By Norm Dixon
An investigation conducted for Britain's Channel Four and the London Independent by respected Middle East journalist Robert Fisk has revealed that the Iraqi people are suffering from an epidemic of cancer following the 1991 Gulf War.
It is suspected that the source of the cancers is the tonnes of radioactive depleted uranium "tank buster" artillery shells used by the US forces.
As the publication Mid-East Realities pointed out on March 4, the day Fisk's reports appeared, these weapons' effects "are every bit as terrible as the 'possible' chemical and biological weapons the US claims Iraq possesses — but has not used".
"A nightmare 'epidemic' of leukemia and stomach cancer is claiming the lives of thousands of Iraqi civilians who live near the former war zone, including children so young that they were not even born when hostilities ended", Fisk wrote. "Iraqi doctors in the southern city of Basra have recorded a fourfold increase in cancer — especially among young children — since 1991.
"Doctors fear that farms which produce most of the city's food have been contaminated by depleted uranium shells used by the Allies during the last tank battles of the war ... Two doctors believe that fumes from burning oil refineries may have contained carcinogens."
Fisk found that many children who survive their cancers subsequently die for lack of vital medicines because of the sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council.
Dr Yasser Raouf, chief resident doctor at the al-Mansur Hospital, told Fisk that Vincristine and Methortrexate for leukaemia patients were urgently needed. "Children are receiving the left-over medicines of infants who have already died", Raouf explained.
"In his hospital oncology department, cancer specialist Dr Jawad Khadim al-Ali has pinned to the wall a set of maps of Basra governorate and Nasiriyah city, showing that most new cancer cases come from areas immediately to the east of the tank battles between US and Iraqi forces in February of 1991. 'There are canals as well as farms throughout this area,' Dr al-Ali said. 'There are rivers there. And always the wind comes from the west, towards Basra'", Fisk wrote.
"'Cancer isn't contagious', Dr Raouf says. 'But it's moving from south to the north of the country as if it was an infectious disease.'"