From: vacirca-AT-charm.net Date: Sat, 27 Feb 1999 19:15:28 -0500 Subject: [IAC] Haunting Images from Iraq >Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 12:25:09 +0000 (GMT) >From: Rania Masri <rmasri-AT-leb.net> >To: iac-list-AT-leb.net >Subject: [IAC] Haunting Images from Iraq >MIME-Version: 1.0 >X-MIME-Autoconverted: from QUOTED-PRINTABLE to 8bit by beirut.leb.net id >MAA07958 >Sender: owner-iac-list-AT-leb.net >Precedence: bulk >Status: U > >=========Iraq Action Coalition ========http://leb.net/IAC/ ======= >To subscribe, send an e-mail to "majordomo-AT-leb.net" with >'subscribe iac-list' in the body of the message >================================================================== > >> Haunting images from Iraq >> >> By Felicity Arbuthnot >> >> BAGHDAD: Iraq, embargoed since August 1990, has been called by >> many commentators a vast concentration camp. A vast death camp seems more >> appropriate. Images of Baghdad today haunt for all time. >> >> "We have a new phenomenon," remarked one doctor. "People are >> just dying. They are not ill. They just give up - especially young men >> between the ages of about 30 to 35. "Their youth has been sacrificed to the >> embargo and they see middle age approaching with no hope, no dreams, no >> aspirations or ability to provide for those they love." >> >> From Jordan, I telephoned Mustafa, an old friend and gentle >> academic, whose childlike joy of life illuminated every experience. >> >> During the December bombing his voice had broken as he described >> the destruction of some of the most ancient buildings - World Heritage >> sites - in his beloved Baghdad. Mustafa always celebrated my arrival with an >> aubergine dish to dream of. >> >> Surprisingly the call connected immediately: "I'm on my way, get >> the aubergine ready..." There was a silence, then his daughter Doha said: >> "We have had a catastrophe, Mustafa is dead." >> >> He had died five minutes earlier. A month before he had >> undergone a full medical and had been told he had "the heart of a lion. He >> was haunted by the thought we would be bombed again after Ramazan and he had >> no way to protect us," said Nasra, his wife. He died on January 17, the >> anniversary of the start of the Gulf War.I travelled to Baghdad for the >> mourning, a four-day grieving of an intensity defying description. When >> Nasra - feisty, gutsy, witty, beautiful and beloved friend - entered, she >> was unrecognizable, bent double, unable to walk without support, wracked by >> the unimaginable; the weight of grief encapsulated. >> >> "It is killing us all, one by one," she gasped. "We lost five >> friends this year." All were under 40, all had "just died". >> >> I heard haunting human tales of the bombing. "We had seven >> children in our house during the bombing, the youngest six months, the >> oldest seven years," said Jameel. "Their terror was such that when the bombs >> stopped, we were left in the dark (the electricity sub-station was >> reportedly hit again) with great pools of urine and faeces." At the Saddam >> Paediatric Hospital, three-year-old Sahara was dying. She had acute myeloid >> leukaemia and was bleeding internally from the nose and gums. She needed 10 >> to 15 units of platelets a day - the doctors could obtain just one. >> >> "In the UK and US leukaemia is a treatable disease, yet due to >> lack of chemotherapy we have not achieved one cure - only some remissions - >> in the last eight years," said Dr Rad Aljanabi, chief resident. "In 1994 and >> 1996, we had no treatment at all, so every single patient died." >> >> Iraq's cancer, leukaemia and malignancy rates have risen by as >> much as 70 per cent since the Gulf War. The increase is associated with the >> depleted uranium weapons, used primarily by the US and the UK, which left a >> residue of radioactive dust throughout the country. >> >> According to studies - including work by Johns Hopkins >> University in the US - the residue has entered the food chain via the water >> table and soil. Leukaemia was a rarity before 1991. "This is my first >> residency and I saw 39 new cases in three months," said one doctor. "I >> admitted eight last month, I remember all their names. We are suffering - I >> cry so often." >> >> There were other horrors. Five-year-old Heider Latif, weighing >> just 13 kg. Starvation, multiple congenital abnormalities, cancers, heart >> defects, leprosy, waterborne diseases. Death stalks Iraq's children from the >> moment of birth. >> >> In the beautiful, relentlessly bombarded southern city of Basra >> where the biblical Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet, the state of health >> takes on another dimension. One doctor has completed a thesis comparing the >> congenital abnormalities, cancers and malignancies since the Gulf War with >> Hiroshima. >> >> Dr Jenan Ali, a world-renowned surgeon trained in Glasgow, has >> been keeping a record of "mysterious" congenital abnormalities. Her >> photographs for 1998 are chilling: full-terms babies undeveloped, babies >> reminiscent of those born in the nuclear testing areas of the South Pacific, >> a baby with no face, another with no eyes, twisted limbs, or no limbs, tiny >> mite with huge head and no brain. Page after page of tragedy. "All young >> parents with no history of abnormalities in the family as far as we can >> tell, since we have few laboratory facilities now." >> >> Jenan said she believes many of the cases are "not recorded in >> textbooks, but we cannot be sure since we haven't had textbooks since 1990". >> Textbooks and medical journals are vetoed by the UN sanctions committee. "I >> can show you a baby born one hour ago if you are strong and not prone to >> fainting," said Jenan. A nurse brought in a small bundle in sterile >> wrappings (baby clothing is just a memory in this formerly internationally >> renowned hospital). >> >> The tiny being making little bleating noises had no eyes, no >> nose, a sweet little mouth, but no tongue or oesophagus, no hands or >> genitalia. Hopelessly twisted small legs were joined together from the knees >> upwards by a thick "web" of flesh. "We see many similar," commented Jenan --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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