4/15/98
BBC News

A four-year-old Iraqi girl with leukaemia is on her way to the UK for treatment accompanied by her grandmother and Glasgow MP George Galloway.

The Labour leftwinger arranged the mercy flight with the help of Foreign Secretary Robin Cook who intervened at the United Nations to allow it.

"By saving one child we can illuminate the bigger picture," said Mr Galloway. "She can be an ambassador for all the suffering children that she leaves behind."

Mariam Hamza comes from the south of Iraq where a six-fold increase in leukaemia cases has been reported over the last seven years.

Her grandmother appreciates the chance Mariam has been given. "We never thought we'd be able to travel abroad to get treatment for Mariam. We are very grateful for that and we'll always be thankful," she said.

Mr Galloway and others blame this rise on the use by the Allies of shells tipped with depleted uranium during the Gulf war.

Sanctions imposed on Iraq after the war have also been blamed for increasing the suffering of children like Mariam because of shortages of medicine.

"Definitely she is an example of several - even thousands - of children who are suffering from different problems including leukaemia," said Ibrahim Al-Nassir, Mariam's doctor.

Mr Galloway has long opposed sanctions. Before he left Baghdad, he said he would challenge the government to use £1.5bn worth of Iraqi assets frozen in London to buy food and medicine for the Iraqi people.

The MP dismissed suggestions that helping the girl would be a propaganda coup for Iraq.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I don't see it that way. This little child will die if she doesn't get this treatment because of the cumulative effects of sanctions over the last seven-and-a-half years on the Iraqi health service, which is close to collapse."

The sanctions are not expected to be lifted until UN inspectors confirm all of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have been destroyed.

MP guarantees costs

Miriam will be treated at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Mr Galloway's Glasgow constituency.

A hospital spokesman said she would be assessed when she arrives and that Mr Galloway had promised the cost of treatment - between £7,000 and £50,000 - would be paid.

Britain does not have a reciprocal arrangement with Iraq for medical treatment. Mr Galloway reportedly told the hospital he would use Arabian contacts including businessmen and royalty to collect the money needed.