Medical system in Baghdad collapses: Lawlessness adds to miseries
GENEVA, April 11: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Friday that Baghdad’s medical system had all but collapsed because of combat damage, looting and fear of anarchy.
It said that hardly any medical or hospital support staff were reporting for work and that patients had either fled or been left without care.
“The medical system in Baghdad has virtually collapsed,” the Geneva-based humanitarian group said in a statement.
Earlier, spokeswoman Nada Doumani had told Reuters that the ICRC doubted that any hospitals were still working in the capital because of the anarchy reigning on the streets.
“The ICRC is profoundly alarmed by the chaos currently prevailing in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq. Lawless persons, sometimes armed, have been ransacking and looting even essential public facilities such as hospitals,” it said.
The ICRC called on U.S.-led coalition forces, which control most of the capital, rapidly to restore order saying that it was their duty under the Geneva Conventions setting out the rules of war.
“In areas under their control, the coalition forces have specific responsibilities as occupying powers under international humanitarian law,” the ICRC said.
Doumani quoted ICRC official Roland Huguenin-Benjamin in the Iraqi capital as saying that ...”probably there are no more hospitals functioning because of looting, lack of medical personnel; people are scared.”
“It is anarchy,” she quoted him as saying.
Reuters correspondents in Baghdad said looting continued two days after U.S. forces swept into the centre of the capital, ending President Saddam Hussein’s rule.
An ICRC team ventured out on to the streets but had not been able to visit all the city’s hospitals on Friday, Doumani said.
However, they did go to the 650-bed Medical City where they found very few people. “Operating theatres are no longer functioning. There are no more instruments in any case,” Doumani said.
LOOTERS SHOT: In Baghdad, shopkeepers in central Baghdad opened fire on looters for the first time on Friday, forming quasi-militias to guard their stores against the chaos they say US troops are either incapable or unwilling to stop.
At least 25 people were injured in the rampages. The front windows of some 200 downtown stores were shattered, with everything from loose paper to shoes littering the outside sidewalks.
At Al Rasafi market, merchant Mohammed al Shamai fired his pistol in the air as he saw a band of young looters nearing his seven-storey garment store.
“We want law and order and we want the Americans to protect our stores,” said Mr Shamai, who complained that 50,000 dollars worth of his merchandise had already been spirited away.
At the brick-built Al Arabi market, whose inside was completely torched on Thursday, shopkeepers fired Kalashnikov rifles toward looters approaching for another go.
“If the Americans don’t defend us then we’ll defend ourselves with our own weapons,” said merchant Khazen Hussein.
Young people were also seen with iron bars running after potential thieves.
Baghdad has seen rampant looting since US troops rolled in on Wednesday and the authority of Saddam Hussein crumbled. Almost everything has been considered fair game, from the luxury homes of senior government figures to European diplomatic missions.
Despite widespread public expressions of joy at the Saddam government’s collapse, the chaos has left some merchants longing for the days of the strongman.
“Of course we miss Saddam Hussein now,” said Kazem al Fartisi, 52, who owns several electronics and clothing stores in the Al Arabi area.
“Under him this would never have happened. The police would have stopped the thieves. The Americans are only here to occupy us and drive us into ruin,” he said.
US forces have said they are still bringing order to Baghdad and have put a first priority on securing civilian infrastructure.
Meshal Shahi, 37, heaped scorn on the US troops’ approach.
“They protect the oil ministry building, the foreign ministry building, but I’ve seen them with my own eyes encouraging the looters,” he said.
“If the Americans don’t do anything, we’ll fight against them,” added Hazem Shami. “Why don’t they force the police to come back to work?”
He said that while in the countryside tribes had organized ways to keep order, “here there’s nothing, so we will defend ourselves”.
Twenty-five people were admitted to Baghdad’s Al Kindi hospital after suffering gunshot wounds in clashes during the looting.—Reuters/AFP
