Press Releases

US base ammunition training contaminates and devastates District of Haweeja in Iraq

Posted on: Friday, August 26, 2011

Keywords: Iraq, Middle East, Combating Violence Against Women, Peace Building, Women's Health

MADRE just received this statement from our partner Yanar Mohammed, President of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI).

This past week, an OWFI delegation visited the district of Haweeja, west of Kirkuk city in Iraq. They found that the villages have practically turned into contaminated backyards of radioactive waste due to the live ammunition operations field of the nearby US base. This matter has initiated human tragedy in levels unprecedented in the district, and yet was totally ignored by both the Iraqi and US governments who were not concerned with the human lives wasted in the surroundings of the military operations training field.

Of the approximately 109,000 people that reside in Haweeja, there is a new disabled generation of infants and children who were born with abnormal and under-developed brains, most of whom suffer from polio, paralysis and sometimes blindness. Four hundred and twelve cases have been registered in the local clinic, but the number of cases likely exceeds 600. Similarly, the number of cancer cases has increased in all ages, with large numbers among teenagers. No treatment is offered by the Iraqi government or the US military, which is responsible for the contaminations resulting from their daily live ammunition radiation and emission. The US government continues to grant its military arsenal the liberty to practice shelling and explosions in the training field of Haweeja, which is only one mile from the homes of families, with no barriers to stop children, shepherds and sheep from walking onto the ammunition training fields.

Most of the disability and cancer cases are in the villages closest to the US base training field and those which lie in the path of the wind, i.e. south of the field, such as Al Kubeyba, Al Hamdouniya, Al Aatshana and Hor Al Sufun. For example, Al Kubeyba village has a population of 1,400 people - out of which 21 were diagnosed with cancer. Three have recently died while 18 are awaiting their destiny desperately with no hope of being provided treatment or medication by the authorities that should be held accountable.

An OWFI delegate invited a group of reporters on August 23rd to witness, report and reveal the Haweeja dilemma globally, thus reversing the censorship of the authorities over it. It came to our attention that a resident of Haweeja had taken a sample of soil to Kirkuk Health Department, only to be threatened on his next visit that he would be summoned for investigation by the US military forces.

OWFI calls on the international courts and tribunals to set up a war crime tribunal committee to investigate the party responsible for contaminating the air, soil and water of Haweeja and thus causing birth defects, disabilities, polio, paralysis and cancers. OWFI also calls upon the international humanitarian organizations to support the people of Haweeja against their daily sufferings, knowing that the Iraqi government deprived them of clean drinking water, adequate basic services and sources of income. Moreover, there is absolutely no governmental concern to provide them with physical or psychological treatment or medication in any way.

Furthermore, OWFI holds the US government accountable for the devastation of tens of thousands of Haweeja residents who suffer from having one or more disabled children in their immediate family (25% of newborns), thus forcing the residents to abstain from having more children who are destined to suffer alongside their parents. OWFI demands adequate financial compensation for the victims and their families, as they have been subjected to what amounts to crimes of war. Exposing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians to depleted uranium and other radiation from a US base which is implanted within Iraqi villages shows a clear disregard for Iraqi human life and disrespect for international treaties. The US administrations demonstrates willingness to plague the lives of thousands of unsuspecting innocent infants and teenagers with disability and cancer while denying them medication or even acknowledgement of any rights.

OWFI hopes to get help from international organizations to help reduce the sufferings of the people of Haweeja. Our experiences over the past eight years have taught us not to expect any positive response from both US and Iraqi governments who have cooperated in imposing the disaster in the first place.

Yanar Mohammed
Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq, president
23/08/2011

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