![A man named as Hajaj Tikriti [R], said to be in charge of the death camp of Kurds in Nugra Salman, southern Iraq, in this photo obtained by Rudaw appears to be engaged with military training with some other people who also appear to have blood on their face, possibly snake blood.](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.rudaw.net%2Fs3%2Frudaw.net%2FContentFiles%2F314997Image1.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
By Farman Abdulrahman
BASRA, Iraq –Our investigation of the man who tortured Kurds at the Nugra Salman death camp took us to the city of Basra, southern Iraq. We got information that someone keeps two photos of the man described by survivors as hard-hearted torturer of the of Nugra Salman, Hajaj Tikriti.
In 1988, in a large operation planned by the Baathist regime, the Anfal campaign against the Kurds was waged in eight phases. According to the stories told by those who survived the extermination campaign, all those arrested in the Anfal process were later separated from one another: separating the youth, women, children and elderly.
The youth were put on buses and sent to the extermination trenches. The others were sent to the scary prison of Nugra Salman south of Iraq on the border between Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
The thousands of people rounded up in the Anfal campaign to the Nugra Salman prison were being tortured daily by a torturer , making the hellish atmosphere of the prison bitterer. His name was Hajaj Tikriti known by the people who witnessed the Anfal as Hajaj, who was supervisor of the Nugra Salman prison.
His image is still fresh in the minds of the people who witnessed the Anfal campaign. In this investigation, we want to find the only picture of this torturer who killed hundreds of people by his whip in Nugra Salman.
During this investigation in Basra, we happened to get information from some people that Hajaj Tikriti has two of his photos still kept by somebody.
According to our source, the person keeping these photographs is a relative to a man who did military training with Hajaj in a military base of the Baath regime in 1980s.
I saw Abu Adnan, the person keeping the photos, in a café in Basra.
“I got the photos through an acquaintance in Baghdad who did military training before with Hajaj," Adnan said. I had a close look at the pictures on the table we sat in the café. They were two black and blue photos.
The person we were told was Hajaj appears in the photo as a tall person with moustache and a broad face. He appears in the photo to be eating a snake alive.
He appears to be engaged with military training with some other people who also appear to have blood on their face, possibly snake blood.
In the second photo, Hajaj appears to be removing the skin of a rabbit while alive. Cruelty and brutality are seen in his eyes.
But I still cannot verify these pictures are those of Ajaj Tikriti. I therefore go back to the city of Sulaimani to visit Omar Mohammed who has been engaged in research and documentation of the events of Anfal for a long time. He has an idea as to how Hajaj looks like. He was apparently told about his face by the people who had witnessed the Anfal campaign and seen Hajaj face.
Mohammed had a look at the photos and said: “I cannot say that this is 100 percent Hajaj Tikriti. Looking at the photo, I didn’t feel like I was seeing a stranger, given the descriptions given to me by people who witnessed the Anfal.”
This requires more investigation.
I have to go to the Nugra Salman in the town of Salman to verify the validity of the pictures and see the place where the Anfals were tortured.
The town of Salman is three hours from the city of Samawah. We were told in Salman that we couldn’t hit the road without police escorts because Nugra Salman is located in an isolated area.
We went through a dry desert and saw no residential areas for three hours. When you get past the town of Salman, you will see the remaining vestige of the Nugra Salman prison. We entered the prison.
29 years ago, the courtyard and cells of the prison were filled with Kurds rounded up in the Anfal campaign. Looking at the walls and floor of the prison, you can feel the torture they were subjected to.
The cruel and violent behavior of Hajaj and his team had made the prison more horrifying. The walls of one of the halls in the prison still bear the inscriptions done in Kurdish language.
We saw Azab Shimari who was a resident in the town of Salman. He said he saw Hajaj several time when he was 10 years of age by virtue of selling things.
“We were children at the time bringing soft drinks from Hillah. I saw Hajaj and the prisoners several times. The prisoners were Kurdish,” Shimari said. When we showed him the phot, he pointed to the person we were previously told was Hajaj Tikriti.
“This person with big moustache is Hajaj who had a white land cruiser and a red model 85 super,” Shimari added.
However, it is difficult to verify the authenticity of the photo without talking to people held in Nugra Salman prison. Most of the people from Garmian who were in the Nugra Salman prison were old and separated from the youth in Tobzawa. Those still alive cannot recognize Hajaj because of their fading memory.
Perhaps the people who can best recognize Hajaj are those from Halabja who after the chemical attack on the city went to Iran and later returned to (Iraq) after a general pardon was issued by the Baath regime and consequently imprisoned for four months and 10 days at Nugra Salman prison.
I visited the city of Halabja and saw five of these witnesses: Salman, Omar, Mohammed, Ali and Sidiq. They were young when imprisoned in Nugra Salman and had all seen Hajaj closely. Before they were shown the photo, they described the face and merciless behavior of Hajaj accurately. Their descriptions were very close to what could be seen in the photos.
They each individually and separately had a look at the photos and all pointed to the person with big moustache and broad face whom they confidently identified as Hajaj Tikrit.
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