CPTnet
April 13, 2004
IRAQ: CPT colleagues describe massacre in Fallujah
by Le Anne Clausen
"U.S. Marine snipers are firing at everyone moving," report colleagues of
CPT who returned Sunday from an overnight humanitarian mission to Fallujah.
Iraqi doctors and international volunteers assisting Doctors Without Borders
entered the city on Saturday, April 10 in a bus loaded with medical supplies
from agencies in Baghdad. The city has been under siege for the past six
days.
Hospital workers report 518 Iraqis killed by U.S. fire as of Sunday,
including at least 157 women and 146 children. Of the children, one hundred
are under age twelve and of those, 46 are under age five. More than 1,200
have been wounded. The casualties continue to rise as CPTers write this
report.
U.S. bombs destroyed the main hospital in Fallujah earlier this week.
Medical staff opened a makeshift clinic in an area garage, but the
volunteers report there are no sanitary facilities there in which to work.
Aid is getting through, but the clinic needs more supplies, such as kits for
blood testing and donations, tracheotomy kits, and Cesarean section tools.
The makeshift medical center has no blankets or anesthesia.
Exhausted doctors struggled to respond to the constant streams of wounded.
The volunteers saw several older women and two children arrive with numerous
gunshot wounds. The two children died. The volunteers saw one man who
burned from head to foot, and another who was bleeding from several wounds.
The men said a cluster bomb had caused their injuries.
One of the volunteers accompanied an ambulance crew to pick up a woman going
into premature labor. On the way, U.S. snipers began firing at the
ambulance. The ambulance turned off its sirens, then its lights, but the
soldiers continued firing.
The ambulance began backing away from the soldiers, but they continued
firing and blew out the vehicle's tire. The crew escaped without injury,
but they were unable to reach the woman.
Elsewhere in Fallujah, Marines granted the volunteers permission to evacuate
wounded persons, women, children, and the elderly from houses. An officer
added, "We're going to begin clearing' the houses shortly." When the
volunteers pressed for details, the officer explained that they would go
from house to house to pick up any men of fighting age and any weapons. They
described men of fighting age as "anyone under 45." Jo Wilding, one of the
volunteers, later told the team, "Not all men are armed and not all want to
fight. Still, they are trapped."
The volunteers also retrieved bodies of Iraqis killed. One body of an
unarmed man lying face-down in the road had only a small bullet entry hole
in his back, but massive abdominal exit' wounds, indicative of high-velocity
bullets. When the volunteers turned the body over to reveal the wound,
children in the nearest house began screaming and crying "Baba! Baba!
(Daddy! Daddy!)" The volunteers loaded the body into a pickup truck and
evacuated the wife and children. The family said their father had just
stepped out of house when he was shot. The family had no way to reach the
body in the street before the volunteers secured permission from the
Marines.
The volunteer team recovered two additional bodies lying near a U.S.
checkpoint, but abandoned a completely burnt third body, due to outbursts of
gunfire and the Marines' return fire. "We don't know if that is friendly or
hostile fire, so we have to respond," the soldiers said.
On Sunday, the volunteers returned to Baghdad with fourteen wounded people.
As they passed the checkpoint out of Fallujah, they saw long lines of people
waiting to flee. The volunteers hope to return, although deteriorating
conditions within the city may prevent them from carrying out further work.
"This was a massacre," said Wilding, "and it will get worse."
CPTers asked whether a CPT presence in Fallujah would be helpful and learned
that Doctors Without Borders is only accepting Iraqi volunteers, because
Iraqi militant groups are targeting internationals and their presence might
actually endanger injured patients. CPTers in Hebron have worked closely
with Doctors without Borders and trust their judgment.
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