UN Says Sanctions Kill Some 500,000 Iraqi Children

BAGDAD (Reuters) - Un responsable des Nations unies a déclaré que près de
500.000 enfants de moins de cinq ans
étaient morts en Irak depuis l'entrée en vigueur des sanctions imposées par
les Nations unies, il y a dix ans.

"Nous estimons que peut-être un demi-million d'enfants de moins de cinq ans
sont morts, ce qui n'aurait pas été le cas si le déclin de la
mortalité constaté au cours des années 1970 et 1980 s'était poursuivi durant
les années 1990", a déclaré à Reuters Anupama Rao Singh,
directrice régionale de l'Unicef.

Une étude de l'Unicef publiée au mois d'août avait montré que le taux de
mortalité des enfants irakiens de moins de cinq ans avait plus
que doublé dans le sud et le centre de l'Irak depuis le début des sanctions.

Bagdad avait alors déclaré que cette étude prouvait que les sanctions
tuaient des milliers d'enfants chaque mois et avait demandé un arrêt
immédiat de l'embargo.

Anupama Rao Singh a déclaré que depuis le lancement du programme "pétrole
contre nourriture", le taux de malnutrition chez les enfants
s'était stabilisé, mais que le taux de mortalité restait extrêmement élevé.

"Un enfant de moins de cinq ans sur quatre souffre de malnutrition, et la
plupart d'entre eux sont sous-alimentés", a-t-elle déclaré.

Elle a ajouté que les sanctions avaient également affecté la qualité de
l'éducation, de nombreux enfants étant contraints de quitter l'école
pour trouver de quoi survivre dans la rue.

Les sanctions des Nations unies ont été infligées à l'Irak après son
invasion du Koweït en 1990.

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Friday July 21 1:23 PM ET

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A senior U.N. official said Friday about half a
million children under the age of 5 have died in Iraq since the imposition
of U.N. sanctions 10 years ago.

Anupama Rao Singh, country director for the U.N. Children's Fund
(UNICEF), made the estimate in an interview with Reuters.

``In absolute terms we estimate that perhaps about half a million
children under 5 years of age have died, who ordinarily would not have
died had the decline in mortality that was prevalent over the 70s and
the 80s continued through the 90s,'' she said.

A UNICEF survey published in August showed the mortality rate among
Iraqi children under 5 had more than doubled in the government-controlled
south and center of Iraq during the sanctions.

Baghdad said the UNICEF survey proved that the sanctions were
killing thousands of children every month and called for an immediate
end to the embargo.

Rao Sigh blamed malnutrition for the high mortality rate among
children.

``Nutrition was not a public health problem in Iraq in the 80s. It
emerged as a major problem in the 90s and it increased steadily till
about 1996,'' Singh said.

She said since the start of the U.N. oil-for-food program, malnutrition
rates among children had stabilized, but death rates remained extremely
high.

``One in four children below 5 suffers from some form of malnutrition
or other and most of them are chronically malnourished,'' Rao Singh said.

Sanctions were imposed on Iraq as punishment for its 1990 invasion of
Kuwait, although the United Nations has allowed Iraq to sell oil to buy
food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies.

Rao Singh said the sanctions also have affected the quality of
education, with many children forced to leave schools to hustle a living
on the streets.

``There has been a drop in enrollment, an increase in drop- outs ...
children working, children in the street -- all of which, we believe, is
going to affect the quality of human resources that Iraq will have in
the future,'' she said.

According to Rao Singh, the sanctions have caused massive
impoverishment except for a small proportion of the elite. ``The majority
of middle class people in Iraq, for instance, now find themselves having to
do all sorts of mean and insecure jobs to survive,'' she said.