Children of Iraq, Internet Soapbox

These are the children of Iraq

Dhuha

Dhuha and her mother
Dhuha means "sunrise"
Dhuha suffered from leukemia with no medical supplies to treat her

Khalid

Khalid and his mother
Khalid means "eternal"
He suffered from Neuroblastoma. Died Aug. 1997

Zahra

Zahra
7 months old. Nutritional marasmus and very close to death. Feb. 1998

Nassar, age 1
Severe malnutrition. Weight: 9.47 lb. Ideal weight: 22 lb.

Earlier this month, several members of the

                                           Iraq Sanctions Challenge stood at the bedside
                                           of Mustafa, one of at least a dozen dying
                                           children in a crowded, wretched ward of the
                                           main hospital in Basra, Iraq's southern port
                                           city. His mother, tall, thin and quite beautiful,
                                           sat cross legged on the mattress beside him,
                                           waving away flies, as the doctor explained to
                                           us that the child, hospitalized for the past
                                           twenty days, now suffered from dehydration,
                                           diarrhea, acute renal failure and extensive
                                           brain atrophy.

Tragically, there are thousands more children
suffering and dying because of trade sanctions.

Just one month ago, US/ UK bombardment of
Iraq seemed almost inevitable. Even though
   the most comprehensive economic sanctions
ever inflicted in modern history have already
crippled Iraq, slaughtering over 1/2 million
     children under age 5, the US and the UK were
   poised for further assault. Today, the US still
threatens air attacks upon Iraq, massive
strikes that would heap more agony on
   civilians who've endured a seven year
state of siege.

February 12, 1998: Report from Voices in the Wilderness,
Baghdad, Iraq, by Kathy Kelly
Today is the day when many thousands of people
across Baghdad are conscious that it is the
seventh year since two astonishingly smart bombs
penetrated the ventilation system of the
Amiriyah shelter. All of the people huddled inside,
at least 500 civilians, who had sought a safe
night of shelter, were melted.

"From previous trips, we knew exactly where
to find overwhelming evidence of a weapon of
mass destruction. Inspectors have only to enter
the wards of any hospital in Iraq to see that
the sanctions themselves are a lethal weapon,
destroying the lives of Iraq's most vulnerable
people. In children's wards, tiny victims writhe
in pain, on blood-stained mats, bereft of
anesthetics and antibiotics. Thousands of
children, poisoned by contaminated water, die
from dysentery, cholera, and diarrhea. Others
succumb to respiratory infections that become
fatal full body infections. Five thousand
children, under age five, perish each month."
-Kathy Kelly, March 9, 1998

YOU
CAN
HELP
by writing your governmental representatives
and supporting Voices in the Wilderness'
brave actions to bring medical supplies
to these beautiful children, the innocent
victims of war and politics.

Pictures of Iraqi children
by Chuck Quilty and journals
of visitors to Iraq from
Voices in the Wilderness

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