Nugra Salman , also known as Nugrat al-Salman
or Nigrat Salman is a former prison facility near the village Salman in the
desert of the
Muthanna Governorate
Muthanna Governorate ( ar, المثنى ''Al Muthannā'') or Al Muthanna Province, is a province in Iraq, named after the 7th-century Arab general al-Muthanna ibn Haritha. It is in the south of the country, bordering Saudi Arabia And Kuwait. Its ...
in Iraq. It has been constructed in 1930 during the
Hashemite Monarchy
The Hashemites ( ar, الهاشميون, al-Hāshimīyūn), also House of Hashim, are the royal family of Jordan, which they have ruled since 1921, and were the royal family of the kingdoms of Hejaz (1916–1925), Syria (1920), and Iraq (1921 ...
and later also by the Governments of
Abd al-Karim Qasim
Abd al-Karim Qasim Muhammad Bakr al-Fadhli al-Zubaidi ( ar, عبد الكريم قاسم ' ) (21 November 1914 – 9 February 1963) was an Iraqi Army brigadier and nationalist who came to power when the Iraqi monarchy was overthrown d ...
and
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...
.
Description
Constructed in 1930, it is located near the
Iraqi Saudi Arabian border beside the village Salman in the Muthanna Governorate. About 1.5 kilometer beside the village is Nugra Salman, with a
watchtower
A watchtower or watch tower is a type of fortification used in many parts of the world. It differs from a regular tower in that its primary use is military and from a turret in that it is usually a freestanding structure. Its main purpose is to ...
in each corner. It lies within a
depression in the southern desert of Iraq.
At times the prison was not in use and villagers have kept their cattle in the building.
History
It was used for the imprisonment of political prisoners
and in 1964, the people of Samawah gained popular fame for rescuing over 1,000 political prisoners of the
Iraqi Communist Party who were sent in a "Train of Death" (''qutar al maut'') in metal cargo rolling stock from Baghdad to Samawah en route to the Nigret Al Salman prison in 50 °C (122 °F) heat. The train was attacked by the city's people at the railway station, and the dehydrated prisoners were watered and fed. Over 100 of the prisoners had already perished.
During the
persecution of the Feyli Kurds by the Government of Saddam Hussein,
Kurdish men considered of being able to fight, were also secluded in the prison if they were not deported to Iran.
In 1982, after a failed assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein in
Dujail
Dujail ( ar, الدجيل; alternate spelling: Ad Dujayl) is a town in Saladin Governorate, Iraq. It is situated about north of Baghdad, and has approximately 100,000 inhabitants, who are mostly Shia. It was the site of the 1982 Dujail Massacre ...
, dozens of its inhabitants were imprisoned in the prison facility.. In the early eighties it was abandoned for some years before a new prison was built in the late 1980s.
During the
Anfal campaign
The Anfal campaign; ku, شاڵاوی ئەنفال or the Kurdish genocide was a counterinsurgency operation which was carried out by Ba'athist Iraq from February to September 1988, at the end of the Iran–Iraq War. The campaign targeted rur ...
directed at Kurds, thousands of prisoners were sent to Nugra Salman, and
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
(HRW) estimates that the prison population was between 6'000 and 8'000.
The first group consisted of elderly between 50 and 90 years of age and arrived in early April transported in a caravan of sealed buses coming from detention camps the north of Iraq.
In May, another group of elderly from the region around the
Lesser Zab
The Little Zab or Lower Zab (, ''al-Zāb al-Asfal''; or '; , ''Zâb-e Kuchak''; , ''Zāba Taḥtāya'') is a river that originates in Iran and joins the Tigris just south of Al Zab in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. It is approximately long and dr ...
arrived.
In the summer months, groups of women arrived together with their children coming from Dibs, the women detention camp.
In August 1988, a hundreds of prisoners arrived from Halabja, who having returned from Iran, were sent to Nugra Salman.
The group of Halabja included, people of all ages, men, women and children.
In September the Government of Iraq announced an Amnesty after which Nugra Salmans inmates were released, but in most cases not allowed to return to their villages and interned in camps under military rule until 1991, when the Kurdistan region achieved autonomy.
The prison was in use until 2003, when it was abandoned.
References
{{coord missing, Iraq
Prisons in Iraq
1930s establishments in Iraq
2003 disestablishments in Iraq