The Peace PeopleThe following account was written by Mairead Corrigan Maguire in March 1999 shortly after her visit to Iraq.
From 4 to 9th March, 1999, I took part in a seven-person Fellowship of Reconciliation Delegation to Iraq. This FOR-USA sponsored delegation of Nobel Peace Laureates, led by FOR Executive Director Rev. John Dear, included Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Latin American Co-ordinator of SERPAJ - Service for Peace and Justice, of Argentina, and International FOR President Akadim Chikandamina of Harare of Zimbabwe. Kathy Kelly, Rick McDowell and Mike Bremer of 'Voices in the Wilderness' arranged the logistics. (On previous occasions these USA peace activists have brought in medicines, medical journals, and toys. Because of these actions they currently face fines of up to $163,000 - about £100,000 - for breaking the sanctions and carrying in toys and medicine to Iraq).
All members of the delegation were saddened and shocked by what we saw in Iraq.
Today in Iraq, it is tragically not only the children who are dying or being damaged emotionally because of ongoing US/UK bombing raids over Southern and Northern 'no-fly' zones and the US/UN Economic sanctions; the entire society of Iraq is slowly being destroyed.
On arrival in Baghdad, our first visit was to the Ameriyah Shelter. Here on 12th February, 1991,(the end Ramadam and Ash Wednesday) around 1,200 women, children and elderly men gathered in this underground shelter to celebrate a birthday and the ending of Ramadam. In the early hours of the morning, two US bombs were dropped into the shelter. Only 17 people survived. The rest were incinerated in this huge modern day gas chamber. Umm Greyda met us at the shelter, a mother whose two children and eleven relatives --died during the bombing (she survived as she had gone out to wash some clothes). This courageous woman has dedicated her life to telling the story of the dreadful bombing raid and reminding us all how terrifying are these weapons of destruction we have in almost every country in the world.
The walls of the Ameriyah Shelter are charred black. On the ceilings of the shelter, just above the children's bunk beds, are charred hand prints and finger-nail marks left by the children. On one wall was charcoal black except for a white area, which bore the outline of a human figure with an arm outstretched.
As we walked around looking at the pictures of the women and children and the imprints of the bodies thrown against the wall, I remembered my visit to Auschwitz Concentration Camp several years ago. I asked myself then 'How could this have been done to human beings, and why did people not raise their voices against the genocide of over 6 million Jewish people?' Many Jewish people have rightly dedicated themselves to telling the story of the Holocaust in order that it might never happen again.
Yet here, a few hours from Israel, both as a direct result of the Gulf War bombing and its aftermath, children are being born with birth defects and cancers, reminiscent of the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Add the deaths of the Gulf War and the effects of almost nine years of economic sanctions, and the result is that over half a million children under 5 have died in Iraq (more children have died than the total number of children who perished in Hiroshima and Nagasaki). I am convinced that when the Israeli, Japanese, and many other people who have suffered in similar ways, understand the genocide taking place in Iraq, they will take nonviolent action to stop this barbarity upon our Iraqi brothers and sisters.
Later we visited the Al Mansour Paediatric Hospital. We saw children ill and dying from malnutrition, water-borne diseases such as cholera, dysentery, acute leukaemia and cancers. It was all the harder to witness this knowing that the children are dying not as a result of a natural disaster, but from preventable diseases.
Up to seven children die each day in this hospital alone, due to the absence of medicine, technical equipment, electricity, and clean water. The Director explained that for even the few whom they do save, when sent home to where there is no clean water, a shortage of food, etc., there was little hope of their survival. He told us that women who have Caesarean sections performed must have them without anaesthesia, as do children who require teeth removed.
In the children's cancer ward we met four year old Ahkmed Tapir and his mother, Najia. The doctor in charge of this ward, Dr. Salma, explained that due to shortage of staff, the mothers stay with the children constantly and also help out with the hospital work.
The pain and suffering on the mothers' faces as they held vigil at the slow dying of their children made me think how indeed we are crucifying the children of Iraq on the cross of smart bombs and economic sanctions and condemning their mothers to stand silently beside this cross.
During our visit, doctors repeatedly spoke of the increase in cancer rates and debilitating birth defects throughout Iraq, especially in the southern zones, due to contamination from US/UK bombs. The doctors said they needed medical journals to help them understand similar radiation defects, but because of sanctions they were not allowed to receive such journals. Indeed Voices of the Wilderness, USA, has been threatened with prison and face fines for carrying in a few medial journals. One of the saddest things for parents is that they have no photographs of their dead children, due to sanctions and the desperate economic situation in their country.
Later we visited Umm Amarik Research Centre, which studies the effects of the Gulf War violence and its aftermath. The Director told us that depleted-uranium coating on US bombs had led to dramatic increase in cancer and physiological abnormalities throughout the country. She explained that due to the sanctions, they are completely cut off from the outside world.
Before the war, Iraq had first-rate medical and educational facilities and was one of the world's wealthiest nations. The economy of this oil-rich country has been completely devastated by hyper-inflation and debt, and people are reduced to selling their possessions in order to buy food or obtain medicine for their families.
Before the Gulf War, one Iraqi dinar equalled three US dollars. Today, 1,950 dinars to buy one US dollar. The salaries of Iraqi doctors have decreased one hundred-fold, from an average of $300 a month to the present income of three dollars.
Under the sanctions there is a complete embargo on all trade except food and medicine. However, Iraq depended on oil revenues to buy needed imports: 70% of food was imported and 90% of medicine.
The problem is that under the sanctions they are only allowed to sell a certain percentage of their oil and after a 30% deduction of income to Kuwait in reparation for its invasion, and 5% given to the UN for UNSCOM and their programs, the remainder does not leave enough for Iraq to buy food, medicine, and to rebuild its infrastructure, which was destroyed during the Gulf War.
Currently, the UN allows Iraq to sell $5.26 billion worth of oil every six months. However, Iraq says it cannot pump more than $4 billion worth of oil because of the deterioration of oil field equipment under sanctions. This claim was corroborated by a team of experts working for the UN who stated, 'the deplorable state of Iraq's petroleum industry will prevent it from exporting the $5.26 billion worth of oil.
The Director asked us if, when we return to Iraq, we could carry in newspapers, books - even aeroplane magazines - as they have no information from the outside world. She asked us to all we could to help break the silence in the Western media and governments and tell the truth about what is happening to the Iraqi people.
The fact is that these economic sanctions are in breach of both the Geneva Convention and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as they are in effect a war on the civilian population, mostly children; these genocidal sanctions are now themselves a weapon of mass destruction.
Many people outside Iraq do not realise that during the Gulf War almost 200,000 Iraqi people (soldiers and civilians) were killed, and allied forces destroyed grain silos, schools, sewerage systems, hospitals, electrical grids, water purification plants - indeed all of the infrastructure of Iraq.
At the UN Office of the Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Iraq, the delegation met the Deputy Director Farid Zarif and staff members of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the World Food Program, UNICEF, and UNESCO. Dr. Farid Zarif said that their resources are limited compared to the needs of the people, and they will be advising the UN Council that there has to be a fundamental change in approach.
The desperate humanitarian situation cannot be prevented by UN programs as they presently stand without the infusion of billions of dollars for repairing Iraq's infrastructure. He said there were medicines in store, but they had not the cash to pay people for distribution, as well as problems with transport, communication, and shortage of cold medicines due to the destruction of electricity grids.
The delegation observed for themselves the result of the destruction of the Iraqi infrastructure when they toured Saddam City, a poor region in Baghdad. The site of recent riots, Saddam City has sewerage flowing freely in front of each concrete home. It is a tragedy to realise that many Iraqi children, just by drinking the water, have ingested the parasites that caused their own death.
Before leaving Baghdad we met with the Papal Nuncio, a Muslim Imam, and other religious leader and officials. Everyone we met in Iraq called for the halting of the bombing and the lifting of the economic sanctions.
Without doubt these economic sanctions are a new kind of bomb and they are more cruel than weapons. Weapons kill quickly; economic sanctions condemn the innocent to a slow, painful death.
People in Iraq are not only afraid of the bombs and effects of sanctions, they are afraid of being invaded and of civil war. They are also repressed by the authoritarian government of Iraq, and suffer a lack of democracy and human rights.
During a two hour meeting with Deputy Prime Minster Tariq Aziz, we asked the Iraqi Government to respect and uphold the human rights of its citizens, regardless of race, religion, or ethnicity. Tariq Aziz agreed with the delegation's insistence that the primary goal in Iraq is to 'preserve life and create dialogue'. He invited US Congress persons and religious leaders to visit Iraq.
He also insisted that the Iraqi Government wanted to solve the problem through dialogue and asked 'Why does the US refuse dialogue with Iraq?'
As our delegation left Baghdad to travel the thirteen-hour journey through the desert to Jordan (necessary because the Iraqi airport is closed under the sanctions), I remembered so many questions our delegation had been asked during our visit. One was from an Iraqi school girl, named Joanne, who asked ' Why are you killing us with bombs and sanctions? What have we done to deserve this punishment?' And another from an Iraqi mother who said, 'We are suffering so much our children are dying. Will you help us?' I believe these questions are addressed to all of us living outside the death and destruction taking place in Iraq, which has been totally isolated from the rest of the world.
It is imperative that the Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, move urgently to encourage dialogue and negotiation to solve the Iraqi crisis and the end the isolation to Iraq from the outside world. President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair, who have encouraged Northern Ireland in our peace process, must be consistent in their policies and engage in similar positive negotiation with President Saddam Hussein. For the sake of the children and the civilians of Iraq, we need real political leadership to give the people hope.
However, for all the suffering of the Iraqi people, I remain full of hope. Our delegation was met with great kindness and hospitality, which is itself worth a visit to Iraq to experience, and within the wonderful spirit of the Iraqi people lies the hope for the future.
The delegation recommends several steps towards reconciliation in Iraq: