Over 80 delegates from the U.S. successfully traveled to Iraq the second week in May to deliver more than $4 million worth of medicines. This country of 22 million people has been suffering under eight years of UN-sponsored sanctions.
The delegates were from various political, social, religious and non-religious persuasions. They came together as the Iraq Sanctions Challenge to bring humanitarian aid, but also to openly defy the genocidal sanctions that have killed an estimated 1.5 million Iraqi people, a great majority of them children and the elderly.
The group refused to request a license from the U.S. Treasury Department "allowing" it to take the medicines to Iraq. The refusal, which made everyone on the delegation subject to U.S. penalties, was a strong political statement against the illegality of the sanctions.
How did these delegates, ranging in age from 17 to 86, organize such an historic endeavor in less than two months? Much of the credit goes to the International Action Center, whose chairperson is former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark. The IAC organized a March 21 conference on Iraq in New York City at which the idea of the challenge was raised to dozens of participating organizations. Then the conference put out a call to progressive activists to keep the pressure on against U.S. aggression in the Gulf by breaking the sanctions, which are an act of war.
Support from fellow passengers
and Jordanian groups
Close to 150 boxes stamped "Medicine for Iraq" in bold letters came with the delegation, but the journey was not an easy one for the medicines nor the delegates bringing them. It began for many of the Iraq Sanctions Challenge delegates at JFK airport on May 6 as they boarded a plane for Amman, Jordan.
During the flight, some of the delegates told fellow passengers about the goals of the ISC. As a result, $300 was raised from sympathetic passengers, many of them Jordanian citizens.
When the plane finally arrived in Jordan, officials from the Jordanian Bar Association, National Engineers Association and the Arab Medical Union met and shook the hand of every delegate.
An impromptu press conference was held at the Amman airport while the challengers held banners in Arabic and English. The boxes of medicines were loaded onto a truck that accompanied three Iraqi busloads of delegates on the more than 18-hour trip across the desert to Baghdad.
No planes are allowed to fly directly into Iraq due to the sanctions.
When the buses crossed a dam outside Baghdad, a group of 10 to 12 young Iraqis ran to greet us, chanting over a bullhorn. As we wound through the outskirts of Baghdad, people waved and honked. They could read the banners and placards against sanctions taped onto our buses.
Members of the press were waiting at the Al Rasheed Hotel for the arrival of the delegation.
‘George Bush—criminal!’
The first thing you see when you walk into this hotel is a portrait of George Bush on the floor, the mass butcher of the Iraqi people during the 1991 Gulf War. Next to his name is the appropriate word for him—criminal.
It had taken the delegation two days to get to Baghdad. We were tired and sweaty but in good spirits and happy to reach our destination.
The first day was spent delivering medicines to the Ministry of Health and to a number of hospitals, including the Saddam Central Hospital for Pediatrics and a large hospital outside Baghdad in one of the poorest areas. There are 13 government-run hospitals and 22 smal ler private clinics in Baghdad. Iraq is not a socialist country, but nevertheless care in governmental hospitals is free.
One doctor told us that before the war, Iraq had 2,000 ambulances in service. Since the sanctions were implemented, the number of ambulances in Iraq has shrunk to 200, and many of those are idle for lack of spare parts. There is also a staggering shortage of nurses, since 50 percent were foreign born and have left Iraq because of the sanctions.
Tour of children’s wards
The delegation toured the children’s wards. We saw children literally dying of preventable diseases linked to malnutrition and lack of medicines. The hospitals were in terrible physical shape—we saw broken-down incu ba tors, nonfunctioning washers, flood ed bathrooms and no sheets.
The most heartbreaking sight was that of mothers trying to fan flies away from their suffering children in heat over 100 degrees. All the mothers wanted the delegation to take pictures of their sick children to let the people of the U.S. know how the sanctions are retarding their physical and mental development.
One doctor told us that certain operations are being routinely postponed because of the lack of up-to-date surgical tools. Patients are forced to make a choice between dying in the hospital or dying at home.
There is a steady increase in tuberculosis and malaria because of deteriorating sanitation conditions. Hallways have been turned into emergency areas. Some times two to three patients share a bed.
Sharon Eolis, a nurse practitioner from New York, told WW that she has worked with children and adults in working class and poor communities "but I have never before seen the kind of devastation perpetuated by the sanctions against the Iraqi people. Iraqis are suffering from epidemics of measles and whooping cough because there are no vaccines. Others are severely malnourished, resulting in marasmus and other birth defects.
"The only answer," Eolis said, "is to end the sanctions immediately."
Some delegates took medicines to other cities, like Basra and Mosol, which are even harder hit by the sanctions.
The group was taken on a tour of the Al Amiriya bomb shelter in Baghdad, now a museum. Our guide, who introduced herself only as the "mother of Ghadda," lost nine family members including her daughter Ghadda when the U.S. dropped a "smart" bomb on the shelter on Feb. 17, 1991. Only 14 people survived; 1,186 were massacred, many of them children.
Who could come away from this visit without a deep hatred for U.S. imperialism? All around us were the stark reminders of death—shrapnel, craters and exposed light fixtures. There were remnants of burnt skin, bloodstains and imprints of vertebrae on the walls—a reflection of the incredible impact of the bombing on a defenseless people. Pictures of the dead covered the walls.
One could not help but cry at this experience.
Meeting with deputy prime minister
A highlight of the trip was a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. He opened by telling us, "Your visit is very impressive and very symbolic. Your presence in Iraq shows there is no quarrel between the people of Iraq and the people of the U.S." Aziz challenged the U.S. government to open up a dialogue with the Iraqi government and to stop punishing the Iraqi people.
Aziz spoke on many issues, including the U.S. military presence in the Gulf and the $50 to $60 billion annually this costs U.S. taxpayers. He answered Clinton’s absurd charge that one Iraqi presidential site—the U.S. insisted on inspecting all of them—was as big as Washington, D.C. Aziz pointed out that all the Iraqi sites put together equal 31 square kilometers, while Washington covers 177,000 square kilometers.
The deputy prime minister took questions on many sub jects, from the Kurds to nuclear disarmament.
During our brief stay in Baghdad, the delegates toured a water treatment plant and food distribution site; visited grade schools; heard a talk on depleted uranium; and visited mosques and ancient sites like Babylon.
The visit culminated with a demonstration against the sanctions by the delegates at the U.S. interests section of the Polish Embassy.
A Blind Person Goes to Iraq
Edwin R. Lewinson, Professor
Emeritus of History, Seton Hall University
I have long felt that one of the most important
accomplishments of the United Nations and its specialized agencies has been consciousness
raising on a wide variety of issues. The 1996 report of the World Health Organization on
the devastating effects of UN sanctions on Iraq caused me to become aware of the need for
their repeal as well as the evil consequences of sanctions generally. When the opportunity
to join the Iraq Sanctions Challenge arose in the spring of 1998, I felt that learning
about conditions firsthand would enable me to bear witness more effectively.
I have been totally blind all my life. As I filled out the
application for the Iraq Sanctions Challenge, a small twinge of fear lurked in the back of
my mind. Not fear of going to Iraq, as I had made a number of overseas trips, usually
alone. I had participated in a Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba, and, as a volunteer at
the International Action Center, I personally knew the people who would pass on my
application. The twinge of fear was that before I could go to Iraq, I might have to
enlighten the people on the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act and on the
competence of blind people.
My fears were groundless. On previous trips I had sometimes traveled with my guide dog and sometimes with my white cane. I determined, and the people from the International Action Center agreed, that this should be a cane trip. The heat of the desert would not complement my dog's long hair, and the uncertain state of the water might play havoc with his digestive system. I found friends who were willing to keep the dog, and my white cane accompanied me to Iraq. Because of the nature of the trip, I did not have to use my cane. In Iraq as well as going back and forth, delegates traveled in groups.
Sighted delegates gave me vivid descriptions of conditions. They told me of the death throes of children in hospitals, of crumbling buildings, and of vehicles rusting for lack of spare parts. Some conditions did not need to be described. I traveled with a group to Basra, and the archbishop told of the 87 percent unemployment rate. When I first found out that we were staying in an expensive international hotel in Baghdad, I ascribed it to Iraqi attempts to curry favor. But I soon learned that staying in a first-class hotel taught as much about the effects of sanctions as other experiences. The hotel suffered from having very little business. The TV was old and barely worked. We had to ask for toilet paper. The food was well cooked, but very limited in variety. We were told that despite being in a Moslem country, the hotel used to have a bar, but had one no longer.
As I looked back on the trip, my blindness caused no special problems of which I was aware. For me as the others, the plane and bus trips were long and tiring. I was one of the delegates who experienced diarrhea.
I had hoped to meet with Iraqi blind people and learn about conditions for them. We did not stay long enough for this or for other individual desires of delegates. I hope that I will meet Iraqi blind people on my next trip, because I do plan to go on the next caravan and to keep going until the sanctions are repealed.
Sanctions will only be repealed by a groundswell of public opinion in the United States and in other countries. Saddam Hussein has been demonized, but his role is really irrelevant to the need for the repeal of sanctions. Sometimes news stories give the impression that Saddam Husswin is the only person living in Iraq. It is a nation of 22 million people, a million and a half of whom have died since the end of the Gulf War. Germany and Japan were devastated as a result of World War II, but eight years after the war ended, they were well on their way to recovery. Although the sanctions have been imposed by the UN, they almost certainly would be repealed if the government of the United States did not pressure other countries to keep them. As Americans, we must not blind ourselves to the effects of wrongheaded and destructive policies of our government, and we must use our power as citizens and as voters to change these policies.
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