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[casi] Belgian doctors: U.S. troops riddle ambulance with bullets.




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Dear list,
let us not forget that there is still a lot of resistance among the Iraqi people in Baghdad and 
elsewhere against the US-aggression. The corporate media want to make western audiences believe 
that this war becomes "cleaner" by the moment. But that is not true. Don't let them fool you. This 
war is dirtier than the Vietnam-war, it's a real "turkey-shoot" against a disarmed people. Pirates, 
mercenaries, mass-murderers and ordinary robbers, that's a good description of US and UK 
governments and their armies. It's the oil they're after. The people have never been any of their 
concern. Chaos is encouraged, they didn't think of the humanitarian aid after their killing fields. 
I'm really sick of this awful performance.
Dear Iraqi people, I'm very sorry we couldn't prevent this war from happening.
Greetings.
Dirk Adriaensens.

http://www.irak.be/ned/missies/medicalMissionColetteGeert/two_belgian_doctors_in_baghdad.htm
Baghdad diaries, April 9 april, 6:19 p.m.: Dr. Geert Van Moorter by satellite phone
"We have lost count of the civilian casualties!"
"We won't concede to those damned GIs!"
Bert De Belder

"Today, (Dr.) Harrie (Dewitte) and me witnessed the dastardly acts of those so-called 'liberators.' 
This morning we went to the Saddam Center for Plastic Surgery in order to hand over the medicines 
and surgical supplies from Belgium and to check on the British cameraman I treated yesterday. We 
were not able to leave the hospital anymore for the rest of the day. We were trapped because the 
hospital was in the line of fire. Moreover, so many patients with serious injuries were brought in 
that we were busy the whole time. We've seen at least 35 to 40 heavily injured patients arrive and 
some six dead, all of them civilians. Actually, the Iraqi authorities have lost count of the 
civilian casualties and so do we."

"De U.S. troops even peppered the hospital's ambulance with bullets! I saw the ambulance arrive, 
its body dented and windows shattered. It took me a while to realize that this was the same 
ambulance that had left with three casualties a couple of minutes before. The doors were jammed, 
the driver was wounded behind the wheel, his assistant in the passenger seat was covered with 
blood. It was a miracle that the driver had been able to bring his vehicle back to the hospital. 
The patients were in agony. One of them had taken one more bullet in the chest; I saw the blood 
gushing from his open chest wound."

"We are sure it were American bullets that had riddled the ambulance. After the incident I wanted 
to confront the Americans with what they had done. There was no driver anymore for the second 
ambulance so I went to them with a Reuters team. At about 300 meters from the American tank 
involved, I went down with a white flag, hands in the air, and shouting: 'I am a medical doctor!' 
When I was near, I yelled to the GIs: "Do you realize what you have done? You shot at an 
ambulance!" It must have been very clear anyway as the vehicle had a big flag with the Red 
Crescent. An American soldier answered: "It could have been filled with explosives!" In reality, 
the vehicle was carrying three patients and two paramedics-all of them heavily wounded now. 
Intentionally shooting at an ambulance is the umpteenth violation of international humanitarian law 
by the American aggression force in Iraq."

"The hospital was like hell. We didn't have any oxygen anymore or supplies for intubation. The 
doctors were sad and many of them were in tears when they saw how the paramedics were shot at in 
cold blood. After half an hour a bus arrived at the hospital, also riddled with American bullets. 
Many injured; shouting; pushing and shoving; chaos;. . Some cars followed, some of them with dying 
patients. Blood was everywhere. A tragedy. So much fr the 'liberation' of Baghdad."


Medical Aid for the Third World's Medical Team is safe and sound and stays in the Sheraton Hotel. 
"The 'liberators' are just passing by here," Geert announces cynically while we are talking on the 
phone. "Surreptitiously, Colette was able to give one of them a nudge and push another one aside. 
We are not going to concede to those GIs! I already walked to their tanks, my fists angrily 
clenched deep in the pockets of my white jacket. Today we have witnessed very clearly how this 
so-called 'liberation' is actually a bloodbath, with countless civilian casualties."



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