No
Space For The Dead In Sadr City
By Aljazeera
01 September, 2004
Aljazeera
The elderly man
who runs a hospital mortuary in Sadr City says he does not have space
for the bodies of those killed in fighting in the Baghdad neighbourhood.
"I'm tired
of this," grumbles 74-year-old Bidu Abbass. "This morgue is
old. There's not enough room," he said, pointing at a refrigerated
metal room by the hospital gate.
"Sometimes
they bring 15 bodies, sometimes 20, sometimes 30," he said, grimacing
as he remembers occasions when the morgue's refrigeration units have
been knocked out by power cuts. "The smell kills."
The Imam Ali general
hospital in Sadr City has become a field clinic for fighters and others
wounded in clashes between US occupation forces and fighters loyal to
Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr.
Clashes broke out
at the weekend in Sadr City, which was not included in a peace deal
last week ending fighting between al-Sadr loyalists and US and Iraqi
forces in Najaf.
They struggle
against supply shortages and risk death to treat both the wounded and
the many suffering from disease in the slum, where pools of sewage fill
potholes and dead animals decay in the streets.
"It's like
we're going to the frontline," said Dr Ghazwan Ghalyan, who was
shot in the neck on his way to work last week.
"The streets
were blocked, they were filled with tanks. So we got out of the car
and started walking, then a bullet struck me and I fell unconscious,"
the 25-year-old said.
"The bullet
entered here and left here," he said, pointing at blood-soaked
bandages on either side of his neck. "One centimetre further forward
and it would have shattered my spinal column."
Like Ghalyan, many
of those wounded in fighting were shot either in the chest or above,
the hospital doctors said. "That's where the Americans aim,"
Dr Samir Saaid said. "We can't treat them. They die in transit
to another hospital," he said.
The doctors struggle
against shortages of basic equipment including blood transfusion kits.
Fighting, which first erupted in Sadr City in early April, has even
cut the hospital's supplies of clean water, which is delivered by tankers.
"One time we
couldn't find drinking water for eight hours," said surgeon Sarmad
Adnan, who was previously an Iraqi army doctor. "I now see things
I never saw in the army."
When clashes erupt,
the hospital is filled with the frantic relatives of the wounded, who
block corridors and make it difficult for doctors to treat the casualties,
27-year-old doctor Laith Ghazi said.
Relatives often
threaten doctors who they think are not doing enough for the wounded.
"Many times
my colleagues have been struck. Sometimes those relatives are even carrying
machine guns," Ghazi said.
Ghazi says his work,
which pays $140 per month, gives him anxiety. "But I have to do
my duty," he said.
The doctors who
say disease is rife in Sadr City hope the fighting will end soon. "We
have a lot of work anyway," Saaid said. "The water is dirty.
The sewage system is exhausted."