Nation & world briefing
Iraq psychiatric patients
still suffer from looting
Bill Glauber
Chicago Tribune (KRT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq — When looters
sacked the A1 Rashad Psychiatric
Hospital, they stole drugs, medical
equipment, air conditioners, kitchen
supplies, food, fans, mattresses, even
the toilets and sinks.
Then the thieves committed One
last grievous act: They left the
hospital gates open, allowing most
of the terrified patients to flee.
Nearly two weeks after the
looting spree, the hospital staff is
trying to account for 800 missing
patients, hoping that most made
their wav to family homes instead
of being forced to fend for
themselves on Baghdad's streets.
Nearly 300 patients stayed behind.
They live in squalor, with no running
water and electricity and diminishing
supplies of psychiatric drugs that
were recendy retrieved from looters
who left them at a nearby mosque.
On Sunday morning, the male
patients stood behind a gate in a
compound and received a breakfast
of tea served from a bucket, bits of
bread and a cigarette each Most
were barefoot and dressed in dirty
nightgowns. Some wore dirty old
sport coats over their gowns.
One man walked around naked.
Flies swarmed everywhere. The
smell of human waste filled the air.
“This was once one of the best
hospitals in the Middle East,” said
Mohammed Abdul Sattar, the
hospital's pharmacist. “Now, this is all
we have left. We need everything. We
need to fix the destruction. We need
drugs. We need food. We need water.”
Workers from the International
Committee of the Red Cross arrived
last week to assess the damage.
They brought in a generator and a
small supply of bags of water.
But it could take many weeks, if
not months, to restore the hospital
and round up the missing patients.
Only a few of the hospital build
ings are usable. The male patients
are in a one-story ward; women are
in another.
Many of the male patients do not
have mattresses for their beds, lined
eight to a room. They sleep on the
floor or on the rusty springs. Others
rest on concrete seats.
In the afternoon, many men sat
looking at nothing. Others walked in
a daze through an outdoor court
yard. Some helped ferry clothes in
blankets to a washroom. Others
washed the concrete floor.
In the women's ward, lunch was
cooked in two large pots over a wood
fire in a courtyard. The women sat
on their haunches and used their
hands to scoop boiled rice and sauce
from bowls.
The looting occurred after April 8
when, according to the hospital staff,
U.S. forces arrived at the site, goug
ing a hole through a wall. The sol
diers apparently crossed the hospi
tal grounds to get to a nearby Baath
Party headquarters and juvenile
prison. Iraqi soldiers were on duty at
the hospital, but apparently fled,
leaving their weapons.
Staff said some looters followed in
the wake of U.S. troops while others
entered the front gate.
“The American troops thought
there was a prison underground,”
said Ahmed Abdul Karim, 53, a med
ical technician.
Karim said that the staff asked
the troops to stop the looting but
that they refused.
“I blame the American troops,”
Karim said. “The troops that entered
here had to take care of the hospital
and not leave it for the thieves. ”
Staff members and some patients
said they believed local people from
around the area participated in the
looting. It was unclear whether hun
dreds or more than 1,000 people
were involved.
Hagop Ouzounian, an English
speaking patient who said he was ed
ucated in the United States, said
thieves entered one of the wards,
stole all the items and beat a staff
member who resisted.
He said the patients were then
let out.
During the looting, there were
also four reported rapes, according
to the hospital staff, one in the hos
pital and three outside after pa
tients fled the grounds.
One victim was a frail woman
named Aliaya, who wore a dirty
turquoise gown and had dark circles
beneath her ey es. She said she was 16
but appeared to be in her mid-40s.
Aliaya said three men assaulted
her, including one who had a gun.
“He told me he would shoot me,”
she said.
Aliaya is back at the hospital,
though there is little hospital left to
help her.
“We can’t explain the disaster
that happened here,” said Karim,
the medical technician. “Everything
is destroyed.”
© 2003, Chicago Tribune. Distributed
by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information
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