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CNN Sunday Morning
Coalition Forces Provide Food, Medicine, Police Force to Iraqis
Aired April 20, 2003 - 11:14 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: In the new Iraq, relief and reconstruction. Coalition forces are having to provide food, medicine, and policing. Reporter Mark Webster with ITV is covering the British forces in Basra who are trying to keep the peace after the war.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
MARK WEBSTER, ITV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Searching for illegal weapons on this back road near Basra; this is just one of a range of quasi-policing activities carried out by British soldiers. Few guns have been recovered but this thinly spread force is intended to reassure local people and deter the criminals.
BOMBARDIER STEPHEN DAVIES, BRITISH ARMY: We've adapted to quite a few jobs since we've been here, you know. Well up to this job. It's good.
WEBSTER: Protecting tankers delivering desperately needed water is another day's chore, but this poor area is still lacking many amenities, and there is growing resentment among local people that the soldiers have not done more.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are poor. They want help. They want peace. They want water.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no peace. No peace.
WEBSTER: Soldiers stand guard at petrol stations, where hundreds of motorists wait patiently for hours. Each is allowed a tankful, but they're prevented from filling drums or jelly cans, because, the soldiers say, they'd simply be resold on the black market.
Even the local hospitals need protection. Soldiers confiscated this man's handcart after he was twice caught stealing goods.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I catch you stealing once more, Ali Baba...
WEBSTER: Inside the hospital there's little they can do to improve the situation. Patients are lying in stinking fly-filled wards. 6-year-old Celine is one of many children who have been treated after playing with discarded munitions.
The problems of hospitals like these in the south of Iraq are not simply those of the war. There's been more than a decade of neglect here, and for the doctors who struggle every day to try and help their patients, there are no drugs and the sanitation is extremely poor.
At least there has been good news for 20-year-old Amjed Ali (ph), a hemophiliac seen on ITV news, desperately in need of the clotting agent, factor eight, to stop him from bleeding. After scouring the city, the life-saving agent has been found. He should now live.
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
Iraqis>
Aired April 20, 2003 - 11:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: In the new Iraq, relief and reconstruction. Coalition forces are having to provide food, medicine, and policing. Reporter Mark Webster with ITV is covering the British forces in Basra who are trying to keep the peace after the war.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
MARK WEBSTER, ITV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Searching for illegal weapons on this back road near Basra; this is just one of a range of quasi-policing activities carried out by British soldiers. Few guns have been recovered but this thinly spread force is intended to reassure local people and deter the criminals.
BOMBARDIER STEPHEN DAVIES, BRITISH ARMY: We've adapted to quite a few jobs since we've been here, you know. Well up to this job. It's good.
WEBSTER: Protecting tankers delivering desperately needed water is another day's chore, but this poor area is still lacking many amenities, and there is growing resentment among local people that the soldiers have not done more.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are poor. They want help. They want peace. They want water.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no peace. No peace.
WEBSTER: Soldiers stand guard at petrol stations, where hundreds of motorists wait patiently for hours. Each is allowed a tankful, but they're prevented from filling drums or jelly cans, because, the soldiers say, they'd simply be resold on the black market.
Even the local hospitals need protection. Soldiers confiscated this man's handcart after he was twice caught stealing goods.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I catch you stealing once more, Ali Baba...
WEBSTER: Inside the hospital there's little they can do to improve the situation. Patients are lying in stinking fly-filled wards. 6-year-old Celine is one of many children who have been treated after playing with discarded munitions.
The problems of hospitals like these in the south of Iraq are not simply those of the war. There's been more than a decade of neglect here, and for the doctors who struggle every day to try and help their patients, there are no drugs and the sanitation is extremely poor.
At least there has been good news for 20-year-old Amjed Ali (ph), a hemophiliac seen on ITV news, desperately in need of the clotting agent, factor eight, to stop him from bleeding. After scouring the city, the life-saving agent has been found. He should now live.
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
Iraqis>
