Report from Baghdad: "It?s horrific"

http://www.irak.be/ned/index.htm

Two doctors from Belgium are now in Baghdad--Dr. Colette Moulaert and Dr. Geert Van Moorter, They both work with Medical Aid for the Third World and have been in combat situations in the past.

About Iraqis moral: Gillespie, in a later communication, compared the Iraqis to the many in England who-while considering Winston Churchill a reactionary?rallied to him under the bombs of the Nazis, and noted the growing number of volunteers swell ing the ranks of armed Iraqis in Baghdad.

The group from Spain wrote: "Every morning, after every attack, these same people go out again into their streets and continue to smile at us, grateful that we are here, raising their fists or flashing the victory sign, warm and trusting in spite of everything, asking us to tell you of their will to resist even when that seems an unimaginable miracle in the face of the war machine closing in on them."

These internationalists, together with those from Voices in the Wilderness and independent reporters like videographer Mae Ying Welsh, are the flesh-and-blood evidence of the world's solidarity with Iraq's people and a heroic link between the global anti-war movement and the Iraqis who continue to resist U.S.-British imperialism.


Dr. Geert Van Moorter on the phone from Baghdad, March 28, 7:45 a.m.

Resistance and? fun with Geert in Baghdad.
?Last night there were heavy aerial bombings. Deafening explosions, sometimes very near. A communication center was hit, but not the central Saddam tower. For three days we cannot send or receive e-mails anymore and we cannot call, although others can call us.
Yesterday Colette and me went into the city. Life resumed after the sandstorm and there were lots of people in the souks, on the market and at the bus stops.
Gazhwan, an Iraqi friend, maintains that the Americans will never be able to take Baghdad. The US troops are already facing massive resistance while the Iraqi elite forces haven?t even been brought into action. But the most important factor in the resistance is the Iraqi people. Today, Dr. Colette Moulaert and me visited a blood bank. Some fifteen women had just given blood. They were mobilized by the principal of a school who had brought her friends from their neighborhood. ?This is our modest contribution to the defense of our country,? said Zahra, a 40-year old women. ?But we, the women, will also participate in the military defense of Baghdad,? she added, ?Last year we were trained in target shooting and we all have a kalashnikov AK-47 at home. Some of us even know how to operate an RPG-7 grenade launcher.?
Although our visit to the blood bank was unannounced, we also met with the director. He testified about the effects of twelve years of embargo on health services: ?There are severe shortages in reagents for blood typing and to test blood for the presence of hepatitis virus although there is no military use for these chemicals.? The blood bank has only one centrifuge at its disposal. ?We had to use the parts of the other machines to keep this one operational,? explained the director, ?We were not allowed to import spare parts because of the embargo.?
Tomorrow morning I?ll give a teleconference in the Philippines. Tonight Colette and me will give a lecture for the media called ?Baghdad: medical and humanitarian crisis.? I added a sentence to the invitation to draw the attention: ?After the lecture, free medical check-up for journalists. Free medical advice on smoking, drinking and lack of? (you know what!).? Even the assistant director of the Ministry of Information, who is always dead serious, burst out laughing!?

Dr. Colette Moulaert calling, 28 March 10.15 pm: 'stop military transports!'
Bert De Belder

Seeing the horrible images of the American terrorist onslaught on a working class area in Baghdad (50 people killed), I grab the phone and ring Dr. Colette Moulaert in Hotel Palestine. She tells me that her colleague, Dr. Geert Van Moorter, has just left together with some journalists to go and visit the casualties in the hospitals.
'You know', says Colette,' it is dire to know that those bombs may have been transported through the port of Antwerp. You really must take action now to stop the military transports of the US. You must block those trains, by judicial means if possible, by other means if necessary. But move fast. A map shown on Al Jazeera revealed that B52s apparently fly over Belgium. Is that possible? Damnation! I do know that you are working hard in the anti-war campaign, but there's absolutely got to happen more.' Colette sounds miserable. 'People are dying here!'
I convey to her a question of a very worried mother, Liliane Calinescu Alani, who lives in Belgium but has a son in Baghdad. She has not heard from him for two days and she asks us to ask Colette to try and phone him. Colette answers that the phone does not work anymore in Baghdad. 'From here you can only phone the US and the UK now. It must have been those states that have cut the line!'
The internationalists in Baghdad also march against the war. Colette: "Today we had an action together with the 'human shields', on the roof of the building from where the journalists take their pictures. We shouted at the press people: 'do stop lying finally now!' We were carrying posters saying 'Bush go home!' It gave us a good feeling!"
Before ending our communication, Colette once more repeats that we absolutely must stop the military transports?

Dr. Geert Van Moorter on the phone from Baghdad, March 29, 12:30 p.m. (Philippine time) an alarm call from the doctor: ?It?s horrible those monsters are targeting civilians in full knowledge?

Live broadcast on radio Veritas (Philippines) and phone call with his sister Marijke
?Yesterday we went to a small hospital in the outskirts of Baghdad. We were there only 2 hours after the local al-Nasser market in the Shula residential area was hit by a cruise missile. The market is located in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Baghdad. Definitely there is no military target in a diameter of several kilometers around that market. There are no big buildings, nothing.
On phone with his sister Marijke, the first thing that Geert says is: ?It?s atrocious, really horrible, all what happens here. Hospitals are too crowded, we are bringing dead and alive. Doctors have to walk on dead humans to eventually extract some who are still alive? Now they are bombing days and nights the bastards and they are voluntary bombing civilians. They are targeting markets, even a market where the poor people are going to buy a couple of vegetables. They are not happy with bombing only one time but many times. It?s such a shame! There?s not a single military target in the area. Only housing, ordinary housing.?
Then Geert describes the situation at the hospital:
?At the hospital it is a scene from hell waiting for us. Complete chaos. Blood everywhere. Patients are shouting and screaming. Doctors heroically trying to save human lives. One of the doctors tried to resuscitate a 2-your old child that was still gasping but to no avail? The medical crew is in tears. A nurse has seen one of her family relatives among the victims? In that small, 200-bed hospital they counted 55 dead, 15 of them children.
?Try to imagine? says Geert to his sister, you are a mother too, a mother is in this hospital, her house was attacked, one of her child is dead and two others are lying here, seriously wounded. She is looking straightforward, she is totally stoned? I have some pictures but they are too hard, I cannot send them?? (At this point he is more and more emotionally stressed) ?It?s horrific? This war has to be stopped at any cost.?

I was utterly outraged by what I saw yesterday. It shows once more that the claims about a ?surgical war? are brazen lies. It is a dirty war where the civilian population dies. The majority of the casualties here are even women and children. It is a crime against humanity. I hope that Bush and Blair will soon be brought before a tribunal. ?
The spirit of resistance among the Iraqis is not affected. The people we met at the hospital were enraged. ?What a bunch of cowards!? they shouted, ?They don?t fight our troops but target civilians instead!? People are very sad but it does not limit their combativity. They are angry against the United States and Great Britain and will certainly not surrender.?
Geert had an allusion about the role of Belgium: ?You have to do everything possible to stop these transportation of weapons.? He asks. ?Put yourself in front of the trains. Attach yourself to the railway. When I imagine that the bombs we are receiving on our heads may have been through Belgium airspace!??