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Was There Napalm in Fallujah? Part II
If you’re going to criticize the performance of a news organization, you at a minimum need to get your facts right.
FAIR, a non-profit group that describes itself as progressive, has been a media watchdog barking at press failings since 1986. I don’t recall if I’ve had a previous encounter with FAIR, but our recent exchange of views over a Times story on an anti-war play in London doesn’t give me much confidence in FAIR’s fairness – or its accuracy.
To recap:
FAIR issued an “Action Alert” last month, urging its readers to write me over a Times story by Jane Perlez about the play, “Fallujah.” Deep in the article, Perlez said the play’s contention that the U.S. military used napalm in its assault on Fallujah has not been substantiated. FAIR took issue. I looked into the matter and concluded that Perlez was correct. You can read the Action Alert at http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3114 and my findings below.
On Friday, FAIR shot back.
In restating its case, it introduced a new error – calling white phosphorus (WP), the incendiary weapon that was used in Fallujah, a “chemical agent,” which it is not. Chemical agents, like nerve gas, are something entirely different. While calling WP a chemical agent may add emotional punch to FAIR’s argument, it indicates to me a carelessness with terms that undercuts FAIR’s credibility.
FAIR also suggested I was wrong to rely on the eyewitness testimony of Dexter Filkins of The Times, who was embedded with U.S. Marines at Fallujah and accompanied them into the city when they took it in November 2004. Filkins doubted reports of large numbers of civilian casualties in that battle because the population appeared to have fled.
“With all due respect to Filkins,’ FAIR said, Hoyt would have done better to consult the reporters who were actually in Fallujah during the siege rather than one who was with the forces bombarding it.” FAIR then sent its readers to a link containing an article by Rahul Mahajan.
The problem is that Mahajan clearly was not in Fallujah when the November battle took place. Filkins was. He said, “I was, in fact, in the middle of Fallujah, in the battle, on foot, for eight days, and walked from one end of the city to the other … I wasn’t outside the city with the troops ‘bombarding it.’ I was as close as one could possibly be, trying to get the story.”
Mahajan said he was in the city months earlier, in April, when U.S. forces first assaulted Fallujah after four American contractors were killed and hung from a bridge. The military withdrew at that time, only to attack the city ferociously in November and take it.
The allegations of napalm – and the actual use of WP – involved the November battle that Filkins covered.
Speaking of civilian casualties in the first battle of Fallujah, in April, Mahajan said, “The best estimates are that roughly 900-1,000 people were killed directly, blown up, burnt or shot. Of them, my guess, based on news reports and personal observation, is that 2/3 to ¾ were noncombatants.”
The war in Iraq has taken a terrible toll on Iraqi civilians, much of it through sectarian strife. Trying to establish the precise numbers killed – and how they died – is an important story. But it can’t be told authoritatively by best guesses based on some mix of unspecified news reports and personal observation.
I wouldn’t come back at this subject – remember, it all started with a simple, accurate declaration in a review of a play that the use of napalm at Fallujah hadn’t been substantiated – but I think there’s an important point here.
The war in Iraq has stirred up such passion that something very valuable is in danger of getting lost – facts. I’m an old-fashioned journalist in the sense that I don’t buy the argument that facts are insignificant in the face of a higher truth. It isn’t true if it isn’t factual.
In the case of Iraq, the anti-war movement has plenty of factual material to work with. I’m astonished that FAIR would feel the need to play so fast and loose with the facts about Fallujah.
Postato da: fallujah a 17:23 |
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Food Crisis Hits Fallujah
FALLUJAH, May - Sharp increases in food prices have generated a new wave of anti-occupation and anti-U.S. sentiment in Fallujah.
"This is a country that was damned by the Americans the moment they stepped on our soil," Burhan Jassim, a farmer from Sichir village just outside Fallujah told IPS. "This is Iraqi land that has always been blessed by Allah with the best production in quality and quantity, but now see how it has been turned into a wasteland."
Fallujah faces this new crisis after much of the city was destroyed by U.S. military operations in 2004.
The area around Fallujah city, which lies 70 km west of Baghdad, has traditionally been one of the most agriculturally productive in Iraq. Farmers planted tomatoes and cucumbers north of Fallujah, others grew potatoes south of the city near Amiriya. Both areas had plenty of date palm trees and small fruit plantations. Now production is down to a fraction of what it was.
Farmers have been struggling with changing times. "We changed our motors from electric to diesel oil to avoid electricity failures during the UN sanctions (during the 1990s)," Raad Sammy, an agriculture engineer who has a small farm in Saqlawiya on the outskirts of Fallujah told IPS. "We used to have a minimum of 12 hours electricity per day under the programmed cut, but there is practically no electricity now. And now we also have to face lack of fuel for our pumps, and the incredible increase of fuel prices on the black market."
The price of agricultural products has skyrocketed. "The average price for one kilogram of tomatoes is approximately one dollar," Yasseen Kamil, a grocer in Fallujah told IPS. "This price is when there is no crisis such as Americans blocking the entrance into the city. It is naturally doubled in winter when we have to import everything from Syria and Jordan."
Fallujah residents say the price of food now exceeds their income. The average income for government employees is 170 dollars a month, and no more than 100 dollars for labourers and salesmen.
Residents say unemployment in the city is well above 50 percent. Under these circumstances, a food crisis has hit people harder than it might elsewhere.
"The social effects of the situation are enormous," Ahmed Munqith from the city told IPS. "We believe that people are carrying out illegitimate acts in order to obtain their daily life necessities. The food crisis has led to vast corruption, and raised crime rates to peak point."
As with any difficulty now, many Iraqis believe that the occupation forces want it this way.
"It is obvious that the prices are up and life is difficult in this city and all of Iraq because it has been so planned," Sheikh Ala'in, a cleric in Fallujah told IPS. "Occupation planners designed this poverty in order to make Iraqis work for them as policemen and spies. Iraq is floating on a lake of oil, but there is no gas to run water pumps. What an irony."
Residents say they are told of a world food crisis that may be affecting them. But their crisis arises mainly from local factors like shortage of water, fuel and electricity.
Whatever the reason, residents simply want relief. "We just want our lives back," said a college student who gave her name only as Nada. "We want to eat, buy clothes, get proper education and breathe pure air. No thanks to Americans for their effort to bring us democracy that killed half of us by their bombs and is now apparently killing the other half by starvation. Can you pass this message to the American people for us?"
According to the UN, at least four million people in Iraq do not have enough food, while approximately 40 percent of the 27.5 million population do not have access to clean drinking water. At least 30 percent do not have access to proper health services.
Postato da: fallujah a 13:54 |
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Who is used chemical weapons in Halabja 1988 ??
A War Crime Or an Act of War?
January 31, 2003It was no surprise that President Bush, lacking smoking-gun evidence of Iraq's weapons programs, used his State of the Union address to re-emphasize the moral case for an invasion: ''The dictator who is assembling the world's most dangerous weapons has already used them on whole villages, leaving thousands of his own citizens dead, blind or disfigured.''
The accusation that Iraq has used chemical weapons against its citizens is a familiar part of the debate. The piece of hard evidence most frequently brought up concerns the gassing of Iraqi Kurds at the town of Halabja in March 1988, near the end of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. President Bush himself has cited Iraq's ''gassing its own people,'' specifically at Halabja, as a reason to topple Saddam Hussein.
But the truth is, all we know for certain is that Kurds were bombarded with poison gas that day at Halabja. We cannot say with any certainty that Iraqi chemical weapons killed the Kurds. This is not the only distortion in the Halabja story.
I am in a position to know because, as the Central Intelligence Agency's senior political analyst on Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, and as a professor at the Army War College from 1988 to 2000, I was privy to much of the classified material that flowed through Washington having to do with the Persian Gulf. In addition, I headed a 1991 Army investigation into how the Iraqis would fight a war against the United States; the classified version of the report went into great detail on the Halabja affair.
This much about the gassing at Halabja we undoubtedly know: it came about in the course of a battle between Iraqis and Iranians. Iraq used chemical weapons to try to kill Iranians who had seized the town, which is in northern Iraq not far from the Iranian border. The Kurdish civilians who died had the misfortune to be caught up in that exchange. But they were not Iraq's main target.
And the story gets murkier: immediately after the battle the United States Defense Intelligence Agency investigated and produced a classified report, which it circulated within the intelligence community on a need-to-know basis. That study asserted that it was Iranian gas that killed the Kurds, not Iraqi gas.
The agency did find that each side used gas against the other in the battle around Halabja. The condition of the dead Kurds' bodies, however, indicated they had been killed with a blood agent -- that is, a cyanide-based gas -- which Iran was known to use. The Iraqis, who are thought to have used mustard gas in the battle, are not known to have possessed blood agents at the time.
These facts have long been in the public domain but, extraordinarily, as often as the Halabja affair is cited, they are rarely mentioned. A much-discussed article in The New Yorker last March did not make reference to the Defense Intelligence Agency report or consider that Iranian gas might have killed the Kurds. On the rare occasions the report is brought up, there is usually speculation, with no proof, that it was skewed out of American political favoritism toward Iraq in its war against Iran.
I am not trying to rehabilitate the character of Saddam Hussein. He has much to answer for in the area of human rights abuses. But accusing him of gassing his own people at Halabja as an act of genocide is not correct, because as far as the information we have goes, all of the cases where gas was used involved battles. These were tragedies of war. There may be justifications for invading Iraq, but Halabja is not one of them.
In fact, those who really feel that the disaster at Halabja has bearing on today might want to consider a different question: Why was Iran so keen on taking the town? A closer look may shed light on America's impetus to invade Iraq.
We are constantly reminded that Iraq has perhaps the world's largest reserves of oil. But in a regional and perhaps even geopolitical sense, it may be more important that Iraq has the most extensive river system in the Middle East. In addition to the Tigris and Euphrates, there are the Greater Zab and Lesser Zab rivers in the north of the country. Iraq was covered with irrigation works by the sixth century A.D., and was a granary for the region.
Before the Persian Gulf war, Iraq had built an impressive system of dams and river control projects, the largest being the Darbandikhan dam in the Kurdish area. And it was this dam the Iranians were aiming to take control of when they seized Halabja. In the 1990's there was much discussion over the construction of a so-called Peace Pipeline that would bring the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates south to the parched Gulf states and, by extension, Israel. No progress has been made on this, largely because of Iraqi intransigence. With Iraq in American hands, of course, all that could change.
Thus America could alter the destiny of the Middle East in a way that probably could not be challenged for decades -- not solely by controlling Iraq's oil, but by controlling its water. Even if America didn't occupy the country, once Mr. Hussein's Baath Party is driven from power, many lucrative opportunities would open up for American companies.
All that is needed to get us into war is one clear reason for acting, one that would be generally persuasive. But efforts to link the Iraqis directly to Osama bin Laden have proved inconclusive. Assertions that Iraq threatens its neighbors have also failed to create much resolve; in its present debilitated condition -- thanks to United Nations sanctions -- Iraq's conventional forces threaten no one.
Perhaps the strongest argument left for taking us to war quickly is that Saddam Hussein has committed human rights atrocities against his people. And the most dramatic case are the accusations about Halabja.
Before we go to war over Halabja, the administration owes the American people the full facts. And if it has other examples of Saddam Hussein gassing Kurds, it must show that they were not pro-Iranian Kurdish guerrillas who died fighting alongside Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Until Washington gives us proof of Saddam Hussein's supposed atrocities, why are we picking on Iraq on human rights grounds, particularly when there are so many other repressive regimes Washington supports?
Postato da: fallujah a 11:31 |
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Urgent - Attacking Shu'la Hospital in Baghdad
dromarkubaisy@yahoo.com
Monday, May 5th, the Shu'la hospital in Karkh district was attacked. This hospital has been supporting a large popualtion in Shu'la city. There, the military operations and confrontations errupted between civilians in this neighborhood and the U.S. occupation and Iraqi forces under the banner of "eliminating the gangs of death and murder." Historically, I am unaware of military operations targeting civilian hospitals!! The doctors as well as the director were being humuliated and beaten by, what unjustly called, the Iraqi army. In fact, the director of the hospital, my colleague Yassin al-Rikabi, is essentially a doctor and a military officer in the marginalized (and not dissolved) Iraqi army.Who will evacuate the dead bodies and heal the wounded? I really can not keep silent when today my colleague, the journalist Yasir Shammri, described Sadr City hospitals as the hospitals of death whose function is just to keep corpses. According to UNICEF, 60% of those killed are women and children. Aren't these disasters sufficient to move the conscience? What freedom and democracy and what government reform, reconstruction and national unity are those? Will these events move the corrupt political parties to PM Maliki's table? What constitution allows the army to kill people and insults and threatens doctors? Is there any wise man amongst you, deputies and ministers? Where is the Islam of the Islamic parties and where is the democracy of the liberal and patriotic parties?
Postato da: fallujah a 09:34 |
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Fallujahns Leaders at Sader city
By ALISSA J. RUBIN
New York Times.
Fellow Shiites are not the only ones disturbed by the fighting; a delegation from Anbar Province, which is almost entirely Sunni, made the long and dangerous journey to Sadr City on Monday to show solidarity with the poor Shiite community. As American helicopter gunships barraged nearby neighborhoods and people ran inside to take shelter, representatives of influential Sunni tribes, including the Janabi and Hebi, stood shoulder to shoulder with distinguished Shiite tribal leaders in Sadr City.
Ali al-Hebi, 40, said, “The people in Sadr city are like our families, and we are worried about them.”
“We must find a solution for them, and we advise them to not repeat our story in Falluja,” he added. “The loss of any blood is forbidden, according to our religion as Muslims, and if we do not help them, we will be responsible before history for what will happen here.”
The sheiks’ visit was reminiscent of a similar journey by Shiites in 2004, organized by followers of the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Al -Sadar. They gathered food and supplies and brought them to Sunnis in Falluja who were besieged by American forces at the time.
Postato da: fallujah a 09:29 |
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Prohibited weapons cresis in Fallujah 2008
Monitoring net of Human Rights in Iraq - MHRI
Presented to 7th session of the Human
Rights Council (Geneva
Miss Luiza Arbour
High Commissioner for human Rights of United Nations
4th March, 2008
Excellency
After a long period of cooperation between civil society organizations (Conservation Center of Environmental and Reserves in Fallujah - CCERF and Monitoring net of Human Rights in Iraq – MHRI) and medical authorities in Fallujah, We have the honor to submit with this letter its report on the effects of an American prohibited weapons used in Fallujah attacks ( March - November 2004).
Both security and political reasons played significant role in making this task almost impossible .Nevertheless, the report is in your hand now with vast evidence and documentations on this catastrophic and continuous pollution in Iraq without any real action for help the victims or clean up or treating the polluted places.
Therefore, we are kindly asking the High Commissioner for Human Rights to look at the content of the report in accordance with the General Assembly's resolution 48/ 141 (paragraph 4) of 20 December 1993, to investigate the serious threatens of health right in Fallujah and Iraq, and to relay the results of this investigation to the Commission on Human Rights to take the suitable decisions.
Excellency
We believe that the situation of health right in Iraq, since the last report (E/CN.4/2005/4) prepared by the High Commissioner in June 2004,has severely deteriorated and has reached a point where the Commissioner on Human Rights should give serious consideration to the re-appointment of a Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iraq and send delegation from WHO with Special Rapporteur on health rights to visit Fallujah, Najaf and Basrah in order to study and monitor all the polluted places and to encourage the establishing of the real role of international support with Environmental issues in Iraq.
Our people are looking forward to your help to ensure the protection of the life and health rights of all Iraqi and to put an end to the continues suffering.
Sincerely
Director of the Monitoring Net of Human Rights in
President of
E-mail: monitornet@gmail.com & muhtaq72@yahoo.com
http//: www.mhrinet.splinder.com , www.ccerf.splinder.com
We are trying knowing the world the effects of pollution on health impact in another place in Iraq after new report of Muslim Peacemaker Teams (MPT) about Depleted Uranium Crisis (December 2007), which referred to effects of use DU on health impact of Najaf, a city of over one million people, and the rural areas in the governate (The area is about 180 miles from where DU was use in the 1991 and 2003 wars), while Fallujah situation is difference not only with type of prohibited weapons used in March and November 2004 but also these weapons used inside the city, not out city like Najaf).
MPT report refer Starting in 2004 when the political situation and devastation of the health care infrastructure were at their worst, there were 251 reported cases of cancer. By 2006, when the numbers more accurately reflected the real situation, that figure had risen to 688. Already in 2007, 801 cancer cases have been reported. Those figures portray an incidence rate of 28.21 by 2006, even after screening out cases that came into the
Fallujah health impact report is interviewing victims and gathering evidence and facts so that the international community may help to stop their ongoing pain. This study is the result of two-year cooperation and coordinating between civil society organizations (Conservation Center of Environmental and Reserves in Fallujah (CCERF) and Monitoring Net of Human Rights in Iraq (MHRI)) and the administration of
We found in one year like 2006 there are 5928 new illnesses cases that unknown before in Fallujah, more than 70% were of the cancers and abnormalities reported occurred in the 1 day – 12 years age range.
While in the first six months of 2007 were 2447 cases, more than 50% of their cases were children. Simply, this mean that most of victims are children and this will lead to threaten the new generation in this city.
· First Section: Comparative analysis:
This section will focus on doing comparative analysis between the data of same month (February) at differs years 2003 and 2006 as well as to 2007 to concentrate on the changes in illnesses rates and numbers as well as to appearing new and danger illnesses had been related of pollution and leading of genetic devolution, genetic drift.
· The Health Report of February 2003:
According to the
This report clearly shows many types of common type of illnesses in 2003 like Epidemic diarrhea (200 cases), acute renal failure (42 cases), lack of low growth hormones (47) and diabetes mellitus illnesses (10), While the danger illnesses were very few numbers like congenital heart disease (5 cases). Some illnesses were with female gender only like Breast cancer (10). The total illness cases of February month in 2003 were 344 cases. See table No. 1
· The health situation of February 2006:
This report shows very different types and terrible amounts of illnesses, two years after major military operations in Fallujah (March and November 2004). In these battles many types of forbidden weapons especially Cluster bombs, Chemical weapons like white phosphorus. Huge bombs of 300-500 Kilos as well as unknown types of unconventional weapons according to strong evidence with many pictures & movies proved this evidences collected after these operations.
Any simple comparative analysis between the months of February in 2003 and 2006 will reveal new evidence and indicators about seriousness of the effects of pollution problem in this town now.
In February 2006 we found continue of same illnesses like Leukemia (7 cases), but there are another dangerous types started appear with huge numbers like Meningitis 80 cases, Thalassemia 17 cases, Septicemia 135 cases, Congenital Spinal cord abnormalities 114 cases, Congenital Renal abnormalities 87 cases with undiagnosed cases 22 cases. The total number of illnesses was 542 cases while in same month in 2003 were 344 cases with clearly difference in illness types.
There are some diseases concentrated with Male gender more than with Female gender in this month like Meningitis 55 M., 25 F., Thalassemia 14 M, 3 F. and Septicemia 93 M, 42 F. while another illnesses concentrated with Female gender more than Male like Congenital Renal abnormalities 13 M, 74 F. and undiagnosed cases 22M, 85 F. See table No. 2.
· Second Section: Analysis of Illness data of 2006:
o First half of 2006:
The illnesses number during the first six months of 2006 (January, February, March, April, May and June), we found there are 2942 illness cases .They were distributed to 475 of Meningitis, 198 of Thalassemia, 952 Septicemia, 45 of Brain tumor, 365 of Congenital Spinal cord abnormalities, 299 of Congenital Renal abnormalities, 574 undiagnosed cases and 40 cases of Leukemia.
The illness cases were have nearly numbers between male (M) and female (F) genders, Meningitis 295 M. – 180 F. (474), Thalassemia 103 M. – 95 F. (198), Septicemia 506 M. – 446 F. (952), Brain Tumor 19 M. – 26 F. (45), Congenital Spinal cord abnormalities 178 M. – 184 F. (362), Leukemia 23 M. – 17 F. (40), while the female numbers were more double than male gender in Congenital Renal abnormalities 77 M. – 222 F. (299) and Undiagnosed cases 181 M. – 383 F. (564).
The children numbers were most of victim's numbers, 2371 from 2942 (80%). The age range of children was between 6 months – 6 years of Meningitis, 2 – 11 years of Thalassemia, 1 – 40 days of Septicemia, 1 month – 12 years of Brain Tumor, 1 month – 6 years of Congenital Spinal cord abnormalities, 1 month – 7 years of Congenital Renal abnormalities, 1 month – 12 years, as well as there are some of children cases with undiagnosed cases rate (574 cases) which had been average between 3 – 35 years. See table No. 3.
o Second half of 2006:
We noticed from the data of second half of 2006 year (July, August, September, October, November and December) that there are 2993 illness cases. The illness numbers have distributed among 360 of Meningitis, 118 of Thalassemia, 1255 of Septicemia, 46 of Brain tumor, 40 of Congenital Spinal cord abnormalities, 38 of Congenital Renal abnormalities, 1104 of undiagnosed cases and 32 cases of Leukemia. See table No. 4.
There is not big significance difference of illnesses between male and female gender in Thalassemia 53 M. – 65 F. (118), Septicemia 754 M. – 501 F. (1255), Brain Tumor 23 M. – 23 F. (46), Congenital Spinal cord abnormalities 23 M. – 17 F. (40), Leukemia 14 M. – 18 F. (32). While we can notice there is significance difference between tow genders with Congenital Renal abnormalities 25 M. – 13 F. and Undiagnosed cases 714 M. – 390 F. (1104).
Also the children numbers have been most the illness cases, 1889 from total number 2993 (63%). The age range of children was among 2 months – 9 years of Meningitis, 1 - 11 years of Thalassemia, 1 – 40 days of Septicemia, 2 month – 9 years of Brain Tumor, 1 month – 9 years of Congenital Spinal cord abnormalities, 1 month – 8 years of Congenital Renal abnormalities, 2 month – 9 years of Leukemia, as well as there are some of children cases with undiagnosed cases rate (1104 cases) which had been average between 1 – 45 years.
There are some signals of size and type any pollution or contamination depending on the results after some years like speed of appearance any danger illness as well as we find many types have correlations leading of undiagnosed cases, therefore we think that the speed of starting like these diseases after one year of using prohibited weapons during March – November 2004.
The amount any dangerous illnesses referred to very clear evidence about the importance of study all pollution elements and start strategy plans for treatment all pollution sources to decrease if we can not prevent new illness cases.
Total numbers of illness cases of 2006 were 835 of Meningitis (2 months – 9 years as age range), 316 of Thalassemia (1 – 11 yeas as age range), 2207 of Septicemia (1 – 40 days), 91 of Brain tumor (1 month – 12 years), 402 of Congenital Spinal cord abnormalities (1 month – 9 years), 337 of Congenital Renal abnormalities (1 month – 8 years), 1668 of undiagnosed cases (1 45 years) and 72 cases of Leukemia (1 month – 12 years).
The main important point in illnesses data of 2006 that 72% of total illness victims were children among 1 Day – 12 years, which referred to unclear threaten for health people and especially with new generations. See table No. 5.
· Third Section: Analysis of Illness data of first half to 2007:
The beginning and middle of 2007 years (January, February, March, April, June), there are many victims families started do not go to hospital in Fallujah after they found inabilities of health instructions in city, therefore many of them started go to Jordan or Syria to search about any medical assistance, as well as half numbers of Fallujah people (350.000) living around the city in three big village called Saqlawia, Karma and Ammeria.
Most of the civilians around Fallujah city preferred go to another city or
These reasons were main effects to decrease the numbers of some dangerous illness cases in first six months report of 2007. The total number of illness cases continues be high, which arrived to 2448 illness cases, distributed to 73 cases of Congenital heart diseases, 192 cases of Congenital Spiral cord defects, 1636 cases of Acute Diarrheas diseases, 56 of undiagnosed cases, 37 cases of Leukemia, 26 cases of Mediastinal tumor, 1 case of Brain hydatid cyst, 9 cases of Liposarcoma mediastnum, 109 cases of Thalassemia, 46 cases of Breast cancer, 116 of Bronchogenic carcinoma, and 147 cases of Failure of thrive. See table No. 6.
The medical report of 2007 was explain there are some illnesses had been double numbers in male than female gender like congenital heart diseases (70% Male – 30% Female) with 1 month – 4 years age range, Congenital Spiral cord defects (65% Male – 35 % Female) with 1 month – 4 years age range, Mediastinal tumor (62% Male – 38% Female) with 1 – 55 years age range, Leukemia (65% Male – 35% Female) with 1-10 years age range and Failure of thrive (61% Male – 39% Female) with 6 months – 2 years age range while another illness like Bronchogenic carcinoma had been most cases with male gender (85%) comparatively with female (15%) with 25 – 55 years age range.
All Liposarcoma mediastnum cases were in male (100%) with 98% death rate. Most of Breast cancer (46 cases) caused 85% death rate while in 2006 was 22% death rate. Another terrible fact that 116 cases of Bronchogenic carcinoma were with 100% death rate for civilians had been 25 – 55 years age.
We are notice that some common illnesses were appear in 2003 but it did not appear with reports of 2006 and 2007 for tow reason, firstly, our focus was concentrated on dangerous diseases. Secondly, many common illnesses started appear with abnormal signals of these illnesses figures; therefore we classified it with undiagnosed cases.
· Fourth Section: Conclusion:
The importance of this information is confirmed there is a big disaster in this city under worst situation try many sides prevent any information released about these facts.
The main civilian victims of most illnesses were the children, and the rate of them represents 72% of total illness cases of 2006, most of them between the ages of 1 month and 12 years. While in 2007 was not very difference because many illnesses accounted the children with another ages.
Many new types and terrible amounts of illnesses started to appear since 2006 until now, such as Congenital Spinal cord abnormalities, Congenital Renal abnormalities, Septicemia, Meningitis, Thalassemia, as well as a significant number of undiagnosed cases at different ages.
The speed of the appearance these signals of pollution after one year of military operations refer to the use of a great amount and different of prohibited weapons used in 2004 battles.
The continued pollution may be will lead to a genetic drift, starting to appear with many abnormalities in children, because the problems were related to exposure of the child’s parents to pollution sources and this may lead to more new abnormalities in the future.
According to security situation with many check points and irregular cards to allow the civilians to enter or exit the city until now, all this help to continue the terrible situation for this time. Therefore we think that all these data is only 50% of real numbers of illnesses.
· Testimony of one doctor of Fallujah hospital:
Dr. Ahmed S. M. had seen many cases in his office were affected by pollution or contamination of environment. He was explaining the health situation by take some examples of children cases as he said in his testimony:
- Mohammed Hasan Jasim:
Patient presented with Sever Cyanosis. After deriving, Echocardiography showed that the child with transposition of great arteries. The child died after 3 hours, because no facility for surgery or even palliative surgery, as well as no Cardiac center in Al-Anbar governorate.
- Ali Kamal Zaid:
Two years old male child with history of tetralogy of Fallot the child need urgent Surgery because he is with recurrent chest infections and frequent cyanotic spells. He is in need for urgent corrective Surgery before reading to the
I have more than 10 registered Cases in my private clinic only. And this is just an example of late presentation of congenital heart disease.
- Zina Abdullah Omar:
She had been case of DORV (double Outlet Right Ventricle).
I have more than 45 registered cases of ventricular Septa defect where the children is younger than three years old – 10 cases of Atrial Septa defect and five cases with congenital aortic Stenosis.
I have registered 140 deaths registered as congenital heart-disease during last 2 years (2006-2007). I saw more than 85 cases of low growth hormone in 2006 only.
A lot of cases died without definite diagnosis. Because lack the Angiogram and perfect echocardiography.
The unregistered cases are much higher because those cases usually missed. A lot of cases had been discovered and the cause for it is multifactor's pollutions, radiations, unknown war weapons and others.
Recommendations
1. UN agencies like WHO and UNEP should do their responsibilities toward this disaster in Fallujah depending on the mission of their agencies with this pollution.
2.
3. The important of considering a Fallujah city with all 650.000 habitants are under disaster situation and as catastrophic city like Japan's cities (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) to allow of international sides to participating for clean up the city from all pollution sources and providing hospitals with all their needs as first step and to continue this steps with another Iraqi cities suffering from huge pollution.