CPTnet
May 2, 2003
IRAQ UPDATE: May 2, 8:30 pm/ 12:30 pm EDT
CPT met with a representative of UNICEF. She reported
on two disturbing issues identified in their surveys
of the current situation: (1) paediatric hospitals in
Baghdad are now seeing 2,000 children per day
suffering from sever diarrhoeal diseases, presumably
from untreated water. The damaged health care system's
ability to deal with this sudden influx is very
limited. (2) children in Sadr City (formerly Saddam
City, a large but poor Shiite part of Baghdad) are
collecting, playing with, and selling unexploded
ordnance. U.S. troops will not enter this part of the
city because of anti-American antagonism.
The team also witnessed a large demonstration outside
the Palestine Hotel in support of the victims of the
Apr 26 ordnance explosion in the Zafaranya section of
Baghdad. Demonstrators had a list of names of forty
persons killed and many more injured and demanded
compensation from the U.S. government. This number of
casualties differs from the U.S. military reports
which put the death toll much lower.
Sis Levin met with a group of university students who
are starting an Arabic/English newspaper. They were
very enthusiastic and hopeful about this project
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