Kathy Kelly and Amiriyah shelter

KATHY KELLY
Kelly is coordinator of Voices in the Wilderness, a group challenging the economic sanctions.

she visited Amiriyah shelter many times:

DT: Sun      ,Feb.     21 ,1999

In between hospital visits we went to the Amiriyah
shelter, which, according to the Pentagon, was
mistakenly bombed during the war. More than 1,000 people
were burned or boiled to death as huge water tanks burst.
  Gruesome evidence of the bombing still exists, in
outlines of bodies thrown against the wall. The roof, of
5-foot-thick reinforced concrete, shows an 8-foot-hole
and crater below. The shelter's curator never leaves,
having lost nine members of her family at the site, which
has become a monument of war and a shrine to the dead.

Denis Halliday, Former UN Official, in Iraq
January 7, 2003

Halliday is a former head of the UN oil-for-food program and a former UN Assistant Secretary General. Over the last few days he has met with Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, and Trade Minister Mohammad Saleh, as well as the heads of UNICEF and UNDP in Iraq, two Iraqi families and numerous shopkeepers he knew from his earlier time in Baghdad. He said today: \”The majority of Iraqis are staying together with families at home, there\’s little sign of a mass exodus as there was in 1991. The government has distributed three months of the oil-for-food program supplies. There\’s concern the U.S. would bomb food facilities, as it did here in 1991 and in Afghanistan. The other major concern is water. The people who can afford it are hoarding bottled water. The government is drilling water wells. I can find no preventive arrangements for healthcare of young children after the expected collapse of electricity, water and sewage treatment as happened in 1991. No shots for cholera, typhoid, and other various waterborne diseases that will likely break out if the U.S. bombs electrical and water facilities as it did in 1991.\”
Halliday added: \”There are some 30 air raid shelters around Baghdad, but given the U.S. bombing of the Al-Amiriya shelter in 1991, people do not want to use them. Most Iraqi homes do not have basements; they will be in their homes and quite vulnerable…. There\’s little awareness of the health effects of the U.S. potentially using depleted uranium in a city of five million…. There\’s a desperation regarding the economic sanctions. Some Iraqis even hope that war will bring an end to the sanctions; not that they want war, but they are desperate after 12 years of suffocating sanctions…. Iraqis do not expect serious assistance from Arab neighbors or from Europe; no one who has power will protect them. The majority of Iraqis don\’t understand what they could possibly have done to deserve the military aggression of the United States. There\’s a sense that if the American people really want to prevent the massacre of civilians, then they have to stand up and do so…. Regular people here do not believe that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. The idea that Iraq is a threat to the U.S. is widely regarded as just laughable. They see three reasons for Bush\’s militaristic stance: U.S. imperialistic ambition, control of Iraqi oil and support for Israeli expansion.\”


Feb. 22, 1998
Iraq: Report from Voices in the Wilderness
By Kathy Kelly

Today is the day when many thousands of people across Baghdad are
conscious that it is the seventh year since two astonishingly smart bombs
penetrated the ventilation system of the Amiriyah shelter. All of the
people huddled inside, at least 500 civilians, who had sought a safe night
of shelter, were melted.
We just came from that site. To hear from survivors, or people who lost
loved ones--and to hear the people speak about how much love and longing
they have for all of those people who were lost--very
moving. Someone in our group asked, "Do you think that this could ever
happen again?" And every person said, "Yes, we can believe anything now
because thousands of our children are dying."
In terms of the preparations being made for war, people in general feel
pretty defenseless here. Some have left Baghdad for places they think they
might be safer. But we hear a nervous laughter and some people ask: "Is
your country going to bomb us again?"
Although this is our first day in the Baghdad, we have heard from people
that anger isn't being directed at Saddam Hussein. In fact, several people
have said that they would do the same thing if they were him. There is a
feeling that the sovereignty of Iraq needs to be maintained.
The eight of us here, are delivering $110,000 worth of medicine.
It's really just a drop in the bucket compared to the needs of the
people. We know that the greatest evidence of a weapon
of mass destruction can be seen in the pediatric wards of every hospital
where children are suffering terrible consequences of the sanctions.