Area medical professionals rally in Bangor

BANGOR – A group of area physicians and other medical professionals gathered Wednesday on State Street to warn of the dangers that the looming war with Iraq poses for that nation’s civilians, particularly its women and children.

Nearly 50 members of the medical community turned up for the news conference, presented by the Maine Win Without War Coalition, a statewide group consisting of members from more than 20 humanitarian, environmental, professional and other organizations.

According to Dr. Peter Millard, an Orono family physician and member of the Maine chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, a recently leaked report by a special United Nations task force suggests an attack on Iraq could affect the physical well-being of as many as 500,000 Iraqi civilians.

Citing projections by the World Health Organization, Millard said bombing Iraq’s water and sewer systems and disrupting its food supply could result in injuries to 100,000 civilians. An additional 400,000 could be affected by disease, said Millard, who worked in a war zone in Africa in the mid-1980s and has seen first-hand the effect of war.

Dr. Wassim Mazraany, a surgeon who is a native of Lebanon and a Muslim, said that the United States has received the cooperation of many in the Arab and Muslim worlds. He cited as an example the help the United States received from Pakistani police and intelligence officials in arresting reputed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed last weekend.

Despite the cooperation, Mazraany said, the United States remains poised for war for reasons he said remain unclear to many in the Middle East.

“All we are doing is alienating other Arabs and Muslims in the world,” he said. “The result of this war will be more alienation and what you call collateral damage.”

Dr. Lisa Buck, a family practice physician, expressed concerns that a U.S.-led war against Iraq would divert resources that could be put to better use.

“With the state of the economy in the U.S. and Maine, that [money] should be going to health care,” she said.

“There’s just no compelling reason to go to war,” Jonette Christian, a family therapist in Bangor, said after the news conference. “Saddam [Hussein] is neutralized.”

Dr. Kathryn Bourgoin, one of the event’s speakers, was among those holding out hope for a peaceful resolution. “We need to give the U.N. weapons inspectors and diplomats more time to do their work,” she said.

Lesley Fernow, an internist who works in Dover-Foxcroft, agreed. “I think Saddam Hussein is a bad man, but war against Iraq is not ethical. It’s wrong.”

Though the rally took place on the sidewalk in front of Eastern Maine Medical Center, the hospital itself was not involved, according to a media advisory handed out before the event:

“The news conference being held today on the sidewalk outside [EMMC] is not organized or sponsored by EMMC. EMMC, as an organization, takes no political position on the prospect of war,” that statement read. “It is our role to attend to the treatment of sick and injured people, and we will do what is required to be medically prepared for whatever situation develops.”