CPTnet
May 6, 2003
IRAQ: Not a priority
The member of Ali's family yelled at me and those I represented for about
ten minutes through a translator and doctor. Twenty-one days Ali's eyes have
been blinded. Many reporters have come and taken the boy's picture and
asked some questions.
Why? The relative wondered. Nothing changes. The family member wanted to
know how to transport Ali to a better hospital in another country.
The day before, April 30, with imperfect translation,
we told a Red Crescent worker that our constituencies
in the United States and Canada would be urging the U.S. government and
military to prioritize the
clean-up of un-exploded munitions in Baghdad. The worker insisted that we
visit Ali the next day, possibly believing that we would do something
concrete to help him.
Four-year-old Ali had touched a cluster bomb in his neighbourhood, which
blasted his eyes and caused brain damage.
Many of his family members were crowded into Ali's room. His mother cried
while he lay curled up and motionless on the bed, his eyes and head in
bandages.
My co-workers and I came across a site of unexploded munitions April 22 in
another neighborhood (not Ali's.) We documented the area in detail and since
then, have been urging Lieutenants, Sergeants and Majors in the U.S. Army to
see that it is cleaned up, fenced, guarded or taped off with
bright-coloured tape immediately. Each time we have made the report and
request, the Army personnel have said either that we should make more
reports, or that the munitions are partly burned and too dangerous for them
to touch or that they have to wait for engineers, or that the site is not a
priority because the
munitions are too unstable to transport or that they have run out of orange
tape.
God help me, I would like to shut with bright coloured tape the mouths of
Major Colin Mason, Lieutenant Wheeler, Jay Garner and several others, and
sit them down in Ali's room for a while to listen.
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