Unexplained cancers kill war zone Iraqis

Untold numbers of innocent Iraqis are dying of unexplained cancers, seven years after the Gulf War. The incidence is worst in the part of the country close to the border with Kuwait - the area which bore the brunt of the tank battles and aerial bombardments.

Doctors believe the cancers are linked to contamination of the area, possibly caused by depleted uranium, which was used in the war by US forces. The uranium hardens tank shells so that they can pierce armour.

Many of the Gulf War tank battles took place in orchards and vegetable fields, produce from which is now eaten by people across southern Iraq, especially in the region's main city, Basra. Dr Jawad Kadhim al-Ali, the chief cancer specialist in Basra, is currently treating 765 Iraqi cancer victims.

'Their number has increased four-fold since 1991,' Dr al-Ali told The Irish Times.

At the Al-Mansur Paediatrics Hospital in Baghdad doctors spoke of 'dramatic increases' in childhood cancer in recent years. Many of those affected by the disease were not born at the time of the Gulf War.

'In three years I have seen hundreds of children die of leukaemia,' Dr Ali Ismail said. 'This month alone we have diagnosed 20 new cases.'

'The incidence is spreading from south to north as if it were an infectious disease,' Dr Ismail said. 'You can't call it an epidemic because 'epidemic' means infectious. But it is spreading from south to north.'

Because of United Nations sanctions, Iraq cannot pay for the expensive medicines needed to treat the cancer victims.

'In normal circumstances, childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia has an 80 per cent recovery rate,' Dr Yassir Raouf, the chief resident at Al-Mansur Hospital, said. But the drugs needed to treat leukaemia are expensive and in short supply, and most patients are dying because of interruptions in treatment.

Dr al-Ali believes aerial bombardments contaminated the soil with carcinogenic nitrite, which is used in all explosives. Also, the depleted uranium in the thousands of tank shells fired in the allied land offensive near Basra has a low level of radioactivity.

'The depleted uranium probably contaminated the water, fish and vegetables,' Dr al-Ali said. 'It is a general contamination. The whole area is affected.'

One possible explanation for the cancer outbreak never mentioned by Iraqis is the bombing of Saddam Hussein's weapons factories. A woman whose eight-year-old son, Ali Hillal, is dying of cancer told The Irish Times of 'a strange smell, a burning, choking smell, like insecticide', when the area near her home was bombed at the end of January 1991.

Neither the World Health Organisation, which has an office in Baghdad, nor the Iraqi government has investigated or publicised the increase in cancer cases, which is widely discussed among Iraqis. The majority of victims are Shia Muslims, who staged an unsuccessful uprising against their Sunni rulers immediately after the Gulf War.

Rapid increase in cancer cases prolongs Gulf War punishment of Iraqi people; Scientist supports link between depleted uranium and cancer: page 9