ANE HOWARTH REPLIES TO THE 1999 UNICEF REPORT ON IRAQ
On August 12 the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) released a report on child mortality in Iraq. The report shows that in the heavily populated southern and central parts of the country, children under five are dying at more than twice the rate they were ten years ago. Carol Bellamy, UNICEF Executive Director, said the findings reveal an ongoing "humanitarian emergency."
As the findings make clear, since the Gulf War infant mortality in southern and central Iraq has increased from 47 to 108 per thousand. This means that more than twice as many Iraqi children do not survive their first year of life. For children under five, mortality has risen from 56 to 131 per thousand.
Increasing malnutrition and disease and a shortage of medicine and clean water has caused this deplorable state of affairs. But it is the sanctions--harsh and unremitting--which have created these conditions. As Carol Bellamy notes, Iraq had substantially reduced child mortality prior to 1990. In comparing the data for the period before sanctions with that of the present, one concludes that at least 500,000 fewer children would have died. The Security Council itself said, "The Iraqi people would not be undergoing such deprivations in the absence of the prolonged measures imposed by the Security Council and the effects of war."
The UNICEF report has many shortcomings. Some of its recommendations are unrealistic. But by far the most disgusting, hypocritical aspect of the whole sad saga has been the all-too predictable response of the US and Britain. "It's all the fault of Saddam Hussein. Iraq's children are dying because the demon in Baghdad prevents them from getting the food and medicine allowed under the Food for Oil grant." For years we have heard the same lies, the same rubbish, from representatives of these two rogue states, served up by a mindless, unquestioning media.
The US State Department and the British government use the UNICEF report to support their claim that it is not the sanctions that are causing the dire situation in Iraq. Beth Jones, an Assistant Secretary of State, said Saddam Hussein seemed to be deliberately making Iraqi children suffer. The State Department's James Rubin said, "Saddam was manipulating the medicines." How medicines are manipulated is not explained. The US and Britain, bent on blaming Baghdad, contend that UNICEF's finding, showing figures for northern Iraq as very much better, is proof that sanctions are not the reason for the death of Iraqi children.
The truth is that northern Iraq, the Kurdish autonomous area, should not be compared with the rest of Iraq. The conditions are quite different. Malnutrition and disease in the north are much less severe for several very good reasons. First, the per-capita contribution from the humanitarian program is greater there than it is for the rest of Iraq. Only 15% of the population live in the northern Kurdish region. They receive 15% of the revenue from oil sales. The south and center of Iraq is home to 85% of the population and receives 30% of the revenue. Second, the border with Turkey is open, and trade flows freely. For the rest of the country, trade is restricted by sanctions. There is also a lucrative business in smuggled oil and other goods across the Turkish border. Third, the infrastructure of the north was not destroyed as was that of the center and south. Equally important, the north's economy has not collapsed. If anything has blighted the lives of the people in the north, it is the continual war between the two main Kurdish factions.
Sanctions have caused the collapse of Iraq's economy. Sanctions have reduced the Iraqi people to abject poverty. Sanctions have made it impossible for them to find work or to live normal lives. Sanctions have brought malnutrition and disease.
Those who blame the government of Iraq for the present dire situation should be reminded that Saddam Hussein has been the president since 1979. Up until the Gulf War, his country attained high standards of social and economic progress. Living conditions markedly improved. Iraq was cited as a model for others by the UN. It had the highest literacy rate in the area with excellent health and education systems free to all its citizens. The government has not changed. The truth is that an economic embargo is a harsh, drastic means to cripple a nation's economy and to impoverish its people. The thinking behind it is that the people will rise up and overthrow the government.
So far, UNICEF's data has been criticized as underestimating (some say massively) the extent and gravity of the problem. Certainly, some proposals are unrealistic and take no account of prevailing conditions. For example, the "dramatic increase in bottle feeding of infants" (defined as those under 1 year) is condemned. The government is urged to "remove breast milk substitutes from the rations." This ignores that malnourished mothers cannot produce milk. And, the meagre rations available under the humanitarian program means, as the World Health Organization (WHO) has stated, the majority of Iraqis have subsisted on a semi-starvation diet since the Gulf War. Also ignored, a fact this writer noted when in Iraq: infant milk formula in the rations is insufficient for requirements. Mothers diluted it or used sugar and water instead.
The UNICEF survey makes no recommendation for improving the water quality. The fact that untreated water is a major contributor to deaths from disease is not addressed. Nor is there any real attempt to address children's education. Countless children, reduced to begging on the streets, are growing up ill-nourished and uneducated. These children will be disadvantaged for the rest of their lives.
If one thing stands out in this sorry mess, it is the effectiveness of sanctions to damage the economy of a small country already devastated by war. Britain and the US, the perpetrators of the deliberate devastation of Iraq and the obscene, unnecessary deaths of over half a million children, must be called to account. Blair, Clinton, Albright, Cohen, and the rest should stand in the dock charged with crimes against humanity. They would not attempt to treat China or India the way they have treated Iraq, no matter what the perceived misdeeds. "The indispensable nation" is careful to choose only small emerging countries such as Cuba, Libya, and Iraq when dealing out its own special brand of rough justice.
--Jane Howarth, Save the Children of Iraq, P.O. Box 146, Petersham 2049 NSW, AUSTRALIA. Ph. 9519-2602
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PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION:
The Suffering of US Sanctions Against Iraq
Alan Pogue's heart-wrenching photographs will shock you with their images of the death and suffering that has resulted from the war against Iraq, from the bombings to the sanctions. Features: Pogue's narrative, comments by Basra native Kadouri Al Kaysi, Palestinian activist Randa Jamal, and International Action Center organizers Sara Flounders, Deirdre Sinnott and Brian Becker. 29 minutes $20.00
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