[NYTr] 117 Degrees and No Water in Baghdad

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

ANSWER Coalition - Aug 3, 2007
http://www.answercoalition.org


In Baghdad, 6 million people, 117 degrees and no water

A crime against humanity committed by the occupying power

By Richard Becker, 
Western Regional Coordinator, ANSWER Coalition

For the past 24 hours, Baghdad has had virtually no running water.

Major parts of the city of six million people have lacked running
water for six days, while daily high temperatures have ranged from
115 to 120 degrees. The tiny amount of water dripping through the
pipes is causing many of those who must drink it to suffer acute
intestinal illness.

According to reports, not enough electricity is available to run
Baghdad's water pumps. This in a country with vast energy resources.

Corporate media outlets--to the extent they have reported this
horrific and mind-boggling story at all--have treated it as a failure
on the part of Iraqis.

In reality, it is an appalling war crime committed by the occupying
power, the U.S. military. It threatens the lives of tens of thousands
of people in the short term and unthinkable numbers of people unless
it is rectified immediately.

According to Article 55 of Geneva Conventions (1949) to which the
U.S. government is a signatory: "To the fullest extent of the means
available to it the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the
food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular,
bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles
if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate."

Article 59 states: "If the whole or part of the population of an
occupied territory is inadequately supplied, the Occupying Power
shall agree to relief schemes on behalf of the said population, and
shall facilitate them by all the means at its disposal."

To say that a huge city deprived of running water is "inadequately
supplied" would rank as one of the great understatements of human
history.

Of course, the shortage of water--the most vital of all necessities--does
not extend to the U.S. personnel and contractors occupying Iraq.

The U.S. government tries to relieve itself of its obligations by
pretending that Iraq's "sovereignty" was restored in June 2004. But
that is just another hoax.

Since its illegal invasion and conquest of Iraq in the spring of
2003, the real state power in the country has been the U.S. military.

This latest catastrophe to afflict the Iraqi people is another
poisonous fruit of imperialist occupation. Not even in the worst
times during the U.S. blockade of Iraq from 1990-2003, did such a
disaster occur.

The U.S. regime in Iraq must provide the people of Baghdad with
relief in the short-term to avert unprecedented disaster. The U.S.
occupation must come to an immediate end. The officials responsible
for the terrible crimes committed against the Iraqi people must be
held accountable. The U.S. government owes Iraq vast reparations
for the death and destruction imposed on that society by an illegal
war of aggression.


A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition 
http://www.answercoalition.org
info at internationalanswer.org 
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