Peace Team Details | Reports
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"A
Campaign that is just beginning"
News from the Iraq Peace Team in Baghdad
9 April 2003
Voices in the Wilderness Chicago
Friends,
Our team in Baghdad just called. It is difficult for us to convey
the obvious
relief that we experienced upon hearing from them. The phone disconnected
three times giving us less than 10 minutes to communicate with them.
They told us U.S. soldiers and tanks are on streets and street corners,
they seem to be everywhere. Further, they expressed with great emphasis
that an excessive amount of bombs have rained down on Baghdad for
the last week.
Today as we watch on television the countless hours of reporting
on the tangible and symbolic destruction of a Saddam Hussein statue,
the number of injured civilians, families losing loved ones, lootings,
fires, and fighting increases. Meanwhile our team in Amman attended
a press briefing where they heard statements from United Nations
humanitarian coordinators. These statements have gone unmentioned
in the mainstream media.
Carel de Rooy director of UNICEF in Iraq stated, "Before this
conflict took place UNICEF had networks and systems in Iraq that
helped achieve our life-saving vaccination campaigns, nutrition
campaigns, and work in education. What is horribly worrying about
the looting, chaos, and break down of order, is that those systems
we counted on may completely collapse," he added that at the
beginning of this week, the UNICEF Iraq appeal has received just
1/5th of its funding. "This is obviously and simply not enough.
We have an emergency on our hands. Our actions in the next few weeks
will determine the physical and mental well-being of a generation
of Iraqi children."
A representative from the World Health Organization, speaking to
the increasing humanitarian crisis added, "Reports from Baghdad
tell of serious civilian casualties and growing pressure on hospitals
and health workers. Electricity supplies are erratic, the standby
generators are being overworked to the point of collapse; many hospitals
are running short of clean, safe water, staff are working extremely
long hours in unimaginable
circumstances and some vital surgical and medical supplies are running
short...in a hospital with a basic infrastructure not functioning,
and where doctors and nurses have to perform difficult emergency
surgical operations and provide intensive care without access to
some of the most basic services and supplies."
Months prior to the "shock and awe" onslaught, UN officials,
as well as delegates with the Iraq Peace Team, had warned and protested
against the use of such violence due to the realities Iraqis are
faced with today, the realities as outlined in the statements above.
Adding greater concern to an already desperate situation, UNHCI
commented on the inability for UN agencies to enter Iraq at the
current time, because of the lack of safety on the roads and access
to warehouses and offices.
As our team in Baghdad continues to bear witness, we ask all of
you to continue to do the work that has just begun. The urgency
for water and relief that is felt by many civilians throughout Iraq
is one that must be heard and echoed throughout the world until
their needs are met. In the most recent diary from our team in Iraq,
Cynthia Banas wrote, "Death, destruction, maiming, and lifetime
trauma are the consequences of war. We have witnessed children frightened
beyond their years, and have seen their mangled bodies in the hospital.
War for them will never end."
Thank you for your work. Thank you for caring.
Bitta Mostofi, for Voices in the Wilderness
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