PHA-Exchange> The desperate plight of children who are dying in Iraqi hospitals....

[Marcy Bloom]

Subject: IRAQ: The desperate plight of children who are dying in Iraqi
hospitals is revealed today in a letter signed by 100 eminent doctors backed
by a group of intl lawyers

The desperate plight of children who are dying in Iraqi hospitals for the
lack of simple equipment that in some cases can cost as little as 95p is
revealed today in a
<http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2165471.ece> letter
signed by nearly 100 eminent doctors. 

They are backed by a group of international lawyers, who say the conditions
in hospitals revealed in their letter amount to a breach of the Geneva
conventions that require Britain and the US as occupying forces to protect
human life.

In a direct appeal to Tony Blair, the doctors describe desperate shortages
causing "hundreds" of children to die in hospitals. The signatories include
Iraqi doctors, British doctors who have worked in Iraqi hospitals, and
leading UK consultants and GPs.

 

 

 

http://news.independent.co.uk
<http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2165471.ece>
/world/middle_east/article2165471.ece

 

 

20 January 2007 09:54 


The Letter: 'Sick or injured children, who could be easily treated, are left
to die in hundreds' 


Published: 19 January 2007 


"We are concerned that children are dying in Iraq for want of medical
treatment. Iraq, instead of being a country at the top of the league for
medicine, as it once was, now has conditions and mortality of a Third World
country. 

 

Sick or injured children, who could otherwise be treated by simple means,
are left to die in their hundreds because they do not have access to basic
medicines or other resources. Children who have lost hands, feet, and limbs
are left without prostheses. Children with grave psychological distress are
left untreated.

 

We understand that the UK may withdraw its forces from Iraq in 2007. Before
this happens, we call on the UK Government not to walk away from this
problem, but to fulfil its obligations that it entered into under Security
Council Resolution 1483 during the period 22 May 2003 to 28 June 2004.

 

This Resolution recognised the UK and US as being occupying powers in Iraq
but also stated that they had to comply with the Geneva and Hague
Conventions. These Conventions specifically require the occupying powers to
maintain order and to look after the medical needs of the population. This
they failed to do, and the knock-on effect of this failure is affecting
Iraqi children's hospitals with increasing ferocity. We also ask the UK, as
one of the Occupying Powers designated by Resolution 1483 as Trustees of
"The Development Fund For Iraq," to properly account for these assets
estimated at $23bn in May 2003. It is asserted that by June 2004 some $14bn
vanished in corruption, theft and payment to mercenaries.

 

We ask that all the revenues from Iraq's oil now pass directly to the Iraqi
people, and that illegal contracts entered into by the Coalition Provisional
Authority are revoked.

Only in this way can the Iraqi people rebuild their country with its
infrastructure, administration, and hospitals."

 

Submitted by: Dr Chris Burns-Cox MD FRCP Consultant Physician, Gloucester Dr
Heba Al-Naseri MB BS BSc Dr K Alston FFARCSI Associate Specialist in
Anaesthetics at Torbay Hospital Ghada Karmi MB ChB MRCP PhD MFPHM RCP former
Consultant in Public Health Medicine, North Thanes Regional Health Authority
Dr Brian Robinson MA MB BCh BAO (TCD) DPM (Engl) Dipl Clin Hypnosis (UCL)
Martin Birnstingl MS FRCS Retired Senior Surgeon, St Bartholomew's Hospital
Dr Fiona Godlee Editor-in-chief BMJ Dr Ihab M Emran MSc MD Consultant
(Locum) Spinal Surgeon, Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital Dr Derek Summerfield
BSc (Hons) MBBS MRCPsych. Hon Sen Lect, Inst of Psychiatry, Univ of London;
Teaching Associate, Refugee Studies Centre, Univ of Oxford Dr. Maggie Wright
BSc (hons) Pharmacology MB ChB FRCA Director of Intensive Care Unit, James
Paget University Hospital Foundation Trust Lt Col G Vautier RAMC (ret) BM
FRCP Consultant Gastroenterologist James Paget University Hospitals NHS
Foundation Trust Richard LM Newell BSc FRCS Retired Consultant Trauma &
Orthopaedic Surgeon Dr S.Sadullah FRCP FRCPath Consultant Haematologist
James Paget University Hospital, Great Yarmouth Dr Stephen J Wilson MB ChB
FRCA Consultant Anaesthetist Honorary Senior Lecturer Dr Tim Paine FRCGP
MRCP General Practitioner (retd) Bristol Dr Christopher Richards MB ChB
MRCGP DCH Retired General Practitioner and Psychotherapist Bristol Dr
Nicholas Mayne MD FRCP Consultant Physician Cheltenham Prof Allyson Pollock
Director, Institute for International Health Policy, University of Edinburgh
Prof Debbie Lawlor Professor of Epidemiology University of Bristol Dr Eric
Brunner PhD FFPH Reader in Epidemiology and Public Health University College
London Prof George Davey Smith Professor of Clinical Epidemiology University
of Bristol Dr Philip Wilson DPhil MRCP MRCPCH FRCGP General Practitioner and
Senior Clinical Research Fellow University of Glasgow Dr John Macleod Senior
Lecturer in Primary Care University of Birmingham Prof Trish Greenhalgh OBE
MD FRCP FRCGP Professor of Primary Health Care Dr Ian Roberts Professor of
Public Health London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Dr Nick Maurice
OBE GP (retd) Director UKOWLA Dr Jane Ferrie Senior Research Fellow Dept.
Epidemiology and Public Health University College London Prof Martin McKee
CBE MD DSc FRCP Professor of European Public Health London School of Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine David Gunnell Professor of Epidemiology University of
Bristol Dr Ros Kennedy GP Principal MB BS MRCP MRCGP Dr Sam Richmond MB BS
FRCP FRCPCH Consultant Paediatrician and Neonatologist Sunderland Royal
Hospital Mr Daniel B Byles FRCOpth Consultant Opthalmologist Royal Devon &
Exeter Hospital Dr Megan Byles MB ChB MRCGP General Practioner Ottery St
Mary Devon Dr S.Dixon MB ChB MRCGP Appley Somerset Dr L.Ibbs MRCGP MRCP
General Practitioner Islip Medical Practice Mr S F Brewster FRCS (urology)
Consultant Urologist Churchill Hospital Oxford Mr N Burns-Cox FRCS (urology)
Musgrove Park Hospital Taunton Dr Iona Heath CBE FRCGP MRCP Caversham Group
Practice Dr David Nicholl FRCP PhD Consultant Neurologist City Hospital
Birmingham C.M.Davidson MB MCh FRCS FRCSEd FRFPSG Retired Senior Consultant
Surgeon Prof Alun Evans Department of Epidemiology and Public Health Belfast
David Halpin MB BS FRCS Consultant Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgeon (retd) Dr
Ros Kennedy GP Principal MB BS MRCP MRCGP Robert Shearer MB BS FRCS
Consultant Urological Surgeon (retd) Dr David Batty Research Fellow
University of Glasgow Dr S Shakti MB BS MRCPH Paediatric SPR Mr Dawlatly MB
BS MRCOG Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology Dr Jack Piachaud FRCPsych
Felicity de Zulueta BSc MA (Cantab) MBChB FRCPsych Consultant Psychiatrist
at the Maudsley Hospital Dr Anita Sharma MB BS BSc Dr Salma Al-Ramadhani
MBBS Dr John Ho MB BS MRCPH Paediatric consultant Bob Fryatt MD MRCP FFPHM
Strategy Adviser World Health Organisation Geneva Dr Dhanusha Maheshwaren MB
BS MSc Dr Deeksha Kashyap MB BS BSc Lord Nicholas Rea MD FRCP General
Practitioner (retd) Sir A W Macara FRCP FRCGP DSc Timothy Southwood BDS MB
BS MRCGP Nailsea Family Practice Dr Equi Ajogbe MB BS BSc Dr Shalini Kawar
MB BS BSc Dr David Tovey FRCGP Editorial Director BMJ Knowledge BMJ
Publishing Group Ltd Dr Vidya Thakur MB BS MRCOG Mr Kalshaker MB BS MRCOG
Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology Dr John Adey MB ChB MA Dr Salim Ali
MB BS BSc Mrs Hussain MB BS MRCOG Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Dr S Felenstein MB BS Dr Peter Kandela MRCGP PhD General Practitioner Mr
Kamal Salman Alubaid MB ChB FRCS Edin Mr John Fixsen MA MChir FRCS
Orthopaedic Surgeon to the Great Ormond St Hospital for Children (retd) Dr
Rashmi Madhu MB BS Dr Michael Cripwell General Practitioner Dr Gemma Petts
MB BS BSc Dr Radika Acharya MB BS Dr Karen Sennett General Practitioner Dr
Margaret Tatham General Practitioner Dr G Battle General Practitioner Dr
Susan Hunt General Practitioner Dr David Davidson General Practitioner (ret)
Dr Michael Sills General Practitioner Namir Kafil-Hussain FRCS Consultant
Ophthalmic Surgeon (with special interest in paediatrics) Ashford & St.
Peter's Hospital, Surrey Dr Beatrice Boctor MB BCh MRCPsych Dr Gohar Khan,
Dr Mehnaz Khan MB BS BSc Dr Tariq AlTawil MB BS BSc Dr. Nagin Antoun MB BCh
FRCP FRCR Consultant Neuroradiologist Addenbrookes Hospital Dr Peter Hall MB
BS MRCPI DGM Dr Syed Raza MB BS Dr K Jain MB BS Dr M Somajundram MB BS BSc
Dr Antony Davies MD PhD Professor of Physiology (retd) Margaret L Stewart MB
ChB BSc BD retired doctor and Church of Scotland minister D.C. Jameson Evans
MB BS FRCS Dr Judith Cook MB BChir DTM&H General Practitioner Dr Runa Mackay
MD FRCPE Dr Dominic Scarr MB ChB Dr Shirley Brierley MB ChB MRCGP MPH
Specialist Registrar in Public Health Yorkshire & Humber Public Health
Training Scheme 

 

 

 

"Of course, let us have peace," we cry, "but at the same time let us have
normalcy, let us lose nothing, let our lives stand intact, let us know
neither prison nor ill repute nor disruption of ties ... " There is no peace
because there are no peacemakers. There are no makers of peace because the
making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war - at least as
exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and
prison, and death in its wake. 
    [ Dan Berrigan - in No Bars to Manhood  ]

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