The war against Iraq continues. Ongoing bombing of the Northern and Southern "no-fly zones" (unilaterally declared by the US and UK) results in scores of civilian casualties. But the real war against the Iraqi people makes few headlines: the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq after the Gulf War are killing hundreds of thousands every year.

Earlier this year I visited Iraq as a member of an international medical delegation, endorsed by Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). The group of 26 consisted of physicians, other health workers and peace activists from Australia, Canada, the US and Palestine, as well as several representatives of the media. During our week in Baghdad we visited several hospitals (among them Al Mansour Pediatric Teaching Hospital and Saddam Pediatric Hospital) and a school. We met with the Faculty of the Medical School of the University of Baghdad, representatives of the UN, UNESCO, the Red Cross/Red Crescent Society, as well as church, school and government officials. In addition, we defied US economic sanctions by taking medicines, respiratory equipment, medical textbooks and journals with us, the latter most enthusiastically received by the heads of the departments and the students of Baghdad University alike.

The conditions of the hospitals we visited are deplorable—from lack of medications and modern equipment to the poor state of the facilities (only 1 of 6 elevators was working in one ) and the impurity of the drinking water (resulting in diarrheal illnesses in patients and physicians alike). Families often sell their possessions to buy medicines on the black market in order to supplement the sporadic and inadequate hospital supply. Patients’ families have to bring them food as well.

Before the Gulf War the Medical School of the University of Baghdad was recognized as one of the best in the Middle East, and Iraq’s health care system was one of the best in the region. Oil made the country prosperous; many nurses, technicians and other trained personnel from surrounding countries worked in Iraq. Lack of funds and inflation (1 US$ now equals 1,800 Iraqi Dinar) have resulted in a severe economic decline. The specialists left the country and all salaries are now pitifully low: a hospital staff physician now earns 2—3 US$ per month! Health care in Iraq has declined severely and is now similar to many poor countries in the Third World.

As a cardiologist I was able to make rounds with my Iraqi colleagues in the Cardiac Care Unit (CCU) of the University Hospital. My heart went out to them: they treated the same difficult cases as I do back in the US, but cannot order even some of the most basic lab tests, much less any of the more sophisticated tests we rely on at home.

Many diseases, previously eradicated or controlled, have reemerged: most childhood diseases, malaria, tuberculosis, cholera among them. We saw patients with Kwashiorkor, inadequately treated thallessemia, leukemia and other blood disorders. About 25% of all children under five years of age are malnourished. This results in lowered resistance to infectious and other diseases, an increase of overall mortality and still emerging social and psychological problems.

Sanctions have affected the entire society: children drop out of school to help earn some money, academics and other professionals work as cab drivers and sell ice cream. Crime and prostitution are on the increase. The current UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, Hans von Sponeck (who replaced Denis Halliday, who had resigned his position in protest), considers the destruction of education, skilled trades and professions, to be one of the most serious consequences of the sanctions and calls it "intellectual genocide."

We returned from this trip shaken by what we saw and by the fact that our government still defends economic sanctions as a major aspect of its foreign policy (see State Department Impedes Congressional Trip to Iraq on this page). To help our Iraqi colleagues with their medical education, Washington PSR sent a group of professors to the University of Baghdad to teach in October of 1999.

In This Issue:

Two Months After Mitch: DGH in Honduras
A Dam Threat
A People Dammed: The Chixoy Dam
Human Rights Around the World

- Colombia
- United States
- Angola
- Sierra Leone

Ada Jenkins Center Parish Nurse Program Update
Iraqi Sanctions: A Crime Against Humanity
Hal Williamson Clements: A Life of Service
Remembering Dr. Mabelle Arole
DGH Announcements

The October 3, 1999 issue of In These Times, reports that the US State Department refused to validate the passports of a group of congressional aides for travel to Iraq.