BAGHDAD, 13 April 2003 — Baghdad’s psychiatric hospital endured a 36-hour nightmare this week in which it was ransacked by violent mobs and emptied of patients, with US troops arriving too late, a nurse recounted yesterday.
During the chaos two patients died of thirst as they were unable to swallow water without assistance, the nurse, Imad Taha Abbas, said.
The ordeal began Wednesday when chaos descended upon Baghdad, as mobs marked the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s authoritarian rule with an orgy of theft and destruction.
At around 5 p.m. (1300 GMT), 30 looters armed with iron rods set upon the Rashid psychiatric hospital in north Baghdad, near the sprawling Shiite slum of Saddam City.
The hospital, with several wards over some 25 acres (10 hectares), had 1,100 patients. There was only one doctor and around 20 staffers.
The mob quickly mushroomed to 200 people and over six hours the looting was systematic: televisions, videocassettes, CDs, sewing machines, all the food in the kitchen, and even a carpentry workshop where the psychiatric patients passed their time.
“We tried to defend ourselves, but in vain. They were too strong,” said Abbas.
Just before the attack, a squad of US troops had stopped by the hospital. The soldiers spent several hours at the site before deeming it unsafe and moving instead to an area belonging to the Iraqi arms industry less than 500 meters away, Abbas said. “Before leaving a US officer told us that if there was the slightest problem, we should let them know and they would intervene.”
But when trouble did arrive there was no way to get hold of the US troops.
“We tried to call the police but the lines were cut off. We tried to cross the road to inform the Americans but that was impossible,” Abbas said.
On Thursday morning, US troops came back but told the hospital staff they could not do anything against the looters.
And the mobs soon returned, this time armed with knives. They went off with three pick-up trucks and two ambulances. Then they opened the hospital gates and let the psychiatric patients out.
“Now we only have 100 women and 125 men” in the hospital, Abbas said. Before there were 600 women and 500 men. “I tried to stop them but I got hit with an iron bar,” he said, showing a huge bruise on his thigh.
Abbas said another nurse told him that one female patient was raped inside the hospital and three more raped outside by the mobs. It was not possible to investigate the account due to sensitivities about the issue.
By Friday evening, Shiite imams were issuing appeals over mosque loudspeakers for volunteers to come to protect the hospital, give food to the remaining patients and find the sick people on the loose.
“We reminded the population of the message of the imams of Najaf,” a Shiite holy city south of Baghdad, “calling on them to protect property and help other people,” said Jomaa Rasul Al-Jamadi.
The imam was present yesterday at the hospital, along with about 40 volunteers. US Marines finally arrived Friday and were blocking the entrances with two armored vehicles. “Now we need to find the patients and take care of those who no longer have anything,” said another nurse, Mustafa Rashid.
