Woman devoted to Iraqi people gets caught up in violence of war

AS British and US forces massed to invade Iraq last year, the Irish-born director of CARE International operations in Baghdad said she was determined to stay.

“I won’t leave because I think it’s important for my staff that I stay with them. The strength comes from us supporting one another,” Margaret Hassan said in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Now she is a hostage caught up in the violence unleashed by war, seized early yesterday in Baghdad.

Described by friends as caring, tough and direct, Ms Hassan has lived in Iraq for 30 years, and began working for CARE International soon after it began operations there in 1991. She commanded a staff of 60 Iraqis who run nutrition, health and water programs throughout the country.

Ms Hassan is married to an Iraqi. A Care spokeswoman in London said: “She considers herself an Iraqi national.”

A vocal opponent of international sanctions on Iraq, Ms Hassan warned British MPs before the invasion of Iraq that a conflict could produce a humanitarian crisis in a country already weakened by the embargoes.

British journalist Robert Fisk says he got to know Ms Hassan after his newspaper, The Independent, raised about £140,000 for medicines.

Put in charge of distributing the drugs, Ms Hassan “did an extraordinary job,” he said.

“She managed to browbeat the authorities, the UN and the Americans, to get these medicines into Iraq ... complex medicines for leukaemia sufferers. She is an extraordinarily energetic woman.”

According to Mr Fisk, Ms Hassan speaks fluent Arabic with an Iraqi accent. “She was very careful not to involve herself in any political discussion,” he said, although she “was very much against the UN sanctions.”

“She constantly talked about Iraq as a wonderful country and was very dedicated to the people there. So here, once again, we have a woman who should be a heroine in Iraq and instead she’s a hostage.”

In a recent interview with Mr Fisk published by The Independent, Ms Hassan expressed frustration with what she called the “the man-made disaster” visited on Iraq by the recent conflict.

“Yes, some people have benefited from what we have done. But we can’t solve the problem of Iraq. It’s got no economy,” she said.

Ms Hassan felt that under sanctions the aid agencies were “providing the proverbial useless drop in the ocean” while Iraqis died of deprivation, Mr Fisk said.

“If this was a Third World country, we could bring in some water pumps at a cost of a few hundred pounds and they could save thousands of lives,” she told Mr Fisk.

“But Iraq was not a Third World country before the (1991) war - and you can’t run a developed society on aid.”

“The people are really, really suffering. Do people know what it’s like for a mother to wake up each morning not knowing whether she can feed her child - in a country which can feed every child?”

Sanctions, she said, “are inhuman and what we are doing cannot redress that inhumanity.

“They are contrary to the UN Charter, which enshrines the rights of the individual. It’s a contradiction, a hypocrisy - it’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.”

US founded, but based in Belgium, CARE International is the world’s largest humanitarian relief agency, existing in 72 countries.

Margaret Hassan

Age: Unclear. She is thought to be in her 50s.

Occupation: Head of Care International’s Iraqi staff of 30 people since it began in 1991. She has been providing humanitarian relief to the people of Iraq in a professional career spanning more than 25 years.

Family: Married to an Iraqi and has lived in the country for 30 years. Characteristics: Described by friends as caring, tough and direct.