wfn.org | CWS Head Takes Medicine to Iraq; Sees Babies Die

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227
Internet: news@ncccusa.org
Photos and Video: Mel Lehman, 212-870-3004

Note: We are reposting this story in response to
reports that the first posting did not "take."

NCC4/16/98         FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CWS DELIVERS MEDICINES TO IRAQI CHILDREN'S HOSPITALS
Church Leaders, In Baghdad April 8-13, Witness Two
Infant Deaths, Renew Call to End Non-Military
Economic Sanctions Vs. Iraq

 "I have seen people living under all sorts of
difficult conditions all over the world, but I have
never before seen death stare at me in the eyes of a
little baby."  It happened, said the Rev. Rodney Page of
Church World Service, while he and several colleagues
were visiting a children's hospital in Baghdad, Iraq,
just before Easter.

 Dr. Page, CWS Executive Director, was in Iraq
April 8-13 to deliver medicines valued at nearly
$100,000 to two children's hospitals.  Along with
leaders of the American Friends Service Committee,
Lutheran World Relief and Middle East Council of
Churches, he witnessed the impact of eight years of
United Nations-imposed sanctions, which have deprived
the Iraqi people of essential food, medicine and other
goods.

The sanctions were imposed by the U.N. Security
Council after Iraq invaded and occupied Kuwait in August
1990.  The Security Council resolutions stipulated that
the sanctions should remain in place until it has been
certified that Iraq has eliminated its weapons of mass
destruction.

 Group members already knew the shocking statistics
of suffering.  More than 1.2 million Iraqis, half of
them under the age of five, have died since 1990 as a
direct result of the sanctions, and 6,000 more die every
month.

 Those statistics became wrenchingly personal just
moments after the delegation arrived at Ibn Biladi
Hospital.  As the group entered a ward and began to
visit the sick children and their parents, a months-old
baby girl died before their eyes.  The malnourished
daughter of a malnourished mother, she succumbed to a
chest infection that could have been cured with ordinary
antibiotics - had they been available in time.

 "A member of our group, Kara Newell, Executive
Director of the American Friends Service Committee,
threw her arms around the baby's mother and they wept
together," Dr. Page said.  A few minutes later, in
another ward, the group saw another baby take its last
breaths.

 Just at the moment when Christians, Jews and Muslims
around the world were celebrating festivals of joy and
life, the visiting church leaders were faced with death.
Mothers pressed prescriptions into Dr. Page's hand,
pleading for medicine - and milk - for their children.

 Group member Kenlynn Schroedcr of Lutheran World
Relief, recounted how "Suzi, an Armenian Orthodox woman
and a mother like me, spoke of the depression the
parents have because they cannot provide enough food for
their families.  They are either unemployed or must work
for two or three U.S. dollars a month, which is not
enough.  She asked, `How long will the sanctions
continue to punish the Iraqi people?"

The church leaders carried back with them many
other images of misery: The makeshift children's
hospital in a converted hotel, its roof so full of holes
that when it rains, the water pours in onto the beds. A
woman doing her best to clean a hospital floor with a
dirty mop and no disinfectants.  Leaking, pooling,
stinking sewage, breeding grounds for water-borne
diseases.

 The widespread misery and despair strengthened the
resolve of Dr. Page and the others to continue to press
for an end to the economic, non-military sanctions
against Iraq, "which are hurting the most vulnerable of
the Iraqi citizens," Dr. Page said.  "It's not the
politicians who are suffering, but the children, the
women, the poor, the sick, the elderly."

 Iraq may purchase food and medicine under its "oil
for food" deal with the United Nations - but the U.N.'s
delivery of supplies has lagged considerably, reported
David M. Weaver, CWS Middle East Director who took part
in the visit.  "But even if Iraqis received the maximum
allowed under the program, the food supplies would be
barely adequate and the medical supplies wholly
inadequate to the need."

 "Most people are beginning to get almost enough
rice, flour, sugar, cooking oil and pulses, like
lentils, but they still are deficient in animal protein,
which is very important for immune response.  Many
children suffer wasting or stunting.  Calcium, protein
and vitamin deficiencies are widespread.  "Therefore
people, especially children, are vulnerable to
infections and will bear the consequences of these
deprivations into adulthood," Mr. Weaver said.

 CWS has delivered nearly $3 million in
humanitarian aid to Iraq since 1991 and currently is
seeking another $426,000 toward a goal of $2.2 million
set by Action by Churches Together (ACT), an
international, ecumenical consortium of which CWS is a
member.  CWS/ACT work closely with the Middle East
Council of Churches, which distributes the aid.

 (Church World Service is the humanitarian
assistance ministry of the National Council of Churches,
whose 34 Protestant and Orthodox member denominations
have nearly 52 million members.  Contributions may be
directed to CWS, Attn: Iraq Appeal, P.O. Box 968,
Elkhart, IN 46515.  Phone pledges or credit card
donations: 1-800-762-0968.)

 Over and over again, Iraqis thanked the visiting
church leaders for their assistance, confirming, "Your
efforts have saved many lives."  The group members from
Church World Service also found it gratifying to see
blankets from the CWS Blanket Program on almost every
hospital bed, and on beds in orphanages and other
institutions that they visited.

"CWS has provided enough blankets to cover every
hospital bed in Iraq, Dr. Page said.  "We want to
blanket the world with love."

 During their six days in Iraq, the church leaders
met with Christian and Muslim religious leaders,
humanitarian aid workers and government ministers of
health, education and religious affairs, and visited
Christian and Muslim holy sites.

They observed Maundy Thursday in an Armenian
Apostolic Church, where Dr. Page assisted the bishop in
the foot-washing ceremony, which recalls that at the
Last Supper, Jesus washed his disciples feet as a lesson
in the importance of serving others.

 And they marked Good Friday at St. Joseph Chaldean
Catholic Church, met with the Archbishop of the Syrian
Orthodox Church and celebrated Easter at the Evangelical
Church of Baghdad (Presbyterian).

 "We were moved by the kindness, generosity and
hospitality of the Iraqi people," commented Dr. Page,
"and by the dignity, graciousness and professionalism of
the doctors, ministers and others we met.

"We know we encouraged people with our visit.  In
an art shop, artists spotted us and said, `We saw you on
TV.  You brought the medicines.  The story of our visit
was all over the TV, radio and newspapers.  It made
quite a stir to know that churches in America were
trying to do something about the sanctions."

Said Ms. Schroeder, LWR's Director of Grants,
Emergencies and Material Resources: "We remember the
great commandment, `Love the Lord your God' and the
second like it, `Love your neighbor as yourself.'  We,
mothers and fathers in the U.S. cannot stand by and
watch Iraqi children die needlessly because of the
sanctions.  Enough is enough."

 Kara Newell of the American Friends Service
Committee put it this way: "As a Quaker organization,
the AFSC is committed to peace and justice.  What I have
seen, heard and felt in Baghdad is that a strong,
creative and highly educated people have had an
injustice perpetrated on them for the past eight years.
We stand with the Iraqi people, especially the women,
children and elderly.  We will do everything in our
power to pressure the lifting of non-military sanctions
and to work with partners to see desperately needed
medical supplies find their way to the Iraqi people."

 -end-

 Note: Other group members were Rick Augsburger, CWS
Emergency Response Office Director; Mel Lehman, CWS
Constituency Information and Development Director; Riad
Jarjour, General Secretary of the Middle East Council of
Churches, and Mike Nahhal, MECC Relief Coordinator.
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