Delivering aid to Sadr City

Smiling excitedly, the skinny orphan clutches a new rucksack given to him by a group of Iraqi soldiers as part of a limited mission to distribute aid to the many needy people in Sadr City.
Rasoul Mohamed Sharif, 12, and the other 30 boys at a ramshackle orphanage are among the lucky few to gain access to this assistance, which is only being distributed in the southern sector of the Baghdad Shia slum.
Ongoing clashes between US and Iraqi forces and gangs of Shia gunmen who have controlled Sadr City for the past five years, means that soldiers have been unable to deliver supplies of food, water and medical assistance any deeper.
As a result boxes of bandages and other basic medical equipment lie untouched outside a Baghdad military base, while hospitals and medical centres in the northern two-thirds of the impoverished district are fast running out of supplies.
First Lieutenant Mostafa Zeid, a doctor, said that it was very frustrating to know that people were in need of help and to have the necessary assistance, but be unable to deliver because it is deemed too dangerous.

“We know that they [the hospitals] are suffering from a lack of drugs, medicines and doctors and they need help,” he said, noting that the supplies had been sitting around for more than three weeks.
“I am very sad and frustrated.”
The Ministry of Health had offered to help deliver the equipment to the hospitals but the soldiers say that they prefer to hand it over themselves. The Health Ministry has a record of being closely connected with the al-Mehdi Army militia that controls Sadr City and there is a suspicion that the medical aid will end up with wounded militiamen rather than civilians.
First Lieutenant Zeid is hopeful that the army will be able to reach the cut-off hospitals and medical centres soon, following a ceasefire agreement signed on Monday between the Government’s Shia political bloc and supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr, the Shia cleric who commands the Mehdi Army.
Clashes continue on the streets, however, and no move has yet been made to cross beyond a wall constructed by US forces to seal off the southern sector.
The military doctor predicted that this would change. “I believe in one week we can take this [the medical supplies],” he said, speaking to me on Tuesday.

At least the children at the orphanage are enjoying an influx of aid, including rice, cooking oil, tea and milk as well as stationery to help them at school.

The boys, who range in age from 6 to 16, had been forced to cower indoors when the offensive into Sadr City began at the end of March and were only allowed out for the first time last weekend.
“We were inside the orphanage and it was really bad because of the gunfire,” said Rasoul. The boy does not remember how long he has lived at the orphanage, nor what happened to his parents.
Each boy has a sorry tale.  
Ten-year-old Ali lost his father during the March 2003 invasion. He had been a soldier in the Iraqi Army and was killed by the US forces.
“I have lived at the orphanage for four years,” said Ali, who is short for his age.
“Over the past few weeks there has been fighting and people dying,” he said, about the violence that has gripped Sadr City.
On the street outside the orphanage crowds of local children flocked around the convoy of five Iraqi Army vehicles, including an ambulance, which came to deliver the assistance. Unfortunately there is nothing left over for them.
A passing woman, Hadija Najeb Abdulla, made an appeal for help.
“We want safety and stability,” said the 26-year-old nursery school teacher, whose husband was killed last December in a car bomb, leaving her with three young girls. “Our living conditions have been very tough because of everything that is going on. We have no water, no electricity. We were not even able to go outside the front door of our house because of the gunfire and the airstrikes.”

Comments

[Jason]

I checked the Times Online, in vain, to see if there was any report that, before dawn this morning, thousands of Iraqi Army troops backed by Iraqi tanks, quietly rolled into northern Sadr City and took control of the streets. Like Basra before it, the initial fighting was apparently newsworthy while the eventual success of Iraqi forces won was not. There has been similar success in the Mosul operation, as AQ is quietly being rolled up. Since March there has been unreported victory after unreported victory in Iraq. Is this bias against Iraq? America? Or good news in general?

[Deborah Haynes]

Attn Jason,
Thanks for your comment. It seems that you missed this article in your search: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3972504.ece

Best wishes,
Deborah