News Search Search this site or the web powered by FreeFind Site search Web search Story archive		April 2, 2003, The Scotsman BLACK WATCH DOCTORS DISTRIBUTE MEDICINES HOARDED BY REGIME Gethin Chamberlain THOUSANDS of boxes of children's medicines seized by British troops on a raid on a militia headquarters in the town of Az Zubayr, near Basra, are being given out to parents by army doctors in the town in an attempt to win over the local population. British troops found enough medicines, including antibiotics and treatments for pneumonia and tapeworm, for 10,000 children when they searched a health centre last week which had been taken over by the Baath Party and militia in the town. Now they have decided to try to get the medicine, which had been left in a storeroom, into circulation by setting up their own clinic in a temporary military compound in the town. Three army doctors have been made available to see children who are being brought to the compound by their parents, and British military officials hope that the move will convince the local population that they are there to help. One of the first cases brought into the hospital involved two women and two young children whose car had hit a land mine. Both women had serious leg and foot injuries and a piece of shrapnel had severed a muscle in an arm. The youngest child, an 18-month old baby, suffered minor facial injuries and the other child, a boy aged about nine, had shrapnel wounds to his legs and arms. Yesterday, Lance Corporal Fred Simpson, one of the army medics who treated them said: "The shrapnel had come through the floor of the car and the ladies both had foot injuries from the shrapnel. They were both very shaken up and one of them was in severe pain. The young lad was more shocked and dazed than worried by the injuries." He said the mine, believed to have been laid by the Iraqi army, was a "jumping jack" which is catapulted up to waist height before exploding to cause maximum injury rather than to kill. British doctors have also a treated a number of injured Iraqi soldiers. But attempts to recruit Iraqi doctors and translators have hit problems because people say they are scared of reprisals from the Iraqi regime. Lieutenant-Colonel Kevin Beaton, senior medical officer with the Black Watch battle group, said he was concerned that those who were helping the British could face death. "There are absolutely petrified of helping," he said. "The militia are definitely still out there, they have got a grip on the psyche, almost in a Northern Ireland type of way." He said he was concerned for the safety of one young man who had volunteered to act as a translator in the British health clinic. "I just hope he doesn't get topped for talking to us," he said.
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