Angry, Very Angry
By Kathy Kelly
BAGHDAD -- Im surrounded by some of the most kindly and gentle
people in the world, coming from many walks of life. Members of our
Iraq Peace Team have checked in on most days of our five
month stay here, some having been here for the full five months, and
continually give expression to sentiments that are sacred in their affirmation
of simplicity, sharing, and commitment to nonviolence. But in the last
several days, feelings of intense anger surface. Im angry,
confided Sang Jin Han, of South Korea, a peace activist who has led
South Koreas campaign to ban land mines and who works closely
with the Asian Peace Alliance. I think this war will kill thousands
of people.
Likewise, Zefira Hourfani,
an Algerian woman, says she is very angry, so much so that she no longer
considers herself a Canadian. Now I am an Arab, she says,
and I am angry at the western countries. Lisa Ndjeru, a
Rwandan woman, also a Canadian citizen, took particular umbrage over
President Bushs request that Americans help the US troops by assisting
them with home repair and child care. What lunacy! said
Lisa. Young Americans whose children need care and whose homes
are falling apart should loan themselves to destroy homes and maim children
in this country in order to finally get some help?
We try not to take our anger
out on journalists who contact us. Neville Watson is normally gracious
and entirely rational when he speaks to media. But he confessed that
a few days ago, he let him have it with both barrels when
an Australian shock-jock referred to civilian casualties
as the expected collateral damage that comes with war. How dare
you refer to our friends as collateral damage? asked Neville.
And who is Mr. Bush kidding when he expects us to believe that
the US wants to secure Iraqs oil fields for the benefit of Iraqi
people? Neville goes on to recite the sad and sordid history of
economic siege and warfare that has cost the lives, already, of hundreds
of thousands of children under age five.
Yes, we are angry, very angry,
and yet we feel deep responsibility to further the nonviolent antiwar
efforts that burgeon in cities and towns throughout the world. We can
direct our anger toward clear confrontation, controlling it so that
we wont explode in reactionary rage, but rather draw the sympathies
of people toward the plight of innocent people here who never wanted
to attack the U.S., who wonder, even as the bombs terrify them, why
they cant live as brothers and sisters with people in America.
The Bush administration says
the war has been successful because so far there have been only 500
casualties. From our March 24 2003 report on visits to the Yermouk and
Al Kindy hospital trauma centers, where hundreds of wounded and maimed
patients have been treated over the past five days, here are some of
the success stories:
Roesio Salem, age 10 is from
Hai Risal. She went to the entrance of her home and told shouted to
her father, Bomb coming! at which point she was hit on the
first day of the attack. She is 10 years old and has sustained severe
chest injuries. We simply couldnt take our eyes off of her as
she gently smiled at us from her hospital bed.
Fatima 10 years old, from
Radwaniya. She suffered multiple fractures when she and her family ran
from their home, in an urban area, on Friday evening, March 21. A wall
fell down and she suffered a fractured tibia. The family had no means
of transport and had to wait until the next morning to get her to a
hospital. Her father, Abu Mustafa, who works as a farm laborer, said,
We are like brothers and sisters to people in the United States.
We dont attack American people. Please give this message to American
people. This is an invasion, it has nothing to do with democracy.
Ahmed Sabah, age 18, from
the Al Zafrania district, was inside his home at 9:30 p.m. on Thursday,
March 20. He suffered multiple wounds and a fractured arm and leg from
shell injuries. They have used an external fixator to set his compound
fractures.
His father asked us to show
people in all countries that love peace that his son is a victim and
not a criminal.
Hamed Kathem, age 20 sustained
injury to his leg from shelling and arterial injury as well. He was
in the courtyard of his home in El Biladiya on March 20. We havent
gone to the US to hit them. They came here. Last night children were
admitted to this hospital, said Hamed. And then he simply asked,
Why? God save all the people, said his father,
quietly, And God save all countries from this destruction.
Khadem Wadi, age 63, of Saddam
City, was shopping for his family on March 23 at 5:00 p.m. when shrapnel
punctured his intestine and wounded his leg. Two shells were removed
from his abdomen.
Hosam Khaf, a 13 year old
boy from Baghdad Jeddidah, was injured on Friday, March 21st at 9:00
p.m. He sustained a shell injury to his abdomen and now has a colostomy
bag. He is in great pain today. He lives in a multiple story building.
As huge bombs exploded nearby, his family fled their flat. When he went
into the street he was hit by shelling. His father, Abu Hosam, says
that there are a military hospital and a military training facility
45 km away. Most of the casualties are children, elderly people
and civilians, said Abu Hosam. What do they have to do with fighting
and war?
We felt some relief in being
able to tell patients and their families that people in countries around
the world are turning out for massive demonstrations against the war.
Each of these victims whose
bedsides we visited today will lie still, hopefully recovering, with
many hours to reflect on what has happened to them. Peace activists
who continue to fill jails in the US will likewise spend hours of confinement,
pained by the cruel stupidity of warfare. Most of us are angry, very
angry, - few of us can manage the genuine sweetness of little Ruba Salem
whose gaze radiated easy affection in spite of her trauma,-- and yet
I believe that we can channel our anger, our disappointment, our frustration
and our rage into the kind of energy that will champion nonviolent resistance
to the works of war, and an ever deepening desire for the works of mercy.
Kathy Kelly is co-coordinator
of Voices in the Wilderness and the Iraq Peace Team , a group of international
peaceworkers remaining in Iraq through the war, in order to be a voice
for the Iraqi people in the West. The Iraq Peace Team can be reached
at [email protected]
March 25, 2003