AL-RIADH, Iraq,, 10 June 2003 — A nightmare of possible nuclear poisoning frightens residents of this village near Iraq’s largest and badly-looted nuclear facility, adding more misery to already difficult postwar lives. “We are suffering from many things such as a shortage of food and a lack of good medical care and now we have a contamination problem,” said Ahmed Ali, a 25-year-old carpenter, one of the 5,000 villagers of Al-Riadh.
The Tuwaitha plant, 20 kilometers east of Baghdad, was ransacked in the aftermath of the war to topple Saddam Hussein’s regime. There are fears that nearby villagers, mostly farmers, as well as the water supply may have been poisoned, putting the lives of thousands of Iraqis at risk. “Everyone knows this area is contaminated, but no one cares about us. I heard looters had stolen some radioactive material,” said Ali.
His neighbor Saleh Abbas, a 50-year-old driver, said he wanted to leave the village for a safer place for his eight children but poverty keeps the family stuck here.
“Of course I am very worried about the health of my children. If I could, I would leave this town. But I don’t have money to move because I have not been paid for almost three months,” said Abbas. “I feel abandoned. Only God cares about us,” he said. For children, some of them barefooted, the Tuwaitha plant may ironically be the safest place to play in a neighborhood which lies next to a busy two-lane road.
They kick a football about and play with twisted metal parts at parking lots inside the nuclear compound while stolen goods, including furniture, car windows and electronic parts are scattered over the road from the main entrance.
Residents told AFP that looters emptied barrels of unknown chemicals and then resold them to unsuspecting people who used them to store water and food, and later washed them in the nearby Tigris River.
“I am very concerned about the health of our children — they will die from these crimes,” Salman said.
Meanwhile, an Iraqi newspaper run by Sunni Muslims traded charges yesterday with the US-led occupation authority over the alleged rape of two Iraqi girls by US soldiers, a claim denied by the coalition. According to the daily As-Saah, the girls, aged 14 and 15, were talking to American soldiers in Suwaira, 180 kilometers south of Baghdad, on Friday when the soldiers suggested they accompany them to their camp to take pictures but then collectively raped the pair.
This allegation is “absolutely false,” the US Central Command said in a statement. “We take any claim of this nature extremely seriously, have looked into the allegations and found nothing whatsoever to substantiate the accusations — including checking local hospital records,” it said.
As-Saah said one of the girls died after she was raped by 18 soldiers while the other was killed by her family. Editor Naama Abderrazzak told AFP two of the daily’s reporters had talked to residents of the area and seen the bodies of the two girls.
“After conducting a thorough investigation into this supposed account, we know this report is inaccurate, irresponsible, and purposefully attempts to damage the credibility of our forces and our efforts to create a secure and stable environment for the people of Iraq,” Centcom said.
But Abderrazzak insisted he had asked his staff to thoroughly check the story and it was definitely true. “Everyone in Suwairi is aware of this episode and it wouldn’t take the Americans long to investigate it,” he said.
In another development, the Washington Times newspaper reported yesterday that Iraqi intelligence services issued orders to start campaigns of sabotage, looting and murder should Iraq lose the war.
The orders were contained in a document from the Iraqi intelligence service in the southern city of Basra, according to the Times, which said it had obtained a copy after it was handed to coalition forces “only a few days ago.”
The one-page Arabic-language document on official letterhead is dated Jan. 23, 2003, and stamped “extremely confidential,” the report said.
“Please take the following measures in case of the fall of the Iraqi leadership by the American-British-Zionist coalition,” it begins. It describes an 11-point “emergency secret plan” that includes looting and setting fire to “all government offices,” damaging electrical power facilities and water plants, and cutting internal and external communications. Operatives should buy guns from Iraqi citizens and “make contact and become close” to returning exiles, the letter is quoted as saying.
It also calls for the murder of “religious scholars and preachers” while instructing operatives to enroll “in religious schools of the Shiite Muslim leadership in the holy city of Najaf,” the Times said.
