Falluja's Health
Damage
By Miles Schuman
26 November, 2004
The
Nation
While
the North American news media have focused on the military triumph of
US Marines in Falluja, little attention has been paid to reports that
US armed forces killed scores of patients in an attack on a Falluja
health center and have deprived civilians of medical care, food and
water.
Although the US
military has dismissed accounts of the health center bombing as "unsubstantiated,"
in fact they are credible and come from multiple sources. Dr. Sami al-Jumaili
described how US warplanes bombed the Central Health Centre in which
he was working at 5:30 am on November 9. The clinic had been treating
many of the city's sick and wounded after US forces took over the main
hospital at the start of the invasion. According to Dr. al-Jumaili,
US warplanes dropped three bombs on the clinic, where approximately
sixty patients--many of whom had serious injuries from US aerial bombings
and attacks--were being treated.
Dr. al-Jumaili reports
that thirty-five patients were killed in the airstrike, including two
girls and three boys under the age of 10. In addition, he said, fifteen
medics, four nurses and five health support staff were killed, among
them health aides Sami Omar and Omar Mahmoud, nurses Ali Amini and Omar
Ahmed, and physicians Muhammad Abbas, Hamid Rabia, Saluan al-Kubaissy
and Mustafa Sheriff.
Although the deaths
of these individual health workers could not be independently confirmed,
Dr. al-Jumaili's account is echoed by Fadhil Badrani, an Iraqi reporter
for Reuters and the BBC. Reached by phone in Falluja, Badrani estimated
that forty patients and fifteen health workers had been killed in the
bombing. Dr. Eiman al-Ani of Falluja General Hospital, who said he reached
the site shortly after the attack, said that the entire health center
had collapsed on the patients.
It was well-known
that the Falluja facility was a health center operating as a small hospital,
a protected institution under international law. According to James
Ross of Human Rights Watch, "the onus would be on the US government
to demonstrate that the hospital was being used for military purposes
and that its response was proportionate. Even if there were snipers
there, it would never justify destroying a hospital."
US airstrikes also
leveled a warehouse in which medical supplies were stored next to the
health center, Dr. al-Jumaili reports. Ambulances from the city had
been confiscated by the government, he says, and the only vehicle left
was targeted by US fire, killing the driver and wounding a paramedic.
Hamid Salaman of the Falluja General Hospital told the Associated Press
that five patients in the ambulance were killed.
US and allied Iraqi
military forces stormed the Falluja General Hospital, which is on the
perimeter of the city, at the beginning of the assault, claiming it
was under insurgent control and was a center of propaganda about civilian
casualties during last April's attack on the city. The soldiers encountered
no resistance. Dr. Rafe Chiad, the hospital's director, reached by phone,
stated emphatically that it is a neutral institution, providing humanitarian
aid. According to Dr. Chiad, the US military has prevented hospital
physicians, including a team of surgeons, anesthesiologists, internists
and general practitioners, from entering Falluja. US authorities have
denied all requests to send doctors, ambulances, medical equipment and
supplies from the hospital into the city to tend to the wounded, he
said. Now the city's only health facility is a small Iraqi military
clinic, which is inaccessible to most of the city's remaining population
because of its distance from many neighborhoods and the dangers posed
by US snipers and crossfire.
"Falluja is
dying," said Dr. al-Ani. "We want to save whoever we can."
Jim Welsh, health and human rights coordinator for Amnesty International
in London, notes that under the Geneva Conventions, "medical personnel
cannot be forced to refrain from providing healthcare which they believe
is their ethical responsibility." The 173-bed Falluja General Hospital
remains empty, according to Dr. Chiad.
The Iraqi Red Crescent
Society has called the health conditions in and around Falluja "catastrophic."
One hospital staff member who recently left the city reports that there
were severe outbreaks of diarrheal infections among the population,
with children and the elderly dying from infectious disease, starvation
and dehydration in greater numbers each day. Dr. al-Jumaili, Dr. al-Ani
and journalist Badrani each stated that the wounded and children are
dying because of lack of medical attention and water. In one case, according
to Dr. al-Jumaili, three children died of dehydration when their father
was unable to find water for them. The US forces cut off the city's
water supply before launching their assault.
"The people
are dying because they are injured, have nothing to eat or drink, almost
no healthcare," said Dr. al-Ani. "The small rations of food
and water handed out by the US soldiers cannot provide for the population."
For the thousands living in makeshift camps outside the city, according
to Firdus al-Ubadi of the Red Crescent Society, hygiene and health conditions
are as precarious as in Falluja. There are no oral rehydration solutions
or salts for those who are dehydrated, she says.
These reports demand
an immediate international response, an end to assaults on Falluja's
civilian population and the free passage of medical aid, food and water.
Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,
has vowed to investigate "violations of the rules of war designed
to protect civilians and combatants" in Falluja and to bring the
perpetrators to justice. The San Francisco-based Association of Humanitarian
Lawyers has petitioned the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
of the Organization of American States to investigate the deaths. The
bombing of hospitalized patients, forced starvation and dehydration,
denial of medicines and health services to the sick and wounded must
be recognized for what they are: war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Miles Schuman is
a family physician and member of the medical network of the Canadian
Centre for Victims of Torture.
Afif Sarhan, an Iraqi physician and journalist, contributed reporting
for this article.
Copyright ©
2004 The Nation