval clerical regime’s prisons. Qazvin being a small city, the news of my arrest at such a young age spread through the city like wildfire. The prosecutor’s lack of evidence and pressure from my parents led to my release.

My older brother Seyed Mehdi Borhani, after entering university in April of 1975 was arrested by the Shah’s SAVAK. He was sentenced to seven years in prison. Due to the popular uprising by the people he was released in December of 1978. Upon his release he actively helped organise and took part in anti-Shah demonstrations in Qazvin. After the overthrow of the Shah he worked full time with the Mojahedin National Movement.

In August of 1982, during the attacks on the Mojahedin’s bases, he was wounded and arrested by the Revolutionary Guards and transferred to Evin Prison, where he was subjected to the worst possible medieval tortures. After a week of torture they executed him. He was only 27 years old at the time of his execution. I was not aware of his death until my brother Hassan and I were trying to leave the country, three years later, where he gave me the news of his martyrdom. I was only 16 years old and was hoping when I crossed the border I would be able to see my brother Mehdi once again, so the news was very shocking to me.

My second brother, Seyed Mohammad Ali Borhani, was a student of geology at Shahrood Mining University. One afternoon in August of 1981 when the Revolutionary Guards attacked our house, Ali, who had just returned from work, was arrested and taken to prison. When in prison he accepted all the responsibility and diverted the attention from the other brothers who had been arrested as well. So he managed to save the lives of his brothers. His body was burned with cigarettes and his arm broken during torture; he was executed on 9 September 1981.

Ali was the first member of my family to be martyred. When he was killed I was also in prison. The night before their execution they read a list of names of people and Ali’s name was one of the names on the list. They immediately called me out of the Women’s Ward, where I was being held. As soon as I stepped out I saw Ali standing behind the door smiling. I was so happy to see him and asked him how he was. I never thought that he was actually going to be executed. He told me that the judge had a few more questions so they were taking him back to court, but, he said, he would be back tomorrow. I even asked him if he could bring a few books back with him. “What kind of books do you want?” he asked. I gave him the names of a few books. He never so much as hinted that he knew he was going to his execution. When he was ready to leave he hugged me so hard that when he left, I felt like my heart had been squeezed out of my chest. It felt as though I will never see him again. I wanted to ask him if he is really coming back tomorrow, then why is he hugging me as though he may never see me again; but he was taken away. Even though I was worried, I didn’t want to think about the possibility of his execution.

The next day at 11:00 am my name was called out through the loudspeakers in the Ward, and when I went out I saw the rest of my brothers were there as well (I was in prison along with four of my brothers: Ali, Ahmad, Hossein and Hassan). When I realised that Ali was not with them I broke into tears and realised why he had come to see me the night before. I was only 13 years old at the time. My brothers told me what an impact Ali had had on the other prisoners and his cellmates. Ali was 25 years old when he was executed.

My third brother, Seyed Mohammad Mofid Borhani, came to know the PMOI in 1974 and after the revolution started working
full time with the organisation. When the PMOI was outlawed he had to continue his activities in a clandestine fashion. After a while he managed to leave the country and join the National Liberation Army. During the Eternal Light operation he was the commander of one of the units and was martyred in the city of Islamabad. He was 29 years old.

My fourth brother, Seyed Ahmad Borhani, was arrested with Ali and me and transferred to prison. He was the kind of person who could not bear any kind of injustice. Anything the Guards would say to him he would immediately give them the response they deserved and for this reason he was tortured constantly. Due to the blows he had received to his head and back he had lost a lot of weight and was suffering from constant headaches and back pain. They tortured him through sleep deprivation and he became extremely weak. After a year and a half in prison he was released for a short time and during this time he managed to get himself connected to the organisation again. But the unit he was connected to was compromised and he was arrested along with my other brother and brought back to prison. They started torturing him immediately. For over a year we had no idea where he was and my Mum and Dad tried to locate him but to no avail. They searched every prison and holding cell in every city in our state, only to be told that they should try looking in other detention centres, and this in itself was a form of torture for my parents. His cellmates used to say he was defiant and full of energy till the end. He was executed during the 1988 massacre of political prisoners at the age of 27.

My fifth brother, Seyed Mohammad Hossein Borhani, was in middle school in 1976 when my oldest brother Mehdi was arrested by the Shah’s SAVAK. When the SAVAK agents had come to our home he had tried stopping them from entering the house and they had pushed him out of the way, hitting his head in the process causing him to stutter for the rest of his life. Despite going to many doctors to get rid of his stutter it remained with him until his last day. After the revolution Mohammad Hossein joined the National Mojahedin Movement and was working as a full-time member distributing Mojahedin newspapers. One day when they had gone to set up a street exhibition they were all arrested and taken to prison. He was
in prison for a year and a half, and upon being released joined resistance units. The unit he was in was compromised and he was arrested and taken to prison for the second time. Like Ahmad, for over a year, we had no idea what had happened to him and where he was being held, and all the efforts of my Mum and Dad to locate him failed. He was tortured for seven years and was executed during the massacre of political prisoners in 1988. He was only 25 years old. I recall when Ahmad and Hossein were in prison, my younger brother Hassan and I went to visit them; when we told them that we were going to join the National Liberation Army, their eyes lit up with joy, and they said “Give Massoud our regards and tell him not to worry about us. When we entered the organisation we pledged to stay until the end and we have held steadfast to that pledge.”

My youngest brother, just like the rest of us, was raised in a family that was political and from the beginning saw the injustices committed by the Khomeini regime. He started working part-time with the Mojahedin National Movement by distributing PMOI publications. My oldest brother Mehdi always used to refer to him as our little heroic militia. On 20 June 1981 he was arrested along with a few of his friends trying to sell newspapers at one of the PMOI newsstands. When the Guards tried to arrest him he tried to run away, but fell and injured his knee. After his arrest, the Guards used to torture him by hitting him on the injured knee, which caused severe permanent damage. He was only 15 years old when he was arrested. Without conducting any trial they kept him in prison for three and a half years. Upon being released he tried to get connected again to the PMOI and on 29 November 1985 managed to leave Iran and join the National Liberation Army. He was martyred during the Chelcheragh Operation at the age of 21.

After the execution of my brother Ali in 1981 my Dad was summoned to the prosecutor’s office. While he was climbing the stairs to go into the building, Vahdani, one of the head torturers, saw him and said, “Don’t bother coming up the stairs. We just summoned you to tell you we have executed your son.” My father suffered a heart attack on the spot. When he regained consciousness, he told Vahdani, ‘Do you know whom you have killed? You did not just kill one person, you have killed a thousand generations after him as well.’
Vahdani said, “If he was a bad person he will go to hell and if he was good he will end up in heaven; it is done and we cannot reverse what is done.” He continued by saying, “You have to bring a death certificate so we can give you his body.”

Upon leaving the building my father again fell unconscious in the street. The people passing by thought he had been struck by a car; they tried to take him to hospital. My father regained consciousness and told the people, “I wish I had been struck by a car, I have no idea how to break the news to his mother.” With the help of the people on the scene he managed to get the death certificate for my brother. When he took the death certificate to Vahdani, he referred him to the morgue. At the morgue they told him to check all the bodies to try to find his son. After checking many lifeless bodies of young people who had been alive a few days earlier he finally found Ali’s body, and with the help of the people who found him unconscious on the street he managed to take Ali’s body home from the morgue.