- A British charity for Iraqi children is demanding that
the Government repay almost £100,000 to its donors after nearly half
its shipment of medicines - including vital cancer drugs - was lost by
the British Army after the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq.
-
- Despite assurances by the British military commander
in Basra that the medical supplies, valued at £201,410.98, would
be safely delivered to five paediatric hospitals, Medical Aid for Iraqi
Children (MAIC), a registered charity, says doctors at Iraqi hospitals
found almost 50 per cent of the value of its supplies had gone "missing".
In a statement the charity said it was "seeking compensation of £98,784.49
- the value of the medical supplies lost".
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- "Many children, especially cancer patients, went
without treatment," the charity said. "It is very probable that
many other children who could have been saved lost their lives due to the
lengthy delay and significant loss of medical supplies."
-
- British military authorities have been unable to account
for the disappearance of the supplies and their correspondence with the
charity, which begins with assurances that the medicines would be safely
delivered, slowly retreats from these promises and then complains about
the "disappointing" tone of MAIC's complaints about their failure
to account for the missing medicine. A subsequent letter from Baroness
Amos, when she was Secretary of State for International Development, states
- wrongly - that there was "some uncertainty" about the Baghdad
hospitals which were to receive the medicines, adding that British troops
had "a lot of competing priorities" to manage.
-
- May Daftari, of MAIC, has expressed her outrage to both
the Army and the Government. "We are most concerned about this significant
loss of medical supplies, especially at a time when war injuries were rife
and need for medicines were paramount," she said.
-
- "Cancer patients who are dependent on our regular
supplies of anti-cancer drugs were deprived of vital treatment."
-
- The consignment of supplies, including cancer drugs for
children, surgical items, baby milk, crutches and wheelchairs, were sent
to Iraq on 1 May, less than three weeks after American troops entered Baghdad,
on board Sir Richard Branson's much-publicised Virgin humanitarian flight
to the southern city of Basra.
-
- Correspondence shows that Ms Daftari sent details of
the hospitals in Baghdad - the Mansur Teaching Hospital, the Central Paediatric
Teaching Hospital and the Qadisiyah Hospital, as well as the Children's
Hospital in Karbala and the Paediatric Hospital in Basra - to Virgin on
30 April, when Sir Richard Branson praised MAIC's "generosity and
quick response" to the emergency in Iraq.
-
- Two days later, Colonel John Graham, of the medical branch
of the 1st Armoured Division, thanked MAIC for its "generous donation
of medical aid" which was received at Basra airport on the Branson
flight. "You will be pleased to hear that we were able to arrange
immediate safe storage of the medicines and equipment," he wrote.
"They will be moved very shortly to the intended recipients."
By 19 May, Ms Daftari had become worried. One of the doctors in Baghdad
waiting for the medicine had learnt that at least two of the deliveries
had not arrived. "As a British charity," she wrote to Colonel
Graham, "we also need hospital receipts to assure our donors in the
UK". That same day, Colonel Graham e-mailed MAIC to say the "kit"
for Baghdad was still in Basra but it would be moved to the capital on
the next C-130 transport aircraft.
-
- Ms Daftari replied on 28 May that the MAIC board felt
"great concern" that cancer drugs valued at £95,123 could
be damaged by heat. She repeated the names of the five hospitals expecting
the supplies.
-
- Colonel Graham replied more than two weeks later that
the heat-sensitive drugs had been stored at the medical warehouse in Basra
but that the medicines for Baghdad had been flown to the capital "between
24 and 31 May", to be distributed by "Korean Food for the Hungry".
-
- By 23 June, Ms Daftari was faxing Colonel Graham to say
that, despite his assurances, the medical supplies had still not been supplied
to the Baghdad hospitals. On 10 July, she wrote again to Colonel Graham
to say 30 per cent of the supplies in the list of medicines were missing
when delivered to one Baghdad hospital. "You kindly assured us ...
that our supplies ... would be delivered to the pre-assigned hospitals,"
she wrote. "We had full trust in the British Forces that they would
arrange the safe distribution of all our supplies. Unfortunately ... we
have not received ... hospital receipts for the delivery of our supplies
which I have requested several times in my faxes to you."
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- A reply came three days later from a Colonel E B Carmichael
- his address was "Headquarters Multinational Division (South East),
Operation TELIC II" - saying Colonel Graham had left Iraq, but claiming
that "at the very outset no undertaking was given that medical supplies
could readily be moved to Baghdad at that moment in time ... My predecessors
did not receive any receipts that I am aware of and I am not optimistic
that I will ... to expect these medical supplies could be delivered with
a clear audit trail [sic] in an insecure and challenging environment where
looting was occurring is simply unrealistic."
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- This is the first reference in British documents to the
looting that British troops permitted in Basra after their occupation of
the city. Ms Daftari had made no mention of this. But Colonel Carmichael
had not finished. "Could I point out," he wrote, "that I
find the tone of your recent fax and the implied criticism disappointing
to say the least ..."
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- A letter from the Department for International Development
on 9 July claimed there was "some uncertainty about which four [sic]
hospitals" the supplies were intended for, adding that British forces
in Basra had "a lot of competing priorities to manage". It also
stated "all the drugs and supplies have now arrived at their intended
recipients in Baghdad". The charity says this is untrue.
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+compensation+over+%27lost%27+cancer+drugs+for+Iraqi+children&story=476916&host=
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