Blood money boom for Iraqi donors as hospitals run dry

[donsu]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article329428.ece




The buyers and the sellers meet in corners, away from prying eyes. The deals are done after hurried negotiations, and bundles of notes change hands. But these are no ordinary transactions; the cash being traded is blood money.

In Iraq, a country being torn apart in a seemingly never-ending conflict, there is now an acute shortage of blood. And the worse the violence becomes, the higher its black market prices rise.

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And into this gap in the market fit people like Ali Mahmood Hashim, who, unemployed with three children to feed, is selling the only thing of worth he has left. "There is nothing else I can do," he said outside the Bab al-Modam medical complex in central Baghdad. "Everything is expensive and we have no money. I am not forcing anyone to buy my blood, but there are always those willing to pay for it."
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sigh

bring the troops home now

let the Iraqis have some peace