Depleted uranium and trauma

Riyadh describes, "The years of sanctions have deeply affected Iraqi society and people have learned to survive individually and have lost the sense of community and caring for others."

"As a result of the 1991 Gulf War the province of Al Muthanna is littered with thousands of unexploded landmines and missiles." "There are many heartbreaking of disabled children in Iraq."

Most children amputees in non-OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries are victim of wars, those evil scourges flourished by bullets, explosives, bombs, land mines and missiles. During this last decade the Al Muthanna and Basra provinces of Iraq challenged Angola for the highest proportion to total population of children amputees. Basra has been devastated by the war with most families having lost a family member, with many orphaned children and with most families caring for a family member who has been physically impaired. Let us not forget that Iraq’s Al Muthanna and Basra was laid victim to depleted uranium during the war and hence they have levels of cancers unheralded since Chernobyl. Al Muthanna province has been invaded by thereabouts thirty radioactive sites.

Firstly through the Centre for Human Rights at Curtin University and hence through a tertiary student volunteer organisation which I founded in 2005, Students Without Borders, I met Curtin University student and Iraqi Riyadh Al-Hakimi. Riyadh described to me much of the devastation of Basra and its effect on its humanity. I do not forget Riyadh’s description to me of a little Iraqi child dragging himself across the street in their hometown, and his withered deadened-like stump of his right leg creating a painful trail in the dusty street. The child’s parents could not afford a wheelchair nor were wheelchairs readily available. Much of Iraq’s infrastructure had been devastated by the drawn out war. Life had been further complicated by the vehement acrimony between Sunnis and Shi’ites. Riyadh often described to me an Iraq, before the invasion, where it did not matter whether someone was Sunni or Shi’ite, and marriage and business between Sunnis and Shi’ites occurred on a daily basis. I will never forget what Riyadh once said to me, "Till this war was started on us in Iraq, no-one ever asked me whether I am Sunni or Shi’ite. Never."