Shortage of power and water in Baghdad hospitals

Wednesday April 09, 2003 14:02

by Jo Mazzocchi

Interview with Roland Huguenin Benjamin, spokesman for International Committee of the Red Cross

TRANSCRIPT (audio available at source): The Red Cross has confirmed that at one of Baghdad's biggest hospitals there's no power or water, and that surgeons and other medical staff are now working extraordinary hours. There are even reports of the injured lying in hospital wards in the dark, and of dogs eating the dead and injured on the streets of Baghdad. Roland Huguenin Benjamin is a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross. From Baghdad he's been telling Jo Mazzocchi about these disturbing images.

Shortage of power and water in Baghdad hospitals
Jo Mazzocchi
PM
Wednesday, April 9, 2003
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2003/s828583.htm

MARK COLVIN: As if to confirm what he [Paul McGeough] was saying about resistance, apparently the Iraqi Forces apparently melting away, there is increasing evidence that that is happening.

Both the Reuters news agency and the BBC are reporting scenes of absolute jubilation as the American Forces sweep towards Central Baghdad through the east and northeast of the city.

The Reuters Correspondent is talking about quite extraordinary scenes with people running alongside the Marines shouting hello, hello, we love you, we love you, no more Saddam Hussein.

But the downside is that there is also both in the BBC and Reuters reports, considerable looting already beginning. And it certainly appears too that the Americans had better hurry up, the Coalition had better hurry up, because things on all fronts seem to be getting a lot worse for the civilian population.

The International Committee of the Red Cross says the situation in Baghdad's hospitals is now so bad that it's "frightening." The Red Cross has confirmed that at one of Baghdad's biggest hospitals there's no power or water, and that surgeons and other medical staff are now working extraordinary hours.

There are even reports of the injured lying in hospital wards in the dark, and of dogs eating the dead and injured on the streets of Baghdad.

Roland Huguenin Benjamin is a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross. From Baghdad he's been telling Jo Mazzocchi about these disturbing images

ROLAND HUGUENIN BENJAMIN: What we are very worried about is the hospital in [inaudible] city, which is a large hospital that has been without water for more than 24 hours now. We have started trucking water with containers on trucks. We have delivered lots of bags of drinking water for all patients in 650 beds, and of course, you would imagine that it's impossible to operate a hospital without water.

We are trying to reconnect to the system, and we are very, very concerned that a water station that serves a large part of the northern suburbs has been bombed, and there will be a shortage of water for a large segment of the city, and these are civilian structures which should never be hit.

JO MAZZOCCHI: Does that mean all of Baghdad's hospitals are without water, or just this particular major centre?

ROLAND HUGUENIN BENJAMIN: There's this particular major one that has been going without water, but yesterday I went to one smaller hospital very close to our office in the late afternoon; they had lot of casualties in the corridors, they have no lights on, and they were just walking through dark corridors and with wounded people lying about. It was like a nightmare.

JO MAZZOCCHI: Are they now out of supplies of anaesthetics?

ROLAND HUGUENIN BENJAMIN: We have resupplied the largest hospitals in the past few days. We sent full trucks of medical and emergency or surgical equipment to the largest hospitals to make sure they do not run short of it.

JO MAZZOCCHI: The World Health Organisation is saying from Jordan that in some cases there are no anaesthetics and that people are being given headache tablets while they are undergoing major surgery.

ROLAND HUGUENIN BENJAMIN: The hospitals we have been dealing with, we have resupplied immediately as much as we could. We do not want hospitals to run short of anaesthetics. I just hope that, as today it's been very, very difficult to move about, none of them is running short today, but up until yesterday we were supplying.

JO MAZZOCCHI: Are you seeing more people being injured? I know that you've said to me previously about 100 casualties per hour. Is that figure changing?

ROLAND HUGUENIN BENJAMIN: No, we have absolutely no way of assessing the figure anymore, security conditions are so disastrous. I've seen little vans and pick-ups carrying people, you know, as you merchandise, frantically trying to reach hospitals, with people in pain lying on the back of trucks, trying to reach hospitals, and hospitals are just working 24 hours a day.

Yesterday I went to see a patient, one of the journalists who were hit. The doctor who was operating, he's a 62-year old gentleman; he was absolutely exhausted. He had operated non-stop for three nights and three days. He was just unbelievable.

JO MAZZOCCHI: How much longer can they keep going on, in your assessment, like this?

ROLAND HUGUENIN BENJAMIN: Now it's a matter of survival for the population here. The situation is so tense and so potentially dangerous for everybody that it's practically pointless to make any assessment. There is a major problem now. There are places at which there are combats taking place.

There are people who are shot on main roads, and their dead bodies, and the wounded are left there, they cannot be evacuated on the street, and they are eaten by dogs, because nobody can get there; they wouldn't stop fire.

JO MAZZOCCHI: Is it quite frightening?

ROLAND HUGUENIN BENJAMIN: People are just really, totally scared. People I saw around me in the morning, they just, I don't know, praying for the day to be over and be alive.

MARK COLVIN: Roland Huguenin Benjamin, who's been on this program quite often, and I think one should pay tribute to him. He's a very brave man. He's the spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, and he's spent the entire war in Baghdad. He was speaking to Jo Mazzocchi.

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2003/s828583.htm

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Shortage of power and water in Baghdad hospitals