Page 56 - MDOS2_Final
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MALAYSIAN DIPLOMATS: OUR STORIES



          Amman to ask for assistance and to facilitate the necessary arrangements at
          the Iraq-Jordan border.


          T e journey to Amman took longer than anticipated due to problems at the
          border. Normally the drive from Baghdad to Amman, which is approximately
          900 kilometres, would take around 10 to 11 hours. However, it took them
          more than 18 hours to reach Amman. Fortunately, our Malaysian embassy
          colleagues were at the border to help and ensure that everyone was allowed
          into Jordan. After one night at a hotel in Amman, they were all f own back
          to Kuala Lumpur using the Royal Jordanian Airlines plane. I was grateful
          that everyone was safe and no one was harmed. Back in Kuala Lumpur, my
          elder daughter had to be hospitalised for a few days due to dehydration and
          infection.

          T e rest of us – the ambassador, the ambassador’s personal assistant and
          I – stayed behind in Baghdad to “man the fort”. Around f ve Malaysian
          students made the decision to not be evacuated. T ey stayed with us and
          made themselves useful during the time when our families were not with us.
          Some of them helped with the cooking and cleaning.

          After two days of bombings, I decided to drive around Baghdad and see for
          myself the devastation and the extent of the destruction caused by the missile
          attacks. I asked Waheed, one of the local staf  who works with the embassy, to
          accompany me. I saw with my own eyes how the defence ministry building
          was completely damaged. Next to that building was Saddam’s Children’s
          Hospital, the largest maternity hospital in Baghdad. All the windows in the
          hospital were blown out by the force of the blast. I heard later that the
          doctors and the nurses were forced to evacuate all the patients in the middle
          of the attack. Waheed mentioned to me that some mothers spontaneously
          went into labour, and a few involuntarily aborted their pregnancies. Some
          babies in incubators died due to lack of oxygen as the electricity supply was
          cut of . Many people were in local hospitals with shrapnel wounds. No one
          knew how many people died. I even saw one missile land in the Karrada
          district, a business area of Baghdad, creating a big crater which later was
          f lled with water from a burst water pipe.


          T e bombings lasted until 20 December, just a day before the beginning

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