Iraqi Children Suffer Amid War Fears
By DUSAN STOJANOVIC 11/04/2002 03:16:51 EST
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Emira was a day old when she was abandoned by her parents,
who couldn't afford to keep her. She is one of tens of thousands of Iraqi children
suffering under U.N. sanctions and the Arab country's general downslide amid fears of
a new war.
Emira was taken from the hospital where she was born Saturday and placed in a drab
Baghdad orphanage, one of Iraqi capital's four which house thousands of children.
Many were abandoned by their families while others lost both their parents, some
during the Gulf War.
"We have a dramatic increase in orphans here," said Aneeba Jabar, the director of the
Al-Najat orphanage on the garbage-strewn banks of the Tigris River on the outskirts of
Baghdad.
She blamed it on United Nations sanctions imposed on Iraq in 1990, speaking as a
government minder monitored an interview.
"We had two orphanages in Baghdad before the sanctions and the (Gulf) war. Now, we
have four because the old ones became too crowded," Jabar said, as Emira sucked
formula from a bottle. She shared her small bed with another, pale-looking infant.
"Emira's mother simply fled the hospital because the family has no money to feed
her," Jabar said. She would not provide the exact number of orphans in Baghdad
"because their number is soaring daily."
U.S. and United Nations officials have repeatedly rejected complaints about the
humanitarian impact of the sanctions, saying the sanctions could be eliminated if Iraq
complies with demands that it prove it has eliminated its weapons of mass
destruction.
The United Nations has also criticized Iraq for spending only a tiny fraction of its
U.N.-approved oil proceeds on improving nutrition for children. Also, medicine and food
have never been prohibited under the sanctions.
Many people in Iraq live below the poverty line, and as a result, families who cannot
afford to feed and clothe their children are forced to give them up.
Since 1990, when Iraq was one of the most prosperous Arab nations because of huge
oil reserves, living standards have plummeted, and average monthly salaries dropped
from the equivalent of $500 to $10.
Washington has renewed accusations that Iraq is developing weapons of mass
destruction in violation of U.N. orders and of sponsoring terrorists. President Bush is
pushing the United Nations for a tough resolution that would allow an attack on Iraq,
but has threatened to act alone if the Security Council doesn't go along.
That is why the basement at Baghdad's Al-Mansour Teaching Hospital for Children is
being prepared to shelter 200 young cancer patients, their families and medical staff in
case of a new war.
The hospital took similar precautions during the 1991 Gulf War that was launched by a
U.S.-led coalition to drive Iraqi forces from Kuwait. The hospital was not hit during that
war and is not near any military installations, but is preparing for a hit by a stray
missile.
But fears of American strikes are not the only problems the Iraqi health system faces.
The hospital's director, Dr. Luay Kasha, said that since the sanctions were introduced,
1.6 million Iraqi children have died, up to seven times more than in the same period
before the sanctions. This corresponds with U.N. figures, which also mention that
more than a million Iraqi children are malnourished.
Kasha said the American use of depleted uranium in its munitions during the Gulf War
was probably to blame. "After that there was shortage in supply of proper food and
medicines ... after that, epidemics flared up, cholera, virus infections, tuberculosis,
chest infections, skin infections, water-born diseases."
"We are now reporting five to seven times increase of cancer cases among children
than before 1990," Kasha said, an Iraqi government minder also present as she spoke.
"Most of the cases were caused by radiation ... like leukemia."
The Americans have challenged such claims and insist that there is no proven link
between use of depleted uranium munitions and the diseases.
Emin Fellah, a 5-year-boy pale boy of bare bones and skin, is dying of leukemia, and
his mother Fatima watches him with teary eyes.
"If we had proper medicines, he might have had a chance," said Dr. Lana Ahmed. "But
with the situation like this, we had to abandon his therapy." |
