Following the ongoing talks with the families of the victims of the PKK / PJAK crimes, the Human Rights Watch of Iran has arranged a conversation with the father of “Mohammad Navid Doosti”, a member of PJAK.
It seems that the PKK / PJAK does not intend to prevent Kurdish children and youth from dying in conflict.
The approach of militant groups such as PJAK in the use of children in war is contrary to their commitment under the Geneva Convention not to use children under the age of 18.
Perhaps the deception and abduction of Kurdish teenagers, youth and, of course, children, and then arming and using them for the purposes and interests of the leaders of militant groups such as PJAK and the PKK, is the only ‘achievement’ of those claiming to defend the rights of the Kurdish people.
In fact, this is a human rights violation that these groups are constantly insisting on.
Most of these children (people under the age of 18) are tricked into joining this group with false promises, forced to join them when encountered in remote villages.
Because children are so easily influenced, they are also easily trapped by the PKK. The promise of a better life, education, immigration possibilities, paid labor, or the payment of a fee to their families often suffices to lure a young, uneducated rural person into the group. This person cannot leave the group once they cross the border, as the PKK nor PJAK do not accept resignation.
The PKK, on the other hand, can easily achieve its goals by using child soldiers, because children have less perception of disaster on the battlefield than adults, in other words, they are bolder.
Sometimes they do dangerous things that adults are not willing to do. They spy, or carry explosives easily, and are often sent on long marches towards Turkey’s Black sea. A trip not a single militant has ever returned from alive.
One of these children is “Mohammad Navid Doosti”.
The full text of the conversation with Mohammad Navid Dosti’s father is as follows:
My son was about 16, 17 years old, he had not yet reached the legal age and he did not have a driving license, but he insisted that I get a car for him. Yet, because he did not have a license, I told him I would never buy it for him. He fought with me. I deemed it normal, as he was very heavily in puberty and thus rebelling.
Navid had always been a very simple, down-to-earth boy. We had never had a fight before, but he had some problems lately because he wanted a car, just like some of his older friends. He would say that he would go elsewhere if I didn’t not give him a car! He said he knew where to go, so he could drive a pick-up truck like in the movies!
But I really did not think he had any contact with PJAK members, I thought it was just a series of childish talk because my son was never interested in politics, and his only wish was to have a car.
So when he left the house one day and did not come back, I really did not think he would leave the house because of the issue of buying a car! What promise did they make to my son?! I mean, they told him we would give you a car?!
We used his mobile phone to retrieve his Telegram messages, and someone was sending him pictures of pick-up trucks and an address where he should come…
We were unaware of him for a while, and because he had already told me that if I did not buy him a car, he would become a member of PJAK. We traveled all the way to Penjwen but they said he was not there…
Finally, after a year, his mother and I insisted and followed up again on his fate, and they accepted that Navid was among them, but they did not allow us to meet and said that he was not here and had been transferred to another area.
There was nothing we could do and we had to return to Iran and wait for news of our son.
This wait lasted for nearly four years and finally Navid was able to save himself and escape from there.
Navid comes home
When he returned home, it was not really like we had imagined. He was severely malnourished, did not speak much, seemed depressed, but he was able to adapt to the situation. He is busy with work and his life now.
When he returned, he confessed that he was very childish in terms of age and did not have the ability to discern the facts from fantasy, so PJAK elements abused exactly the same thing and lured my son with their own promises.
He told me he never got to drive a car there neither, but now he is saving money to be able to buy one himself.
I myself just thank God every day for returning my son to me, there is nothing I could want more in life.
I hope no other family has to go through what we have, and the families of other missing children will be reunited once more.
