Red tape cost lives as medical supplies sat in MCC warehouse

Mennonite Central Committee
Saturday, 20 May 2000

WINNIPEG, Man. -- The U.S. government has finally given Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) permission to ship a load of hospital equipment to Iraq after a six-month delay.

"We can honestly say that this delay has cost the lives of some Iraqi children," said Fay Foster, MCC co-representative for Iraq and Jordan.

MCC, which made application in October 1999, finally got official approval from the U.S. Department of Treasury at the end of April to ship the 40-foot container. It will be shipped to Jordan, then trucked into Iraq. It is expected to arrive by the end of June.

MCC and the Islamic Relief Agency are in the process of building a much-needed pediatric hospital in Karbala, southwest of Baghdad. After MCC put out an appeal to donors in August 1999, a container of medical equipment, consisting of hospital beds, cabinets, nursing uniforms, over-bed tables and three Bennett ventilators, was collected in the United States. The ventilators are designed to safely ventilate critically ill neo-natal and pediatric babies.

Kevin King, MCC material resources manager, said the U.S. government seemed to be concerned that the ventilators could have dual use, and be used for military purposes--something he doesn't deem possible. "Unfortunately, we've been noticing a pattern of increasing delay on receiving a favourable response," said King.

He said it was disheartening to see the container sit sealed and ready to go for months at MCC's warehouse in Ephrata, Pa., after donors had so generously supplied equipment and partners in Iraq sat waiting for it.

"For the past few months we have been totally frustrated with the delay. Every day we were hearing reports of how the U.S. government was fast-tracking humanitarian goods and yet here were our hospital beds taking six months to get their approval," said Greg Foster, also co-representative for Iraq and Jordan. "It is just not right or just."

Although the hospital ward was completed months ago, it couldn't be used until the hospital beds arrived, thus making it impossible for children to receive treatment.

In the meantime, Fay said families have had to travel 15 km/nine miles to the nearest children's hospital. The taxi fare alone costs more than a doctor's monthly wage. "For this reason, children have died," she said.

This is the first time MCC has sent medical equipment to Iraq. However, MCC has never experienced such a long waiting period for approval for other shipments to Iraq. Over the years, millions of dollars worth of medicines, food, seeds and school kits have been sent into Iraq.

For more information, or to contact Mennonite Central Committee, see their website at: www.mcc.org