Ok let’s talk about the truth in Iraq
“If you compare this to the situation in the 1980s, you will see a major deterioration,” said Barham Salih, the Iraqi Planning Minister, who described life for Iraqis as tragic.
timesonline.co.uk
Iraqis soldier on without power, water, jobs, sewers
From Richard Beeston in Baghdad
THE invasion of Iraq and its aftermath caused the deaths of 24,000 Iraqis, including many children, according to the most detailed survey yet of postwar life in the country.
The UN report paints a picture of modern Iraq brought close to collapse despite its oil wealth. Successive wars, a decade of sanctions and the current violence have destroyed services, undermined health and education and made the lives of ordinary Iraqis dangerous and miserable.
The survey for the UN Development Programme, entitled Iraq Living Conditions Survey 2004, questioned more than 21,600 households this time last year. Its findings, released by the Ministry of Planning yesterday, could finally resolve the debate over how many Iraqis were killed in the war that overthrew the regime of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.
The 370-page report said that it was 95 per cent confident that the toll during the war and the first year of occupation was 24,000, but could have been between 18,000 and 29,000. About 12 per cent of those were under 18.
The figure is far lower than the 98,000 deaths estimated in The Lancet last October, which said that it had interviewed nearly 1,000 households. But it is far higher than other figures.
Some of the findings will come as no surprise to Iraqis, who have grown used to poverty, unemployment, power cuts, open sewers and an overwhelmed healthcare system.
The report said that unemployment was now more than 18 per cent, compared with just over 3 per cent in the 1980s. Basic services have also collapsed. Some 85 per cent of households complained of electricity cuts and 29 per cent relied on generators. Only 54 per cent of Iraqi families had clean water. Only 37 per cent were connected to a sewage network, compared with 75 per cent in the 1980s.
“If you compare this to the situation in the 1980s, you will see a major deterioration,” said Barham Salih, the Iraqi Planning Minister, who described life for Iraqis as tragic.
The report highlighted falling standards of education and healthcare, which had been among the highest in the Arab world but were now among the lowest. The number of Iraqi mothers who die in labour reached 93 in every 100,000 births, compared with 14 in Jordan and 32 in Saudi Arabia.
Mr Salih said that the condition of his country was particularly tragic given its huge oil wealth and access to water. He insisted that the blame lay with Saddam’s regime, which had embarked on two wars against its neighbours, persecuted its population and provoked sanctions. “Undeniably, from the perspective of many, the former regime’s aggressive policies, its wars, its repression and mismanagement of the economy are an important part of why we are here today,” he said.
But he vowed that the new Government would address the formidable problems highlighted by the report. “I hope we will be able to bring a model into Iraq that will turn Iraq from the land of mass graves, lack of development, child mortality and illiteracy into a land of peace, stability and prosperity,” he said.
Staffan di Mistura, the UN’s No 2 in Iraq, said that the only encouraging finding was that the situation could have been even worse, were it not for the Iraqi people, who still managed to survive in the face of impossible challenges.
Iraqis should be proud because in spite of all the terrorist attacks, in spite of all the disruption, in spite of so many difficulties faced during the recent periods, many things are working and surprisingly so,” he said.
POSTWAR IRAQ
Deaths: 24,000 Iraqis in first year since 2003 invasion
Housing: 6 per cent live in war-damaged homes
Electricity: 29 per cent rely on generators
Hygiene: 37 per cent connected to sewerage network, 54 per cent access to clean water
Children: 23 per cent chronically malnourished
Income: Average per capita was £137 in 2003 and £77 in 2004
Women: 47 per cent illiterate
Education: 79 per cent enrolment in primary schools
Health: 8 per cent suffer chronic illness
Population: 27million, 39 per cent under 15 |
