Dateline ACT
Iraq
®ion 0503
"The
air will be cold and hot and we will burn very much"
Amman,
Jordan, April 7, 2003
By
Nils Carstensen
Despite the intense media coverage of battles
and bombardments, it's hard to imagine life in Iraq. But, personal accounts
by peace activists returning from Baghdad, and earlier pre-war reports,
offer glimpses of what life has been like for Iraq's 13 million children
in particular.
Amman, Jordan: 07.04.03
The war raging in and around Baghdad
is reduced to noise from a TV-set as a handful of peace activists settle
down in the lounge of a small downtown hotel in Amman. One of them is
Scott Kerr, a 27-year old American from Chicago who left Baghdad on
April 1, after having stayed in the Iraqi capital for two months.
"I went to one of the market places shortly
after it had been hit by a missile or bomb. It was an almost surreal
scene. Women wailing and crying and their voices blending in with the
noise of continued air bombardments elsewhere in the city and the noise
from the nearby street traffic. There were still blood and even body
parts on the ground. People were very, very angry and some came up to
me and asked why the Americans were killing their children. I of course
had no answer to that. How could I have?"
Despite coming from the US, UK and other
Western countries, the activists from the Christian-based "Iraq Peace
Team" were generally well received, says Deacon David Havard of Sheffield
in the UK.
"When we drove towards Baghdad and came up
to a military check point, we were questioned by the soldiers there.
We explained that this was a busload of Americans, Brits and Canadians
who had volunteered to stay with them during the war and the soldiers’
jaws literally dropped. Then gradually their faces turned into huge
smiles."
Asked if their presence in Iraq did not just
benefit the Iraqi regime and Saddam Hussein, Stewart Vriesinga, from
Canada, explains the purpose of the Iraq Peace Team. "Most of us have
a very critical analysis of what was and is happening in this region
and in Baghdad. Still we insist on putting a human face on the Iraqi
people. There are a lot more people in Iraq than Saddam Hussein and
that’s really what we’re trying to show."
Finding comfort in a blanket
Apart from the Christian groups
in Baghdad, a number of so-called "human shields" had also volunteered
to stay in Baghdad at the outbreak of the war. Forty-year old Jurgen
Hahnel of Germany was staying at Baghdad’s largest oil refinery when
the bombardment started. He remembers how he woke up when everything
around him started to shake. As time went by he grew more accustomed
to the air strikes but it had its effects on him as it had on the Iraqi
workers around him.
"For about five days none of us got much
sleep. Bombs and missiles were exploding day and night. When I finally
managed to catch a few hours of sleep, I had nightmares and was dreaming
of bombs."
Jurgen Hanhnel’s experience bears out some
of the findings in a report on the impact of war on Iraqi children released
by the International Study Team earlier this year, in January. Then,
before the war had even started, more than half of the 85 Iraqi
children interviewed, reported sleeping problems and nightmares. Almost
40% of the children found that life was not worth living.
Assem, a 5-year old boy, told the researchers
that "They have guns and bombs and the air will be cold and hot and
we will burn very much". A 13-year old girl called Hind explained that
"I feel fear everyday that we might all die – but where shall I go if
I am left alone?" The child psychologists who researched and wrote part
of the report also found clear signs of detachment as illustrated by
a statement by 9-year old Hana: "Often I feel nothing. Nothing at all."
One particular extract from the report makes
for unnerving reading when juxtaposed with the TV-images of tanks, artillery,
and bombs and missiles now being transmitted from Baghdad and other
parts of Iraq.
"…even
children of four and five years possessed concepts of the real physical
threats of bombs and guns: destruction of houses, burning homes, killing
of people; and in the end referring to their own family: "we will all
die". They still have some mental protection from their lack of understanding:
one thinks that she is protected when her sister put the blanket over
her head and another by the mere fact that her brother has a knife in
his room."
After the Gulf War in 1991, psychological
research documented the negative mental impact of the war (up to two
years after its conclusion) on children. Iraq is home to an estimated
13 million children many of whom are already weakened by malnutrition
and disease. Child mortality rates in Iraq before the current war started
was some 2.5 times higher than before the first Gulf War. No reliable
information exists about the number of children killed or injured so
far in the war.
See the full report "Our Common Responsibility
– The Impact of a New War on Iraqi Children", at
www.warchild.ca
Read more about Christian peace activists
at www.iraqpeaceteam.org
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