In the early 1990’s, when the onset of economic sanctions turned Iraq into a refugee camp, people outside Iraq were horrified by stories of Iraqis forced to sell everything from their most precious belongings to their furniture in order to obtain necessities. Today in Iraq, as the occupation drags on, economic hardships are again forcing people to sell their belongings – what little they have left. When the US/UK forces invaded Iraq two and a half years ago, they attacked a country whose economy was showing small signs of life. Iraq, at the time, was improving its relations with neighboring countries; it had negotiated contracts with China and Russia, among others. Commercial and business air travel had resumed on a small scale. Business conventions were held. The invasion put an end to that, replacing it with violence, creating conditions that are indeed not unlike a refugee camp. In a refugee camp, typically, hardship is a way of life. There is no formal economy. Instead people depend largely on handouts. Disease threatens, especially children. Services are makeshift and likely to fail. The future promises little in the way of improvements. In a study entitled, “Living Conditions in Iraq,” the UN Development Program and the Iraqi Ministry of Planning and Development report an “alarming deterioration in living conditions” since the US/UK invasion.

The following articles cover a wide range of issues facing people in Iraq: the shortage of rations upon which most people depend; the shortfall of electrical power as the heat of summer descends; water-pollution and water-borne infectious disease; threats to children in Iraq; the bombing of infrastructure, including water and oil pipelines; the Mayor of Baghdad threatening to resign over a lack of funds for services; outbreak of TB in Amarah; lack of treatment for people with leprosy; military attacks on hospitals; planned increases in Iraqi doctors’ salaries; major displacements of people in Western Iraq in advance of US military offensives; child labor; illegal trade in human organs; and last, but not least, good times for Halliburton as it acquires another multi-billion dollar contract for work in Iraq.

Suggestions for improving this Digest, including its content and format, are welcome. Contact David Smith-Ferri (smithferri at pacific.net) or Scott Blackburn (Scott at vitw.org)

Dr. Thamiz Aziz Abul Rahman, a General Practitioner at Al-Kena Rehabilitation Hospital in Baghdad. Al-Kena is the only hospital in Iraq that makes prosthetics and provides rehabilitation services. The hospital is critically under-funded and undersupplied.

Download PDF of “Iraqi Hospitals Ailing Under Occupation”

Dahr Jamail reports on the struggling health care situation in Iraq. The report surveys 13 Iraqi Hospitals, examines the actions taken by US military against hospitals and care workers that constitute war crimes as defined by the Geneva conventions, discusses and documents cases of US medical personnel complicit in torture through failures to document the visible signs of torture on their patients, and much more.

This report is endorsed by the B/Russell/s Tribunal, El Taller International, Asian Women’s Human Rights Council, Association of Humanitarian Lawyers, SOS Iraq, and Medical Aid for the Third World.

Download PDF Version of Iraqi Hospitals Ailing Under Occupation

Read the web version of Iraqi Hospitals Ailing Under Occupation

Digest by David Smith-Ferri, Voices in the Wilderness

Summary
Several articles follow this summary.

At the recent gathering of the UN Human Rights Commission, Jean Ziegler, UNHRC food specialist, announced the findings of a report that concluded that acute malnutrition among Iraqi children under five has nearly doubled since the US invasion and occupation, rising from 4% in 2002 to 7.7% today. Malnutrition is one of the most comprehensive indicators of the well-being of children, because it relies on the functioning of many sectors of society. Ziegler didn’t stop there. He condemned the US military tactics in the siege of Fallujah. “At Fallujah…the blockade imposed on food and the destruction of water reservoirs was used as weapon of war.” This, he said, was a “clear violation” of the Geneva Conventions. He went on to say that money for food aid is drying up, and blamed the huge amounts being spent on the “war on terror.” Any effort to curb terrorism, he said, should be linked to efforts to ease hunger and poverty. US spokespersons, trying to minimize the political damage from the report, attacked both Ziegler’s credibility and the validity of his findings.

In Baqubah, 80 miles from Baghdad, there has been an outbreak of leishmaniasis, a disease which “leads to disfigurement of the face and hands, and social stigma, particularly for women and children.” The disease is associated with poor sanitary conditions, especially a lack of sewage treatment and the accumulation of garbage in public places. In Baqubah the disease has spread at an alarming rate. Coping with the disease is beyond the means of individual hospitals. It will require the cooperation and effective action of governmental agencies, and as the director of the Infectious Disease Control Center, Dr. Abdul Jalil Nafi, maintained “All our efforts could come to nothing if the government doesn’t take urgent action to reduce sewage on the streets and repair the water purification system in the country because, without it, the doors will still be open for the appearance of new diseases.” One wonders to what extent the US government will take responsibility, as an occupying nation, and aid in dealing with the disease.

The articles in this digest also include stories of “paralysis” in Iraqi hospitals, which have yet to see significant improvements in equipment and staffing, the US military storming of hospitals in Ramadi and Haitha, and the unauthorized sale of medicine on the streets.

By LILA GUTERMAN
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Thursday, January 27, 2005

When more than 200,000 people died in a tsunami caused by an Asian earthquake in December, the immediate reaction in the United States was an outpouring of grief and philanthropy, prompted by extensive coverage in the news media.

Two months earlier, the reaction in the United States to news of another large-scale human tragedy was much quieter. In late October, a study was published in The Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal, concluding that about 100,000 civilians had been killed in Iraq since it was invaded by a United States-led coalition in March 2003. On the eve of a contentious presidential election — fought in part over U.S. policy on Iraq — many American newspapers and television news programs ignored the study or buried reports about it far from the top headlines.

By IRINnews

FALLUJAH, 4 January (IRIN) - “It was really distressing picking up dead bodies from destroyed homes, especially children. It is the most depressing situation I have ever been in since the war started,” Dr Rafa’ah al-Iyssaue, director of the main hospital in Fallujah city, some 60 km west of Baghdad, told IRIN.

According to al-Iyssaue, the hospital emergency team has recovered more than 700 bodies from rubble where houses and shops once stood, adding that more than 550 were women and children. He said a very small number of men were found in these places and most were elderly.