[Baghdad Journal] Day Ten (March 23)

[Wade Hudson]

Day Ten (March 23)
By Wade Hudson

Mr. Zaed, Mr. Wadaa's assistant in the Department of Protocol in the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs meets with us this morning. He informs us
that they are doing their best to make arrangements so that we will be
able to send small groups to stay at sites such as hospitals, with the
understanding that those who are trained will be able to help with
treatment and that others will be able to interview victims as a way
to help document war crimes. He suggests that we take turns staying in
one of the three hotels and staying at one of these sites, rotating in
shifts. One such group forms at the conclusion of the meeting to go to
a hospital.

Mr. Zaed states that he and Mr. Wadaa will also work on expediting our
war crimes monitoring at other sites. Since the office of immigration
is closed, he says that he will obtain visa renewals for us
personally. After some discussion, Mr. Zaed says that it is very
important that we turn in qall of our walkie-talkies to him
immediately, which we do. And Kathy K.  gathers up the paperwork
needed for the visa renewals.


The delegation to the hospital returns to the El Fanar just in time for a
birthday party for a nine-year-old friend of IPT, a girl by the name of
Amal. The party is held in a yard in back of the hookah-smoking café
across the street. With bombs occasionally exploding nearby and black
smoke covering much of the sky, some ten or fifteen Iraqi children
celebrate their friend's birthday. They bat balloons around in the sky
with the ten or so IPT people present, pose for pictures, check out the
digital images on the several cameras floating about, and review the
prints from Kathy B.'s Polaroid camera.

During the party, Doug gives me a report on the trip to the Alyarmouk
hospital. He says that our delegation was introduced to a number of
families whose members suffered injuries from the bombing in recent days.
Members of the delegation were able to take photos of some of the
injuries, and interview some family members. A physician said that the
people injured were in their homes when they were injured. IPT will be
reporting more fully on incidents such as these in coming days. Photos
will be published on http://inlet.org/wade/ as possible.

Late this afternoon, in the lobby of my hotel, the staff is watching Al
Jazeera, the Arabic CNN. I see images of what I'm told is a crowd
surrounding a pilot that parachuted from his plane after it was hit and
downed. Then I see images of what appears to be several dead soldiers, and
then footage of a captured POW, perhaps from Kansas. The tone of voice of
the announcer seems to be designed to stir up passion among the viewers. I
can only assume that with many viewers, it does so effectively.