Peace Team Details | Reports | Messages to
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6th Day of the Invasion
Lisa Ndejuru
Tuesday, March 26, 2003. 6th Day of the Invasion. The bombing has been less intense these last two days, as compared to the days before. Of course, Iraq is now engulfed in a sandstorm blowing from the South, a rare occurrence according to the Iraqis. After smog of black smoke, Baghdad is now a red city. This climate seems to be helping the Iraqi defence, especially by blurring the accuracy of the U.S. Army’s laser, infrared and other sighting equipment.
Ever since the bombing started, IPT members have been criss-crossing Baghdad visiting hospitals and sites destroyed by missiles. During Friday alone, the Yermouk Hospital received 108 victims of the bombings, most of them women and children.
Sunday, the victims count for the city of Baghdad reached 417, 142 wounded and 275 dead. This number is growing by the minute, as air strikes are becoming less and less accurate. In only 15 minutes, as we were waiting in front of Al-Kindi Hospital, four vehicles laden with wounded arrived at full speed. We learned that these victims came from the Nhrawane district, in the north-eastern section of Baghdad. Most of them had been wounded inside their own homes. Later, we went to visit a house that had just been bombed in the centre of a residential district, without a single government building or military infrastructure within kilometres.
On the following day, Robert travelled outside of the city to a farm in a rural zone where some of the victims brought to Al-Kindi Hospital lived. Eight people were wounded in the house that was bombed. Three were killed, including a 16-yr old girl that had been married only last week. Two Baghdad families had sought refuge in this farm.
As for Zehira, she visited two hospitals, Yermouk and Al-Kindi, to collect information on the civilian victims of the latest bombings. IPT members are still living in a camp set up on a water treatment plant, situated near El Mansour Hospital. This action has allowed them to establish relations with local populations. A number of families have invited IPT member sin their homes to thank them for their support.
On Tuesday, Lisa and Zehira went out to inquire about the welfare of a family living close to the water treatment facility. Schools have been closed since the beginning of the invasion and the children terrified by the bombings, run to and from in the house like wounded birds. Ibtissem, the mother, finds among IPT members a greatly needed comfort and moral support.
Today, on March 26, Robert visited a site where a missile destroyed seven private homes, Sunday evening at 7. All are situated close to Yermouk Hospital, in the Al-Quadisiyeh district. Miraculously, only two people were wounded, a young man of 27 and his mother of 66. The impact created a hole 8 meters deep and 41 meters wide. As for the buildings, all houses suffered major damage, one of them having been totally disintegrated. Luckily, four out of seven of these homes were unoccupied, their owners having fled Baghdad before the beginning of the bombings.
To communicate with the IPT Canada team, contact Lisa Ndejuru, Room 401, Andalus Hotel, phone 7192303 or 7184290; Zehira Houfani, Room 401, Andalus Hotel, phone: 7192303 or 7184290; Robert Turcotte, Room 202, Andalus Hotel, phone: 7192303 or 7184290,
A few thoughts by Lisa Ndejuru
Yes, a bomb hit. I am not dreaming, I am sitting here at the Internet Cafe of the Palestine Hotel and, two chairs to my left, sits a young Russian journalist. We glance at each other questioningly and confirm it. Everyone is typing faster. I don’t know where the blow came from; it is a bit like a thunderclap. Everything rattles.
The Peace Team is fantastic; everyone is doing as much as they can of their usual routine: visits to the hospitals, to the orphanage, and to families in order to make sure everyone is holding fast, doing well. Kathy has gone to visit the sister of her pal Um-Hayder, who lives with her ageing mother here in Baghdad. The mother would like Kathy to come live with them, she thinks the family would be less at risk. She is very agitated, saying, "Where I hide? Where I hide?" Part of the team is tenting at the Al-Wathba water treatment plant. This complex is in a residential area and some twenty people from the neighbourhood have come to join them at night. They sang together almost all night. April, our M.D., is trying to join an emergency medical team, either with Red Crescent, Médecins sans Frontières or the Islamic Relief Agency. We have made a rapid tour of the city. Some sites are still smouldering. U.S. soldiers will be hard pout to avoid killing civilians. Even without counting the casualties of last night, there were 54 dead and some 20 wounded. And last night was without common measure to the previous attacks, so the body count must be even worse. Wade is trying to get permission to make the rounds of the emergency departments and to get a freer rein to monitor war crimes. I have taken this training, like the one for first-aid treatment, but I still don’t know where I want to be placed. For now, I am still absorbing the enormity of what is happening here.
The hair is starting to rise on the back of my neck. I have learned to trust that instinct and I am out of here. Kisses,
Lisa
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