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Reports
direct from Iraq
Mainstream media often fails to
tell the story of the impact of war and occupation on innocent
civilians. Here are some of the most interesting and direct sources
of information on the current situation in Iraq.
Iraq Indymedia
Electronic Iraq
Occupation Watch
Voices US
Robert Fisk
Jo
Wilding
for other information sources see resources
Iraq
Indymedia - an independent
media centre started in Baghdad on 13 May 2003
Electronic
Iraq - news, analysis, opinion and reports direct from
Iraq created by Voices in the Wilderness US and Electronic Intifada
Occuptation
Watch - monitoring the US/UK occupation
Voices
in the Wilderness US,
and others from the US have been, and continue to be, in Iraq
living alongside ordinary Iraqis as they face the horror of war
and its aftermath. Read
the up-to-date Voices
from Iraq
Read
the collected articles of Robert
Fisk
Three
more families now rage against the American occupation of their
land. (3 April 04)
Because I almost lost my own life in
December 2001 I take a special interest in journalists - and their
fate. Yesterday morning, I sat down in a Baghdad home with a poor
old man and his daughter who were mourning their adored son and
brother who was killed by American soldiers. .........
Jo
Wilding's reports - almost daily powerful personal
accounts of life in Baghdad up to the beginning of April 2003.
Jo then returned to Iraq in November 2003 and has been
sending regular reports back.
The
boy with the bullet in his brain
A
report by Jo Wilding
November 26: Saif, who used to work in the hotel I used to stay in, asked me
to come and meet his neighbours. Their son Baqer was shot by US soldiers and
survived, but with a 9mm bullet lodged in his head. The CPA promised to help
with his treatment and medicines but has given the family nothing: not money,
medicines, treatment nor assistance with travelling out of Iraq to hospital
in Jordan or beyond.
Baqer is four and a half. On May 26th the family were going to visit relatives.
They were waiting for a taxi when there was an explosion. US troops started
shooting. Baqer fell. He was taken to Al-Yermouk, the main trauma hospital
for south and west Baghdad. He suffered injury to his left cerebrum and his
left 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th cranial nerves causing partial nerve palsy which
have impaired his sight, hearing, speech and walking. Whenever he tries to
get off someone’s lap, he lists and staggers and falls over.
He’s been taken to one doctor after another in the hope that someone
will be able to do something to help. At first Baqer screamed, wriggled and
squirmed out of his dad’s arms and flung himself out of the room in panic
because he was sure Michael and I must be more doctors, come to poke and stare.
It was a while before he decided we were friends. The doctors only prescribe
medicines but the family can’t afford to buy them.
They live in [Sadr City], a huge, poor and reputedly wild Shia district hammered
by Saddam as a centre of resistance. Ali (Baqer’s father) had to quit
his job to take Baqer on the rounds of the hospitals. They’ve sold
the TV, almost everything, to buy medicines. The house is bare but for rugs
on
the floor, a single light bulb and a lamp which takes over when the electricity
is out, which seems to be most of the time, throughout Baghdad (including
now).
If the bullet migrates medially and inferiorly it could encroach on the brain
stem so Baqer has to have regular scans to check it isn’t moving. If
there’s any visible deterioration they’re to take him immediately
on the 10-12 hour journey to Amman for emergency treatment.
There’s no dispute that US soldiers were responsible for Baqer’s
shooting, that it’s a US army bullet in his head. There’s no
knowing how many more families and individuals are going through the same
struggle,
trying to find the money for medical care, trying to get the forces responsible
to give the financial help they promised.
For that reason, rather than start an appeal for Baqer, I think we need to
demand compensation and financial support from the forces responsible, for
all their civilian victims. At the moment the military institution has complete
impunity for what its soldiers do and the soldiers have impunity within the
military.
Direct action, blockades, marches, compensation confetti in the House of Commons,
letter writing to MPs or congress people, Blair, Bush and so on and the newspapers
and all the rest of your powers of creative mischief and may-hem making are
needed.
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