Abdolsamad Rajabi Dehkordi: We Must Get Rid of Chemical Weapons

 

“I want people around the world to know about chemical weapons survivors in Iran. We veterans defended our homeland and we have no regrets, but the world needs to know about our suffering.”

 

Abdolsamad Rajabi Dehkordi is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) and is a survivor of a chemical weapons attack during the conflict. In sharing his experiences, he urges the world to understand what happened to Iranians under attack and pleads for a global ban on all chemical weapons.

 

Abdolsamad volunteered as a Basij soldier as soon as hostilities broke out in 1980 and served until he was the victim of a chemical attack in 1984.

 

“It was the 9th of March 1984 and I was in the Majnoon Islands,” said Abdolsamad. “I was involved in Operation Kheibar, which was part of the Battle of the Marshes. My comrades and I had been there for 5 days and after a shift rotation of new soldiers, we were waiting on the side of the Arvand Rud to return to the Iranian side to rest.”

 

The only mode of transport at that time was by hovercraft and Abdolsamad and his friends had no choice but to wait for the hovercraft to arrive to take them across the river to safety.

 

Unfortunately, transport did not arrive in time and Abdolsamad and his fellow soldiers fell victim to a brutal chemical weapons attack by Iraqi fighter jets.

 

“We had been waiting for hours,” said Abdolsamad, “and decided to go and wash ourselves in the river. Our bodies were still wet when Iraqi planes flew overhead and dropped bombs right next to us.”

 

Mustard gas bombs have no detonator like conventional bombs, and so on impact the sound they make equates to a dull thud. There is no loud explosive sound.

 

“At first,” remembered Abdolsamad, “we thought the bombs had not exploded. But then, we saw thick clouds of gas and we knew that these were chemical agents.”

 

“There was nothing we could do,” he continued, “and there was nowhere for us to go.”

 

Exposed to heavy doses of sulphur mustard, Abdolsamad had to wait for almost four hours for relief when helicopters finally arrived and flew the injured soldiers to Ahvaz.

 

Abdolsamad (in right) with his comrade, 1983

“We were taken to the big sports stadium in Ahvaz,” said Abdolsamad, “but this was early in the war and I was among the first groups of victims of chemical weapons. The doctors were still learning to cope and were not entirely ready to deal with us.”

 

Having completely lost his vision and lapsing in and out of consciousness, Abdolsamad was transferred to Tehran. He was admitted initially to the Shari’ati Hospital and later – due to the bleeding in his lungs – was moved to the Labbafi-Nejad Hospital in the city.

 

And, although Abdolsamad was released from hospital within two months, he has spent the rest of his life in and out of hospitals to help him cope with the consequences of chemical weapons exposure. He was also sent on several occasions to Germany for medical care for his injuries.

 

Abdolsamad went back to live with his family in the city of Shahrekord in the Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province of central Iran.

 

However, the dry climate there was to prove to be too difficult for him with such severe lung injuries. In time, Abdolsamad moved his family to the more humid climate of northern Iran for two years, but his family felt isolated and lonely and the frequent travelling to Tehran for medical visits proved too difficult for them. They finally relocated to Isfahan where Abdolsamad and his family continue to live.

 

“I worked as a teacher,” he said, “but unfortunately, due to my health condition, I had to retire much earlier than most people.”

 

Although now retired, Abdolsamad speaks out about the need to abolish chemical weapons and to share the stories of the Iranian chemical weapons survivors.

 

“We veterans defended our homeland,” Abdolsamad said, “and we have no regrets, but the world needs to know about our suffering.”

 

“But,” he continued, “I don’t want anybody else in the world to suffer from the effects of chemical weapons. It is my wish that all chemical weapons be abolished.”

 

However, Abdolsamad has more to say than the fact that chemical weapons must be abolished. He feels there is an important role for all survivors in sharing their experiences to tell others that there is no place in this world for weapons of mass destruction.

 

“I believe that all chemical weapons survivors have a lot of abilities,” Abdolsamad concluded. “We are not healthy physically, but our experience and our mental and spiritual capacities are valuable.”

 

“We should all play our part in society to make sure chemical weapons are abolished.”

 

Written by Elizabeth Lewis

 

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MohammadRezaTaghipour: Victim of Aggression, Voice for Peace

 

“When I see an Iranian standing on their legs, I am happy because I lost my legs so that they can stand today.”

 

MohammadRezaTaghipour was 15 years old when he joined the Basij as a volunteer soldier to defend his country, Iran, in the eight-year war with Iraq. It was the year 1982 and within four months of being at the front, MohammadReza was injured in a way that would shape the rest of his life.

 

“It was the day that Khorramshahr had been reclaimed from the Iraqis,” said MohammadReza, “and my comrades and I were in our bunker near the front line, when we were hit by a mortar shell.”

 

MohammadReza and his friends were cleaning up the mess from the first shell attack, when a second shell exploded and he was wounded in his lower back. And, it was while seated in an ambulance waiting to be transferred away from the front line to the back, that MohammadReza fell victim to a life-changing injury.

 

“An Iraqi tank aimed a shell directly at the stationary ambulance,” MohammadReza recalled, “and I was sent flying from the back into the front seat.”

 

Fellow soldiers had to cut MohammadReza out of the mangled wreck of the ambulance. When he was finally free, MohammadReza remembered feeling some pressure in his legs, completely unaware that they had been damaged beyond repair.

 

“I was a young 15 year old,” said MohammadReza, “I lost a couple of my fingers in the blast and I was so focused on that, that despite the pain, Ididn’t know that my legs had gone. My friends took out my boot laces and tied them tightly around my upper legs to stop the bleeding.”

 

MohammadReza (first in right) with his comrades, before being injured in 1982

“The funny thing is,” added MohammadReza, “I didn’t feel scared.”

 

MohammadReza was transferred from the front to a field hospital near Ahvaz, called the Babaei Hospital. And, with only local anesthetic being administered, doctors proceeded to amputate both legs above the knee.

 

After the operation, MohammadReza was transferred by a C130 military aircraft to the Chamran Hospital in Shiraz to begin the recovery process – which was to prove to be long and painful.

 

“There was so much dust and dirt at the time of the explosion,” said MohammadReza, “and the dirt got into my wounds. It wasn’t cleaned properly in the Shiraz hospital, so I got very bad infections.”

 

MohammadReza was transferred from Shiraz to Tehran, where he was admitted to the Bank-e Melli Hospital. It was there that MohammadReza was to undergo another four operations on his legs. Each time, to save his life, more and more of MohammadReza’s remaining legs were amputated.

 

As if losing his legs wasn’t bad enough, MohammadReza also had to cope with a shrapnel injury in his bottom.

 

“I was in the hospital bed in Tehran,” he said, “when I used the triangle handle above my head to help me move around. Suddenly, I smelt and felt the sensation of warm blood from my bottom. I didn’t even know it but there was a piece of shrapnel stuck in there. It was only when I moved my position that the shrapnel dislodged and caused more trouble.”

 

After a year of treatment in Tehran, MohammadReza returned to his hometown of Arak to start life anew aided with a set of prosthetic legs. He was soon married to the sister of his brother in law and continued his education until he graduated with a high school diploma.

 

United Nations Resolution 598 brought an end to the war in July of 1988, although the war did not officially end until August 20 of that year. From 1983 until the Resolution, MohammadReza, as a member of Sepah – the Revolutionary Guards – was in charge of the casualties’ affairs bureau.

 

Mohammadreza while in London for Treatment, 1991

In 1990, MohammadReza travelled to London to be fitted with a new set of prosthetic legs and underwent several months of rehabilitation and physiotherapy. However, he was not to continue with the use of artificial limbs finding it far too uncomfortable and unstable.

 

“My wheelchair is part of my body,” proclaimed MohammadReza.

 

MohammadReza would soon turn his mind to learning about computers and particularly about computer software. Rapidly, he became the go-to man with his work colleagues and family to sort their computer software problems. And, in the year 2000, MohammadReza was accepted by the University of Tehran to study law.

 

However, after three semesters, MohammadReza was forced to give up his university studies due to complications arising from his war wounds. MohammadReza drove the long journey from home to the university every day and this began to exhaust him so much that it was difficult to study. And, as a result of the long-term use of his hands and upper body for his mobility, MohammadReza contracted a disease known at Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS). To ease the discomfort, MohammadReza went through a painful procedure to have his two upper ribs removed. Consequently, due tothe discomfort and pain, MohammadReza eventually dropped out of university.

It was shortly after this that MohammadReza began to turn towards helping his fellow war veterans. In 2005, he was introduced to the Society for Chemical Weapons Victims Support group (SCWVS) by his friend Dr. Hamid Salehi and worked with them closely until 2007, when MohammadReza started his work with the Tehran Peace Museum.

 

The ethos of the Tehran Peace Museum and the SCWVS is to support both military and civilian survivors of chemical weapons used during the Iran-Iraq War. And although MohammadReza was not himself a victim of these heinous weapons, he feels it is his duty to raise awareness about weapons of mass destruction and the need for all of us to build a culture of peace.

 

“As Executive Director of the Tehran Peace Museum,” said MohammadReza, “I am involved in the day to day running of things but for me – as a victim of aggression – it is rewarding to be working for other survivors.”

 

“War is bad and it happens all the time. Death, injury and imprisonment are all a part of war. But the use of chemical weapons is inhumane and against all the rules that govern wars.”

 

Mohammadreza in TPM's children's drawing exhibition, 2014

MohammadReza is now actively involved in not only raising awareness about chemical weapons, but also about the necessity for everyone – but especially the younger generation – to be talking about peace and more importantly, doing something about it.

 

“One of the special things about the Tehran Peace Museum,” said MohammadReza, “is that we connect with the younger generation. We talk about the future. Peace will not become historical and it is so critical now to be talking about it.”

 

It is clear from listening to MohammadReza that he loves his work and is inspired to keep going.

 

“I sacrificed the loss of my legs in the war,” concluded MohammadReza, “but I am happy that I can help other war heroes to share their stories, to campaign against chemical weapons and to talk of peace.”

 

Written by Elizabeth Lewis

 

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Mohammad Rezaei: His Journey from War to Mayors for Peace

 

Mohammad Rezaei is a humble man, who goes about his daily work without any fuss. In fact, he is so quiet and unassuming that you would hardly notice his presence. Yet, Mohammad has a painful and remarkable history, which has led him today to campaign tirelessly for the Iranian Secretariat for the international organization: Mayors for Peace.

 

When he was a high-school student in Mahallat in the Iranian Province of Markazi, Mohammad was taken on a school trip to visit the war front during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988). Mohammad was so overwhelmed by the atrocities he witnessed, that he signed up and joined the Basij volunteer soldiers and went to fight for his country.

 

“I was sixteen years old and the year was 1984,” said Mohammad, “and I felt I had to do my duty and defend my country.”

 

Mohammad was to spend a total of two years fighting in the war in the southern sector, although at intermittent intervals, returning to work in Mahallat during periods when he didn’t fight.

 

And, it was in February of 1986, during the 8thValfajr Operation in Faw - while fighting on the Iraqi side of the ArvandRud or Shatt-al Arab River - that Mohammad was seriously wounded as well as being exposed to mustard gas.

 

During the Operation itself, Mohammad was wounded in his right leg by a piece of shrapnel.

 

Mohammad in Taleeie Front, May 1982

“I was waiting with other soldiers on the Iraqi side of the river,” Mohammad recalled, “and I was lying unconscious on a stretcher when Iraqi jets flew overhead and attacked the whole area with chemical weapons. It was mustard gas. Everyone was exposed to it.”

 

As Mohammad was not conscious at the time of the chemical weapons attack, his eyes were closed and, while he suffered the consequences of burnt skin and breathing difficulties from the mustard gas, his eyes were not badly affected.

 

“At the time of the attack,” said Mohammad, “my leg injury was so severe that this was the priority for the medics treating me and not the effects from the chemical weapons.”

 

“The bleeding was so bad,” Mohammad continued, “that although the medics gave me a blood transfusion, the blood was just running through my body and out through the wound in my leg.”

 

After the attack, Mohammad spent two nights in a hospital in Ahvaz before being transferred to Tehran, where he finally began to be treated for the chemical weapons injuries.

 

And, due to the severity of his injuries, doctors had no choice but to amputate Mohammad’s right leg from below the knee.

 

Mohammad (in right) and his comrade, 1984

 

Despite an amputated limb and being exposed to mustard gas, Mohammad found himself back at the front line by December of the same year.

 

To many of us reading this – if we had been brutally wounded - it would never cross our minds to volunteer to go back to the war front.

 

But, this is exactly what Mohammad – and countless other soldiers - did.

 

“One of the big concerns for wounded soldiers,” said Mohammad, “was if we could make it back to the front or not. I was eager to go back and fight and persuaded my commander to take me. I couldn’t even walk properly with my crutches but I went.”

 

Mohammad among friends in Tehran Clinic after exposure

And so Mohammad fought valiantly, proving to himself and others that he was able to defend his country, until the end of the war in 1988. After the Resolution brought about a ceasefire and an end to the conflict, Mohammad returned to Mahallat to work in the Sepah Bank.

 

After 15 years of loyal service to the bank, Mohammad – as a war veteran – was granted early retirement. He chose to start his own construction business, which he ran for 12 years until he was advised to stop, as the work was not suitable for someone suffering from the consequences of chemical weapons. Mohammad started another business in knitwear and ran it successfully for four years until 2011, when he was obliged to move from Mahallat to Tehran for medical treatment related to the consequences of exposure to mustard gas.

 

Mohammad’s journey to Tehran not only involved a change of location, but a change in his career to helping his fellow war veterans and in particular those who, like him, had been exposed to chemical weapons.

 

“There are quite a number of people from Mahallat who work in the Tehran Peace Museum,” Mohammad said, “and it was through this connection that I got to know about the Society for Chemical Weapons Victims Support (SCWVS) and the peace museum.”

 

While attending the April 29th, 2012 memorial service for victims of chemical weapons at the Tehran Peace Museum, Mohammad met Dr. ShahriarKhateri, who quite literally hunted Mohammad down and recruited him to volunteer for the Mayors for Peace organization housed at the museum.

 

“At first I would come to the museum one day a week to act as the secretary for Mayors for Peace in Iran,” said Mohammad, “but now it has grown so much that it is a full time job.”

 

Mohammad in sitting volleyball team of Mahallat, 1996

When Mohammad began working with Mayors for Peace in 2012, only 17 of Iran’s municipalities had joined the organization. With Mohammad’s tireless campaigning, Iran nowhas 770 registered municipalities and by the end of November 2015, it is expected that this number will rise to 792.

 

“It was quite difficult in the beginning,” revealed Mohammad, “because in 2012 the political climate was not open to working with international organizations. Many municipalities were nervous about adverse political consequences if they became involved. And not many mayors really understood what the SCWVS and the Tehran Peace Museum were all about.”

 

Mohammad, however, made it his job to spread the word about Mayors for Peace and his work has involved writing to each mayor and informing them about the organization and its peaceful objectives and how mayors in Iran can become a part of this worthy enterprise.

 

“Little by little,” said Mohammad, “the work became easier as more municipalities joined Mayors for Peace and we were able to use them as models to show other mayors how the organization works.”

 

“And now,” Mohammad added, “our relationship with the municipalities has developed tremendously. We have helped to show mayors that there is more to a municipality than urban planning and that socially, it is crucial for them to play their part in building a culture of peace in Iran.”

 

Citing some of the successful outcomes of the Mayors for Peace in Iran, Mohammad points to the fact that many municipalities now hold peace observance events, including hosting events for the International Day of Peace.

 

In fact, in 2015, as a result of all the determination and hard work of those working at the Tehran Peace Museum, Tehran has been chosen as one of the lead cities of Mayors for Peace, with responsibility to support other participating countries in the region.

 

Mr. Rezaei (left) receiving a Mayors for Peace Membership Certificate for a new Iranian member city from Mayor Matsui of Hiroshima, President of Mayors for Peace (right), in Hiroshima in August 2015 (Photo: courtesy of the City of Hiroshima)

And, looking to the future, Mohammad said, “Our future objectives for Mayors for Peace include increasing the number of members as well as expanding the network and spread the message of peace. We aim to help our mayors to talk about peace with their citizens and build good relationships with other mayors and people around the world.”

 

Mohammad, who has twice visited Hiroshima – the headquarters for the Mayors for Peace organization – is happy that the work he is involved inhas helped to boost the global membership numbers.

 

“When I heard that the global member cities surpassed 6,500,” Mohammad said, “and this was due in part to the new Iranian memberships, it made me feel good that we have helped to improve the position of the Mayors for Peace in the international community.”

 

Mohammad’s journey from war to Mayors for Peace has been a long one but it is not yet at its end.

 

When asked what he had planned for the future of the organization, Mohammad smiled and said, “Our collective aim is to raise the number of members internationally to 10,000.”

 “I love my work. And I am not done yet.”

 

Written by Elizabeth Lewis

 

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On the 22 September 1980 Iraq declared war on Iran.

It was a conflict that was to last eight long and bloody years. The origins of what Iranians call the “Imposed War” were many and varied. Looking back at the history of the time, these two ancient peoples – each with complicated histories both of their own and with each other – fought over a combination of border disputes and highly-contested political and religious narratives.

Perceptions from the interviewees for this oral history project, who are uniformly Iranian, and the Secretary General of the United Nations, paint a picture of Iraq as the aggressor. And indeed the first military attacks did come from Saddam’s regime. However, as in all conflicts, there is a counter-narrative among Iraqis – and some Iraqi historians.

There can be no disputing the war’s ultimate result. Effective geopolitical stalemate. Battlefield stalemate. Futility. Wrecked lives on both the fighting front, and the home front. A legacy of sadness which endures to this day in both countries.

This is the story of a dozen human beings who were scarred – quite literally – by the worst excesses of that war. It is a story of trauma, indignity, hope and common humanity.

The Tehran Peace Musem’s oral history project team feel privileged to have been asked to give a voice to these stories which also tell of determination, dignity and triumph.

The human cost of the Iran-Iraq War – for both sides – was brutal and expensive. For Iran, there was, and still is today, a heavier burden to bear as a result of Saddam Hussein’s extensive use of prohibited chemical weapons.

Although Iran and Iraq were both signatories to the 1925 Geneva Protocol, Iraq violated the treaty and, by the end of the war, had dropped approximately 20,000 chemical bombs. Iraq also fired 54,000 chemical artillery shells and 27,000 short-range chemical rockets into Iran. Between the years 1983-1988, Iraq “consumed” 1,800 tonnes of sulphur mustard gas, 140 tonnes of Tabun and 600 tonnes of Sarin . “Consumed” is a euphemism for ‘used on Iran’. Two-thirds of these chemicals were used in the last 18 months of the war.

Over one million Iranians were exposed to chemical weapons – in one way or another – during the Iran-Iraq War. Of this number, 5,500 victims died immediately after the attacks and 100,000 survivors were treated for high dose exposure. Due to the heinous, life-long consequences of chemical weapons, many thousands of survivors are still suffering from the long-term health effects of exposure to chemical weapons agents. Currently, 75,000 of these survivors are registered by the Government of Iran and receive medical care.

Only a handful of these survivors have been able to tell their stories.

They are here on the Tehran Peace Museum’s website.

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[1] UN Doc S/23273, 2 Dec 1991 (report of the Secretary General on the Implementation of Security Council resolution 598), paragraphs 6 and 7

[2] http://www.un.org/disarmament/WMD/Bio/pdf/Status_Protocol.pdf.  Iran signed the Geneva Protocol on 5^th November 1929, and Iraq signed on 8^th September 1931

[3]  UNMOVIC Working Document (6 March 2003) Unresolved Disarmament Issues: Iraq’s Proscribed Weapons Programmes (Page 145)

[4] Tabun and Sarin are both lethal nerve agents.

[5] UNMOVIC Working Document (6 March 2003) Unresolved Disarmament Issues: Iraq’s Proscribed Weapons Programmes (pp145-146)

[6] Inai, Dr. Kouki: (2012) Atlas of Mustard Gas Injuries: Building bridges between Iran and Japan through the relief of victims exposed to mustard gas (pp 23-25)

[7] Khateri, Dr. Shahriar: (October 2014) Gassed: from the trenches of Khorramshahr to the Imperial War Museum. Essay submitted to The British Council.