NZ duo find misery and mayhem in Iraq

Dead bodies in the street and children playing with unexploded grenades confronted two Iraqi New Zealanders on a fact-finding mission to their war-torn homeland.

Hassan Karhiy, an aeronautical- engineer-turned-IT-specialist who moved to New Zealand eight years ago, and GP Ali Numan, who has practised in Auckland since 1994, were sponsored by non-governmental organisation Tear Fund to witness the situation in Baghdad.

Mr Karhiy, who visited his parents and 10 brothers and sisters in Baghdad last year, said there was "no way to compare" the state of the country then with what he saw on his most recent trip, from April 25 to May 18.

"It's miserable. The infrastructure is in ruins and the city in chaos, but without security, no one can go back to work to rebuild the city."

Thieves and armed criminal gangs were terrorising ordinary Iraqis and "unfortunately the invasion forces are doing little to stop them".

Many women, who were a "substantial part of the workforce", were afraid to leave their homes due to the number of rapes on the streets, he said.

Three of his sisters and several of his brothers had stopped going to work because they did not feel safe.

"We witnessed two car-jackings, and saw looting and bodies lying in the street. We saw children playing with unexploded munitions. Unfortunately we couldn't stop them in every case."

During their three-week stay in the city, the pair visited hospitals, oil refineries, drug stores and the Health Ministry.

Ironically, in such an oil-rich nation, fuel shortages had brought the whole city to a grinding halt, Mr Karhiy said.

"There is no petrol for cars, so even people who want to go to jobs can't get there. There's no LPG for cooking.

"About 80 per cent of Baghdad, a city of 5 million people, only gets six hours of electricity a day. I don't know what the situation is like in the rest of the country."

The people were "hurt in their spirit" more than in physical suffering, which they were used to under 13 years of United Nations sanctions.

"People feel defeated; Baghdad is burning, everywhere you see demolished buildings, but the people are hurt in their spirit. We didn't see anyone celebrating like on television.

"The irony is about half the people we met - and we met a lot of people - wished for the old government back.

"People are angry and frustrated with the occupying forces for failing to do anything to make life better."

America's self-proclaimed mission was to bring democracy to the poor, oppressed people of Iraq, but Mr Karhiy said the average Iraqi did not care about politics.

"Most people have no experience or awareness of politics or democracy. They want security and bread, those are their main priorities. They laugh when they hear [US President George W.] Bush saying he has brought them freedom: 'What is this freedom? Freedom to be defeated'. Democracy is a Western luxury to them."

Despite the high level of media control under former President Saddam Hussein's regime, Iraqi people were aware of who to blame for the suffering caused by sanctions, he said.

"They blame Saddam and the US and the UN, but they see that toppling Saddam has only brought them chaos and insecurity."

In the face of such overwhelming need, the New Zealand pair decided to focus their efforts on hospitals to make some impact.

"The hospitals we visited are missing the most basic stuff. They have no drugs or medical equipment. They are using compressed air, like you get at the garage for car tyres, for the premature babies because they have no oxygen, and the babies are getting brain damage.

"Because the electricity is going off all the time, they can't run incubators or ICU [intensive care unit] equipment. There is no running water in many parts of the city."

The value of sending Iraqis on behalf of a New Zealand charity was that they knew where to go, he said.

"We went to the people working on the ground in the hospitals and health clinics. You cannot depend on the Health Ministry because the Government is in chaos, all the offices have been looted, they don't know what's going on."

The New Zealand mission started before the conflict, in February, when a group of Iraqi women living in Auckland started collecting donations for post-conflict rebuilding. It was then approached by Tear Fund.

- NZPA

Herald Feature: Iraq