Salman Moradi (15) was tricked into joining PJAK 3 years ago. Brother Naseh followed one year after. Their father wants to know what happened to his sons.
Following the ongoing talks with the families of the victims of the PKK / PJAK crimes, the Iranian Kurdistan Human Rights Watch has arranged a conversation with the father of Salman Moradi, another victim.
Salman, a teenager from Mariwan village in Ebrahimabad, who was only 15 years old, was separated from his family, and PJAK did not inform his family that he was alive or dead.
This is one of the constant approaches of militant groups such as the PKK / PJAK, which, one or more years after the children are killed, inform families that their children have been killed, and in most cases do not report their burial place. In these cases, families tend to believe their child has not been killed, but that PKK/ PJAK are letting them believe so, so they will stop pursuing the fate of their children.
According to most families, PJAK has often pressured them not to talk to the media about their children, so that they can continue to “violate the rights of Kurdish citizens” in the shadow of media silence.
Another point to consider is that 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. PJAK has again signed a treaty in which it declared not to use child soldiers with the Swiss-based NGO Geneva Call in 2015.
In fact, this is a human rights violation that remains one of their largest crimes.
The full text of the conversation is as follows:
“I have not heard from my son for three years, and the situation we have today is that his mother is ill (depressed) and I am responsible for taking care of her.”
“Salman and his friend named Hajir Mohammadi separated from us three years ago, his friend returned after a year, but there has been no news about Salman until today. They were seperated after training.”
“According to his friend, they were only together for twenty days. Hajir found a way to escape, but it seems Salman didn’t.”
“As Salman’s friend told us, they were letting the boys do hard work, doing various things, including building trenches and digging tunnels. He had not realized they would be separated so quickly, and he was ordered to leave for the place he had been assigned to. There, he was able to escape and ask for help from villagers. My son was left behind.”
“Another issue is that my other son (Naseh Moradi) followed Salman, his brother, two years ago – heartbroken from missing him – and has not returned until today and we have heard nothing about him.”
“We do not even know if Naseh is alive, killed, imprisoned or what happened to him, and we really do not know where and to whom we should go.”
Continued ambiguity on the fate of Salman Moradi; a child soldier member of PJAK
*** The Iranian Kurdistan Human Rights Watch continues to pursue these individuals until a clear conclusion is reached about the unknown fate of Kurdish citizens trapped in militant groups.
