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CNN Live Saturday
Coalition Forces Face Task of Rebuilding Iraq
Aired April 19, 2003 - 14:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: With each passing day, more and more Iraqis are venturing out of their homes in a bid to get their lives back on track. However, the task of rebuilding is enormous, both in terms of money and in hardships facing Iraqis everywhere. Mark Webster of Britain's ITV News reports from Iraq's second largest city of Basra.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARK WEBSTER, ITV NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Trade is flourishing on the streets of Basra, as the local economy lurches back into life. Everything from pharmaceuticals to vegetables have started to reappear, but at a price, and it's a price many Iraqis can't afford.
Along with Saddam Hussein, the local currency has collapsed. And money changers desperately try to offload the old notes. They are virtually worthless. Traders crowded roundly at the chance of trading hard currency offering rates for sterling, deutsch marks, but above all the American dollar.
(on camera): What I have done is (UNINTELLIGIBLE) less than five pounds. I got 28,000 Iraqi dinars. The worry here, obviously, is this sort of exchange rate leaders to hyperinflation (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
(voice-over): Other Iraqis are making the most of their misfortunes. These men have been collecting abandoned artillery cases for scrap. And these were siphoning petrol from a sabotaged pipeline. Word spread fast that petrol was gushing from a broken valve, and desperate Iraqis stood soaked in petrol, as they collected as much as they could. Only the arrival of British soldiers calmed things down. They averted a riot, or a potentially deadly fire, forbidding people to smoke and blocking any more from getting here.
Aid is arriving. This was a consignment of drugs for Basra's main hospital, which is short of antibiotics, anesthetics and insulin. Doctors say people are dying unnecessarily.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are, in a sense, they are doing nothing to the injured (UNINTELLIGIBLE). And we have -- we honestly are trying a lot of times, when we are receiving the injured people and they are dying between our hands.
WEBSTER: His patients, 20-year-old Amjad Ali Al-Solecki (ph) is one of those who may not have long to live. Injured in the shelling of Nasiriya, his leg has been amputated. But as a hemophiliac, he will die without the blood clotting agent Factor 8 (ph). It's the only English he knows. His family's scouring every town to try and save him, but in the meantime, his life blood literally seeping away.
Mark Webster, ITV News, Basra.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired April 19, 2003 - 14:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: With each passing day, more and more Iraqis are venturing out of their homes in a bid to get their lives back on track. However, the task of rebuilding is enormous, both in terms of money and in hardships facing Iraqis everywhere. Mark Webster of Britain's ITV News reports from Iraq's second largest city of Basra.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARK WEBSTER, ITV NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Trade is flourishing on the streets of Basra, as the local economy lurches back into life. Everything from pharmaceuticals to vegetables have started to reappear, but at a price, and it's a price many Iraqis can't afford.
Along with Saddam Hussein, the local currency has collapsed. And money changers desperately try to offload the old notes. They are virtually worthless. Traders crowded roundly at the chance of trading hard currency offering rates for sterling, deutsch marks, but above all the American dollar.
(on camera): What I have done is (UNINTELLIGIBLE) less than five pounds. I got 28,000 Iraqi dinars. The worry here, obviously, is this sort of exchange rate leaders to hyperinflation (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
(voice-over): Other Iraqis are making the most of their misfortunes. These men have been collecting abandoned artillery cases for scrap. And these were siphoning petrol from a sabotaged pipeline. Word spread fast that petrol was gushing from a broken valve, and desperate Iraqis stood soaked in petrol, as they collected as much as they could. Only the arrival of British soldiers calmed things down. They averted a riot, or a potentially deadly fire, forbidding people to smoke and blocking any more from getting here.
Aid is arriving. This was a consignment of drugs for Basra's main hospital, which is short of antibiotics, anesthetics and insulin. Doctors say people are dying unnecessarily.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are, in a sense, they are doing nothing to the injured (UNINTELLIGIBLE). And we have -- we honestly are trying a lot of times, when we are receiving the injured people and they are dying between our hands.
WEBSTER: His patients, 20-year-old Amjad Ali Al-Solecki (ph) is one of those who may not have long to live. Injured in the shelling of Nasiriya, his leg has been amputated. But as a hemophiliac, he will die without the blood clotting agent Factor 8 (ph). It's the only English he knows. His family's scouring every town to try and save him, but in the meantime, his life blood literally seeping away.
Mark Webster, ITV News, Basra.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
