To love is to suffer
Most people,
especially children, wear somewhat ragged clothes, and often have no shoes
Children in the Al-Mosour
Pediatric Hospital in Baghdad
People can live a life of hope and expectation in extraordinarily oppressive
conditions
"Another war will condemn to death many people."
The call
to prayer was being sung even as the bombs fell.
Our aim in going to the hospital is to offer comfort and to
apologize
A bomb fell on a heavily crowded open air market
On-the-ground reports from the Iraq Peace Team in Baghdad
"There
will be No Victors in this War"
"You're sitting in a dangerous place."
The deep sadness and desperation that afflicts all of us here
"There must be a marriage between knowledge and ethics"
The following was written by Sheila Provencher, a US citizen who traveled in Iraq from Dec. 8-21, 2002.
REFLECTION: "About 1-2% of Iraq's people are Christian. Included in this number are hundreds of Dominican sisters, friars, and lay people -- a vibrant religious community. In Baghdad, they welcomed our delegation with open arms, and prepared a feast for us, sharing whatever they had. They are walking with the people throughout these anguished times -- running hospitals, orphanages, parishes. In Mosul, in northern Iraq, there is an inscription in the Dominican community house. It reads, "To love is to suffer. God loves, and God suffers." God is suffering with them and the Iraqi people, and God suffers with US parents who grieve for their children sent off to the Gulf. Perhaps we can realize this grief can be communion, and can lead us to seek to another way beyond violence, another way beyond war. There is another way."
PHOTO: Iraqi Dominican sisters Najma, Habiba, and Sara. They now live in Jordan and care for refugees, many from Iraq. They treated us like royalty, could laugh despite their fears, and taught us the beautiful cadences of Aramaic, the language of Jesus which they still speak.
ACTION STEP:
1) Prayer and Fasting: Over 40% of the Iraqi people subsist only on the rations of flour, sugar, rice, oil, beans, tea, and a bit of cheese. Prepare for Lent by setting aside certain days to eat only what they can eat, and unite with them in prayer for peace,
2) Wednesday was a big day for calling Congress! Continue the Virtual March on Washington by calling at least one of the following Congressional
leaders:
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay: 202-225-5951
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi 202-225-4965
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist 202-224-3344
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle 202-224-2321
Blessings of peace for you and your loved ones . . . .
Sheila
The following was written by Sheila Provencher, a U.S. citizen who traveled to Iraq from Dec 8-21, 2002.
REFLECTION: "We Westerners made quite a spectacle in Basrah. Most of the people -- especially children -- wear somewhat ragged clothes, and often have no shoes. Basrah was once the Las Vegas of Iraq -- a bustling city -- but now is reduced to Third-World-like poverty. And so we stood out as we walked down the street in sturdy shoes, fresh clothes, cameras in hand. Children ran up to us, giggling, saying 'allo, allo,' and 'thank you, thank you.' Even as I sat in the home of a family who lost a child to a missile in 1999, there were giggles coming from outside, the laughter of children who had followed us. Two boys peeked in at these foreigners, and knocked at the window until our host chased them away! Basrah is bombed almost daily now -- the planes flying through the 'no-fly zone' aim at anti-aircraft sites, but inevitably harm civilians. And looking at these children in the photo, I wonder if they will survive a war.
A UN report has estimated that 1.25 million children under 5 years old could die from malnutrition in the aftermath of a war. Basrah is home to countless such vulnerable children. There must be another way to 'liberate' these people. How else could we use the might and power of our military? Why not walk into Basrah with food, clothes, medicine? Imagine. Imagine the other ways."
PHOTO: My two friends, peeking through the window and laughing.
ACTION STEPS:
1) Prayer: Take five minutes to just be in silence. We are all connected -- every living being -- through the fact that we breathe. Take five minutes and breathe with everyone suffering because of this potential war. Breathe peace into the fear, anxiety, noise, and desperation. It will make a difference.
2) Email the UN Security Council, and share your desire for a nonviolent resolution to the present crisis. Their emails are: france@un.int, Chinamission_un@fmprc.gov.cn, mexico@un.int, Angola@un.int, Chile@un.int, contact@germany-un.org, Pakistan@un.int, spain@spainemb.org, rusun@un.int, usa@un.int, IPRD@mfa.government.bg, syria@un.int, Guinea@un.int, Cameroon@un.int, uk@un.int
Blessings and peace to you and your loved ones . . .
Sheila
The following was written by Sheila Provencher, who traveled in Iraq from Dec 8-21, 2002.
REFLECTION:
The children in the photos below are children we met in the Al-Monsour Pediatric Hospital in Baghdad. As our government seems to be possibly days from war, I can barely look into the faces of these children. I know that the individual human beings who are soldiers in the U.S. armed forces would never want to deliberately kill these children. But that is exactly what the "shock and awe" attack will do. Baghdad is a residential city, with hospitals, schools, homes, hotels, right next to military installments. There is no such thing as an attack which will target only military sites . . . . the hospital where these children now live is only blocks away from military bases.
There are other ways to contain and disarm Iraq without war. When we here in the U.S. look into the faces of the little ones who could become "collateral damage," what are we called to do?
PHOTOS: Haider, age 7, has lymphoma. The little girl with her mother also suffers from cancer.
ACTION STEPS:
1) Pray and Fast. Pray without ceasing for the conversion of heart of all who use violence as a means to solve conflict. Ask forgiveness for the ways we as individuals and nations have used violence, and ask for light to follow another way.
2) Contact the Security Council -- if you have not had a chance yet, sign the petition to at http://www.moveon.org/emergency/ The deadline is THIS FRIDAY.
3) Catholics -- email or call your bishop (find the number under "Bishops and Dioceses" at www.nccbuscc.org. Ask him to beg Pope John Paul II to personally intervene by addressing the U.N., or even by traveling to Baghdad.
Peace be with you . . . .
Sheila
The following reflection was written Mike Ferner, who was in Iraq last week.
REFLECTION:
"My month in Iraq ends on a flight out of this city later tonight. When I get home, my first order of business will be to help energize a massive, preemptive sit-down for peace that is the last hope to prevent a humanitarian disaster here in Iraq. I hope you will join with thousands of us in that effort.
I've learned many things in my short time here -- here are just a few things:
People can live a life of hope and expectation in extraordinarily oppressive conditions . . . . .
In the town of Basra, more devastated by war and sanctions than Baghdad, and the city closest to an army poised to invade, I saw barefoot city workers planting trees in a dusty boulevard. I saw a person painting orange, "no parking" zones on main street curbs. In the flat, desert countryside that, to someone from Ohio's cornbelt, appears completely desolate, I saw shepherds tending sheep grazing on almost imperceptible vegetation."
PHOTO: A shepherd praying as he tends his sheep.
ACTION STEPS
1) Fast from beverages except water. Pray for the Iraqi people who are desperately digging holes in their yards, to catch rainwater in the event of war and the destruction of water treatment plants.
2) ALTERNATIVE TO WAR: Soujourners, a Christian group dedicated to nonviolence, has developed an alternative plan that is very realistic. Go to http://www.sojo.net/action. Sign in to send the plan to politicians, newspapers, etc.
3) Email a letter to Pope John Paul II asking him to travel to Baghdad. Send it to accreditamenti@pressva.va. A sample follows.
His Holiness John Paul II
Apostolic Palace
00120 Vatican City State
Europe
Dear Holy Father,
You already have spoken clearly and forcefully against the hideous war the United States is prepared to wage against Iraq. I thank you for your courage and direction of the Church in opposition to this war.
It is clear, however, that, despite all opposition--moral and civil, international and domestic--the U.S. government is prepared to attack soon. It now seems to many of us that only one act may serve to stop this war--your physical presence in Baghdad.
Holy Father, there are many of us who would join you in this witness for peace. If you lead us, we will follow.
May God bless you and all of us and make us all truly peacemakers in imitation of Our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Humbly your servant,
The following reflection was written by Sheila Provencher, a U.S. citizen who traveled to Iraq from Dec 8-21.
REFLECTION: Bishop John Sleman, the Latin Rite bishop of Baghdad, is a gentle, spft-spoken man who communicates peace and manages to smile even as he shares his fears. The only Carmelite in the area, he says, "It is difficult, because I am alone." When he told us about the devastation of the last 12 years of sanctions, it seemed that the efforts of the church community were like a drop of water in the desert -- "the needs are more than the Church can respond to." And as he expressed his fear of the looming war, he said "Another war will condemn to death many people. It will kill hope." He is especially concerned for the young people, a huge percentage of whom suffer from depression and a sense of having no future.
We asked him how he continued on, how he gave hope to his people in this time. He turned his palms up and said, "I pray, with open hands."
PHOTOS: Bishop John Sleman, O. Carm. He told us, "The only war is to change minds."
ACTION STEPS:
1) Please visit http://www.globalvigil.org and join the global candlelight vigil for peace on Sunday, March 16th at 7:00pm. Organize a vigil in your area, or simply light a candle and pray with family and friends.
2) My Indiana friends -- we in South Bend are beginning a public Fast for Peace and Nonviolence. Mon-Fri from 11:30-1:30, at the State Theater block on Michigan. Interfaith prayer at 12:00noon and 1:30. Join in whatever way you can!
Much peace to you . . . .
Sheila
The following two paragraphs are excerpts from a letter written early this morning by Cathy Breen, who is currently in Baghdad with the Iraq Peace Team.
REFLECTION: We are a mix of Iraqi and internationals in the hotel. Some of the staff have brought their families here, so we have children around us as well. And then it began. The thunder of bombs and the tremors to the building we were in.
It was very strange. Some of us were gathered in a little tea section of the downstairs lobby which is about 15 yards away from the glass-front of the building. Cynthia handed me a bag of earplugs which I began to hand out to everyone downstairs. Children and adults alike took them and thanked me gratefully. Some of us went back and forth to the shelter in the basement, others of us lingered downstairs or even stepped outside now and then as the sun was coming up. As a couple of us stood outside for a moment wondering when the next onslaught would begin, the call to prayer sounded outside. One Muslim woman began to weep quietly and another get up to comfort her. An elderly man bent with age walked back and forth with a cane. This CANNOT really be happening I thought. It cannot be MY COUNTRY that is doing this. Dear God in heaven have mercy on us. My prayers joined with the call to prayer that was being sung even as the bombs fell. The bombing went on sporadically in bursts about every 15 minutes and then stopped after a couple of hours.
. . . . (she then describes going to the Pediatric Hospital later that day) . . .
As we walked into the hospital the image that met us was rows of empty hospital beds made up with white sheets and ready to receive the soon-to-come "war casualties." On the Pediatric Cancer unit there not a single bed occupied. It was quiet and lifeless. Beds that should have been filled with children needing chemotherapy were empty. This is because all of the mothers, except for Adra and her 5 year old son Atarid, had taken their children home yesterday. They were afraid they wouldn't be able to get to their other children due to the impending bombings. Atarid had been transferred to the neonatal unit. Adra who has a 4 year old and 1 1/2 boy at home could not bring herself to take Atarid out of the hospital. "He will die if he doesn't get the medicines" she told us. And how long will the treatment take that he needs? I asked her. "Until he dies," she told us. Mothers in the states can understand what mothers suffer the world over, we said.
PHOTO: While I do not have photos of the children Cathy describes, here is a photo many of you have seen -- little 7-year-old Haider, who has lymphoma, in the Al Monsour Pediatric Hospital.
ACTION STEPS:
1) Pray in community for the grieving people of Iraq and for the grieving families in the US who are anxious for their loved ones.
2) Sign the Citizens Declaration at the MoveOn website. http://www.moveon.org/declaration/
Peace be with you . . .
Sheila
REFLECTION: By Cathy Breen, a U.S. citizen and member of the Iraq Peace Team.
"A Testimony to the Power of Love and Life" 23 March 2003
Am so anxious to get some word off to you while there is still time. Even as I write you there is a bomb exploding threatening to blow out the glass door/window in my room. While I am not getting less fearful of the bombs, I think I am getting more used to them. Or maybe it is the overall lack of sleep that has me moving more slowly. I slept in my room last night with Bettejo in the bed next to me. Despite the periodic bomb blasts through the night that caused the building to strongly quake, only once did we actually flee downstairs to be closer to the ground floor. This waiting to be hit is a terrible thing. But then this war is a terrible thing too horrible to describe.
I just returned from visiting the Yermuke hospital where a few of us were able to go to see some of the wounded. A sad sight as I moved from one bed to another and saw some of the victims of this senseless massacre. The hospital received 108 patients in a 3-hour period on Friday evening, last night (Sunday) another 40. Dr. Rajab Karim related the case of a 26 year old mother who came in with massive injuries Saturday night. She was taken immediately to surgery and is presently in intensive care. Her 2 year old child, however, was killed instantly as the rocket went directly through the door of their home.
I stood helpless at the bedside of a little 8 year old boy, Ali, his head and abdomen completely wrapped in gauze. Three people died in his family, including his father when his home was destroyed yesterday. Fatima, a 10 year old girl, was trying to escape from her home during the bombing but wasn’t quick enough. The walls collapsed on her. She suffered multiple fractures to her left leg. Living outside of the city, there was no telephone nor transportation available, so she couldn’t be transported until the following day. Having looked at the bone breaks on her Xrays, I could only imagine the pain she must have suffered.
We hear conflicting accounts of both US/UK and Iraq casualties and deaths. Prisoners have been taken on both sides we understand. Some of our IPT folks saw US soldiers on Iraq TV last night looking terribly frightened. My heart goes out to each of them. One said, "I didn't come here to kill anyone; I was only following orders." I heard that the US has taken over a thousand Iraqi prisoners in the south?
One thing seems clear. The U.S. is meeting with a resistance that they've not counted on. And this as they move from the south toward Baghdad, a city of 5 million people. Here the skies are filled with gray billowing smoke, and the sirens and bombs are becoming constant companions. I couldn't help but think as I lay in bed last night, (or was it in the early morning hours between bombs?), that every bomb which drives fear and terror into the heart, or takes a life or maims a loved one can only serve to ignite anger in each Iraqi. God knows how angry and distraught I am. How can they not respond accordingly when faced with advancing U.S. soldiers? How could we ever think that the soldiers would be welcomed triumphantly as liberators? Oh misguided country that we are? Today in the hospital family members and the wounded asked me, "Why is this happening to us? Why? Why?" In the five months that I have been here I have only met with people who want peace and who pray for peace. They do not want war. They have done nothing wrong.
We must be clear about the fact that we have forced them to go to war. We have forced their young men and women to take up arms and to kill just as surely as if we had put the guns into their hands. Neville Watson’s words moved me so the other morning: Can somebody tell me what is the purpose of this bombing? If it is to generate fear, then it is certainly working. But isn't that what terrorists do? Create fear through violence? In opposing terrorism we have become the terrorists.
Yesterday we held a little birthday party for Kariima's daughter, Amal, who turned 13. You know her by now as I’ve referred to her and her family so often in my letters. She is my Arabic teacher. She and her family and a bunch of us from IPT, the hotel staff, taxi drivers and other friends) went across the street to a grassy area (not easy to find in Baghdad) to have cake, play volleyball with blown-up balloons and just have a good time of celebrating life in the face of adversity. A proclamation that no government or power can separate the bonds of human friendship! The party for Amal was wonderful. Everything fell into place. The blue balloons we used as volleyballs, the peace-crane chain, the cake and chicken! Amal was radiant. As the kids and ourselves were playing and running around, the bombs began to fall heavy and shaking the earth and all of us to the core. There were startled screams at first as they were so close. But we remained outside. It seemed safer than being inside. Children, energy, running playfully, laughing together, embracing. A new year of life for Amal. What youthful exuberance and joy! Interspersed--the terrifying thunder of planes and the blast of the bombs. Screams, death, trembling, fear and clinging together. But the celebration went on. A testimony to the power of love and life.
I will close with a little story. It was the 4th day of bombing, about 2:30am. I couldn't sleep as the bombs kept coming. I was just milling around the lobby area and decided to head up the stairs to my room. Maybe I'll try again to sleep? Hamed, a youngfellow who works here at the hotel called after me, "Cathy, a cup of tea? Iraqi tea?" And so I sat in a quiet area and had tea. It was a good tea. But then, Hamed is good. These people are good. You can tell when a cup of tea, or anything for that matter, is made with love. Julian of Norwich's words rang in my ears "All will be well again I know." I remembered the words that came so strongly as we knelt by the Iraq/Kuwait border a few weeks ago our faces towards the 90,000 US troops amassed in Kuwait. "Straighten up your back for what is to come. But don't be afraid. All will be well."
This early morning in between the terrible assault of bombs I thought about these dear folks here, so quick to smile and to assure. Do you know how much you call forth hope in my own sad heart? You are tired, so tired. But you haven’t given up. You stand straight and tall despite the heavy burden that you bear maybe because of the burden. You are gentle and kind to me despite the crushing cruelty of my country. Tonight we are all afraid, but I can feel your peace. Tonight I will let myself be enveloped in your peace. Tonight the bombs are falling over your city destroying your loved ones and the work of your hands. And yet you still do not accuse me.
PHOTOS: Be aware that one photo is a graphic depiction an injured young girl. Nada Adnan, 13 years old and a student at high school for girls, has an open gash on her right cranium with underlying fracture and a large, deep shrapnel gauged cut into her upper left thigh. She has no narcotic relief and cries out as aides press guaze into her leg wound. Also a photo of Anecita Hudson, the grieving mother of Joseph Hudson, one of the U.S. POWs. This war, and all of us, are sacrificing the young of both countries.
ACTION STEPS:
1) Try to pray daily for someone by name, someone from Iraq and someone from the U.S. who is there.
2) Try to gather with friends and discern how you might respond in some active way in your own local community, whether with public witness, education, lobbying, etc. Pray and discern as a group.
26 March 2003 on-site report from Neville Watson, one of the Iraq Peace Team.
Arose at 2.30am after a reasonable night's sleep about four and a half hours with an interlude of heavy bombing around midnight. It was, in my book, some of the most dangerous we have encountered because they kept operating throughout a ferocious dust storm and the bombs could have, and probably did, land anywhere.
The dust storms here have to be experienced to be believed. The post dust storm scene in front of me can be described as a snow scene in dust. The cars are covered with so much dust that that the windows and body merge together to make a shape rather than a vehicle. The closest parallel is the after effects of a volcanic eruption. The difference is that these storms occur with monotonous regularity at this time of the year. They are whipped up by a screaming wind off the desert and at times visibility is reduced to a few meters. At other time the sun reflects off the dust particles and it results in a surrealist type landscape.
Yesterday as we drove through the eerie lighting to see a farmhouse that had been demolished by a rocket, I commented that it would make good footage for a film entitled "The Last Days". Along with the dust was mixed a thick black smoke from deliberately lit oil fires around the perimeter of Baghdad. The theory is that the carbon molecules affect the passage of laser beams and so affect the accuracy of laser guided rockets which is cold comfort for those among whom the rocket lands! This to me highlights the rational irrationality of war. Stupidity is after all a rational process. The demolished farmhouse we visited, whose fault was it? Was it those who fired the rocket or those who lit the oil fires? Neither as far as I am concerned. The fault for me lies fairly and squarely with the mythmakers in the Administration the group of old men whose collective perspicacity wouldn't cover a pinhead and who never have experienced the horrors of war. Where you stand does determine what you see. Every viewpoint is from a point of view, and this is the advantage of being here. You don't see it on a television screen. You see it with your own eyes and the smell lingers in your nostrils. To most people this will be a war without death. To those of us who are here the sight and smell of it will never leave us.
It must not be thought, however, that the Peace Team is simply about on-site reporting. There are all too many of those kind of reporters around. Their task is to report what they see so that their corporate masters can decide what others should see. With a few exceptions (and I would include the Australian Broadcasting Commission in this category) they are interested only in sound bites and superficial selective reporting. It is left to the "little ones" like Voices in the Wilderness and the Iraq Peace Team to report it as it is. War remains for us the prime cause of human suffering, not only in acts done but in budgets spent. The initial cost of waging this war was set yesterday at seventy four billion dollars and this is the down payment. We see war as stupid. There is nothing on this planet that does more to create human misery than war.
But back to yesterday! We learned of the bombing of the farmhouse from the hospital that one of our groups had visited. Our aim in going to the hospital was not to get some quick pictures and a few details. It was to offer comfort and to apologize on behalf of the compassionate ones within our aggressive society back home. The father of one child remonstrated with us: "In the name of democracy you kill and injure our children!" All we could say, all anyone could say, was "I am sorry," and in our eyes there would be the hope of reconciliation. In the casualty department, as the medico in our team observed the carnage, the staff vented their anger against her and understandably so. "See what your country is doing to our people!" Through the visits we learned that three families had been decimated in a farmhouse on the outskirts of Baghdad. Two families (one of them seven day newly weds) left Baghdad to seek safety with the household of Ajmi Abdullah Ahmed. On the eighth day of her marriage, the newly wed wife was dead along with two others. Another eight were severely injured. Yesterday we went to see the destroyed house, located in an idyllic farmyard setting. I took some photos of the ghastly damage. They show a hole punched through eight inches of reinforced concrete, the reinforcing bars snaking into a twisted scene of anguish. I also took a photo of the second story concrete roof sandwiched on the floor below. Out of the edge protruded a piece of carpet. While others of the team talked to the locals and absorbed their anger, I scoured the ruins for what I was after. Eventually, I found it under some rubble - a piece of the offending rocket which when analyzed would identify its origin. As a lawyer, I am well aware that one piece of hard evidence is worth all the words in the world. That afternoon I was interviewed by a commercial radio station back in Perth. I mentioned the visits to the hospital and farm house and the presenter asked, "How can you be sure that the injuries were caused by the bombing?" I sighed and patiently tried to state the facts again, but in my heart of hearts I know that "there are none so blind as those who will not see." This was the same guy who at the end of a previous interview asked his talk back audience: "Is this guy for real or is he a traitor?" Sometimes I wonder whether the effort is worth it. At other times I recognize that our society is manipulated and massaged by commercial radio and hope springs eternal once again.
It is now 4.55am and bombs are dropping in the vicinity. They are probably making the most of a relatively clear sky. My reaction to the last one was simply "That's a big one." No great surprise or anxiety just a judgment as to size. As I have said so many times before, the ability of the human body and persona to adapt is really amazing. The fact that B52s are overhead does, however, cause me concern as I think of the thousands of Iraqi soldiers being carpet bombed into oblivion.
The candle I use for my time of contemplation slowly burned itself out this morning. Not an omen, I hope!
The following is an Iraq Peace Team report: Iraq Peace Team Members, Baghdad, Iraq
AL NASER MARKET (MARCH 28)
The largest carnage of Iraqi civilians yet since the beginning of U.S. bombings occurred on March 28 at about 6 PM when a bomb fell on a heavily crowded open air market in the predominantly Shiite district of Al Sholeh in North Baghdad, a very poor neighborhood.
An IPT member visited the Al Naser Market the following day, observed the bomb site, and talked with neighbors and witnesses. The main hit was on an asphalted lane between a row of metal booths and a row of tents. The crater in the asphalt appeared to be about 1 meter deep and about 3 meters in diameter.
The death toll had risen to 57, two of the injured having died after arriving at the Al Nur hospital, according to Dr. Ibrahim Sayid Ahmed. Of the 48 injured remaining hospitalized, 22 had been transferred to specialized units, he said. Most of the injured that IPT talked to had received shrapnel wounds in their arms, legs, and stomachs.
Others injured were transported to Al Khadamia hospital. A piece of metal from the weapon was obtained from one of the children gathered there who offered it from his pocket. It appeared to be from the casing. Three spots of blood from dead people (according to bystanders) still lay on the ground.
The injured included Zaina Kadhea*, 14, boy, with a leg injury, a broken arm, and a head injury; Iklaas Fesg*, 26, woman, and; Raison Zait Mohammed*, 55, leg and arm broken.
PHOTO: One of the injured children
ACTION STEPS:
1) Continue a specific practice of prayer and fasting, asking to know what you specifically are called to do. Perhaps take 5 minutes of silence, and ask for the grace to confront the evil within us as well as outside us, and offer it for peace and reconciliation.
2) Go to http://www.iraqpeaceteam.org/pages/join_no_app.html for links on war tax resistance, civil disobedience, etc.
3) Bookmark http://electronicIraq.net for up to date information from the ground. Perhaps send excerpts in a letter to your local newspaper.
Continue to be peace . . . . . . . .
REFLECTIONS: Several on-the-ground
reports from the Iraq Peace Team in Baghdad.
Eyewitness report, March 27th-April 3rd
Wade Hudson, Iraq Peace Team
3 April 2003
April 3rd: Today Martin and I go for our AIDS test. To exit Iraq, one must show
a certificate verifying that one has taken an AIDS test. Most people got their
certificate shortly after arriving, but I expected the U.S. to be in charge of
Baghdad by now, so I delayed mine. That instinct illustrates the unreliability
of my ability to predict these matters. For the longest time I did not think
that Bush would pull the trigger and if he did, I thought it would be a short,
one-sided slaughter, which has hardly proven to be the case. So I'm trying to
avoid predictions and live more in the moment, day-by-day.
The doctor at the clinic tells us, "You are welcome here as guests anytime, but
not as invaders." Driving around, we notice two telecommunication centers that
have been heavily bombed. Some side streets are blocked and guarded by the
military, but traffic flows freely on most streets. Most drivers ignore red
lights. A thick layer of dust from the recent storm remains most everywhere.
Some shopping areas are mostly closed, while others thrive. After having had
some time to adjust to the bombing, shops that sell essential items are doing
brisk business. Shelves are relatively empty, perhaps in anticipation of
possible looting. We go shopping for short wave radios, finding two for fifteen
dollars each, some food, and a hot plate and related items for making tea and
cooking fresh vegetables. A number of people with whom we interact are very
friendly and welcoming. No one expresses hostility toward us, though we are
obviously Americans. One older woman comes up to me and rants angrily about Bush
in Arabic. I nod my head in agreement.
AL KINDI HOSPITAL VISIT, April 1st
IPT, including Dr. April Hurley, visited with the Director of the Al Kindi
Hospital, Dr. Osama Saaleh. Dr. Saaleh reported that on March 31st his hospital
had received 45 casualties, including seven who were dead on arrival, from two
bombings -- one in the Al Ameen district and the other in the Al Dhahliyeh
district, both on the periphery of Baghdad.
The staff provided photos of an incident on March 30th at about 6 AM in the
district of Zaafraniyeh in which two closely related families in four homes were
reportedly bombed, the Shurta houses near the old Diala bridge. There was only
one survivor of the incident, Ali Ismayal, 12. Fifteen of the other 16 people
who died were: Sabah Gedan Karbeet, 42, male; Husham Sabah Eadan, 10, male;
Malek Sabah Eadan, 7, male; Ali Sabah Eadan, 4, male; Madeeha Abd Kathem, 48,
female; Sabeha Awad Merdas, 58, female; Fatema Zaboon Maktoof, 27, female; Nora
Sabah Gadan, 14, female; Esmaeel Abbas Hamza, 49, male; Muhammed Taha Abbas, 12,
male; Abeer Taha Abbas, 9 female; Muna Taha Abbas, 23, female; Abbas Esmaeel
Abbas, 7, male; Azhar Ali Taher, 33, female; and, Kameela Abd Kathem, 49,
female.
Ali's aunt, Jamela Abbas, the only surviving relative of the relatives who
wasn't at the home at the time of the bombing, confirmed reports from the
hospital staff that Ali sustained third-degree burns on 35 percent of his body
and charring of both arms, which required amputation near the shoulders. He also
had pulmonary injury from smoke inhalation. Extensive skin grafting and multiple
plastic surgeries will be necessary. Her address is Zaafraniyeh, District 50,
Street 23, House 8.
AL AMEEN VISIT, April 1st
IPT also visited Al Ameen in the east of Baghdad, the site of a bomb explosion
the day before. This is a modest residential area. IPT spoke to some of the
neighbors, as well as the uncle and the father of three dead children, Haeden
Abdul Mohammed. He said the deceased were: Mohammed, 13, Mohaned, 18, and Akmed
Abdul Hussein, seven. They said one of the boys was killed as he was walking to
his uncle's home on the street in front of one of the houses. Another boy was
outside of his home and the third in a patio area. They told IPT that there were
also a number of wounded.
We spoke with Ali Nassar Abrid, 13, who said that he was asleep on the second
floor of one of the houses when the bomb hit, and awoke covered with blood. He
was taken to Al Kindi hospital where he received stitches to a gash on his upper
lip. We were also told that Mustafa Abdul Hussein, five, was taken to Al Kindi
hospital with a serious abdominal injury.
In one home where four families are living, we saw two cousins, Ali, three, and
Alla, three-and-one-half. Our team was told that they were hit by shattering
glass. They had been sitting with family members on the floor eating at the time
of the explosion. According to their reports, at about 2:30 pm on March 31st, a
bomb or missile exploded in the air and scattered, hitting multiple dwellings,
seven houses in total. We saw damage to the wall of a rooftop, the wall of
another house, and the patio roof of a third house. The walls surrounding the
houses as well as the homes themselves were filled with pockmarks. Metal parts
and fragments presumably from the weapon(s) were scattered everywhere.
The team was able to hold and photograph various parts of the weapon. While the
weapon may have exploded in the air and then scattered, there was an impact area
on one of the patio rooftops that was only a few inches in depth and about
one-and-a-half feet in diameter, where the weapon may have hit before exploding.
A metal drum about four feet away from this shallow hole had multiple holes and
gashes from penetrating objects. When asked where the object was that caused the
hole, we were told that the Civil Defense had collected it as well as some of
the projectiles that must have been lodged in certain of the deeper pockmarks on
the walls. We found twisted sharp pieces of aluminum, heavier pieces of metal
alloy or lead, parts of what appeared to be a circuit board, parts of casing,
foam insulation, wiring, a heavy cylindrical piece of the weapon, and a heavy
brick-shaped part that they photographed.
One part had the inscription JX2N8902, MADE IN USA, 8642.
Mid-afternoon, I borrowed Jooneed's short-wave radio and listened to BBC for
almost an hour. The most interesting segment is a long piece on whether or not
the U.S. is winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. One telling
indication is that when shops recently re-opened, one of the hottest selling
items were TV antennas, even though Iraqi TV is presenting no entertainment,
only pro-war programming produced by the government. The report concludes by
saying that it appear that bombing people is no way to win their hearts and
minds.
March 27th: After a shocking visit to Al Kindi Hospital, April comments that the
UN sanctions committee has approved only 100 ambulances for Iraq in the last two
years. During her many visits to hospitals, she has seen no CAT scans, no MRIs,
little lab work, and no radiologists. Nevertheless, she says, during her visit
with Dr. Osama Saaleh, the hospital's director, he tells her, "We have shortages
but we can cope. We don't need doctors. We don't need medicine. We need someone
to stop the war."
Dr. Saaleh gave our team a diskette with photos of recent victims as
photographed by the hospital staff. These photos are gruesome and shocking and
leave most of our team disturbed. We decide, however, to include only those
photos of an incident that we are able to confirm independently.
PHOTOS: A family huddles in their yard in Baghdad as bombs fall. Najem Khalaf
cries over the body of his daughter Nadia at a morgue Friday in Baghdad, Iraq.
William Buesing III, father of U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Brian Buesing, 20, grieves over his son's coffin during funeral services Saturday in Cedar Key, Fla.
ACTION STEPS:
1) Bookmark
www.electronicIraq.net
2) Find a way to Speak the Truth about the horrors of this war. Continue to
write letters to the editor, and challenge your religious leaders to preach
about it.
2) Consider War Tax Resistance. See
www.warresisters.org.
REFLECTION: The following was written on April 10 by Cathy Breen, a U.S. citizen still in Baghdad with the Iraq Peace Team.
10 April 2003
Dear Friends,
What to tell you, I feel so anguished. It seems as though a corner has been turned. This morning as someone from our group was on their balcony listening to BBC, others of us were positioned on the other side of the hotel looking at the Jumhurriya bridge about 1 or 1 1/2 miles away. The streets in this area were pretty much deserted with the exception of an occasional car.
As we watched we were hearing on BBC that US led coalition tanks were crossing the bridge. We could see and hear explosions around us, but also there was smoke from explosions and artillery fire near the bridge; planes overhead and bombs dropping all around. Suddenly there was a great explosion and we were able to see smoke from a corner of the Palestine hotel across the way. It had been hit. This is where all of the press people in Baghdad are staying. I later heard that someone from Reuters had been hit.
There is a deep sadness overshadowing all of this. When I asked an Iraqi friend about his family, if they were well, he answered me in a voice filled with a deep sadness and resignation. "It is my country, it is my country!" He went on to say that he hopes there will not be civil war. This is something everyone here fears now.
After our conversation I began to separate a large and weighty package of dense dates into smaller plastic bags, thinking folks here would be glad to have them. Even the few vegetable stores will be closed after today I heard, and there will be no possibility to get fresh vegetables. It was a task that I welcomed, slow and methodical, allowing my thoughts to settle.
I realized more clearly than ever before, there are no victors in this war. There are no victors. Just senseless death and killing on both sides. Grieving families left to pick up the pieces. My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by two great explosions, and I left the dates to run downstairs to see what had happened.
To my surprise, Mr. Bush was on the TV giving an address from the Oval office I believe. It was very difficult to follow his words as it was being translated into Arabic. There is no electricity presently as the hotel's large generator broke down yesterday. However there is a small generator downstairs that permitted this television transmission. I sat down to listen surrounded by Iraqi friends. No one spoke. After struggling for a time to understand what was being said, I finally stood to leave when I heard Mr. Bush speak about having a "vision for peace."
I was sitting in view of a soft-spoken elderly Iraqi gentleman with whom I've had an occasional conversation. As I watched the dignity with which he held himself, my heart broke. I can only imagine what it must be like for countless Iraqis to be subjected now to an occupation of their proud country by a foreign power, especially one that has so ruthlessly bombed and continues to bomb and destroy their proud country. Now they will be faced with watching their country's oil and resources be divided up, and with possible civil war.
Last night I heard that the U.S. military is bringing not only embedded press with them when they enter, but also 3,000 Iraqis who very well might become "embedded dancers" frolicking in the streets to demonstrate how jubilant Iraqis are to be "liberated." Should this happen, we only hope that there will be a few journalist who will document the truth. The feeling here is anything but joyous and jubilant.
Last night in my journal I wrote, "How could either of our countries allow so much power to be given to one person?" I was thinking of the respective leaders of each country. I place the greater burden on the U.S. because we claim to have a democracy. Again I will say with such a heaviness of heart, there will be no victors in this war. Tragically we in the states have forced this war on the Iraqi people, a people who only want peace. Dear God, I don't know how I'll bear it if we in the States now take on a triumphal attitude and declare ourselves victors and liberators of the Iraqi people.
I hope you are all well, as well as can be expected. I think we are all in the same boat.
Much love to you all. Please God this will get off to you.
Love Cathy ."
PHOTO: One of many children injured in the war.
ACTION STEPS:
1) Continue a weekly fast day with friends.
2) Consider joining MoveOn.org's Media Corps -- challenge the media to tell the full story of the ongoing crisis for the people of Iraq. http://www.moveon.org/mediacorps/
RELFECTION recently written by Kathy Kelly, who is presently in Baghdad with the Iraq Peace Team
10 April 2003
Early this morning, Umm Zainab sat quietly in the Al Fanar lobby staring at the parade of tanks, APCs and Humvees that slowly rolled into position along Abu Nuwas Street. Tears streamed down her face. "I am very sad," she told me. "Never I thought this would happen to my country. Now, I think, my sadness will never go away."
Wanting to give Umm Zainab some quiet time, I took her two toddlers, Zainab and Miladh, outside to enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. Several soldiers stood guard not far from me and the children. I wanted to bring the children over to them, to let them behold these tiny beauties. But, no, too much of a risk - what if it would add to Umm Zaineb's pain?
We're staying put. Quite literally. Eun Ha Yoo, our Korean Peace Team friend, unrolled a huge artwork created by a Korean artist, and sweetly laid it out in the intersection just outside the Al Fanar. As I write, Neville Watson and Cathy Breen are taking their turns sitting in the middle of it.
A map of the world covers the top third; grieving victims of war fill the middle third; piles of ugly weapons with various flags scattered over them bulge out of the bottom third. Neville has set up his prayer stool and a small wooden cross where he sits. Cathy is wearing her "War Is Not The Answer" t-shirt.
At least a dozen soldiers have stopped to talk with us since we began the vigil at 3:00 this afternoon. "OK, can you tell us your side of the story?" asked one young man. "Can I sit there with you for awhile?" asked another. Each of them has assured us that they didn't want to kill anyone. One young man said he was desperate for financial aid to care for his wife and child while struggling to complete college studies and work full time. He felt he could gain some respect in this world and also help his family by joining the Marines. He's relieved that he was stationed at the rear of a line coming up from the south. His role was to guard prisoners. He didn't shoot anyone. But he saw US soldiers shoot at a civilian car with three passengers as it approached. The child in the car survived - both of his parents were immediately killed. "They could have shot the tires," said the soldier. "Some just want to kill."
One soldier offered earnest concern for us, saying "You're sitting in a dangerous place." We smiled. "Thanks," I said, "But we've been in a dangerous place for the past three weeks." He was puzzled. "What they mean," said a soldier standing next to him, "is that they've been here all through three weeks of bombing."
"Do you try to put yourselves in our shoes?" asked one soldier after he'd respectfully listened to me explain major contradictions between US rhetoric and practice regarding Iraq. "Well, yes," I said, "We try. We're taking the same risk as you by being here, and perhaps an even greater risk since we're unarmed and unprotected. Actually, just now we're lucky not to be burdened by all that heavy gear."
"Yeah," said the soldier, "It's really hot. I don't have much of an appetite. I just give away most of my rations, - give them to these people."
Hassan, one of the shoeshine boys, came over to join us, carrying a ration packet. He opened it, came across processed apple spread, and a few other curious items, then decided to donate it to us. Now the flies have discovered it.
It looks like we're on "lock-down" for a while longer. Iraqi minders are gone, US soldiers are here. They're uncoiling barbed wire at the intersection. Anyone wanting to walk across the street is stopped, questioned and searched. Since I began this letter, there have been four huge explosions nearby. Looting and burning continue, here in Baghdad. I'm sick of war - disgusted to the point of nausea. I think all of us at this intersection, residents of the Al Fanar, journalists in the Palestine Hotel next door, and soldiers on patrol, share the same queasy ill feeling. The line, "War is the health of the state" makes no sense whatsoever here.
PHOTO: IPT member Eun Ha Yoo sits with a U.S. soldier near the Al Fanar Hotel.
REFLECTION: This is a reflection of tragedy from Cathy Breen, a US citizen who has been in Baghdad since October, 2002. But tomorrow, you will receive a reflection of hope amidst the despair.
April 13, 2003
"Yesterday and today I ventured out traveling throughout the city to various areas and also visiting Kariima and the family. I can't express the deep sadness and desperation that afflicts all of us here. Burnt cars, bombed and burning buildings, looting and shooting. A gun can be bought for $3.00 on the street. Hospitals looted and roads blocked. Ambulances and police cars stolen. Hospitals no longer functional. The sick and dying turned away. There are no longer any statistics to be had. No records of birth, death, health or having studied. Books burned, no school or university more. Stores closed, schools closed. Lawlessness and anarchy. No electricity. A person who works with the Islamic Relief whose offices are in the hotel related having seen five bodies dead on the side of the street today in the city. Someone from our team saw the nurses digging graves for the babies in front of the Children's hospital as they can't get them to the cemetery.
Yesterday the Baghdad School of Ballet and Art was looted. Cynthia and I went today with a heavy heart to visit, this place where we've enjoyed so many hours and been so inspired. Two instructors visited Kathy and Cynthia today to tell them of their tragedy. They had begged the U.S. soldiers to give some kind of protection for the school to no avail. I believe that according to the Geneva Conventions the occupying forces of a country have the responsibility to guard schools and hospitals! Some armed men came this morning to the school to take the furniture, even the instruments, as the instructors pleaded with them. But they said "you are rich and have resources. We are poor and have no jobs. Baghdad is finished! "
The piece of a shattered violin on the pavement greeted us as we approached the school. Blessedly we had gotten to the school ahead of reporters and photographers. In one of the rooms where the musical instruments are stored, Hishaam, a member of the symphony orchestra picked his way through broken rubble of instruments. "I studied here. I taught here and then directed here. Why? Why?" Overcome with emotion, he couldn't go on. As I approached the entrance where the administration and classrooms were, the figure of a skeleton used in Anatomy class with an instrument case leaning on it was strewn by the front door. Tragically appropriate. Death of a civilization and culture.
Here a couple of pianos had been dragged out into the foyer. In one room desks overturned and the floor littered with torn books and papers. In another a smashed piano with the torn picture of composer on the floor. In the administration the records had been trashed and were strewn on the floor together with shattered pictures of children which had once hung proudly from the walls. I heard the sound of someone fingering one of the pianos in the foyer, one that though broken still played! It was Majid one of the instructors and also symphony orchestra member. I took a broken chair from a nearby room and silently placed it near him. He sat and began to play soulful songs that expressed his own grieving. And he played and he played and he played. On and on and on.
On the way home we passed Amal's shop and her family home where we'd spent so many wonderful hours together. It is a place that I can only describe as magical, one room more delightful than the next, each filled with art items and crafts made from copper, glass, leather, woven cloth and fabric, old musical instruments, etc. Over years people have gathered here to find refuge, to become refreshed in body and spirit. Always a welcoming atmosphere where stimulating and hearty conversation abounded. I had come here on my birthday in January to let myself be embraced and nurtured.
But I had seen from the street the gaping hole in the shop window and the door to the house ripped open and I needed to see for myself the damage, the ravages of war.
Nothing remained in the house except a few broken pottery shards and pieces of wicker furniture in a pile in one of the rooms. Everything had been stripped. Absolutely everything was bare and desolate. You might remember a brief piece I recently wrote the evening after I'd seen the destruction to Amal's home, and the helplessness I felt to console her. I am hoping that Kathy and I can go in the next day or so to where she is staying with friends as I cannot imagine how she is after such another blow. No one has been spared!
The hotel here, once populated by our group and in many ways like a little family, is now overflowing with boisterous high-energy journalists from all over the world¯war correspondents I guess they are called. They began to arrive yesterday or the day before. No visas are needed now, there is no border police.
How will this end? Will it ever end. Can this be happening. Kariima and the children and I wept together when I was there two days ago. The kids clung to me, Kariima looked so worn. Ali, her oldest and a soldier in Mosel is OK they say. His friend though was not so lucky. The children said as soon as I entered "Why is there stealing (ali baba is what they say for stealing), when the U.S. troops are here? With Sadaam thieves were *they motioned throat slitting."
I will close now. We have so little sense of where this might be going or how it will end. Why is this happening? How can this be happening? We are all struggling to understand. It is heartbreakingly sad to watch this proud hospitable and peaceful people so torn and anguished now. I will try and write soon.
Love cathy
REFLECTION: Written by Cathy Breen, of the Iraq Peace Team, still in Baghdad.
"Yesterday a young man, Ra'ad, was visiting with Cynthia and I joined them. A civil engineer and university teacher, he works with an NGO Bridges for Baghdad. Struggling to understand how the tragic looting and destruction could occur, I asked him what he thought. He doesn't discount that some of it is caused by people coming from outside of Iraq. But he also doesn't believe it is primarily an issue of the poor evening the score with the rich. He sees it as an "ethical" question--one that has to do with the heart in answering the question "is there a God?" Himself an observant Muslim, though not in the traditional sense of outward dress and bearded men which he considers to be like "a shell."
He told us that he tried to keep his students focused on their exams in mid-January. Aware that the war would come, he encouraged them to volunteer during the conflict in the area, for instance, of water purification. "There must be a marriage between knowledge and ethics" he said. An "at home" astrologer, Ra'ad took his telescope out when the electricity went off and took pictures of Jupiter and the planets, "between the bombs We must keep on searching and enjoying the universe." I can't describe to you the hope I drew from this dear man.
I apologize for the length of this message, but now I will be able to continue on afresh God willing. I hope to see Amal if I can find someone to take me there this afternoon. The occupation troops have called for a curfew, so the hours of moving about are shortened.
I greet you all with very much love, cathy
PHOTO: Majid Al-Ghazali, who had been a teacher at the Baghdad School of Folk Music and Ballet, plays the piano in what is left of the school, destroyed by looters.
ACTION STEPS:
1. Send a clear message on humanitarian aid and Iraqi freedom to key senators, the White House, and the Pentagon by going to: http://www.sojo.net/action
2. Make a contribution to provide medical supplies for Iraqi children through All Our Children.
Sheila Provencher
507 Parkovash Avenue
South Bend, IN 46617
(574) 234-9085
sheila_prov@hotmail.com
provencher.1@nd.edu