Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1999 01:21:37 -0500 (EST)
From: Orpheus <cw_duff-AT-alcor.concordia.ca>
Subject: jrn33.html 




   Dear Friends,
   
   Below is a lengthy report from Rick McDowell which he wrote following
   a July, 1998 visit to Iraq with the 13th Voices in the Wilderness
   delegation. The observations about civilian suffering in Iraq are
   sadly absent from most main stream news reports concerning Iraq.
   Please feel free to copy, print or circulate all or any part of this
   article.
   -Kathy Kelly 
   ______________________________________________________________________
   
   A Lost Generation
   by Richard McDowell
   
   "If we have to use force, it is because we are America. We are the
   indispensable nation. We stand tall. We see further into the future."
   -Secretary of State Madeline Albright, in an appearance in February,
   1998, on NBC's "Today" show.
   
   In July, sailing by moonlight along Basrah's Shatt AL-Arab, the
   confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, I saw the eerie hulks
   of rusting ships bombed by the US and its allies in 1991. Each piece
   of wreckage sadly symbolizes obstacles to a normal future for Iraqis.
   The ships were sunk amid Iraq's only waterway to the ocean. Looking at
   the floating graveyard, I recalled Ms. Albright's description of
   America's vision. "The indispensable nation" stands like a towering
   bully over twenty-two million people who've been battered and crippled
   by a state of siege. After several days of visits to hospitals and
   internal refugee camps where people suffer under unimaginable
   conditions, I was overwhelmed by the waste of an entire generation of
   Iraqi children, the destruction of hundreds of thousands of human
   lives.
   
   Earlier this year, as the US prepared to unleash another bombardment
   on the people of Iraq, I and other Voices in the Wilderness delegation
   members stood before a mother and her dying child. In a pediatric unit
   of Baghdad's Al Monsour Hospital, we watched helplessly as Ferial
   breathed her last breath. Suddenly, other mothers, cradling their
   children, joined her in an anguished choir of despair. Later, in the
   oncology unit, I recognized a young boy -- the lone survivor of a
   crowded unit I had visited several months earlier. When asked about
   Imad's progress, the doctor grimly stated he would soon be dead.
   
   Days earlier, at the Maternity and Pediatrics Hospital in Basrah, I
   saw a young man writhe in pain while waiting with his father for
   non-existent cancer medicine and/or the unavailable pain-killing drugs
   to ease his suffering. I turned the corner to evade the painful sight
   only to encounter another man collapsed on the floor, crying for his
   daughter who was dying for lack of medicine. You cannot escape the
   suffering and death that defines Iraq today.
   
   Sanctions, as President Woodrow Wilson explained, are "a quiet but
   most lethal weapon that exerts a pressure no nation can withstand." It
   is clear that Iraq is hemorrhaging under the strain of the most
   comprehensive sanctions ever imposed in modern history. Sanctions have
   become the weapon of mass destruction which apparently eludes United
   Nations (UN) weapons inspectors.
   
   Denis Halliday, UN assistant secretary general and humanitarian
   coordinator for Iraq, says that sanctions are "undermining the moral
   credibility of the UN" and their continuation is "in contradiction to
   the human rights provisions in the UN's own Charter." Mary Robinson,
   the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has asked: "How can you
   expect me to condemn human rights abuses in Algeria and China and
   elsewhere when the United Nations themselves are responsible for the
   worst situation in Iraq. It's part of my job to bring to public
   consciousness the incredible suffering of Iraqi society."
   
   Eight years of economic warfare have resulted in the deaths of over
   half a million children. UNICEF reports that 4,500 children under the
   age of five are dying each month from hunger and disease. An October,
   1997 nutritional survey indicates that in Central/Southern Iraq, 27.5%
   --960,000 children-- are at risk of acute malnutrition. The report
   concludes: "It would appear that there has been no consistent evidence
   for improvement in nutritional status in infants since the start of
   SCR986/111 (UN Security Council Resolution 986--oil for food)
   implementation. The same situation is also likely for children under
   five." In 1997, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and
   World Food Program (WFP) reported that among those under 26 years of
   age, 25% of men and 16% of women were undernourished.
   
   By 1995, falling incomes and rising prices were estimated to have
   reduced earnings to only 5% of their pre-sanctions value in food
   purchasing terms -- the price of wheat flour has risen 11,667 times
   compared with July, 1990. Salaries average between $2 and $7 per
   month. The UN estimates that four million Iraqis -- about 20 percent
   of the population -- live in extreme poverty, on a par with the
   poorest countries in the world.
   
   SCR986/111 (986) provides for a food basket of 2,030 kcal and 47 grams
   of protein per person per day, while minimum Iraqi needs are estimated
   at 2,600 kcal per person per day. The food basket does not contain
   fruit, vegetables or animal protein. (Iraq cannot purchase its own
   commodities under 986, which has led to a further decline in local
   food production) The FAO/WFP calls the food basket inadequate and
   unbalanced.
   
   In a recent report, the FAO noted serious problems with the
   implementation of 986. The approval of contracts has been slow and the
   amounts permitted insufficient. Even if fully implemented, 986 would
   fall short of meeting the nutritional and health needs in Iraq. The
   report concluded that, with "the continuation of the economic embargo,
   even allowing for the amelioration that will occur with 986, the
   situation will progressively deteriorate with grave consequences to
   the health and life of the Iraqi people..."
   
   In July, 1998, our delegation went to Amarah's's sewage treatment
   plant and learned that the breakdown of equipment and lack of spare
   parts has forced the facility to operate at 25% of capacity -- when
   electricity is available -- forcing operators to continually dump raw
   sewage into the Tigris River, the main source of drinking water for
   the communities southward.
   
   It's estimated that 25% of babies are born with low birth weights.
   This may be due to maternal malnutrition or attributable to the fact
   that 70% of Iraqi women suffer from anemia. The World Health
   Organization (WHO) has warned that many of these children will not
   catch up to their physical or mental development, laying the
   foundation for continued long-term health problems in the country and
   leading to a lost generation.
   
   Officials at UNOCHI (UN Humanitarian Mission) stated in July, 1998,
   that UN agencies have led over 1/2 million inspections of Iraq's
   52,000 food distribution centers. They were "amazed" by the Iraqi
   government's rationing system which runs like a "Swiss watch." But,
   according to the 1998 World Disasters Report by the Red Cross and Red
   Crescent Societies (Oxford Press), the complete monthly ration had
   only been achieved 3 times since the introduction of 986. Rations
   typically last an average of 20 days, forcing Iraqis to survive by
   selling their personal possessions, household goods, furniture and
   clothes while others who have nothing left to sell may be forced to
   beg or enter into prostitution.
   
   Serious delays in the importation of medical supplies under 986 have
   led to widespread shortages of antibiotics, analgesics, anesthetics
   and laboratory test materials. This in turn leads to the reemergence
   of many diseases, especially those linked to the damaged water and
   sanitation systems, such as cholera, dysentery, malaria and typhoid
   fever. The WHO Coordinator for Iraq stated in February, 1998, "This
   (Iraq) is probably a timebomb in terms of public health. For at least
   five to six years, the needs in terms of drugs were met let's say 10%
   to 20% of the time according to health facilities. Partial treatment
   has become the practice. When an infection is not well treated then
   bacterial resistance develops....you increase the chances of drug
   resistance." Asked if supplies to the more than 400 medical facilities
   were being diverted or hoarded, he responded, "I would say they
   (medical supplies) are received 100% of the time...I don't know of any
   system where the control of drugs is so tight."
   
   Possessing the world's second largest oil reserves, Iraq's 1990 oil
   exports accounted for 75 percent of Iraqi GDP and well over 90% of its
   foreign exchange. Although dissent was not tolerated, Iraqis enjoyed a
   good standard of living, including free access to the best health
   care, education, social security and social welfare in the region.
   
   Under an expanded program of 986, Iraq is allowed to sell up to $5.2
   billion worth of oil every six months from the previous $2 billion,
   but because its oil equipment is in disrepair, Iraq is only capable of
   pumping an estimated $4 billion every six months These estimates were
   based on higher oil prices -- the price of oil has dropped from $20
   per barrel in January 1997 to around $10 a barrel today.
   
   The immediate afflictions faced by Iraq's 22 million people obscure
   the long- term erosion of their social structures. For example, they
   once boasted an education system that produced the Middle East's
   highest literacy rate. Teachers now moonlight as taxi drivers to
   supplement their $3 a month salary. By day, they attempt to cope with
   a severe lack of books and pencils, overcrowded classrooms, broken
   desks and deteriorating buildings. Education is no longer compulsory
   -- formerly high primary school rates have fallen to 75% or less. Low
   birth weights, hunger and disease adversely affect children's ability
   to concentrate and learn, contributing to the lost generation.
   
   The most tragic and enduring legacy of the Gulf War may be the more
   than 315 tones of depleted uranium (DU) released by US tanks and
   aircraft during the war. DU is the byproduct of enrichment of uranium
   for nuclear fuel, and has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. One of the
   densest metals known to man, DU was made into kinetic energy
   penetrators or armor piercing penetrators (solid rods) and fired into
   tanks and armored vehicles. When a DU shell hits a target, radioactive
   and chemically toxic dust is produced which may be inhaled, ingested,
   injected or contaminate an existing wound. The toxic dust can also be
   transported by wind or water to another location.
   
   The Nuclear Regulatory Commission treats DU as a hazardous material. A
   July, 1990 report, "Kinetic Energy Penetrator Environment and Health
   Consequences", prepared for the US Army by the Science Application
   International Corporation (SAIC), predicted that DU shells would
   generate a large amount of radioactive dust and that if the dust were
   ingested or inhaled it would endanger a person's health. The report
   stated, "Short-term effects of high doses can result in deaths, while
   long-term effects of low doses have been implicated in cancers, kidney
   problems and birth defects...the long-term health effects to natives
   and combat veterans may become issues in the acceptability of....DU
   (weapons)."
   
   A 1991 report by the UK Atomic Energy Authority warned that DU debris
   would cause deaths among both soldiers and civilians.
   
   Cancer, birth defects and spontaneous abortions are on the rise
   throughout the Gulf War battle zone. A recently leaked UN document
   confirmed a 55% nationwide increase in cancer between 1989 and 1994.
   Iraqi officials and a growing number of international scientists are
   convinced that the increases are the result of DU - its residue found
   in the soil, air, water and food chain. In one Iraqi village, former
   soldiers have refused to marry because they have seen that children of
   fellow soldiers were born with congenital deformities. Officials at
   the FAO stated, in January, 1998, that some sheep populations in
   Southern Iraq have been genetically altered. In commenting on the
   crisis, an Iraqi journalist referred to the people of the south as the
   "walking dead."
   
   Tens of thousands of US service men and woman, who served in the war,
   have complained of Gulf War Syndrome, while millions of Iraqis
   continue to live, work and play in the contaminated areas. Tragically,
   the US military was aware of the health risks associated with this new
   weapons system and failed to alert US and Allied forces or Kuwaiti and
   Iraqi forces.
   
   After years of economic sanctions, and with no end in sight, Iraqis
   are beginning to lose hope. The heart and soul of the people -- the
   social fabric of the nation -- is being destroyed. A UN official was
   asked in February, 1998 what gave him hope. He replied, "Two weeks ago
   I would have answered your question. Today I have no hope." He stated
   that oil for food was not enough to stop malnourishment and that the
   only way to meet food needs was to lift economic sanctions. He further
   stated that conditions are worse than they were when he worked in
   Somalia and that two generations of Iraqis have been lost.
   
   Many countries of the world, including France, China, Russia and
   several of Iraq's neighbors have urged the lifting of sanctions, while
   the US seems committed to relentless maintenance of the embargo. It
   has become clear there is little the government of Iraq can do to end
   this siege. The US has publicly stated that sanctions will remain in
   place and largely unaltered while Saddam Hussein remains in power.
   Congress recently approved millions of dollars to destabilize the
   government of Iraq, while the Administration and Congressional leaders
   have called for covert and overt measures to overthrow President
   Hussein, in clear violation of international laws and treaties.
   
   The United Nations has estimated $10 billion was needed just to
   restore Iraq's electricity network. Halliday, recently said, ``There
   are huge sums of money needed in water and sanitation, rehabilitation
   of hospitals and clinics. There is a massive amount of money required
   for education. Infrastructure alone requires a huge investment.
   Teaching, housing and job opportunities would all need major funding.
   I think they are going to find that this is going to be a very
   challenging problem." Halliday added the UN was ready to assist Iraq
   after sanctions were lifted, but said investment would be the key to
   Iraq's recovery. ``There is going to be a question of finance. You
   could argue that Iraq could well use something like the Marshall
   Plan,'' he said, referring to US reparations for Western Europe after
   World War II.
   
   To date, after eight years of genocidal sanctions, not a single Member
   of Congress has visited Iraq to see, first hand, how billions of
   taxpayer dollars are being spent or the effects of the
   Administration's policies on the people of Iraq.
   
   Consumed by the challenge of raising and educating children,
   maintaining a comparatively comfortable standard of living and
   preparing for retirement, Americans pay little attention to foreign
   policy or what is being done in their name. What happens to the lives
   of Iraq's children and families may seem of little consequence -- but
   if we care about the lives of our own children, we must concern
   ourselves with the world we are creating, a world where the US
   remains, in the words of Martin Luther King, "the greatest purveyor of
   violence in the world today."
   
   US objectives in Iraq, including control of the country's oil
   resources, may be summed up in George Kennan's observations fifty
   years earlier. (Policy Planning Study 23, written for the State
   Department planning staff in 1948) "...we have 50% of the world's
   wealth, but only 6.3% of its population...Our real task in the coming
   period is to devise a pattern of relationships which permit us to
   maintain this position of disparity...To do so, we will have to
   dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming; and our attention
   will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national
   objectives....We should cease to talk about vague and...unreal
   objectives such as human rights, the raising of living standards, and
   democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to
   deal straight power concepts. The less we are hampered by idealistic
   slogans the better." If the lives of Iraq's children and families were
   being decimated by bullets and bombs, displays of our weapons prowess
   would be featured daily in newspaper and television coverage. But in
   this Orwellian world, death by internationally sanctioned starvation
   and disease is somehow palatable; the myth persists that sanctions are
   merely a 'kinder and gentler' way to insure another government's
   capitulation.
   
   Many Iraqis have asked us to carry back to our country a simple
   message: "Have mercy on us."
   ______________________________________________________________________
   
   Richard McDowell, who helped initiate the Voices in the Wilderness
   campaign has been a co-coordinator since August, 1996 and has led six
   delegations to Iraq. He can be reached at rjpmcd-AT-aol.com
   ______________________________________________________________________