This is not a reversal of the debate. Just more of the same old, same old hatred for new refugees.
Certain Danger – No Option but to Flee
By SQNLDR Munjed Al Muderis, Specialist Reserve
‘My birth place, once utopia, broke my heart with a single gun shot –
my faith and determination to escape a murderous political regime,
didn’t’.
‘Today, after life-on-the-run from Iraq and memories of detention and
solitary confinement in Australia; I’m happily married. My robotic limb
surgery skills are now part of the public health system and the Air
Force Reserve … thank you Australia!’
SQNLDR Munjed Al Muderis SR, a descendant from the 2nd family of the
Iraq Royal Family when the country was under British rule, doesn’t talk much
about life-on-the-run. His escape, mostly by stealth, was a snap decision
after witnessing the shooting murder of a senior doctor by an Iraqi
commander at Baghdad Hospital.
That shooting, the result of the doctor’s refusal, including a joint refusal by
other doctors to mutilate Iraqi military deserters, occurred in 1999, eight
years after the Iraq invasion of Kuwait. The murder by a single pistol shot
resonates to this day through SQNLDR Al Muderis' every sense of decency. Photo: DGRES-AF
SQNLDR Munjed Al Muderis SR met
SQNLDR Peter Meehan SR, Editor
News Breakers to share his
remarkable story of survival during his
escape from Iraq and his medical
achievements in Australia as a leading
robotic limb surgeon.
SQNLDR Munjed Al Muderis SR, exemplifies Reserve diversity. His medical
skills add significant weight to Air Force civil skills capability.
Doctor Al Muderis joined the Reserve to thank Australia. And, to offer his
orthopaedic robotic limb surgical skills to the ADF; thus adding to Australia’s
orthopaedic capabilities for use in both developed and under-developed
countries.
SQNLDR Al Muderis SR, shared his story with the Editor …
‘I’d graduated as a doctor from Baghdad University about two years before
the Hospital shooting – a murderous act that occurred within minutes of the
Iraq military ordering doctors to cut the ears from three bus loads of Iraqi
deserters. The doctor’s murder was simply to get our attention’.
‘Soldiers herded us forward to conduct the heinous act of surgery. A gap
in surveillance enabled some of us to flee the scene. I hid in a toilet block
and lost contact with the others’.
‘I headed for Jordon knowing that Iraqi intelligence officers
may not be far behind’.
Photo: DGRES-AF
‘I could hear soldiers searching room-to-room calling for doctors who
couldn’t be accounted for – my heart was pounding – my stomach was
churning – then came a moment of silence. I seized the opportunity to run
through the Hospital corridors to the outside world; I kept running until deep
into the outer suburbs of Baghdad’.
‘I knew that there was no turning back!’
Doctor Al Muderis became a moving target as he travelled 100km across
country to the old family home, west of Baghdad. He contacted his mother,
Kamila Al Turck through relatives. His father, Abdul Razak, an Iraqi Supreme
Court Judge passed away in 1995.
SQNLDR Al Muderis said, ‘My mother was very distressed because Iraqi
intelligence officers had already been at the house looking for me’.
‘Mother quickly arranged for documentation that showed my profession as a
tradesman – she fed me – I rested – she gave me money and kissed me
goodbye’.
‘I then fled into the darkness. My dream to become an orthopaedic robotic
limb surgeon was under threat, as was my life ’.
SQNLDR Munjed Al Muderis SR,
seen on a recent brief familiarisation
tour of Melbourne, is hoping to
introduce cutting-edge robotic limb
technology to the ADF and help
bring Australia forward in his field of
orthopaedic and trauma surgery.
‘Escape by stealth became a more open affair when my aunt
suggested I should go to Malaysia’.
‘Travelling by bus, I headed for Jordon knowing that Iraqi intelligence officers
may not be far behind. As the bus approached the Iraq/Jordon border, my
heart again began to race; it was as if time stood still, a surreal experience
not knowing if my newly acquired papers would bring about my arrest’.
‘I was recorded at the border as a tradesman – thanks mother – the bus,
with me on board, passed into Jordon’.
‘It was a 500km journey to Amman where I contacted my aunty,
an American citizen: for the first time, life-on-the-run, had a sense
of calm and safety’.
‘After a day or so, escape by stealth became a more open affair
when my aunt suggested I should go to Malaysia. She assisted
me with travel arrangements via Abu Dhabi to Kuala Lumpur. It
was here that I met with a contact, a complete stranger, who was
to assist me with passage to Indonesia’.
‘He asked for money and said he would meet me the next day – I
paid him, he then disappeared into a sea of humanity – I believed
I’d never see him again. To my surprise, he returned the following
day with a ticket to Jakarta’.
‘Recommendation to throw the navigation equipment
overboard and to make sure the motor was disabled, upon
arrival at Christmas Island’.
Advanced Orthopaedics led by Dr Al Muderis with
skilled specialists at Westmead Hospital, NSW. ‘Another contact met with me in Indonesia to say that I was in a
queue-to-travel; possibly a six months wait. Next day, the contact
told me that he knew I was a doctor – not a tradesman’!
‘Now that got my fearful attention’.
‘He said I’d be jumping the queue-to-travel as three pregnant women,
with important connections, were about to board the next boat for
Christmas Island – he even supplied medical items to assist the three
mothers-to-be’.
‘Things were moving pretty fast’.
‘I was placed in a group of about 60 people and headed east, over
night by road, to a point on the Indonesian coast. At first light, I
noticed that we’d been followed by other busses; the passengers who
alighted looked desperate. They were destined to join our group and
face an open sea journey on the same boat – 165 people in all
crammed on board, all standing, no room to sit, no privacy’.
‘With no guarantees of safety, the boat set off into a rising sea which
immediately caused distress and induced mass vomiting – the food
bars and water we were given amounted to nothing’. ‘The journey
was chaotic’!
‘At the Austin Hospital I studied to fulfil my dream to
become an orthopaedic robotics limb surgeon’.
‘Once in international waters, the so-called skipper stopped our boat
and asked for someone to take charge as he was going to leave us at
this point – a much larger vessel then came alongside’.
‘A volunteer came forward and received instructions from the skipper
on compass headings, including a strong recommendation to throw the
navigation equipment overboard and to make sure the motor was
disabled, upon arrival at Christmas Island’.
‘The skipper alighted onto the waiting vessel which disappeared in the
direction of our wake within seconds. Our new skipper successfully
guided our fragile flotsam to Christmas Island in about 36 hours’.
‘When taken into custody, most people were exhausted. Those who
were ill and seriously dehydrated were given medical support’.
Detention in WA …
‘Time at Curtin Detention Centre, Western Australia followed our
Christmas Island arrival.
Facilities were primitive to say the least – it
was a tent settlement – no provision of clothing – food was an issue
due to the faith of many – riots were frequent’.
‘My 10 months of detention at Curtin included a period of solitary
confinement until my visa was granted which included Centrelink and
Medicare Cards. On release, a Curtin detention official told me to head
for Broome and wished me well in discovering my new life’.
‘I travelled by bus from Broome to Perth, through Adelaide
then on to Melbourne. Upon arriving in Victoria, my mother
sent me copies of my Baghdad University medical degree
and proof of employment in Iraq’.
‘Next stop was Mildura Base Hospital where I worked as a
junior medical officer in the emergency department. After
four months in Mildura and unable to conduct orthopaedic
surgery; I was offered a job as Surgical Registrar at the
Austin Hospital in suburban Melbourne after which
employment followed at Bendigo, Wollongong and
Canberra Hospitals’.
‘It was during my time at Austin Hospital that I studied to
fulfil my dream to become an orthopaedic robotics limb
surgeon; a most fascinating and rewarding profession
working with cutting-edge technology to assist those who
have lost legs in combat, or through other health and
accident reasons’.
Joining the Reserve …
SQNLDR Al Muderis added, ‘I want to serve as a Reservist for as long as I
can in the development of robotic limb technology that may be of assistance
to ADF personnel who have suffered injuries while serving in harm’s way.’
Footnote
Today, Dr Munjed Al Muderis is Senior Lecturer at Macquarie
University Hospital and School of Advanced Medicine, Ryde NSW and
visiting Medical Officer at Norwest Hospital, Bella Vista, NSW and
Sydney Adventist Hospital.
Dr Al Muderis and his wife Irina have a daughter Sophia. His aged and
infirmed mother Kamila Al Turck, now lives in Sydney.
The fate of other family members in Iraq is unknown.
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