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People in Iraq don’t want George Bush’s version of liberation, according to Mary Schoen, who recently returned from 19 days in that country.
“Few people in Iraq are concerned about Saddam,” she said. “They are more concerned about the war. They don’t want the U.S. to save them from Saddam by killing them.”
More than 200 people gathered Feb. 12 at the Cintas Center in Xavier University for a slide show and presentation by Schoen, who earned a master’s degree in theology at Xavier. She went to Iraq with Voices from the Wilderness, an international delegation monitoring the effects of UN sanctions on the people that country.
Schoen said that during her visit Carel de Rooy, head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Iraq, detailed the horrors the sanctions have caused. More than 1.7 million children younger than age 16 have died since the sanctions were imposed in 1991, according to de Rooy.
While visiting Basrah Maternity and Children’s Hospital, Schoen observed children who had been born without eyes, legs, brains and skin, she said. The hospital’s director Mohammad Nasir, told her birth defects are encountered at an alarming rate since the Gulf War.
One to two malformed children are born every day, Schoen said. Medical supplies are deficient because UN sanctions prohibit Iraqi import of materials possessing “dual use” for the military, Nasir told her.
Schoen quoted Basrah Archbishop Gabriel Kassab, who assists and comforts the families of children unable to be treated: “If you want to know the meaning of war, come to Basrah. When women give birth, they used to ask if it’s a boy or girl. Now they ask, ‘Does it have arms? Does it have legs? Does it have a brain?”
Schoen visited water treatment facilities bombed by the United States in the first Gulf War — a violation of the Geneva Convention, she said. Iraqi children are dying of curable diseases because of a lack of sanitary water, according to Schoen. She said de Rooy told her child mortality in Iraq skyrocketed 161 percent between 1989 and 1999.
“This will be looked at as one of the worst times in history, as America is willing to kill innocent people,” Schoen said. “Our nation has gone mad with fear, and this is not the first time in history this holocaust has happened.”
Depleted uranium munitions are a leading cause of disease and death in Iraq, Schoen said. The U.S. military used the substance in bullets, bombs and tank armor in the first Gulf War. The uranium, which has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, has contaminated Iraq’s soil, water and atmosphere, Schoen said. Cancer, child leukemia and birth defects have quadrupled, Iraqi doctors told her.
Basrah, Iraq’s southern-most city, sustained the worst attacks involving depleted uranium munitions, according to Schoen. The radiation level in the city is 84 times higher than the safety level indicated by the World Health Organization, she said.
Poverty and unemployment are extreme in Iraq, Schoen said. Most Iraqis walk through city markets receiving their rations and selling household items as a source of income. The oil-for-food program established by the UN in 1996 has alleviated some of the problem, UNICEF officials told Schoen. But 70 percent of Iraqis completely depend on monthly government rations that usually last only 22 days, she said.
“You don’t starve a people who are being oppressed by their government,” she said. “They don’t have the energy to change their government, they just try to find something to eat. Sanctions will not get rid of Saddam, just starving children. The U.S. would like to believe Saddam is starving his people. But there’s just no logic in that. No one, not even UN officials, has said Saddam does so, and they would have if it were true.”
Harmful as economic sanctions have been, another U.S. attack would be even worse, according to Schoen. People in Iraq approached the Voices from the Wilderness delegation begging them to prevent a war, she said.
The people in Iraq were very hospitable despite their turmoil, Schoen said. Vendors would not accept money for food and Iraqis welcomed Schoen into their homes. People are furious with Bush, but believe Americans don’t want to kill them, she said.
“Iraqis tend to make a very big distinction between Americans and our government,” Schoen said. “They love our movies and think we’re entertaining. They know U.S. policies are about oil, not them. They’re very forgiving to Americans about our government.”
Schoen is disappointed with religious communities and the media who offer little attention to the Iraqi people, she said. Few think about the innocent people dying in the crossfire as governments fight each other, she said.
“It’s not about who has what weapons,” Schoen said. “It’s about the morality of war and these dying children, and that’s what I want to see debated in faith-based communities.” ©
This article appears in Feb 19-25, 2003.