Ed Kinane of Syracuse, NY, spent five months in Baghdad before, during and after the US invasion. He worked there with Voices in the Wilderness, a grassroots human rights network based in Chicago. Voices and its founder, Kathy Kelly, have been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize for their work to oppose the UN/US sanctions against Iraq. Ed lives in Syracuse and is on the DGH Advisory Council.
Sept. 4, 2003, Basrah. Today we met with Dr. Firas. He works at the Abn Gazwan Pediatric Hospital, a teaching hospital. He told us:
"After the invasion there was a tremendous outbreak of vomiting and diarrhea—200 to 300 cases—because of contaminated water. There are no lab facilities for diagnosis. There was only our hospital still open for a population of one and a half million. We treated 140 wounded civilians during the war. A doctor and ten members of her family were killed in her home.
"Fifty Brit tanks came and with them looters on foot. Strange sight. I saw them invade our garage and other buildings. I was shocked and worried about their invading the hospital and affecting the electricity; we had many children on incubators.
"I sought out an officer; I was angry and anxious. 'Why don't you prevent looters from destroying things? Please prevent this.' The officer said, 'This is not my job; I'm a fighter.' I said, 'According to the Geneva Conventions you are to protect civilians from looters. This is a hospital.'
"For three days I saw the same looters. Four doctors and 13 other medical personnel stayed in the hospital unarmed facing the looters as they tried to invade the hospital. Why? My hospital is greater than myself. Therefore we are ready to give our lives to save the hospital...."
During the First Gulf War the region around Basrah was heavily bombed with shells tipped with depleted uranium (D.U.). This material is toxic and radioactive. Because of it, Dr. Firas said, "Other doctors and I fear when our wives get pregnant."
Sept. 5, Basrah. This morning we returned to the hospital and talked to its chief administrator, who said:
"We have no computers, no Internet. I have so much paperwork. I have a pain in my finger from so much writing. There's no one we can talk to about these problems.
"Yesterday a patient needed an operation, but the lift doesn't work. Same problems as under the sanctions, but more so. No spare parts.
"Yesterday someone from the CPA [Coalition Provisional Authority—the occupation forces] came and gave me a form about prioritizing our needs. "I told him, 'I won't fill out any more of these; I've written enough. Come and I'll show you the problems and you write it,' and he did come. We have problems with lifts, with roofs, with sanitary systems. We need to extend outpatient buildings. We have no intensive care unit—can you believe this?!"
The administrator disagrees with the Voices in the Wilderness anti-war stance. "The only way to get rid of Saddam was to have had the war." Dr. Mohammed Kamil had entered the room as our interview began. Dr. Kamil has been silent up till now, but says to the administrator, "I disagree. The Americans and Brits only want oil."
The administrator responds, "Under Saddam I got $10 a month salary—26 years a doctor! If I told Saddam I wouldn't work, he would kill me. Now I'm getting $180 a month."
He wraps up: "One patient dies per month from cancer, but ten die from malnutrition. Saddam was concerned about the one. I have joined no political party; I'm not a political person."
Dr. Kamil walks us upstairs to the leukemia ward. He says, "The previous regime was better than now. Now there isn't security inside or outside the hospital. We're concerned about the depleted uranium. Cancer is increasing. Yet we have no studies on depleted uranium."
Dr. Janan Hassan, oncologist and pediatrician, joins us together with several doctors in training. Dr. Hassan tells us, "All this [leukemia] comes out of the first Gulf War. Everything is contaminated—earth, soil, water. The air we inhale daily. About 20 doctors in Basra have cancer. The mortality rate of these leukemia children is over 80 per cent. Also, there are congenital deformities."
In the persisting assault on Iraq, the fatalities are not always a matter of bullets or shells. According to UN studies, the 13 years of sanctions—lifted only since the invasion—led to hundreds of thousands of premature deaths.
One of my teammates made friends with Joana, an Islamic girl stricken with leukemia. One day we visit Joana and I am immediately taken with the girl's grace and dignity—by her luminous beauty. The next day we learn that Joana died about an hour after our visit. She was 14 and had only been ill a few months.
While no one can prove D.U. caused Joana's leukemia, in areas of Iraq where D.U. was dispersed by US shells, the rate of childhood leukemia tripled in the years after the First Gulf War. We know that the US used an unknown, but vast amount of D.U. during the recent invasion as well. However, because D.U. is such an effective weapon (its hardness enhances the ability of shells to penetrate armor), the US government does not encourage research into its health effects. Nor, because of the astronomical expense, does the US take responsibility for cleaning up the civilian areas it has contaminated. Nor are US soldiers adequately informed of their vulnerability to D.U. In some US military training videos that I have seen, soldiers are advised that although D.U. is radioactive, there is no immediate risk of harm; there is no mention of D.U.'s potentially dangerous long-term effects.
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