EFL....sorry, couldn't make snarky comments, I was just too disgusted and angry after reading this article.
The father of Mariam Hamza, the 11-year-old Iraqi leukaemia victim championed by George Galloway, said yesterday that he was worried his daughter's life was in danger because funds promised by the Scottish MP's Mariam Appeal had failed to arrive. Hamza Abd Mittab said that the monthly allowance of £65 that the family of seven has received for three years from the appeal, to pay for Mariam's food and travel expenses, had last been paid in January. Speaking at the family home in Baghdad yesterday, he said: "Mariam's drugs are almost finished now and my daughter will die if she doesn't receive assistance."
The family has been told that Mariam, 11, who contracted acute lymphocytic leukaemia in 1997, must be treated regularly until she is 18. She is due to travel to Jordan for chemotherapy treatment in June, but Mr Hamza says he cannot afford to make the journey. Mariam recently suffered a 15-minute shaking fit, which has happened once previously when Mr Hamza was two days late for a hospital appointment in Jordan. The family has also been threatened with eviction from its house, whose annual rent of £800 has always been paid by the appeal. They are already 25 days in arrears after the lease expired on April 1 and the property's owner has demanded that they continue the previous arrangement of paying a year in advance. Money for the rent has not been received from the Mariam Appeal.
Mr Hamza was desperate to telephone the appeal to find out what was happening. "I want to be sure if they care about Mariam now," he said. Mr Hamza said that for three years he has collected the monthly allowance from a representative office in Baghdad of Fawaz Zureikat, the Jordanian businessman implicated in Mr Galloway's business deals with the regime by documents discovered at the foreign ministry in Baghdad. Mr Hamza began to sense something was wrong when he visited Mr Zureikat's office in February and was told the money had not appeared. He said he went back several times but was told to return the following day and that there had been no word from Jordan.
| Looks like Galloway and his cronies just dumped them when they were no longer useful. It goes with the mindset, but it's still not pleasant to look upon. |
|