PHA-Exchange> Iraq: Hotel Lebanon - A Doctor's Story

[Wim De Ceukelaire]

Published on Monday, March 22, 2004 by CommonDreams.org

Iraq: Hotel Lebanon - A Doctor's Story
by Felicity Arbuthnot

Dr Gert Van Moorter, from the Belgian NGO Medical Aid for the Third World
heard
the explosion which destroyed Baghdad's Hotel Lebanon and identified the
location from the plumes of smoke and flames leaping skywards, visible from
behind the great turquoise and gold dome of the Mosque on Andalus Square,
where
Saddam's statue was toppled on April 9th last year. With his colleague Marc,
a
Red Cross volunteer they rushed by taxi to the scene of render assistance.

They were met by a scene of carnage and "chaos", says van Moorter. "Cars, an
oil drum, surrounding houses on fire ... people looking for survivors in the
debris." Identifying themselves as medics to an Iraqi policeman trying to
bring
some order to the mayhem, with people were literally falling over each other
in
their efforts to gain access and aid victims, the two were allowed in whilst
others were held back. Firemen were desperately trying to bring the flames
under control. Although the first ambulances had already left, no emergency
medical post had been set up and as the two quickly worked out the most
constructive course of action. To their relief, the American military
arrived,
constructive assistance, sophisticated medical facilities were now within
reach, they assumed. It was not to be : "A soldier shouted at me that I have
to
go. I told him that I am an emergency doctor, checking to see if I can help.
He
pushed me roughly and repeats that I must go ; when I persisted, he
shouted: "show me your card" ". Van Moorter produced his Medical Aid for the
Third World ID with photograph: "He looked at it ... then threw it on the
ground, saying 'We do not need your help'."

Van Moorter says he could "hardly believe" what was happening. "Is this the
American way of helping people?" he asked. "Go one step further and you will
be
arrested," he says the soldier replied. Now surrounded by four armed
soldiers
who were "very tense" he decided it prudent to comply: "...but inside I was
boiling.... such arrogance, such impoliteness ..." and precious time being
wasted: "Whether the victims needed help was simply not of concern." When a
senior officer arrived arrest seemed inevitable, but sanity was restored
when
he beckoned to them and took them to a nearby hospital which was being
evacuated and requested they help. It will never be known however, whether
there were precious lives that might have been saved in those lost minutes
of
man's inhumanity to those "it is not productive to (body) count" lying in
the
rubble - in US army vernacular, they are lesser beings: "Hajjis"
and "Towelheads" , just as the Vietnamese in, as Iraq, another American
disaster of historic proportions were "gooks", "dinks", "dopes" and
"slopes."

At the hospital, an Iraqi doctor, himself injured in the leg requested they
take a patient who had just had a stomach operation, to the Nafez Hospital.
The
request brought back memories. "Entering the ambulance, I remembered April
9th
last year, as the US soldiers shot their way into the city, we were taking
two
wounded patients there. US soldiers shot up the ambulance. Both young men
died
of their injuries."

At the Nafez the wounded are arriving and van Moorter, finally able to
utilize
his skills in emergency medicine, asks for surgical gloves. "Maku" - "none".
Bandages: "Maku". He bandaged George, an Iraqi's with a wounded arm with his
patient's shirt. George had multiple injuries, including head, ear and ribs
was
fainting, nauseous and needed plasma to balance falling blood pressure and
medication to prevent vomiting. "Maku, maku." " A year after the fall of the
regime, in the four hospitals I have visited (since returning) there has
been
no improvement over the thirteen disastrous sanctions years, all vital
materials are missing and old equipment is a year older, more has broken
down
irretrievably - and for the rest, there is just a lot of "maku."

George needed a comprehensive check up and - vitally - a scanner for his
head
injuries. "Maku". An aged X-ray machine is just functioning. George
constantly
lost consciousness and in absence of the treatment he needed, Van Moorter
was
reduced to slapping his cheeks to keep him awake, fearing him slipping into
an
irreversible coma. "I asked him if he knew where he was: "in hell" he
replied.
Then I am the devil, I said - he laughed, which was a good sign."

The hospital received fifteen victims; two dead on arrival and two referred
elsewhere for neurosurgery. Treating a less injured Lebanese victim for face
wounds, an Iraqi nurse began to disinfect the cuts using a cotton wool
swab -
the same piece for each wound. Cotton swabs too, almost "maku."

Near midnight they headed for their hotel. Unable to find a taxi, a passing
motorist offered to drive them,"for free." He had worked for the American
army
for a while as an interpreter, but quit, commenting: "They are crazy, those
Americans." Stopped at a checkpoint, he showed the soldiers something and
was
allowed to proceed with remarkable speed, what was the trick? "Easy, you
show
them something with an American flag on it." He had a small case with the
flags
of the US, Great Britain and Australia with "Operation Iraq Freedom" also
written on it and his driver's permit inside. Iraqis are past masters at
telling people what they want to hear - they have. After all, had
generations
of practice.

Van Moorter ponders on Iraq's new found freedom: "As we returned, shooting
was
again taking place" . Freedom has made the country one of the most dangerous
on
earth, further: "Freedom not to get appropriate medical care; freedom to get
laid off; freedom of speech so long as you say the right things. Above all
it
is America's freedom to control the oil, to shoot at whom and when they
want,
to stop a doctor treating the injured. What is the future of this country?"

At the hospital the families of the injured had thanked the two for their
help. "I said we have to thank them that we were able to help them. It is
always greater to be able to help, than be helped."

Shortly after the terrible events at the Hotel Lebanon, a friend wrote to
Van
Moorter about the two to three thousand strong demonstration to mark a year
since the invasion and demand foreign troops withdraw. It began after Friday
prayers: " I marched with them; first with a group of Sunni Muslims", then
they
waited for the people coming out of a Shi'a Mosque on the other side of the
Tigris river: " It was a beautiful moment to see important Imams of both
religious groups joining hands." This time the occupiers were not being told
what they wanted to hear. Streamers and banners had harsh words about Iraqis
plight and their feelings towards their "liberators"..

With some truly indomitable and courageous foreigners in Iraq who ask only
to
help, not interfere and with the near unique Iraqi inventiveness, there will
be
future for Mesopotamia, this ancients "land between two rivers" .

In the 1920's when spying for the British, in another ultimately ill fated
Mesopotamian adventure, Gertrude Bell wrote of the Iraqis: " .. The
enterprise,
the rigors, the courage ..." In spite of all, it is still undiminished. The
US-
driven embargo killed as many as Pol Pot and this has been Iraq's Year Zero,
but the coalition of the arm twisted and unwilling is unraveling and - as
throughout history - the invaders will have to leave and Iraq, will once
again,
rebuild.

Felicity Arbuthnot (asceptic at burntmail.com) has written and broadcast widely
on
Iraq and with Denis Halliday was senior researcher for John Pilger's Award
winning documentary: 'Paying the Price - Killing the Children of Iraq.'


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