Pip Hinman
Dr Salam Ismael, an Iraqi doctor and one of the first medicos to get into Fallujah following the US army's first siege of that city in April 2004, is touring Australia describing life under US occupation. Ismael will address the Unity for Peace conference in Melbourne on May 27, and his trip is being co-sponsored by the Australian section of Medical Association for Prevention of War and the People's Health Movement.
Ismael is a founding member of Doctors for Iraq, established in that country in 2003. About 100, mostly junior, doctors volunteer to visit hospitals and conflict zones to provide medical care.
Ismael was the head of junior doctors in Baghdad before the US invasion in March 2003. He treated casualties from the first siege of Fallujah and was one of the first independent observers to enter the city following the second bombardment in November 2004. He helped organise humanitarian and medical missions for internally displaced people, and health units in Fallujah, Hadeetha, Qaim, Tal Afar and Diala.
Ismael has written about the humanitarian needs of civilians in conflict areas, the health needs in armed conflict zones and the deterioration in health care for Iraqis under the occupation.
For more information about Doctors for Iraq, visit <http://www.doctorsforiraq.org>. For details of Dr Ismael's meetings, see the calendar on page 27.
From Green Left Weekly, May 24, 2006.
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