HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------
> A CHAMBER OF HORRORS NEXT TO THE GARDEN OF EDEN > > Andy Kershaw, The Independent Dec 1 > > I thought I had a strong stomach – toughened by the minefields > and foul frontline hospitals of Angola, by the handiwork of the > death squads in Haiti and by the wholesale butchery of Rwanda. > But I nearly lost my breakfast last week at the Basrah Maternity > and Children's Hospital in southern Iraq. > > Dr Amer, the hospital's director, had invited me into a room in > which were displayed colour photographs of what, in cold > medical language, are called "congenital anomalies", but what > you and I would better understand as horrific birth deformities. > The images of these babies were head-spinningly grotesque – > and thank God they didn't bring out the real thing, pickled in > formaldehyde. At one point I had to grab hold of the back of a > chair to support my legs. > > I won't spare you the details. You should know because – > according to the Iraqis and in all likelihood the World Health > Organisation, which is soon to publish its findings on the > spiralling birth defects in southern Iraq – we are responsible for > these obscenities. > > During the Gulf war, Britain and the United States pounded the > city and its surroundings with 96,000 depleted-uranium shells. > The wretched creatures in the photographs – for they were > scarcely human – are the result, Dr Amer said. > > He guided me past pictures of children born without eyes, > without brains. Another had arrived in the world with only half a > head, nothing above the eyes. Then there was a head with legs, > babies without genitalia, a little girl born with her brain outside > her skull and the whatever-it-was whose eyes were below the > level of its nose. > > Then the chair-grabbing moment – a photograph of what I can > only describe (inadequately) as a pair of buttocks with a face and > two amphibian arms. Mercifully, none of these babies survived > for long. > > Depleted uranium has an incubation period in humans of five > years. In the four years from 1991 (the end of the Gulf war) until > 1994, the Basrah Maternity Hospital saw 11 congenital > anomalies. Last year there were 221. > > Then there is the alarming increase in cases of leukaemia > among Basrah babies lucky enough to have been born with the > full complement of limbs and features in the right place. The > hospital treated 15 children with leukaemia in 1993. In 2000 it > was 60. By the end of this year that figure again will be topped. > And so it will go on. Forever. > > (Depleted uranium has a half-life of 4.1 billion years. Total > disintegration occurs after 25 billion years, the age of the earth.) > > In any other country, in which the vital drugs are available, 95 per > cent of these infant leukaemia cases would be treated > successfully. In Basrah, the figure is 20 per cent. Most > heartbreakingly, many children on the road to recovery go into > relapse part way through treatment when the sporadic and > meagre supply of drugs runs out. And then they die. > > By the United Nations' own admission 5,000 Iraqi children die > every month because of a shortage of medicines created by > sanctions imposed by ... the United Nations. > > Tony Blair, on numerous occasions, has misled Parliament and > the country (perhaps unwittingly) by saying that Saddam > Hussein is free to buy all the medicines Iraq needs under the > oil-for-food programme. This is not true. Oil for food amounts to > just 60 cents (40p) per Iraqi per day and everything – food, > education, health care and rebuilding of infrastructure – has to > come out of that. There simply is not enough to go around. > > And has Mr Blair heard of the UN Security Council 661 > Committee? If he has, then he keeps quiet about it. The > committee was certainly unknown to me until I toured the shabby > hospitals of Basrah. > > This committee, which meets in secret in New York and does > not publish minutes, supervises sanctions on Iraq. President > Saddam is not free to buy Iraq's non-military needs on the world > market. The country's requirements have to be submitted to 661 > and, often after bureaucratic delay, a judgement is handed down > on what Iraq can and cannot buy. I have obtained a copy of > recent 661 rulings and some of the decisions seem daft if not > peevish. "Dual use" is the most common reason to refuse a > purchase, meaning the item requested could be put to military > use. > > So how does the 661 committee expect Saddam Hussein to > wage war with "beef extract powder and broth"? Does 661 expect > him to turn on the Kurds again by spraying them with "malt > extract"? Or to send his presidential guard back into Kuwait > armed to the teeth with "pencils"? Pencils, you see, according to > 661, contain graphite and therefore could be put to military use. > (Tough on the eager schoolchildren of Basrah who have little > with which to write). > > Across town at the Basrah Teaching Hospital, the whimsical > rulings of 661 are not so comical. Dr Jawad Al-Ali, the director of > oncology, trained in the UK and a member of the Royal College > of Physicians, talked of an "epidemic" of cancers in southern > Iraq. "The number of cancer cases is doubling every year. So is > the severity of the cancers, and there has been a big increase in > cancer among the young," he said. > > Last week he was struggling to treat 20 cancer patients with "a > huge shortage of chemotherapy drugs" and just two days supply > of morphine. "We are crippled," he said, "by Committee 661." > The doctor applied for, but was denied, life-saving machinery – > deep X-ray equipment, blood component separators, even > needles for biopsies. All, said 661, could have military use. > > Tell that to Mofidah Sabah, the mother of four-year-old Yahia. The > little boy has both leukaemia in relapse and neuroblastoma, a > cancer behind the eye that has bulged and twisted his left > eyeball in its socket. Ms Sabah travels miles every day to sit and > cuddle her son on his grubby bed. If Yahia lived in Birmingham, > his chances of survival would not be in much doubt. But not in > Basrah. "I'm afraid he will not live very long," Dr Amer whispered. > > Ms Sabah said: "I will leave everything to God, but I want God to > revenge those who attacked us." Yahia's illness is not her first > brush with tragedy. She lost 12 members of her family during an > Allied bombing in 1991. Her husband, a soldier, fought in the > Gulf war. He is still in the Iraqi army and has just been reposted, > to Qurna, 50 miles north of Basra and among the contaminated > former battlefields. Qurna, according to legend, was the site of > the Garden of Eden. > > ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
