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-----Original Message----- From: Milan Rai <milanaway@hotmail.com> To: voices@viwuk.freeserve.co.uk <voices@viwuk.freeserve.co.uk> Cc: dodgy@les-ok.freeserve.co.uk <dodgy@les-ok.freeserve.co.uk>; unscourged@hotmail.com <unscourged@hotmail.com>; milanrai@trinityroad.free-online.co.uk <milanrai@trinityroad.free-online.co.uk> Date: 14 January 2001 21:23 Subject: tun myat on shortages of medicines >Please forward to CASI etc as appropriate: > >The Seventh Voices UK Sanctions-breaking Delegation found shortages of >antibiotics occurred in the five hospitals visited (two in Baghdad, one each >in Amara, Basra, and Fallujah). > >The UN Humanitarian Coordinator explained the background to these shortages: > >1) The administration of the pharmaceutical procurement process is hindered >by the fact that the central administrative body (Kimadia) needs a new stock >control management information system, involving the importing and >networking of hundreds of computers. These have been held up by the >Sanctions Committee. > >2) The Baghdad authorities prefer to manufacture basic pharmaceuticals at >their own plant in Samarra (Samarra Drug Industry - SDI), damaged in the >1991 war and paralyzed by sanctions afterwards. They had been confident that >a large proportion of the drugs needed in the last phase could be produced >locally, then discovered 'to their horror' (Coordinator's words) that >Samarra was not coming up to speed as fast as they had hoped, and there was >a consequent shortfall. We did not clarify to what extent the problems at >Samarra were due to raw materials and machinery being held up by the >Sanctions Committee approval process. > >3) Because they had held back on orders for medicines and blood bags and so >on (we discovered shortages in bloodbags in several hospitals) because of >their confidence in Samarra, they have only ordered $73m out of an >allocation of $625m for medicines. This was an allocation for the *last* >phase, which ended a month ago. The Coordinator expressed his surprise and >concern at the under-ordering, and stated clearly that the shortages in >antibiotics and other basic medicines was not due to the functioning of the >661 Sanctions Committee, contrary to the widely-held view in Iraq. > >However, it is clear from his earlier remarks that the sanctions have had >some role to play in the creation of the shortages, because of the problems >in Kimadia and Samarra. > >Interview with Tun Myat, by Voices in the Wilderness UK Seventh >Sanctions-Breaking Delegation > >Full report by the end of the week. >_________________________________________________________________________ >Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. > > -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq For removal from list, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk Full details of CASI's various lists can be found on the CASI website: http://www.casi.org.uk