Ex-POWs Tell of Horrors in Iran Camps : Freed Iraqis Say They Were Beaten, Shot at, Poisoned and Starved

Freed Iraqi prisoners of war today said they were poisoned, beaten, shot at and starved during their confinement in Iranian prison camps.

The former prisoners, among 25 sick and wounded men released by the Iranians earlier this month, were presented at a news conference organized by the Iraqi Information Ministry.

One of the oldest, 69-year-old Khudair Himoud Ghanim, said he witnessed the machine-gunning of nearly 100 prisoners by troops at an Iranian prison camp in 1983.

He said 16 men were killed in the incident.

“We were completely encircled by machine-gun fire. . . . Then we were locked in for five days without food. We had to swallow salt to survive,” he said.

He said other tortures included being hung upside down and standing on a block of ice in freezing northern camps.

One ex-POW said poison was added to his food causing internal bleeding.

Salih Hassan Jassim, who was captured in 1981, said he had been forced to stand against a wall in Minjil-411 camp, north of Tehran, where he was beaten with cables and heavy sticks.

In Solitary Confinement

Jassim, 38, said he was put in solitary confinement for four years and given only one meal of bread and water each day.

“Now I have one kidney and suffer,” he told the news conference.

Another former POW, Khalifa Adnan Sabbar, 59, said he had been paralyzed after being beaten with a heavy stick.

Shakir Huwaidi Mohammed, 39, said he saw Iranian soldiers throw wounded Iraqis from a boat into the Huwaiza marshes where he was captured in 1985.

A 33-year-old man, Muhsin Jabur Jassim, said he had been made to sleep naked on cold cement floors during the winter.

He said when he complained, an Iranian officer broke his teeth.

Iran released the 25 men following Iraq’s unilateral release of a similar number.

At peace talks in Geneva on Tuesday, Iran and Iraq agreed to repatriate all sick and wounded POWs captured during the eight-year Persian Gulf war.

Today, the Iranian news agency IRNA said the exchange will take place on Nov. 20.