$60,000 in medical aid to Iraq

Sydney
15 December 2002

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$60,000 in medical aid to Iraq

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$60,000 in medical aid to Iraq

Caritas Australia has sent $60,000 in emergency medical equipment and to train doctors to help war victims in the event of a US military strike on Iraq.

“The Iraqi people will be left to their own devices if there is a war as no one will be able to get in,” says Jack de Groot, Caritas Australia’s national director.

“This is why Caritas is training people now.”

Caritas has a number of medical and nutrition centres in Iraq and, with the help of the Red Cross (known as the Red Crescent in Muslim countries like Iraq), it is training 40 doctors and 200 volunteers in the treatment of burns and fractures.

“The most conservative estimate is that 10,000 people will be killed in Baghdad should there be a strike, but up to 100,000 could be killed and injured even with the smartest of bombs,” said Mr de Groot.

Caritas is particularly concerned about the effect a war would have on Iraq’s women and children, who are already suffering the effects of 12 years of economic sanctions.

Many “suffer high levels of malnutrition”.

Caritas hoped UN processes would be adhered to in resolving the issues over weapons in Iraq, he said, because it would be civilians, not the leadership, not President Saddam Hussein, who would bear the brunt of any military strike.