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BAGHDAD, Feb 2,
2006 (AFP) - 5h11 - In the picturesque town of Dukan,
next to a beautiful alpine lake in Iraq's Kurdish
region (Kurdistan), checkpoints blocking the roads
mark the beginning of a buffer zone to halt the
spread of the deadly bird flu.
Teams of medical technicians and veterinarians
prepare to enter the suspected "hot zone" where
teenager Shanjin Abdel Qader died on January 17
after she was infected by the fatal virus.
Their mission is to kill hundreds of thousands of
birds in this northern frontier area bordering Iran.
The teams are dressed in blue or yellow chemical
suits that cover their whole bodies, with masks,
gloves and boots ensuring that no flesh is exposed.
Hundreds of them have been at it for the past three
days.
Cars leaving the zone are sprayed with disinfectant,
and drivers are required to wipe their shoes on
carpets impregnated with the disinfectant.
"We bought ourselves ten tons of disinfectant, which
cost us 200,000 dollars, which comes out of the
budget of the province," said team leader and
veterinarian Abbas Ali, adding that help from
Baghdad has been slow in coming.
"With our meager funds, we have to disinfect all the
villages, hamlets and residences in this vast zone,"
he said.
According to the Kurds, some 50 villages and 400,000
people have been placed under quarantine.
Ali also laments the lack of Tamiflu medication for
his men, who could be in daily contact with the
virus.
The equipment at the disposal of Ali's men is also
inadequate compared to the sophisticated tools in
developed countries, he added, hoping that help
would come from international humanitarian
organizations.
Beyond the checkpoint, lies the village of Bankard
in the district of Raniya and not far from Sarkabkan,
where the outbreak of bird flu began.
The 4,000 people of Bankard are just starting to
realize what kind of serious danger they are in.
Stunned, they watch in dismay as the team moves
through their streets, searching house to house for
poultry or domestic birds.
Chickens, ducks, all kinds of birds are shoved into
sacks and thrown into a tractor before being
disposed of in a massive ditch, dug for this
purpose.
"We are gathering up all the birds and burying them
in a ditch four meters deep, far away from the
houses," said Bassem Khodr Hassan, one of the
volunteers on the team.
He looked around with regret at the dilapidated
state of the village whose inhabitants don't even
have the most rudimentary forms of protection.
"We're well protected with our suits, but I fear for
those little kids who gather to watch us and have
nothing to protect themselves with," he said.
Bafflement over the men in strange suits gives way
to grief as the villagers watch their livestock --
for the poor their sole means of livelihood --
disappear into sacks to be destroyed.
Fatima Abdel Qader, 47, and her daughter live alone
and own nothing but their poultry.
A young boy called Beshko Hamma can't contain his
sobs as he follows behind the members of the team
who have taken away his pigeons.
"I raised these pigeons myself," he said accusingly
to the man in the chemical suit. "There are no sick
birds in Bankard."
The villagers were extremely reluctant to see their
birds taken, said one team member, and only gave in
after the promises of compensation announced by the
government.
"It's us or them," said one old woman in the village
with resignation.
AFP
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