Iraqi soldiers deserting their units and fleeing into Kurdish-controlled areas are escaping not just U.S. bombing raids but also ill-treatment by their own commanders.
Many of the 26 soldiers interviewed by Human Rights Watch in recent days spoke of extremely low pay and meager food rations in their units. Some said they had chosen to desert now because their units were beginning to retreat farther from Kurdish-controlled territory in anticipation of a joint U.S.-Kurdish advance from the north.
The Human Rights Watch interviews are the first independent, substantial information about Iraqi army deserters since the war began.
One Iraqi soldier gave an eyewitness account of the summary execution of ten suspected deserters. Others said they knew of execution squads of 10-12 men drawn from regular armed forces and from Military Intelligence, but they had not witnessed any executions themselves.
Human Rights Watch estimates that there were as many as 130 Iraqi deserters in the custody of the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) in Arbil province as of April 2. The total number of Iraqi deserters in Kurdish-held areas could not be ascertained. The Iraqi soldiers all reported good treatment by the Kurdish forces to whom they had surrendered. Most of them had been registered by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
All of the deserters interviewed by Human Rights Watch were men, regular soldiers between the ages of 20 and 38. They looked gaunt and several suffered from skin ailments as a result of the conditions on the battlefield. They spoke of low pay (approximately US$2 a month) or going for months without any pay.
“Some days were so hungry we would eat grass which we mixed with a little water,” said a 21-year-old soldier from Baghdad whose unit was part of the Fifth Corps. “We didn’t wash ourselves for forty days. Often there was no drinking water and they would give us jerry cans and tell us to go and fill them from the pools of water that gathered on the ground when it rained.”
Some of the Iraqi soldiers described inhumane punishments including being beaten, or being forced to crawl across stones on their bare knees or backs. One showed the scars on his back from this punishment. Their officers frequently warned them that they would be executed if they tried to escape. Several deserters said their officers forced them to remain in their positions during the air strikes, telling them “to die like men.”
The eyewitness to an execution said that on March 26, ten deserters were brought to an open field where a colonel had gathered other units to witness the execution. “This is what happens to betrayers of our nation,” the colonel told the assembled troops, according to the witness. He then began shooting the alleged deserters one by one; other members of the execution squad joined in. The colonel then ordered the bodies to be dragged up onto a hillside so the soldiers would have a better view of the corpses.
Most of the deserters interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they were taken to a school near the Armed Forces Command in Arbil where Pesh Merga, or Kurdish fighters, questioned them. Several said they were interrogated by U.S. military. The desertions fit a general pattern. Iraqi deserters tend to leave their units at night or at dawn—sometimes alone, but more often in groups of five or six. After approaching shepherds or walking into Kurdish villages, they then go to a Pesh Merga checkpoint where they are questioned, given food, and sent on to Arbil. All of the detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that they had been treated well by the Kurdish Pesh Merga—from the frontline to the camp. Many stated that they were surprised at how welcoming the Pesh Merga were, especially as they had been told by their officers that Kurdish forces would kill them if they surrendered. Human Rights Watch interviewed some of the detainees in a school near the KDP’s Armed Forces Command Headquarters outside of Arbil on March 31. Others were interviewed April 2 in the Ashkawtian camp for “war detainees” in Merga Sur, about two-and-a-half hours’ drive northeast of Arbil, close to the border with Turkey. Once 20 or more deserters have been brought to the school, they are transported to the camp.
Approximately 88 tents had been erected at the Merga Sur camp, and about 20 of those were occupied. A camp official told Human Rights Watch that he hoped to have enough tents and supplies to eventually hold 7,000 detainees. A doctor comes to the camp every day to check on detainees in need of medical care. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is distributing clothes; the World Food Program is supplying food and cooking utensils.
The camp is not heavily guarded. Detainees wander around freely and some appear to be helping to erect sanitary facilities and other amenities. Those detainees who had arrived two days earlier had ICRC registration cards. Many detainees said that they wanted to have radios and satellite television in order to follow the war. The camp director said he is trying to get these items.
The camp detainees are fearful of what has happened to their families in Iraq since they surrendered. “I worry most about my pregnant wife,” said a 26-year-old soldier from Baghdad whose unit was part of the Iraqi army’s Fourth Corps. “I haven’t seen her for four months now. We live near a large army base in Baghdad and I am sure the Americans have bombed it. I have no idea if she is alive or dead.”
Case Extracts
Case #1: According to a 28-year-old soldier from al-‘Amara (who deserted on March 26), “I know some my officers would like to desert. But since they are officers and known in the higher ranks, they fear reprisals against their families.”
Case #2: “I never witnessed an execution,” said a 26-year-old soldier from Baghdad whose unit was part of the Iraqi army’s Fourth Corps. “But I heard of them. On the day I escaped our group split up when we reached the river. My group went to the left, while another group of five men went to the right. I learned from deserters who followed me from my unit, that these men were captured near the last Iraqi checkpoint and executed by a Ba’thist captain who was appointed to carry out this task.”
“I worry most about my pregnant wife,” he went on to say. “I haven’t seen her for four months now. We live near a large army base in Baghdad and I am sure the Americans have bombed it. I have no idea if she is alive or dead.”
Case #3: A 30-year-old-soldier said that during the evening of March 27, he and a group of about 30 soldiers from his unit set their weapons aside and fled to a nearby Kurdish village. “An officer and several soldiers pursued us. When we reached the outskirts of the village, they caught up with us and opened fire. Six of us escaped but I don’t know what happened to the others. I haven’t seen any of them here at the camp.”
Case #4: “US bombs were raining down on us,” a twenty-five year old soldier from Mosul said. “It was worst at night. One night some of us tried to leave the ridge where we were based, but our officers ordered us back at gunpoint. The next day we decided to run to the other side.”
Case #5: A 29-year-old soldier from Baghdad whose unit was part of the Iraqi army’s First Corps: “Our unit came under intense bombardment [by US forces]. On March 25 orders came for us to withdraw from our positions to [location withheld]. We were supposed to begin pulling back at four o’clock in the morning. There was no other choice – we had to flee quickly before we were moved further away from the Kurdish frontline. There were six of us. We were afraid because there was talk of execution squads among the soldiers. We heard the officers talking about them too, probably to scare us. We were not allowed to have any radios, but I managed to keep mine. I heard on the news that the Kurds were welcoming soldiers who surrendered. At two o’clock in the morning [on March 26] we crept away unnoticed and walked for four hours until we reached the Kurdish areas. The Pesh Merga welcomed us”.
Case #6: A 19-year-old soldier from al-‘Amara whose unit was part of the Iraqi army’s Fifth Corps: “We fled our unit at five o’clock in the morning on March 24. There were eight of us to begin with but two of them separated from us and I don’t know what happened to them. We walked for eight hours looking for ways to get back home to our families, but some Kurds we came across told us that if we did that we would be executed. So we surrendered to the Pesh Merga instead. We had heard there was an execution squad at the checkpoint on the river near Gwer. Our officers kept threatening us, saying that if we tried to desert we would be executed, and that if they didn’t kill us the Kurds would. We were forbidden to have radios so we didn’t know what was happening, but we thought that if we surrendered to Kurdish forces there was a chance that they would take us prisoner instead…Our living conditions were very hard. We were given soup and tea in the morning, rice for lunch without any sauce or meat, and very often nothing for dinner. Drinking water was filthy. We didn’t even have any tents to sleep in. The officers made us dig ditches in the ground and that is where we slept.”
Case # 7: A 21-year-old soldier from Baghdad whose unit was part of the Iraqi army’s Fifth Corps: “We were hungry most of the time. They gave us one or two pieces of bread every two days and very often the bread was rotten, or else it was very hard but we had to eat something. Some days we were so hungry that we would eat grass which we mixed with a little water. We didn’t wash for about forty days. Often there was no drinking water and they would give us jerry cans and tell us to go and fill them from the pools of water that gathered on the ground when it rained.”
“Three of us escaped together on the night of March 30. We were two conscripts and a deputy officer. At first the [aerial] bombardment on our positions was light. There were no execution squads then, but then we heard that a group from our unit had fled. We decided to go too. At nine o’clock in the evening we crept away and started running. Four other soldiers who were also running away were about one kilometer behind us. Our escape was detected and we were being pursued. We made it but the four behind us didn’t. I heard shots being fired and I think they were killed.”
Case # 8: A 22-year-old soldier from al-Nasiriyya whose unit belonged to the Iraqi army’s Fifth Corps: “Our unit was positioned in [location withheld], not far from Kalak. The bombardment was very intense. A friend of mine died during one of the raids. Those who are wounded are just left there on the ground to die. Three of us planned to escape together on March 31. One of them was a friend of mine and he was really frightened. I tried to force him to come with me but in the end he stayed behind. So two of us slipped away unnoticed and walked for a short while until we reached a Kurdish village. I don’t know what it was called but it was near Kalak. The Pesh Merga received us, and after about three hours they took us to the corps headquarters in Arbil where we saw three other soldiers who had surrendered. We stayed there for two days. Four foreign journalists came to ask us questions but they only filmed us from the back and our heads were covered. We did not give them our names, or details about our units. Then today they brought us to this camp in two Coasters [minibus], each one with 25 soldiers. There were others who fled from our unit before we did. Some of them went back to their families in the south. Those who had higher ranks stayed with the corps. They cannot afford to escape because Military Intelligence has a lot of information about them and can easily reach their families…We are young men but we feel old. We want our life back.
To read more on War in Iraq, please see: Background on the Crisis in Iraq.
