Shamel Darwish in Baghdad experiences first-hand the devastating effects of the war and visits Al-Rashidiya camp on the Jordanian border "Iraqis are fleeing from Iraq to neighbouring countries." The statement is continually repeated in the media and is absolutely false. On the contrary, in fact, Iraqi expatriates are going back to their homeland via Jordanian, Syrian, and Iranian borders to stand with their brethren against the forces of the coalition. Al-Ahram Weekly visited the Al-Rashidiya camp on the Iraqi- Jordanian border to meet Iraqi families who managed to 'escape' the hell of the war. The camp is divided into two sections, one for Arabs and foreigners, and the other for Iraqis. When we arrived at the camp, we were met by a supervisory delegation of associations affiliated to the United Nations. They told us there were 20,000 tents in the Iraqi section waiting to receive up to 500,000 Iraqis. When we asked how many families were in the camps now, we were told "it is a military secret". Journalists were not permitted to enter the Iraqi section of the camp, but when we managed to sneak in we got a surprise. There was not a single Iraqi in the camp; nobody walking between the rows of tents, not a single child crying or playing, and the furnished tents were completely deserted. Silence prevailed, apart from the blowing of the wind and the pattering of rain. One official, who preferred to remain anonymous, later admitted there were no Iraqis in the camp at all. According to some Iraqi expatriates returning to Iraq, this situation is not confined to the Al-Rashidiya camp; similar camps along the Syrian and Iranian border are also deserted. It was quite clear that claims of Iraqis fleeing their country in search of refuge from the war were simply part of the psychological warfare waged on the Iraqis, in addition to the other type of warfare using artillery, aircraft and tank operations. But returning to Iraq is a risky business. American-British forces are located 100 kilometres from the border crossings, waiting for returning expatriates. Crossing the Jordanian border into Iraq, one is met with a horrific scene about 100 kilometres after Markaz Al-Terebal. Dozens of vehicles are sitting in the middle of road, charred and burnt like the passengers inside, obviously having been ambushed by coalition forces. The mission of these coalition units, which consist of about 10 soldiers backed up by Jeeps, RPG shoulder-held rocket-propelled grenades, surface-to-surface missiles and automatic rifles, is to target the vehicles transporting Iraqis home to join the popular resistance. While we were there, we witnessed a bus crossing a bridge suddenly coming under attack by coalition combat planes. Rivers of blood trickled through the damaged bridge, dripping onto the road below. Iraqis crossing this bridge rarely make it across to the other side alive. The road is monitored by coalition troops who have been either air-lifted into Iraq or crossed over from Jordan into Iraq. They move often and remain undetected. Random hails of bullets make the situation difficult, even for neutral parties such as journalists like myself, but the Iraqis do not seem to care, insisting with absolute determination on bringing victory to their homeland. Even more astonishing is the courage demonstrated by the Iraqi tribes living in villages close to this dangerous road. They discreetly make their way along the road to collect the wounded, carrying them to safer locations to be treated and fed, even if this means slaughtering all their cattle to provide food. The Iraqi tribes in these parts are nomadic in origin, but are an integral part of the popular resistance who confront the coalition troops approaching Baghdad or attempting to enter Iraqi villages. One tribesman saved two injured men who had been attacked by missiles as their truck was driving over the Jordanian border into Iraq by taking them to his home. He said that, "the aim of the random strikes is to prevent medical aid and food supplies provided by Arab and international relief organisations from reaching Baghdad via Jordan, as well as using force to discourage Arab volunteers from joining ranks with their Iraqi brothers against the invaders." An Iraqi official, who preferred to remain anonymous, told the Weekly that threats against Syria by US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld are due to the fact that "Syria continues to allow large numbers of Arab volunteers to cross the border into Iraq and provide humanitarian aid." He continued by saying that "the forces of the invading coalition do not want humanitarian aid to reach Iraq in the hope of holding the Iraqi people hostage. They think this will make the Iraqis get down on their knees; but this will never, ever happen." The steadfastness of the Iraqis becomes apparent in Baghdad. In spite of the daily air raids over Baghdad, the Iraqis are not terrorised; they remain indoors during the raids but as soon as the attacks stop, they pick up the threads of their daily routine as if nothing had happened. Iraqis usually live in one-storey residences, like small villas, scattered around the capital. Each house has a well, dug in advance of the war to ensure supplies of potable water, as well as a power generator operated by diesel fuel in case of power failure. Iraqis have stockpiled basic food supplies to last for several months, which were provided pro bono by the political leadership. Since 1998 the Iraqi government has been distributing sugar, rice, tea, milk, lentils, flour, margarine and groceries to Iraqi citizens via a system of coupons. The goods are distributed in generous amounts and on a regular basis, which enables each family to maintain a vital stock for emergencies such as that being faced today. Iraqis say they don't want food aid, maintaining that, "we eat what we grow and save." The main shortage, since the sanctions were imposed 12 years ago, has been of medical aid. The coalition air bombardment, which is almost non--stop, particularly at night, only makes the Iraqi people more determined to continue with armed resistance against the invaders. On nearly every street corner in Iraq there are members of the popular resistance and/or members of the Ba'ath Party, toting their rifles, huddled behind sandbags. The militias are waiting to turn this battle into urban warfare where the losers are certain to be the allied troops. Watching the impact of the heavy three-ton bombs dropped by combat planes, especially the British B52s, is an entirely different experience from watching it on television. The explosion is tremendous; it jolts the city like a strong earthquake, drowning the call for jihad and verses from the Qur'an bellowing from the minarets of Baghdad's mosques. The heavy bombardment, which usually reaches its peak after midnight and keeps on until the early hours of the morning, makes it difficult to predict where the next bomb will hit or how close one will come to death. The few non-Iraqis in the city, such as journalists, are unable to sleep at night and have experienced terror. But for the Iraqis, it has become part of their ordinary lives. One Iraqi jibed, "it will be difficult to sleep without the sounds of the bombs," but somberly adding, "our faith in God and our country is very strong." The ongoing war in Iraq, which was preceded by a stringent sanctions regime lasting 12 years, has victimised not only Iraqi men and women but thousands of children as well. Dr Hisham Al-Saadoun, the director of the Iraqi chapter of the Red Crescent, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the epidemic of the deadly black fever disease (visceral leishmaniasis) has killed some 20,000 children in the past two months alone. He warned that the number of victims of the epidemic is on the rise because of the shortage of medicine available to treat them. Al-Saadoun accused the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) of "blocking the passage of much needed medical supplies to prevent the lethal epidemic from spreading". The disease, also known as "Baghdad rash", was eradicated in the 1920s but has made a resurgence because of the environmental pollution caused by the 1991 Gulf War and shortages in antiseptic supplies resulting from the sanctions. "This epidemic is caused by the sand fly, which transfers germs from rotting animal corpses to children," explained Al-Saadoun. The medicine used to treat the disease is not produced in Iraq but can be found abroad and costs approximately $100 per course of treatment. If a child is not injected within 24 hours from the time of infection, he may immediately suffer from inflation of the kidney, liver, heart and lungs, as well as fatal internal bleeding. "The children are dying in front of our eyes as a result of this disease," said Al-Saadoun, "and we cannot do anything for them because there is no medication." Under the current sanctions, Iraq is not permitted to import certain substances, including some medicines, that are alleged to have both military as well as civilian uses. "Meanwhile, dozens of children die in cold blood in front of the unflinching eyes of the world community," said Al- Saadoun. Al-Saddoun explained that nearly 500,000 Iraqi children suffer from various types of cancer caused by depleted uranium contained in the US missiles used during the 1991 Gulf War. "Children die every day because of shortages in the chemotherapy medication needed to treat these cancers," he said. "Upon the orders of the UN sanctions committee, these medicines are prohibited in Iraq." A large number of Iraqi children suffer from leukemia. A third of those afflicted with the disease are admitted into the hospital and may die within a week, said Al-Saadoun. Some 1.7 million Iraqis have died of cancer since 1991. In addition to the high rate of disease, Iraqi children are also victims of the current fighting. Ayed Al-Sultan, a social service worker in Iraq, told the Weekly that last Saturday, 29 March, US forces bombed an orphanage in Baghdad's Al-Amirya district where 140 severely handicapped children were taking refuge. "The bombing terrified the children and one girl died after suffering from an intense seizure caused by fright," said Al-Sultan. "We could not help her or give her a sedative because we don't have any." To ensure their safety, Iraqi authorities sent some 400 orphans and severely handicapped children to orphanages located outside of Baghdad. "The matrons at the orphanages do not leave these children alone because they are in dire need of warmth and care," said Al-Sultan. "Their little bodies go into convulsions when they hear bombs exploding and enemy aeroplanes flying overhead." Abdel-Qahar Abdel-Jabbar Hameed, the director of Dar Al-Hanan, a centre for the severely handicapped in Baghdad, told the Weekly that 175 of the 250 children under his care are either mentally handicapped children or suffer from cerebral palsy. Some of the conditions were brought on by exposure to radiation from the US weapons carrying depleted uranium. "Depleted uranium is also the cause of an unprecedented number of birth deformities, and the numbers are on the rise," noted Hameed. He said that Iraqi women are giving birth to babies with one body and three heads, babies with only one eye or with a torso an no limbs. "The custom all over the world is to ask if a couple gave birth to a boy or a girl," remarked Hameed, "but here we ask if the baby is deformed or not." Dr Ahmed Ayed, the director of the Specialised Centre for Blood Disease in Baghdad, told the Weekly that there are 4.5 million Iraqi children who suffer from leukemia as a result of the depleted uranium. Most of these cases are found in southern Iraq where the soil is polluted with uranium, which seeps into water wells and can be found in agricultural products and drinking water. Al-Saadoun said that Iraqi medical staff are suffering from psychological trauma from seeing the increasing number of civilian children, women and elderly people wounded by shrapnel from the outlawed cluster bombs used by US and British forces to attack residential areas in Iraq. These wounds, he said, require urgent surgery using high-tech equipment which is no longer available after years of sanctions. Al-Saadoun insisted that his country was neither "begging the world nor pleading with it to provide medical assistance to the Iraqi people. We are asking humanitarian relief agencies to pressure the UN [sanctions] committee to allow medical aid to enter the country through the oil-for-food programme". Al-Saadoun said that in March, Iraq agreed to an urgent medical relief package costing 600,000 euros which was to be purchased by the ICRC according to Iraqi medical requirements and validity dates. "But the ICRC bought medical supplies of the lowest standards whose true value was less than 150,000 euros," said Al-Saadoun. The Iraqi Red Crescent turned down the supplies of syringes, sterilisation equipment and medication, some of which were stripped of their active ingredients, because they were "expired and previously used in European hospitals". Al-Saadoun said, "The ICRC lied to the world and said that the Iraqi regime refuses to accept medical aid to help the Iraqi people. But the truth was that we turned down the package because it did not meet our minimum health requirements." Al-Saadoun also accused the ICRC of "pocketing the remainder of the money which is extracted Iraqi oil revenues". However, the doctor added that the Iraqi people are steadfast. "They are in pain, but they do not cry out. They are hungry, but they do not beg aid from anyone." He praised the "honest humanitarian support from around the world which expresses solidarity with this people who are being slaughtered in front of everyone". Victims of cluster bombs told the Weekly that they will continue their resistance. Not one woman, man or even child seemed discouraged or demoralised. They said they were ready to offer their lives for their country regardless of the material and human losses. When speaking to these casualties, one sensed the honour and dignity of the Iraqi people and their determination to confront the world's mightiest military machine, which is pulverising their compatriots without discretion. One example of this steadfastness occurred when the sole delegation from one of the Gulf countries' Red Crescent committees came to distribute symbolic gifts to children in an orphanage in Baghdad. The children were hesitant to accept the gifts. Instead of stretching out eager hands, the Iraqi youngsters initially refused the gifts, only accepting them after they were told that they were sent by children their age from the Gulf state. This is one image which time will never erase. Iraqi children are born with an inherent sense of honour despite the crippling humanitarian and economic pressure they have lived under since 1991. But the sun will once again rise on the land of the Euphrates and Tigris, and the children will once again play in its gardens under a clear sky -- free from the smog of war.
