BAGHDAD, 17 July 2003 — Baghdad’s dilapidated hospitals are on the mend but patchy power supplies, rampant looting and shortages of medicine are slowing their recovery. Doctors at some of the Iraqi capital’s main hospitals said yesterday generous aid packages have boosted their stock of basic supplies and helped restore water and electricity.
But security lapses and the lack of specialized equipment and drugs were still hampering their ability to treat the thousands of patients streaming through their doors every day.
“Our problems are the problems of Iraq,” said Dr. Ahmed Abdul Fattah, a chief administrator at the Central Teaching Hospital for Children, one of the biggest in the country. Most of Baghdad’s hospitals worked round the clock tending to the thousands of Iraqis wounded during the US-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein in April, which largely wiped out their stockpiles of bandages and basic medication.
The war and the looting that has become endemic since the fall of Saddam worsened Baghdad’s infrastructure which had suffered decades of neglect and 12 years of sanctions. Like the rest of the capital, hospitals were not spared. The 250-bed Children’s Hospital, which also treats up to 1,000 outpatients daily, was one of the lucky ones.
Last month, it struck a deal with the US-led civil administration in Iraq to obtain a special cable for a relatively stable power supply. UN agencies and aid groups have stocked up the central pharmacy and vigilantes and a few US soldiers ward off the vandals that roam the streets of Baghdad.
Shells damaged three wings of Baghdad’s biggest hospital, the Yarmouk, during the war. A month later, looters made off with the electric cables, rendering vital machines useless. Dr. Amer Salman, Yarmouk’s vice chairman, said Iraqi gunmen had stormed the buildings several times to finish off foes.
Nurse Ashwaq Ali said that thanks to aid supplies, the emergency unit she works in can properly treat more patients. “We’ve got the medicines and are now able to perform the surgeries we need. Also, it’s cleaner than before,” she said, pointing to the yellowed gauze wrapped around a year-old baby.
However, in other developments, fed up with being in Iraq and demoralized by their role as peacekeepers in a risky place, a group of US soldiers aired their plight on US television yesterday and said they had lost faith in the Army.
Told several times they would be going home only to have their hopes dashed this week, a small group of soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq, spoke of poor morale and disillusionment with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
“If Donald Rumsfeld were here, I’d ask him for his resignation,” one disgruntled soldier told ABC’s “Good Morning America” show. Asked by a reporter what his message would be for Rumsfeld, one said: “I would ask him why we are still here. I don’t have any clue as to why we are still in Iraq.”
About 146,000 US troops are serving amid mounting security threats in postwar Iraq. The death toll has now equaled the number killed in the 1991 Gulf War. Sgt. Filipe Vega, said they had expected to return home soon after the fall of Baghdad on April 9. “We were told the fastest way back home is through Baghdad and that’s what we did. Now we are still here,” he complained.
Sgt. Terry Gilmore described a phone call with his wife Stacey when he told her he would not be coming home soon. “When I told her she started crying and I almost started crying. I just felt like my heart was broken. I could not figure out ... how they could keep us here after they told us we were coming home.”
In Washington, a Pentagon spokeswoman said she understood the frustration, but said morale was still high. “It’s obviously a frustrating situation for some of them, but it does not represent the entire 3rd Division.” She added: “When you get down to the individual soldier level, you can clearly see the dedication.”
