Iraq is and will be in the headlines in future weeks. This issue has been out of the media headlines for some time but is slowly returning to the forefront: Iraq will be an important focus for the new Bush administration. The administration will use Iraq as the prime example of how it will conduct its US-Middle East foreign policy, especially in light of the Ariel Sharon victory. Plus, let it not be forgotten that Colin Powell and others still have scores to settle with Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein.
I went back to Iraq for the first time in ten years on Jan. 13, 2000 staying in Baghdad, the city in which I was born, for about a week. I did not go for leisure or vacation; hardly anyone goes to Iraq for that purpose. I joined a group of about 30 Americans on the first American civilian flight into Baghdad since 1990. Many of you may not even know that since Jan. 17, 1991, Iraq, with a population of more than 22 million people, has not had a functioning airport due to the economics sanctions still in place, backed now only by the US and Britain. Ten years! If you go to the most remote and isolated region in the world, you can pretty much bet there will be a functioning airport. And many of you may not even know that the US forbids Americans to travel into Iraq, unless they get State Department approval (which is almost impossible to obtain). Violators are subject to a $500,000 fine for traveling to this country.
Nonetheless, despite the risks, I went on this journey. I applied to join the delegation headed by Dr. Jim Jennings who is the founder of the non-governmental organization (NGO), Conscience International. I had many reasons for wanting to go - I desperately wanted to be reunited with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and old elementary school friends from whom I had been separated. I went to visit this land that had given me life and to see the situation for myself. Also, as an international relations and Middle Eastern studies major, I went because of my academic interest in Iraq.
What I saw was very startling. It cannot be denied that the sanctions have crippled the Iraqi people, especially the most vulnerable. The economy is in shambles. Before the Gulf War, an Iraqi dinar was worth about three dollars. Today one dollar is equal to about 1800 Iraqi dinars. People walk around with boxes or bags full of money to make their daily purchases, that is if they have any money at all. A teacher I met gets paid about $15 a month. This is not at all sufficient to fulfill her monthly needs for one trip to the market - a look at the prices clearly proves that. There is massive unemployment. People have been forced to many levels of desperation simply to survive under such conditions. You see many bazaars where people come to sell off their belongings, their rugs, refrigerators, books etc. You see beggars of all ages on the streets.
I went to visit hospitals with the delegation. Since I could hardly handle the things I saw while just walking down the street, I had an extremely difficult time at the hospitals. So, I stayed crouched outside the patient rooms as delegation members were shown around. I closed my eyes so as not to see anything and even blocked my ears. But I would sometimes hear a doctor say the names of the disease the patients had and the prognosis. There were a lot of cancer cases, especially concerning children. Many of the patients' futures seemed uncertain since either equipment or the proper medicine was absent. The UN Oil-for-Food Program, which grants Iraq permission to buy food and medicine in place of its oil sales, has not been successful at providing the desperately needed medicines and equipment to Iraq. Most people do not know that this program is not only very inefficient, but also has put on hold millions if not billions of dollars worth of Iraqi orders some of which include medicines needed for chemotherapy. The economic sanctions also forbid Iraq to import morphine, leaving cancer sufferers at the mercy of pain. A visit to the UN in Baghdad, where my aunt works for Oil-for-Food, allowed me to view these backed up orders. In one case, a water purifier has taken more than two years since it was ordered to get approval before finally arriving in Iraq.
When I was in school, Iraq was taking huge leaps in regards to its educational system. There were always massive literacy and reading campaigns launched by the government. I often went to book readings put in place by the Iraq ministry of education where we were given free books printed and written in Iraq. Now many children have just stopped going to school. As I took a walk one day with another delegation member in the streets of Baghdad, an 8-year-old child began speaking with us. I knew it was time for mid-term exams and I asked him how he did. He responded to me by telling me that he had quit school. His father who was educated did not see that it was worth it.
In Iraq, there is a severe lack of new textbooks, desks, blackboards, never mind computers or the internet. This reality pained me more than anything else. Iraq has always invested and prided itself in its educated citizens. As a child, my parents always pushed education more than anything else. Across the Arab world there is a saying, "Egypt writes, Lebanon publishes and Iraq reads." These economic sanctions do more than starve the Iraqi people physically. To me it is even a bigger crime to deny one the book. Iraq is the cradle of civilization, and this is where the written word was first invented!
And what about Saddam Hussein? He has suffocating control over Iraq. I could feel the grip of his power everywhere that I went. The sanctions have strengthened Saddam's elite and actually helped increase the Baathi regime's control. Certainly, Saddam Hussein is a huge contributor to the suffering of the Iraqi people. I will not lie to you about that. But he uses the sanctions to achieve his own ends just as the US does. And he can do so and not take the blame since he can demonize the United States and point the finger at them. After all, if there is no medicine in Iraq, he can say it is not because he is a ruthless dictator, but instead that the economic sanctions simply do not allow him access to it.
Both sides, Saddam's and the US', have dirtied their hands with innocent people's blood. Many people continue to be silent and no one speaks on behalf of these forgotten victims. As both an American and an Iraqi, as well as a citizen of this world, I want to break the silence and speak on their behalf. All of us have a responsibility now, as the focus is shifted to Iraq, to use public pressure to influence future US policy regarding Iraq.
Rana Abdul-Aziz is a sophomore majoring in international relations and Middle Eastern studies.
