The Red Prison

I realize Kurdistan is not your typical getaway destination because a) it’s in a war zone and b) no one really knows where/what it is. Lucky for you, Miss Marie is here to educate before you wreck yourself.

Kurdistan is an autonomous region that covers Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.

Under Saddam, the Anfal Campaign was conducted to exterminate non-Arabs in Iraq from 1986-89. The Kurdish population was prosecuted in which hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed. A horrific genocide.

This is obviously the shortest recap of Kurdish recent history as told by a Swiss girl, I’m sure Wikipedia has a much better version.

But we did manage to visit the Red Prison to see first-hand the horrors of Saddam's tyranny. The ‘Red’ entails blood, as prisoners were tortured and killed in the establishment. Anma Suraka is a political prison turned museum, holding the history of Kurdish repression.

We started off in the Hall of Mirrors, with lightbulbs on the ceiling representing the number of villages destroyed during the Anfal Campaign, and pieces of broken mirror representing the number of civilian lives taken. Altogether, there are 4,500 lights and 182,000 mirrors in the room.

We continued our tour in the jail cells where men, women, and even children were imprisoned and tortured. The prison confiscated mothers' babies as a mean of torture to make them admit to crimes they never committed. The cells fit for a dozen were packed with hundreds of prisoners so that they only had standing space, forcing them to take turns sleeping, rotating every hour. Unthinkable and horrendous treatment occurred behind these cells, from physical to mental abuse.

The prison even changed the detainee's age so that they could legally execute them.

As punishment, prisoners were chained in the hallway where guards would kick, hit, and put out their cigarettes on them. Psychological torture was also in effect as prisoners in the hallway could hear other jailmates' screams from the torture, knowing they were waiting the same fate.

The Peshmerga liberated the prison in 1991. Mohammed told us that he was in Sulaymaniyah on that day, when the public was allowed inside the prison right after the Peshmerga had their way with the guards. He described to us a bloodbath.

"We neither manufactured these weapons, nor feel proud exhibiting it. In fact, these were used on those who threatened our existence. We also admit that these very weapons helped us achieve our freedom."

The museum also exhibits a section for the history and impact of mines around Iraqi Kurdistan. In order to fight the Peshmerga, who were stationed in the mountains, Saddam placed countless of mines, so many that there are still areas that have not been completely de-mined (remember the picnic "peeing frenzy"? Yeah...)

They put on display a list of deminers who have lost their lives while scouting for active mines in the valley and mountains.

The museum is very powerful and left us speechless. Such a tragic history, but the Kurds have a very high spirit and strong will. We were told a story of a Belgian journalist who arrived in a village completely devastated by chemical gases during the Anfal Genocide. As he was reporting the thousands of deaths and horrors around him, he noticed a group of survivors who were cleaning and picking up corpses. They were exchanging jokes and some light laughter. The Belgian was appalled and asked them how they could be so cheerful at a time like this. The men responded "If we can't laugh now, we will never be able to again."

I'm not sure I'm translating the story appropriately because it sounds better in French, but the point is that they needed to bounce back from all this tragedy, and such a past is never easily forgotten. There isn't one family in Kurdistan that hasn't been affected by the war.

Our last exhibit was the tank area outside. Apparently we were allowed to touch the tanks... and even test them out.

Coucou Mohammed!

Coooooool. But war is bad, kids.