Nugra Salman , also known as Nugrat al-Salman or Nigrat Salman is a former prison facility near the village Salman in the
desert
A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...
of the
Muthanna Governorate
Muthanna Governorate ( ''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. The provincial capital ...
in Iraq. It has been constructed in 1930 during the
Hashemite Monarchy
The Hashemites (), 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 (1921–1958). The family had ruled the city of Me ...
and later also by the Governments of
Abd al-Karim Qasim
Abdul-Karim Qasim Muhammad Bakr al-Fadhli Al-Qaraghuli al-Zubaidi ( ' ; 21 November 1914 – 9 February 1963) was an Iraqi military officer and statesman who served as the Prime Minister and de facto leader of Iraq from 1958 until his ...
and
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...
.
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 guardtower (also spelt watch tower, guard tower) is a type of military/paramilitary or policiary tower used for guarding an area. Sometimes fortified, and armed with heavy weaponry, especially historically, the structures are ...
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
The Iraqi Communist Party ( '; ) is a communist party and the oldest active party in Iraq. Since its foundation in 1934, it has dominated the left in Iraqi politics. It played a prominent role in shaping the political history of Iraq between it ...
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 (; alternate spelling: Ad Dujayl) is a town in Saladin Governorate, Iraq. It is about north of Baghdad. It was the site of the 1982 Dujail Massacre, in which between 142 and 148 people, including children, died.
During the
Anfal campaign
The Anfal campaign was a counterinsurgency operation which was carried out by Ba'athist Iraq from February to September 1988 during the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict at the end of the Iran–Iraq War. The campaign targeted rural Kurds because its p ...
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 that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...
(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 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.{{Cite journal , last=Mlodoch , first=Karin , date=2012 , title="We Want to be Remembered as Strong Women, Not as Shepherds": Women Anfal Survivors in Kurdistan-Iraq Struggling for Agency and Acknowledgement , url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jmiddeastwomstud.8.1.63 , journal=Journal of Middle East Women's Studies , volume=8 , issue=1 , pages=65 , doi=10.2979/jmiddeastwomstud.8.1.63 , jstor=10.2979/jmiddeastwomstud.8.1.63 , s2cid=145055297 , issn=1552-5864, url-access=subscription The prison was in use until 2003, when it was abandoned.