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A report from the 11th Voices
in the Wilderness UK sanctions-breaking delegation to Iraq,
May 2002
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Four
members of Voices in the Wilderness UK joined up with three
from Voices US to visit Iraq, from 8th to 18th May, on a sanctions-breaking
delegation. These pages detail some of the visits they made,
what they saw and the people they met.
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| The
Threat of War |
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were greeted with huge amounts of warmth and hospitality -
by students, workers and traders, children, mothers in the
hospitals with their sick children and people who had lost
friends and relatives in the Gulf war and since. Its difficult
to believe that these people will once again be casualties
of military attacks. |
In
Fallujah market |
One
place we visited had special resonance for those of us
from the UK. Falluja is a small city on the Euphrates
west of Baghdad. In February 1991 its two bridges were
targeted by the RAF. One was destroyed but the other remained
intact, the bombs hitting instead the nearby market. A
large area was reduced to rubble and an estimated 130
died with numerous injured. As we were made welcome and
offered tea in the market, we commented to ourselves on
how strange this seemed. We felt sure that had Iraq heavily
bombed London and the UK and reduced it over the years
to a state of crisis, Iraqi visitors would perhaps have
received a more hostile reaction in the home counties.
But Iraqis understand the difference between a people
and its government - something that many in the West seem
unable to do.
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Ali with his mother Hadiya in Basra Maternity and Paediatric
Hospital. Now 3 months old, Ali was born prematurely
at 7 months. He has a congential deformity affecting
his legs and will not be able to walk. Hadiya is unable
to breastfeed as a result of physical and psychological
health problems and has been bottle feeding. The baby
now has gastroenteritis and this is his third hospital
admission.
The legacy of war is
there in the increased rates, and unusual forms, of
cancer, in the congenital malformation of babies that
mostly cannot hope to survive. |
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voices uk - working in solidarity
with ordinary families in iraq
5 Caledonian Road, King's Cross, London N1 9DX
telephone : 0845 458 2564
voices@viwuk.freeserve.co.uk
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