ACT "Whoever brought the medicine, saved my life ..."
By Guy Hovey, ACT field communicator
Baghdad, May 13 2003 As the US Abrams tank thundered up the road during the fall of Baghdad, looters were already taking advantage of the opportunities
provided by the fighting. Today, so many weeks later, no-one can say why the tank crashed through the wall of the Al Rashid psychiatric hospital in
Baghdad and although there are many theories, there will most likely never be a clear explanation of why it happened. What Dr Abdul Heelo and his staff
at the hospital are sure of however, is what happened next - a large group of men poured in through the gap left by the tank. The result was the rape of
ten of the female patients, the theft of equipment and the destruction of much of the building and records, rendering the hospital incapable of providing
the much-needed psychiatric care for its residents. The Al Rashid hospital is just one example of how Iraqi society is breaking down in the post-Saddam
power vacuum. Talking to people in the streets, shops, markets, churches, mosques and hospitals everyone asks the same question: when will the Americans
bring security? Many people say that security has deteriorated rapidly in the past weeks as criminals get used to the coalition forces and work around
them. US army soldiers now guard many public buildings but many say it's too late – the looters have already been and the damage has been done. Gunfire
usually breaks out at night as gangs of looters fight each other whilst trying to avoid US army patrols. The fruits of the looter's activities can be seen
on sale in the markets around Baghdad in the morning. Most businesses have closed and those business people who can, have fled abroad with their
families until they see security restored in their country. Caught in the middle of all this are the ordinary people of Baghdad. The destruction of
public administration buildings means that civil servants, those people who run the systems, have nowhere to work. Being ex Ba'ath party members also
means that their future is uncertain. Hospitals and medical centers such as the Mansur Hospital in Baghdad have run out of many drugs, although there are
stocks of medicine in the city. The drugs are in one of the six (out of the seven) medical warehouses that survived the war and looting, but as
established systems have broken down there are no remaining mechanisms for requesting them, processing the orders and delivery. Doctors try and set up ad
hoc arrangements, but they are fighting a losing battle. Several ACT members as well as partners are active in assisting these institutions, but all say
that what is required most is a functioning government. ACT member Diakonie Austria has helped ease the burden with a shipment of medicines, which was
brought in with a Middle East Council of Churches convoy and then distributed to hospitals in the Baghdad area. Among the institutions that benefited was
the Al Kinder hospital, which had been attacked by looters several times and is now being protected by armed members of the local community. The hospital
caters for surgical as well as non-surgical cases and has wards full of people wounded during the war as well as afterwards. The hospital is typical of
many, having lost much of its equipment to looters. Yet staff continue their work and care of patients, despite personal danger and their uncertain future
within the health service. A health worker who did not wish to be named said that he was extremely grateful to Diakonie Austria for the medicines as
without it "I don't know what we would have done, we had run out of antibiotics and anaesthetics as well as basic health care items." This was reinforced
by Djeba Hamid Shah, a patient who doesn't know who shot him during the confused fighting in his neighborhood. "When I came to the hospital I was losing
a lot of blood and the doctors stabilized me." However, the drugs that Djeba needed soon ran out and he began to weaken as his wounds started to become
infected. "Whoever brought the medicines have saved my life and I thank them and God," said Djeba. However, the news is not all bad. Rehana Kirthisingha,
of Christian Aid (a member of ACT, which has been working with local partner NGOs in Iraq since 1995), tells how in Kirkuk after
the collapse of the regime, water ministry workers returned to their posts and received back at least half of the equipment that had been looted from the
water and sewerage plants. Many communities in Baghdad have organized themselves into self-help groups and a feeling of community solidarity is in
evidence as people face the challenge of an uncertain future. Religious divides in some areas have been crossed for the common good. Father Bashar, the
Catholic Chaldean priest at the St Elya in New Baghdad sheltered 300 families, both Muslim and Christian, in his church the night the US army entered
Baghdad. Families still come to the church compound to collect clean water from the church well whilst supplies to their own homes continue to be
disrupted. These good inter-faith relations have been strengthened by the common hardship the communities are experiencing. Meanwhile, relief continues
as several ACT members continue to support those in need. However, even with the best efforts of the NGOs and the Iraqi people, it is difficult to see how
Iraq will not spiral further into anarchy without a significant change in overall security and the re-establishment of civil society. Those lawless
fragments of society which are taking criminal advantage of the current instability threaten to fragment society itself. Iraq appears to be on a knife
edge at the moment, only the next few weeks and months will reveal which way it will fall. |
