Bert De Belder
23-03-2003

1:00 a.m., Dr. Geert Van Moorter on the telephone: "We will not surrender."

Last night the bombings were less intense and farther away. Two times the impact was near our hotel. The concrete trembled. It is true that the Iraqi army’s resistance is fierce, in spite of the huge inequality in numbers, quality and caliber of their and the US’s artillery. You would pity the Iraqi artillery if you would see it. They only reach a few hundreds of meters high while the B-52’s drop their bombs from a height of 10 kilometers. Somebody at the office of the Iraqi Red Crescent told me: “The embargo and the disarmament program had the intention to weaken us and to map the targets. First they weaken us in order to hit us harder. It’s a shame!” And yet the Americans are still far away from the gates of Baghdad. Advancing kilometers through an empty desert doesn’t mean anything.

Yesterday we went to the Al-Yansour hospital where 101 civilian casualties are being treated. Dr. Moulaert and me talked with the assistant director. He thanked us for our offer to help but they don’t really need our medical expertise for the time being. We could see that they have enough competent and committed Iraqi doctors. But they appreciated the psychosocial support and international solidarity of our mission very much. The assistant director gave us a letter in Arabic that gives us unrestricted access to this hospital to monitor the situation. It is one of the biggest hospitals in Baghdad with 22 operating theaters. It is located in an area that is already heavily bombed.

In the Al-Yansour hospital, Dr. Moulaert and me could talk to the patients freely, without the presence of Iraqi officials. I asked the father of an injured girl what he felt. “We will not surrender,” he said, “we will be brave and eventually we will be victorious.” The mother of another injured girl was not complaining as you might expect. She had the opposite reaction: “Now they hit my daughter, I’m determined to fight.”

There are few people in the city and many shops are closed. Prices are rising and the first signs of food shortage become noticeable. And yet the people walk calmly in the streets and life goes on. The Iraqis are already used to the bombings. When I’m in a hurry for an appointment they laugh at me. They think I’m rushing because I’m scared for the bombings.

Many of the foreign journalists are really arrogant. Now the war has started they are only allowed to go into the city with an escort from the Iraqi Ministry of Information. CNN has an attitude as if the city will be theirs in a couple of days anyway. But the Ministry of Information gives them tit for tat: “Did we ask you to come here? If you don’t like it you are free to go!”

6 a.m. Dr. Colette Moulaert on the telephone: "No problem!"

Colette inquires extensively about yesterday’s demonstrations in Belgium, Europe and the US. 300,000 in New York, 250,000 in Madrid, tens of thousands in Brussels, in Amsterdam,… “That’s very important news for the people over here,” she says. She also asks about the many arrests. How ironic: the US claims to restore democracy in Iraq but it suppresses the democratic rights of those who demonstrate for peace.