TAT- ANKARA
The confirmed death toll in the Asian tsunami tragedy has soared above 70,000, most of them are children. Tens of thousands of people are still missing. However it is good to hear that the tsunami and earthquake disaster united the world. States rallied to help: The US, this time sent its two warships carrying some 15,000 soldiers and cargo aircraft to help the civilian peoples, not to bomb them. Apart from the UN and local aid and rescue teams many countries have sent aid and rescue teams including Turkey, Greece, Australia, Britain, Finland, Israel etc. Even the separatist armed groups in the region declared cease-fire in order to help the rescue groups.
The disaster has been one of the worst natural catastrophes the world has experienced: In many countries, and in an area of thousands of kilometers, people were killed or missed. Millions are now homeless in Southern Asia.
The disaster is so destructive and terrible; the collaboration the international society has showed to ease the pains is so great. However it is strange that the same world has not showed a similar sensitivity to the ‘disaster in Iraq’.
The death toll in Iraq is over 100,000 till today and, thanks to the Bush Government’s ‘pre-emptive policies’, the toll is rising. Many of them are children and civilians. Hundred thousands of people have been severely injured, many of them are now disable. Ten thousands of women were raped, beaten or insulted in the prisons or home-security-investigations. Thosands are now homeless in Fellujah and in other Iraqi towns.
Not only the Americans but also extreme nationalists, religionists and other resistance groups kill Iraqi civilians. Explosion of a car at the heart of Baghdad, bombing cities from air to kill couple of ‘terrorist’, or a blast on the street of Mosul are common scenes for an ordinary Iraqi man.
In another word, Iraq experiences tsunamis and earthquakes every day since ‘the American liberation operation’. As a matter of fact that the economic embargo before the occupation had also hit the civilians: Thousands of children, thanks to the American insistence on embargo, died due to lack of medical equipment and insufficient nutrition. Now the American forces bomb hospitals for not to be used by the militants, and pregnant women and children die when they cannot find a doctor and hospital. The Iraqi militants are among the freest people in Iraq while the civilians have to confront all the problems caused by the militants and the occupying US forces.
The West’s close interest about the Asian tsunami and quake disaster must be appreciated, and supported. However it is difficult to understand its indifference stance towards the disaster in Iraq.