A voice in the wilderness
By Melissa Hammett
Jane Howarth received a warm welcome when she stepped off the bus in Baghdad. She found herself alone, without a backpack, in war-torn Iraq. Despite being a lone woman in a devastated country, Jane received unconditional warmth and hospitality from the Iraqi people.
A retired science teacher from Sydney's inner west, Jane was not there to see the ancient monuments of Mesopotamia. She was on a single-handed mission to save the children of Iraq.
"I went there to see for myself the effects of these iniquitous sanctions", she says of her two-month tour. "People are unaware of the extent of what is happening there. And it has confirmed my belief that the United Nations sanctions are a deliberate attempt to destroy a nation."
Jane arrived in Iraq late last year. She travelled as a representative of the self-funded "Save the Children of Iraq" organisation, which is affiliated with similar groups throughout the world.
She does not speak Arabic, but was able, through sheer force of will, to make most of the arrangements herself. During her stay she met with diplomats, aid workers and officials from the Iraqi government. More significantly, she met with the people who are hurting most from UN sanctions — children, families and health workers.
"Everywhere I went, I was confronted with sick and dying children", she says. "It was absolutely devastating to see this in a country which used to have an excellent hospital system. The sanctions have made it impossible to access any supplies. The doctors don't have syringes or suture needles."
Jane toured a number of hospitals and returned home with vivid memories of the brutal conditions. She says, "I am convinced that there is something wrong with the international community when these sorts of conditions are allowed to prevail. It's child sacrifice. There's no other way of putting it."
Jane is scathing in her condemnation of the UN sanctions. "Everything, everything is embargoed", she says. "You name it, it's on that list. Pencils. Sanitary pads. Car parts. Medical supplies. The list goes on and on."
These hardships are compounded by the deliberate destruction of Iraq's infrastructure during the Gulf War. Baghdad's electricity grid was bombed 16 times during the Desert Storm campaign. The UN sanctions, which are endorsed by the Australian government, have made it impossible to repair the electricity grid.
More recent military operations have added to the damage. As a result, the Iraqi people have to do without essential utilities. Refrigeration is just one example. Meat and many medical supplies cannot be safely stored in a country where temperatures soar up to 55° Celsius. Clean water has been a distant memory since the wartime destruction of filtration plants, causing the Euphrates and Tigris rivers to run brown with effluent.
The Iraqi people are also faced with nuclear contamination from the 1991 war. According to Jane's research, "Six hundred tonnes of depleted uranium were dumped on Iraq by UN forces. It is now littering the deserts, and the Americans are doing nothing to clean it up."
The governments of the United States and Britain have admitted the use of depleted uranium during the war, but deny its health risks. Despite such denials, international health teams have documented a 600% increase in the incidence of childhood cancer since 1991. There has also been widespread speculation that the use of uranium is linked to the controversial "Gulf War Syndrome" complained of by allied veterans.
Jane believes that the United States, which gave Saddam Hussein's regime financial and military support during the 1980s, is being selective in its punishment of dictators. "If we are going to look at dictators, then let's look at all the military regimes in the Middle East, if not the world."
Jane is adamant that human rights must come before politics. "Let us remind ourselves who these sanctions are hurting", she says. "Civilians. Families. Children who have grown up under these appalling conditions."
The sanctions have been successful in crippling Iraq's economy. "Before the war, the Iraqi dinar was loosely equivalent to one US dollar. It is now something like 3000 dinars to the dollar, with one loaf of bread costing something like 3000 or 4000 dinars. No wonder 5 million Iraqis are suffering from malnutrition."
Jane cites UNICEF health reports in a stream-of-consciousness flow, barely needing to glance at her formidable pile of research documents. Her palpable anger is kept in check by her pragmatic attitude. There is one subject, however, which threatens to disrupt her calm facade: UN inspection teams. Jane was appalled by the behaviour she saw among the UN employees in Iraq.
"The inspections are a farce. The 1300 inspectors who comprised the weapons teams had a cowboy mentality", she says. "They searched family homes and hospitals. They dug up graveyards, where of course they didn't find a damn thing."
Jane also claims to have witnessed the systematic removal of national treasures by UN officials. "They were looting the nation", she says. "They were buying paintings and artworks for peanuts and shipping them out of the country under diplomatic immunity. You can understand why the Iraqis are selling off their heritage to these creatures, because they are just so poor."
Despite forecasting an eventual end to the embargo, Jane remains pessimistic about the environmental legacy of the war. "I ask myself what can be done. The uranium has been carried by the wind across the desert, and into the water system. It's too late. The genie is out of the bottle."