|
The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
|
April 5th,
2007 - Pity the Sick of Iraq |
|
By Bert De Belder Al-Ahram April 5, 2007 After repeatedly topping the
Arab health index, Iraq's health record is now worse than ever because of the
US-led occupation. The general effect on the Iraqi population amounts to a
massive war crime, writes Bert De Belder In March, the deadliest
month witnessed by Iraqis recently, some 67 lives on the average were lost
daily, as a result of bombings and acts of violence. Political violence has
conspired with the occupation to wreak havoc not only with lives, but, as
well, the infrastructure needed to safeguard the health of millions of Iraqis Iraq's health status, four
years into the occupation, is nothing short of disastrous. Iraq's health
index has deteriorated to a level not seen since the 1950s, says Joseph
Chamie, former director of the United Nations Population Division and an Iraq
specialist. People's health status is determined by social, economic and
environmental factors much more than by the availability of healthcare. Not
surprisingly, all these factors have deteriorated in the course of the
occupation. A recent UNDP-backed study
reveals that one-third of Iraqis live in poverty, with more than five per
cent living in abject poverty. The UN agency observes that this contrasts
starkly with the country's thriving middle-income economy of the 1970s and
1980s. But these figures may well be a grave underestimation, as other
reports speak of eight million out of 28 million Iraqis living in extreme
poverty on incomes of less than $1 per day. More than 500,000 Baghdad
residents get water for only a few hours a day. And the majority of Iraqis
get three hours of electricity a day, in contrast to pre-war levels of about
20 hours. The devastated health of iraqi children The combination of
sanctions, war and occupation has resulted in Iraq showing the world's worst
evolution in child mortality: from an under-five mortality rate of 50 per
1000 live births in 1990, to 125 in 2005. That means an annual deterioration
of 6.1 per cent - a world record, well behind very poor and AIDS-affected
Botswana. At the outset of the 2003 war, the US administration pledged to cut
Iraq's child mortality rate in half by 2005. But the rate has continued to
worsen, to 130 in 2006, according to Iraqi Health Ministry figures. Nutrition is, of course,
vital to health. According to the United Nations Children's Agency (UNICEF),
about one in 10 Iraqi children under five are underweight (acutely
malnourished) and one in five are short for their age (chronically
malnourished). But this is only the tip of the iceberg, according to Claire
Hajaj, communications officer at the UNICEF Iraq Support Centre in Amman.
"Many Iraqi children may also be suffering from 'hidden hunger' -
deficiencies in critical vitamins and minerals that are the building blocks
for children's physical and intellectual development," Hajaj says.
"These deficiencies are hard to measure, but they make children much
more vulnerable to illness and less likely to thrive at school." Hayder
Hussainy, a senior official at the Iraqi Ministry of Health, states that
approximately 50 per cent of Iraqi children suffer from some form of
malnourishment. Also important is the
psychological impact of war and occupation. In a study entitled "The
Psychological Effects of War on Iraqis", the Association of Iraqi
Psychologists (AIP) reports that out of 2,000 people interviewed in all 18
Iraqi provinces, 92 per cent said they feared being killed in an explosion.
Some 60 per cent of those interviewed said the level of violence had caused
them to have panic attacks, which prevented them from going out because they
feared they would be the next victims. The AIP also surveyed over 1,000
children across Iraq and found that 92 per cent of children examined had
learning impediments, largely attributable to the current climate of fear and
insecurity. "The only thing they have on their minds are guns, bullets,
death and a fear of the US occupation," says the AIP's Marwan Abdullah. Hospitals and clinics faced with a critical lack of resources On 19 January 2007, a group
of some 100 eminent UK doctors signed a letter to British Prime Minister Tony
Blair to voice their grave concern over the fate of Iraq's children. The
statement read: "We are concerned that children are dying in Iraq for
want of medical treatment. Sick or injured children, who could otherwise be treated
by simple means, are left to die in their hundreds because they do not have
access to basic medicines or other resources. Children who have lost hands,
feet, and limbs are left without prostheses. Children with grave
psychological distress are left untreated." The Iraq Medical Association
reports that 90 per cent of the almost 180 hospitals in Iraq lack essential
equipment. At Yarmouk Hospital, one of the busiest hospitals in Baghdad, five
people die on average every day because medics and nurses don't have the
equipment to treat common ills and accidents, according to Yarmouk doctor
Hussam Abboud. That translates to more than 1,800 preventable deaths in a
year in that hospital alone. Hassan Abdallah, a senior
health official in the Basra Governorate, says that information suggests that
from January to July 2006, about 90 children died in Basra as result of the
lack of medicine, a worse figure than for the same period last year, when
some 40 children died for similar reasons. Marie Fernandez, a spokeswoman for
the Vienna-based aid agency Saving Children from War, deplores the lack of
essential supplies, especially intravenous infusions and blood bags.
"Children are dying because there are no blood bags available,"
says Fernandez. Hospitals subject to military attacks and occupation "The Geneva Conventions
state that hospitals are and should remain neutral and accessible to
everybody, particularly civilians. Yet, when it's occupied by armed groups or
official forces, people don't have this free and humanitarian access,"
says Cedric Turlan, information officer for the Coordinating Committee in
Iraq (NCCI) NGO. His observation is corroborated by numerous reports and
sources. In the first week of
November 2006, in Ramadi, some 115 kilometres west of Baghdad, 13 civilians
entering the hospital to get treatment were killed by snipers. Less than 10
per cent of the hospital's staff was still working there when US-led forces
burst into the hospital many times day and night, looking for snipers on the
hospital's roof. "The multinational forces were outside, surrounding the
hospital, but they intruded into the hospital on a daily basis," Turlan
said. "Now people rarely go to the hospital because they fear being shot
or arrested." For several months now,
patients have refrained from using the hospital for fear of being shot by
snipers or by US-led forces. According to other reports received by NCCI,
military forces have also occupied Mosul Hospital, and ambulances have been
attacked regularly in Najaf, Fallujah and other parts of Anbar. On 7 December 2006, there
was yet another US military raid at the Fallujah General Hospital that had
suffered similar attacks during various US siege operations in the city in
April and November 2004. Eyewitnesses said US soldiers raided the hospital
"as if it were a military target". Doctors and medical staff were
arrested, insulted and called terrorists. A hospital employee said that it
was already the third time he was handcuffed by US soldiers, and alleged that
"they have been more vicious with medical staff than with others because
they consider us the first supporters of those they call terrorists." US
Lt Col Bryan Salas, spokesperson of Multinational Forces-Iraq, had quite a
different explanation: "Coalition forces searched the hospital to ensure
that it continues to be a safe place for the citizens of Fallujah to receive
the medical treatment they deserve." After the US military raid, the
hospital remained closed for several days. Government complicity in attacks and failing health With current Minister of
Health Ali Al-Shimari belonging to the political movement of Moqtada Al-Sadr,
the latter's military arm, the Mahdi Army, is acting inside hospitals with
impunity. Sick and wounded patients have been abducted from public hospitals
and later killed. As a consequence, more and more Iraqis are avoiding
hospitals. "We would prefer to die instead of going to the
hospital," says Abu Nasr, a resident of a Baghdad suburb. "The
hospitals have become killing fields." The ministry also appears to
discriminate in the provision of supplies. Tariq Hiali, a health official in
Baqouba (60 kilometres northeast of Baghdad), laments that "the Ministry
of Health is not providing us with medications and medical equipment - they
consider us to be terrorists." An employee at Baqouba's blood bank,
Jamal Qadoori, says: "Ambulances we send to Baghdad are being
intercepted by the Mahdi Army." The emergency unit in the
Basra Teaching Hospital was closed for five months after unidentified
assailants killed a number of doctors working there. Now many doctors and
nurses refuse to go to work, fearing for their lives. Likewise, clinics have
shut down in Ramadi, Hit, Haditha and Fallujah. The Institute for War and
Peace Reporting states that in Baghdad, those doctors still practicing have
moved their clinics into residential areas or inside medical compounds for
safety reasons. They only open in the morning, because of curfews and poor
security. Health workers harassed, arrested and assassinated Under the Fourth Geneva
Convention, Article 18 reads: "Civilian hospitals organised to care for
the wounded and sick, infirm and maternity cases, may in no circumstances be
the object of attack, but shall at all times be respected and protected by
the Parties to the conflict." On-the-ground reality in Iraq today is
quite different. "A major problem
affecting Iraq's health sector is the country's desperate security
situation," says Nada Doumani, a spokeswoman for the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). "Armed men storm operating theatres
forcing doctors to treat the patients they bring as a priority. Some patients
insist on keeping their weapons and masks while being treated. This creates a
traumatising situation for the doctors," she says. Examples abound. Dr Washdi
Mahmoud works in the Ibn Al-Nafees Hospital, the largest cardiovascular
centre in Baghdad. Via telephone from Baghdad on 27 February 2006, he said:
"Yesterday morning, we were threatened by the relatives of patients.
They even pointed a gun at one doctor's head! The hospital's security guards
didn't bother to intervene, so we decided to go on strike." Dr Salam Ismael of the
Doctors for Iraq society explains: "We are harassed by militias of
certain political parties. The government is not acting on them. They enter
the patient's rooms with their weapons, they shout at the doctors, they
threaten to kill them." Doctors for Iraq received
reports that armed gunmen had entered Tel Afar Hospital in the northwest of
Iraq on 9 May 2006 and threatened and attacked staff and patients waiting to
be treated. A doctor described how one of the armed men put a gun to his head
demanding that he stop treating a wounded child and instead attend to a man
with a minor shell wound in his leg. The armed group started vandalising and
breaking hospital equipment and then attacked an ambulance driver, breaking
his arm with a rifle butt. Another ambulance driver was punched in the face,
and three armed men attacked the hospital pharmacist, taking turns in hitting
and kicking him. One of the armed men fired bullets above a doctor's head,
missing him narrowly and causing fear and hysteria in the hospital. On 28 September 2006,
doctors at Baghdad's Yarmouk Hospital went on strike after Iraqi police burst
into the facility and forced doctors to treat a wounded colleague, while
brandishing their guns. The doctors called on the Interior Ministry to
enforce a complete weapons ban in the hospital. Early November 2006, Dr
Ibrahim Abdel-Sattar, a cardiologist in Baghdad, reported: "My colleague
was killed while he was attending one of his patients two weeks ago. The
armed gang broke into his clinic, shot him dead and left without
explanation." Health workers kidnapped and held for ransom As if the daily violence was
not enough, in the chaos and disorder that reign in occupied Iraq, health
professionals are also prone to getting kidnapped for ransom. On 9 November, men
reportedly wearing blue police uniforms kidnapped the head of Iraqi Red
Crescent Society (IRCS) administration, Dr Anas Al-Azawi, in front of his
house. The price for his freedom was set at $750,000, but he was released
after a lesser ransom was paid. On 17 December, armed men allegedly wearing
Iraqi Army uniforms stormed the office of the IRCS in Baghdad and abducted 42
people. 26 IRCS employees, both Shia and Sunni, were later released. Peter Kandela, an Iraqi
doctor working in the United Kingdom, interviewed Iraqi medical staff that
had fled to Jordan and Syria. He recounts the story of a kidney surgeon
seized by a group of armed men whose first act was to go through his address
book to look for other potential victims. "They had the audacity to
suggest that in return for receiving better treatment in captivity, I should
recommend others for kidnapping," the surgeon said. He was released
after his wife paid a ransom of $250,000. Dr Kandela also explained
that "in the new Iraq, there is a price tag linked to your position and
status. Those doctors who have stayed in the country know what they are worth
in kidnapping terms, and ensure their relatives have easy access to the
necessary funds to secure their speedy release if they are taken." Massive flight of health professionals In March 2006, the British NGO
Medact said that 18,000 out of Iraq's 34,000 physicians had left the country
since the onset of the war, according to official figures from the Iraq
Medical Association (IMA). Farouk Naji, a clinician and senior member of IMA,
declares: "About 2,000 physicians have been killed since 2003. The
violence has increased and everyday we are losing the best professionals in
Iraq." In some cases, ambulances picking up the injured after explosions
are without paramedics or nurses, Naji says. "There are not enough
professionals and the ones available are in hospitals, trying to figure out
how to treat patients in improvised operating theatres," he adds. Dr Omer, a cardiovascular
surgeon, left his job in Baghdad and is now working as a general practitioner
in a primary health care clinic in Syria. "What could I do?" he
asks, "I was threatened by armed militias inside the hospital. Three
surgeons had been killed already and there were only three of us left. I
couldn't be the next target as I have a child to raise." Dr Omer was
forced to flee Iraq. He added: "I am not happy with what I am doing here
in Syria. I was a specialist doctor and now I am working as a junior doctor.
It is as if you were asking an officer to work as a soldier." A shortage of doctors and
nurses has also been reported in Basra. According to health official Hassan
Abdullah, there are no reliable statistics on how many doctors, dentists,
pharmacists and nurses have left the area, but unofficial data suggests that
at least 200 health professionals have left since January alone. Some of them
try to get more secure employment elsewhere in Iraq. Rezan Sayda, a senior
official in the Kurdistan Regional Government's Health Ministry, said last
December that her ministry had employed 600 doctors who had fled insecure
parts of the country, and that another 320 were on the waiting list for
employment. The lack of health personnel
has disastrous consequences for the health of local patients. Writing in The
British Medical Journal, Dr Bassim Al-Sheibani and two colleagues from the
Diwaniyah College of Medicine in Iraq report that, "medical staff admit
that more than half of those who died could have been saved if trained and
experienced staff were available." Reconstruction under occupation: a dismal failure Four years into the US-led
war on Iraq, the country's healthcare system is in a shambles. Most hospitals
lack basis supplies, dozens of clinics remain incompletely constructed, and
costly high-technology equipment lies idle in warehouses. Since 2003, US
agencies may have spent up to $1 billion of Iraqi reconstruction funds on
healthcare, but no new hospitals and only a few local clinics have been
built. Even the pet project of First Lady Laura Bush - a $50 million
state-of-the-art children's hospital in Basra - is running far behind
schedule and over budget. According to Amar Al-Saffar,
an official in charge of construction at the Iraqi Health Ministry, not a
single hospital has been built in Iraq since Al-Khadimiyah Hospital opened in
1986 in Baghdad. A $200 million reconstruction project for building 142
primary healthcare centres ran out of cash in early 2006, with just 20
centres on course to be completed, an outcome the World Health Organisation described
as "shocking". In a damaging report,
CorpWatch harshly criticises the US-led reconstruction of Iraq's health
infrastructure, demonstrating how US companies such as Parsons Global, Abt
Associates and Bechtel did little more than take the money and run. Those
companies were awarded huge reconstruction contracts - a $70 million contract
for Parsons, $43 million for Abt Associates and $50 million for Bechtel -
while effectively sidelining experienced UN agencies as UNICEF and WHO. In April 2006, the US Army
Corps of Engineers that was supposed to construct 150 primary healthcare
centres decided to cancel the construction of 130 of them. The construction
had been contracted out to Parsons Global and by the time the US Army Corps
cancelled Parsons' contract only six clinics had been completed. Meanwhile,
150 sets of medical equipment had already been ordered and warehoused at Abu
Ghraib. Thus, 130 sets are intended for clinics that will never see the light
of day. Abt Associates was
contracted to repair existing Iraqi hospitals but handed the job over to
local sub-contractors who were inexperienced or corrupt. When, in April 2004,
the security situation in Iraq turned from bad to worse, Abt Associates staff
left the country. $20.7 million of US taxpayers' money had already been paid
to Abt Associates through USAID. Laura Bush's showcase
children's hospital in Basra, a project awarded to Bechtel, went much the
same way. The hospital was slated to feature 94 beds, private cancer suits,
CAT scans and other high-tech equipment necessary to treat childhood cancer
in a region highly affected by depleted uranium following the 1991 Gulf War.
The price tag rose from $50 million to $170 million and in July 2006 Bechtel
was asked to withdraw from the project. It remains on hold. Criminal neglect: the occupation must end Four years after its onset,
it has become clearer than ever that the US-led war and occupation of Iraq
have resulted in a massive public health disaster for Iraqis. Reversing the
current trend of ever-deteriorating health conditions requires first and
foremost the end of the occupation. The writer is coordinator
for Medical Aid for the Third World, Belgium, and member of the Brussels
Tribunal. External link: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/839/re10.htm |