HUNDREDS of artificial limbs are piled up in boxes in a medical compound at a hospital in Basra in southern Iraq.
They were sent by the British government last year intended for maimed children who can be seen hobbling about on crutches in the dusty streets of Basra. The lives of these children were ruined for ever in bombing raids by Allied crews.
If you want to know what was the effect of the fraudulent intelligence dossier and its 45 minute warning presented to MPs by the Prime Minister, imagine the tragic lives of these children. But it gets worse. There are only artificial legs in the boxes – no arms. And even these cannot be used because the government failed to send vital parts with the legs.
“We could not believe such a mistake could be made,” Doctor Kamal Yaquob told Lee Gordon, a former New Journal reporter, when he visited the hospital three months ago.
But none of this is being reported in the British media. It amounts to a conspiracy of silence. The government may not care what happens to these kids, but many in Britain do. They have responded magnificently to an appeal launched on the Islam Channel at its Fitzrovia studios two weeks ago which has so far raised £100,000 for medical aid for these forgotten victims of the war.
The New Journal is supporting this appeal – please send cheques payable to: Our Home Iraq, posted to: Our Home Iraq Appeal, Camden New Journal, 40 Camden Road, NW1 9DR.