America and Britain are killing the people they are claiming to help
Email received: 28 Mar 2003, Changed 03-08-03
Report from Kent Messenger http://www.kentonline.co.uk
War hits home for schoolgirl Sulapha
A KENT schoolgirl has described the horror of seeing on TV missiles and
bombs
ravage Baghdad where members of her family live.
For Sulapha Manaim, Fordwich Close, Allington, Maidstone, every day of
the
war brings uncertainty about the safety of her grandmother and aunts
and
uncles who live in Iraq's main city.
Sulapha, 15, a pupil at Maidstone Grammar School for Girls, has watched
in
fear as the "precision" attacks by American and British forces pound
the
city each day, and occasionally stray off-course into civilian areas.
She said: "It is horrible. We can call the family and check they are
all
safe, but we don't know what is happening all the time."
Sulapha, an only child, was born in Britain but did not move here
permanently
until 1991. She lives with her parents who left Iraq for political
reasons
in 1976.
Her father, who does not wish to be named, said he would never return
to
his homeland while Saddam's regime is in power. He says there is a
culture
of fear in Iraq where people will not even speak out against Saddam in
private,
or on the telephone, in case they are found out and tortured.
There is a widespread feeling that many Iraqis are scared to form a
rebellion
because they fear that Saddam will win the war and the Americans will
offer
them no protection from his wrath - as in 1991, when Saddam brutally
crushed
an uprising which the Americans had encouraged.
Sulapha stressed: "People will not stand up to Saddam because they do
not
know if they will be abandoned again.
"I agree in principle with what is being done. If Saddam is removed and
life
improves for Iraqis then that would be good. But I do not agree with
the
way it is being done.
"You cannot fight terror with terror. America and Britain are killing
the
people they are claiming to help. Arab television is showing pictures
of
civilian casualties and deaths, images which are not shown here. They
are
horrible."
She added: "Many of the people that know me, and know that I am from
Iraq,
say that they support the war because it will help Iraqis. They do not
realise
how brutal this war is."