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Too many Iraqis who survive explosions end up dying in hospitals due to a lack of the most basic supplies, such as bandages, said a ministry worker in Baghdad.
Local television reports are showing footage of hospitals where people are crying because there are no bandages or other medical supplies for injured people, wrote a co-worker of Open Doors, whose name is withheld for security reasons, in an e-mail.
The Iraqi Christian went on to recall that a friend of his recently went to look for his mother in the hospital and “found a lot of blood on the floor.” His friend said the doctor would check each injured patient and if the person was losing a lot of blood the doctor would order the body to be moved to the fridge for the dead.
“‘We don’t have time and bandages enough for these cases. We just save and medicate the simple cases,’” the ministry worker recalled his friend hearing the doctor say.
His own comment on the situation was, “if you don’t die in the explosion, you will die in the hospital.”
In recent weeks, Iraq’s capital has been ravaged by a series of devastating explosions that shattered any previously held notion that Iraq, or Baghdad, was secured.
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Last Wednesday, a series of blasts targeted at government buildings in Baghdad wounded more than 500 people and killed 100, according to The Associated Press.
“It looks like evil has no work except in Iraq; he (Satan) is free of other jobs and is now just destroying Iraq,” wrote the Iraqi ministry worker in an emotional e-mail to Open Doors following last week’s attacks.
In a recent interview with the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, the Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk, a city in northeastern Iraq, talked about the “ineffective” security meant to protect Iraqi Christians from violent militias.
Archbishop Louis Sako said the religious violence against Christians, in addition to the level of violence faced by all Iraqis, is driving many Christians to leave the country.
“I feel more pessimistic now than ever before. We do not have the same hope that we had before,” Sako said. “In fact I am not seeing any signs of hope for the future.”
The archbishop said it seems like every criminal group is active and Iraq’s security system is “ineffective” and “unprofessional.” He also warned about the rise in extremism.
“Iraq is going to a narrow form of Islam,” he commented.
Since the 2003 U.S.-led offensive in Iraq, more than 600,000 Christians have been displaced in Iraq. About 400,000 of the displaced Christians have fled to neighboring countries such as Syria and Lebanon. About 100,000 live in the Kurdish controlled region in northern Iraq.
Prior to the Gulf War in 1991, there were about one million Christians in Iraq. Now there are less than 400,000.
“I don’t know why all this is happening to the Iraqi people and especially Baghdad’s people. I love my country and my city of Baghdad, but I am thinking of leaving Baghdad,” read the latest e-mail from the Open Doors co-worker.
“Every day we live like in a horror city. Our wives cry all the time and are scared that we won’t come back alive when we leave the house. For how long can I stand it,” he wrote. “I am sorry. I am very depressed from the situation and living over here. So please excuse me and pray for us to always do the right thing.”
