BAGHDAD, 7 July 2003 — Seven-year-old Gaith Jabbar experienced the dangers of playing in his school yard in post-war Baghdad. He tripped and was then run over by a US armored vehicle that broke his leg and hip.
The slim boy today lies motionless on a small bed in the obscure backend of the living room of his parents’ house, with metallic pins sticking out of holes in the white flesh of his hip and left leg.
Covered with just a small piece of clothing on his private parts, Gaith’s naked body looks sticky as he sweats from the summer heat. His cousins, some as young as four years old, take turns in using a small fan to keep determined flies away and bring him a little air to breathe more easily.
When asked a question, Gaith either just gazes in the air or whispers a single word.
“He was a very energetic boy. Look at him now, he just lies there like a leaf. He does not move or say anything all day long,” laments his grandfather, resting on a cane.
“He is traumatized by the incident and is still under shock. I don’t know what to do,” he said.
The boy’s father, Qassed Jabbar, explains that Gaith was playing with his friends when US military vehicles rolled into the playground of his school, Al-Iqdam, in Sadr City, an impoverished area northeast of Baghdad on May 21.
After checking out the premises, one armored carrier suddenly backed up, prompting the children to run away from the vehicle.
“As Gaith also tried to move back, he tripped and the vehicle ran him over,” said Jabbar, with a look of deep pain on his face.
“The Americans stopped the vehicle, lifted Gaith and took him away with them,” he said.
Jabbar said children from the school immediately ran to Gaith’s house to inform his parents who started to check nearby hospitals for the boy.
“We looked everywhere for several days, but we could not find him. We went to numerous checkpoints of the American Army asking about him,” he said, adding: “It was hell. We did not sleep for days.”
“We finally found him at a US military hospital where they had carried out surgery on him,” he said.
“As Gaith does not speak any English, he was just lying in a small bed, crying silently. But after four days there, he had learned the word ‘no’ and when he saw me, he cried: ‘No Jeff, No Annie,’ in reference to the Americans who had been treating him.”
Jabbar said a doctor at the US military hospital whom he identified as Maj. Daniel White from the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment had “treated Gaith very humanely.”
“But they forced us to take Gaith home after just four days because of lack of space at the hospital. Maj. Daniel just gave me an order for a regular painkiller,” he said.
“I am unemployed, I can’t afford to buy medicine for my son who has a major injury. He needs constant care, cleaning for his wounds, medicine. He will need a wheelchair or crutches... where would I find money for all this?”
Jabbar said he tried contacting the US military for help, but was only given time for a short meeting that left him with a small notice asking him to return for an answer on Aug. 8. “Can you imagine this? How will we last that long?” he said. “They admitted that they were responsible for my son’s accident, but they just tell me ‘we are sorry.’ It is unacceptable, even Maj. Daniel agrees with me,” he said.
Contacted repeatedly by AFP over a week, the US military was still unavailable for comment. “This is scandalous, I was ready to forgive them, but this is not a way to treat somebody you ran over,” said Jabbar.
“I now intend to file a lawsuit, and I have already asked a lawyer to begin the proceedings. I am not interested in money, I just want my son back,” he added.
