European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 18, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday september 18, 1990 the stars and Stripe crisis in the Gulf Kuwait in desperate Straits evacuee says a amps l. Emmett Lewis or. A relative of the american woman who fled Kuwait shows a makeshift Gas mask. By Randy Pruitt staff writer turmoil in iraqi occupied Kuwait is More serious than westerners realize says an american woman who fled from the country last week with her two children. The situation has become so desperate she said that the kuwaitis a fearing that  Trade sanctions wont work a Are hoping for a Quick invasion by troops based in saudi Arabia. The woman left her kuwaiti husband behind and is living temporarily with relatives in West Germany. She was evacuated by the american embassy via a flight to Baghdad Iraq and then London. She said a a work stoppage in Kuwait City has brought services to a standstill. The smoke and stench from burning garbage hover Over the City. A cholera and meningitis have broken out. Medical care is non existent. Hospitals have run out of Medicine for children. A wholesale looting continues and iraqi soldiers have begun to evict families from their Homes. Iraqi soldiers Are not unaffected by events said the California native who Speaks fluent arabic and has lived in Kuwait City for 11 years. A a they be had eight years of War with Iran. They re tired hungry and they re poor. They Haven to seen their families. Most of them done to want to be there a said the woman who spoke on condition she not be identified. The american said she moved freely about the City disguised in the traditional flowing costume worn by native women. She said she witnessed Many of the events she recounted. Others were related to her by her husband who visited with iraqi soldiers at checkpoints. A the iraqi army is demoralized a she said. A a they re All terrified of the americans. They have such respect for the american forces that if it came to combat Many would run away. So Many Are carrying White handkerchiefs in their  Many soldiers have surrendered to the saudi forces she said while some have turned Over their weapons to the kuwaitis and Are being hidden. Americans and other foreigners also Are being hidden by kuwaitis she said. A the penalty for hiding a foreigner is hanging a she said. A kuwaiti resistance is Active she said a the Day before i left there were five iraqi soldiers found dead in a school in a Kuwait City residential  the iraqis retaliated by ordering families to leave the surrounding Homes she said. A then they blew up All the  some soldiers though apologized to her husband for the invasion. A one Soldier was saying his aunt married a Kuwait Man that he had kuwaiti cousins there a she said. A a a you think i wanted to come Here by Choice and fight my cousins a a he asked her husband. The kuwaitis fear iraqis Poison Gas she said. The resistance movement has published and distributed newspapers telling How to Deal with a Gas attack. Included Are detailed instructions on How to make a homemade Gas mask. A i was sitting for about two weeks sewing Gas masks for All the family a she said. A you can imagine How you feel sewing Gas masks for All your  the method involved breaking natural Wood charcoal into pea size pieces and frying them for half an hour. After Cooling the Wood is sewn into a Cotton mask. She said the kuwaitis Are United and helping each other. They Are also refusing to buy goods brought in from Iraq. Meanwhile the food shortage worsens she said. A they the kuwaitis Are hoping for a Quick attack. They done to mind. They Are willing to die if it comes to that but they would rather die and have their country returned rather than slowly die for  one night is burned forever in her memory. It was Midnight on the one month anniversary of the iraqi invasion. Following a Call for civil disobedience families went out on their roof tops and shouted a Wallah is  a fall of a sudden All Over Kuwait you could hear these voices shouting together a she said. A the iraqi soldiers freaked out and started firing their machine guns in the air. A in one area they got in their tanks and drove away and in another they locked themselves inside the police station. This went on for nearly two hours. It made them feel so ashamed because they re fighting their fellow moslem and fellow arabs and Friendly neighbor. A it was one night the iraqis were afraid and not  tale of two cultures signs of Western technology contrast women. At left two saudi arabians use on saturday. At right a pair of glasses fundamentalist at an anti american with the traditional dress of moslem a Pepsi vending machine in dam Mam stands out on a Black shrouded moslem rally saturday night in Amman Jordan