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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
July 12, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| May 25, 2005 |
The Reality of Life in Occupied Iraq – Dr. Waqar Abdul Qahar and Mr. Fadi Sami |
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| Fadi (middle) and Dr. Waqar (right) with a volunteer onboard the Peace Boat |
“Every morning that I leave the house, I wonder if I can come back alive,” explained Dr. Waqar, a medical doctor and university professor, of the reality of life in Baghdad, Iraq. Dr. Waqar Abdul Qahar, university professor and medical doctor, and Fadi Sami, a young company employee also from Baghdad, came onboard the Peace Boat between Tokyo to share with participants their experience of life in Iraq under war and occupation, perspectives which are conspicuously absent from mass media. |
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| The title board announcing the lecture by Fadi and Dr. Waqar |
Dr. Waqar and Fadi first began working with members of Peace Boat in February of 2003, a month before the invasion and war began, when they provided invaluable assistance to four staff members visiting Iraq to learn first-hand about the reality of the Iraqi people. Later, in the winter of 2004, Dr. Waqar and Fadi were key organizers in a Peace Boat project to donate blankets and medicine to a hospital in Falluja, then ravaged by battle and siege.
Fadi’s warm, humorous personality easily belies the fact that for most of his life Iraq has been at war; first with Iran, then Kuwait, then the US, then the economic warfare of UN sanctions and periodic bombing, and now the US-led invasion and occupation. He has also come to recognize the lost opportunity for development of the country and a better life for the Iraqi people, as much of the resources of the country have been wasted on weapons and defense. The Iraqi people were “cut from the world, from knowledge; unable to travel abroad, or export oil in order to restore the country.” There was a slow pace of degradation and every sector of life – health, education, infrastructure – was getting worse day by day. The cost of human life has been great, and including Fadi’s own father who was injured in the Iran-Iraq war. Fadi himself recalled being “minutes from dead” when bombs began falling near a bus station from which his family was trying to flee Baghdad. During the recent war, Fadi recounted using mud and plastic to seal his family’s house in the event chemical weapons were used, and later, how tanks rolled through his neighborhood with soldiers waving and telling residents that the war was over while bombs exploded in the distance. Later, while walking past a small shop, his aunt was killed by crossfire as militants assassinated a nearby Iraqi police officer. Stories such as these are not unique; they are told by everyone, Fadi explained. |
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Although many Iraqi people initially welcomed the opportunity for a new start with the fall of the Saddam Hussein dictatorship, his personal observation is that peoples’ hopes have been ruined by the continuing war and further decline in security. In fact, many now quietly wish for a return to the oppressive but relatively stable conditions under the former government. Reflecting a great segment of Iraq’s young generation, wishing to make as much personal contribution to a stable, fair, democratic and prosperous society as possible, Fadi and his peers face increasing danger and insecurity in living daily life, wide mistrust of the new government, and dwindling opportunities for both employment and recreation. In fact, it is well known that the invading US forces secured only the ministries of oil and natural gas and interior (intelligence) upon entering Baghdad, as well as bases. And people will not forget that health and education facilities, museums, and other important services were left to be looted. The damage caused by this prioritizing of oil and intelligence over the welfare of the Iraqi people – to utilities, schools and universities, to hospitals – continues to struggle in disrepair as reconstruction funds continue to be spent primarily on security for select private interests and not the Iraqi people.
As a leading medical practitioner and professor in Iraq, Dr. Waqar witnessed not only war in daily life, but the serious decline of health infrastructure and the health condition of the Iraqi people. On one hand, bombing, fighting and looting have crippled or destroyed much of Iraq’s health care services, hospitals and local clinics. Yet before this, during 13 years of economic sanctions, with medicine and equipment extremely difficult to obtain, Iraq’s medical services grew more and more unable to provide even simple services to needy people. At the same time, the double-punch of war and years of economic sanctions ruined much of the infrastructure vital in keeping a population healthy; specifically water treatment systems, sewage systems, electric power and others. The result, shown by extensive research, is a steep decline in overall health combined with a crippled health care infrastructure unable to treat patients suffering from common illnesses to wounds from fighting among civilians to various cancers caused by the continued use of depleted uranium weapons.
Awarded the International Arabic Award for Medicine by the President of Algeria in 2001, Dr. Waqar has shown a clear and deep commitment to re-developing a once highly developed health care system in Iraq. Yet day-by-day the challenges of simply continuing teaching and research are hard to simply imagine for most. In a story that can be repeated by almost every Iraqi family, her house has been invaded by both thieves and US soldiers, and in the process many valuable possessions including the award and medal received in 2001 have been stolen. Traveling to and from the university is extremely risky, and she has witnessed fighting and innocent death a number of times, often only because someone happened to be near US soldiers at the wrong moment. Dr. Waqar’s family have also been killed by US soldiers, as well as arbitrarily detained for days and then released without explanation. “We are always living in insecure conditions. When we go outside, at home, in our job,” Dr. Waqar explained. “I am sure most Iraqi people are doing the same that when I go out of my house to my job, first of all I pray because I am sure that I will be killed at any moment.”
Yet in their message to the audience onboard the Peace Boat, Dr. Waqar and Fadi talked much about positive steps that can be taken for the benefit of Iraq. Although the Iraqi people are not optimistic, they hope that international pressure will soon push the US military to begin a gradual withdrawal, replaced by international development support, secure borders and developing economy and infrastructure that will provide jobs and education. “What we hope from the world is to press on the US to leave Iraq in peace as soon as possible,” pleaded Fadi. “We need the help of the world to cooperate and help Iraq heal its wounds.”
The mostly Japanese audience was particularly interested in hearing from Dr. Waqar and Fadi their suggestions for how Japan could support Iraq. Simply, they asked that Japan not participate as a military supporter of the occupation, but assist in education and supporting reconstruction. There are many possibilities, such as providing scholarships for Iraqi engineering, medical and law students to study in Japan and bring expertise back to Iraq, or the donation of medical equipment that would be a much more positive contribution than the contingent of Japanese troops currently stationed in Iraq is able to make. Connecting people in Japan and Iraq is a first step for Japanese people to get a more accurate idea of what life in Iraq has become, and to know what they can do to support the Iraqi people, not the occupation of the Iraqi people. |
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