Fighting
Is Over But the Deaths Go On
By Michael Howard in Kirkuk
The Guardian
29 April, 2003
Unexploded ordnance and landmines littering northern Iraq have killed
or maimed more people - many of them children - since the end of the
war than during the fighting, a Guardian investigation has revealed.
In the two weeks after the
cessation of hostilities on the northern frontline, which divided the
Kurdish self-rule area from government-controlled territory, as many
as 80 civilians have died and more than 500 have been injured.
"We are facing an emergency
situation," said Sean Sutton of the UK-based Mines Advisory Group,
which is coordinating an operation in the region to clear unexploded
ordnance and mines.
"Across Iraq, the detritus
of war is killing, maiming and scarring for life adults and, most tragically,
children."
Iraqi woman Mona Hassan, 37, cries as she comforts her five year old
son Ali Mustafa in her arms at Baghdad's Saddam hospital, Thursday April
17, 2003. Ali and his four brothers were wounded by an unexploded cluster
bomb they found in the garden of their home. The others suffered facial
and hand injuries. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
In the north, human rights groups, anti-mine organizations and Kurdish
regional authorities are struggling to document the casualties. And,
because of a piecemeal approach to record-keeping, mortality rates could
be even higher than suggested.
To assess the scale of the
problem, the Guardian visited hospitals and police stations in the city
of Kirkuk, as well as in four towns on the south-east tip of the green
line: Kalar, Kifri, Khanaqin and Jalula.
Casualty departments were
struggling to cope with the effects of the arsenal left by the Iraqi
army and US warplanes.
Among the injured were farmers
who stepped on mines planted by retreating Iraqi soldiers; scrap dealers
who tried to salvage brass from unexploded shells; and children who
played a disastrous game of "genie" with gunpowder from anti-aircraft
bullets.
Some of the 1,500 cluster
bombs the US dropped on Iraq have also killed and wounded people around
Mosul, Kirkuk and Jalula. In Mosul and Kirkuk, Iraqi soldiers stockpiled
ammunition and small arms in homes and schools. "They clearly believed
that by withdrawing into the cities they could make the war last for
six months," Mr Sutton said.
Reports from hospitals in
Mosul suggest a rise in deaths and injuries since the end of hostilities,
only some of it attributable to the unrest in the city after its fall.
But with more than 300 dead
or injured so far, the population of Kirkuk appears to have suffered
the most.
The Guardian was told of
44 deaths caused by landmines or unexploded ordnance in the five days
after the collapse of the city on April 9. And, on April 15, 17 people
were killed and three injured in one blast in the district of Dibs.
They were reportedly trying to take scrap from unexploded shells.
At the Bayda secondary school
for girls, researchers for Human Rights Watch found a classroom stuffed
with rocket-propelled grenades, mortar shells, and machine-gun bullets.
A school guard said the ammunition had been taken to the school shortly
before the war began, and that the girls had been forced to take their
lessons in a room next door.
In Kirkuk, anti-personnel
mines and ammunition were found packed into makeshift bunkers on common
ground near residential areas. Other explosive materials lay around
the grounds of abandoned military bases on the city's edge. A local
mosque was home to around 700 landmines.
Mr Sutton said the Mines
Advisory Group had also found evidence of a new type of American cluster
bomb dropped outside the city.
The BLU 108, he explained,
is an anti-armour bomblet with a sensor. When the mother unit is dropped
it spews out four smaller units with parachutes. Each of these then
slings out four lethal circular discs. "These should be directed
toward armour," Mr Sutton said. "But we found them in fields.
And 75% of them were unexploded."
He said the group had cleared
most of the cluster bombs from the city in cooperation with US forces.
But more needed to be done.
"We need funds to clear
up this mess now. For the price of two cruise missiles we could save
many lives."
Yesterday in Jalula locals
told of cluster bombs dropped nearby. Hussein Khalifa, chief surgeon
at the local hospital, said there had been 12 incidents of burns, mine
and UXO injuries in the last few days.
As he spoke, another burns
injury arrived. Satair Ahmed Abbas, 15, had been playing with explosives
on wasteground near the military camp. He sat stoically as the doctor
examined his charred face. "He's lost one eye; we may be able to
save the other," Dr Khalifa said.
Later, in the town of Kalar,
the Guardian was told of a further 12 deaths and 95 injuries in the
two weeks after fighting stopped. Thirty-two of the injured were children.
Meanwhile, in Baghdad on
Saturday at least six people died and 10 were wounded when an Iraqi
weapons cache under US control exploded.
The US military blamed unknown
attackers who had fired four flares into the open dump. Residents accused
the Americans of storing the arsenal near a housing estate.
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