- War in Iraq would have devastating effects on the country's
13 million children, many of whom are already malnourished and living in
''great fear'' of another conflict, says a report by a Canadian-led fact-finding
team released Thursday.
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- The document, based on a trip to Iraq Jan. 20-26 by 10
health experts, concludes that, ''Iraqi children are at grave risk of starvation,
disease, death and psychological trauma''.
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- They ''are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of
a new war than they were before the Gulf War of 1991'' but ''the international
community has at present little capacity to respond to the harm that children
will suffer by a new war in Iraq'', it states.
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- MONTREAL, Jan 30 (IPS) - War in Iraq would have devastating
effects on the country's 13 million children, many of whom are already
malnourished and living in ''great fear'' of another conflict, says the
report of a Canadian-led, fact-finding team released Thursday.
-
- The document, based on a trip to Iraq Jan. 20-26 by 10
health experts, concludes that, ''Iraqi children are at grave risk of starvation,
disease, death and psychological trauma''.
-
- They ''are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of
a new war than they were before the Gulf War of 1991'' but ''the international
community has at present little capacity to respond to the harm that children
will suffer by a new war in Iraq'', it adds.
-
- The report's authors, the International Study Team, call
themselves an ''independent group of expert academics, researchers and
practitioners examining the humanitarian effects of military conflict on
the civilian population''.
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- They include experts in health, nutrition, child psychology
and emergency preparedness.
-
- In 1991, they produced a report on the humanitarian impact
of the Gulf War, based on 9,000 interviews in 300 locations in Iraq.
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- The team's backers include War Child Canada, International
Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and its Canadian affiliate
Physicians for Global Survival (PGS), Oxfam Canada, World Vision Canada
and the United Church.
-
- The team says it received no financial assistance from
the Iraqi government during the trip.
-
- The report's findings are based on data collected in
three Iraqi cities - Baghdad, Karbala and Basra - interviews with more
than 100 families in their homes and previous studies.
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- "While it is impossible to predict both the nature
of any war and the number of expected deaths and injuries, casualties among
children will be in the thousands, probably in the tens of thousands and
possibly in the hundreds of thousands," Canadian team leader and medical
doctor Eric Hoskins said in a statement.
-
- The report says that Iraq currently has only one month's
supply of food and three months of medicine remaining.
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- Titled 'Our Common Responsibility: The Impact of a New
War on Iraq Children', the document presents findings on children's physical
and mental well being as well as on emergency preparedness in the country.
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- Weakened by the effects of war and more than a decade
of economic sanctions, 500,000 Iraqi children are malnourished, it says.
For example, the death rate of children under five years of age is already
2.5 times greater than it was in 1990, before the Gulf War.
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- Because most of the country's 13 million children are
dependent on food distributed by the Government of Iraq, ''the disruption
of this system by war would have a devastating impact on children who already
have a high rate of malnutrition'', says the report.
-
- It adds that only 60 percent of Iraqis have access to
fresh water. ''Further disruption to these services, as occurred during
the 1991 Gulf War, would be catastrophic for Iraqi children.''
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- The team's two psychologists, Atle Dyregrov and Magne
Raundalen, world leaders in the impact of war on children, carried out
what the report calls the first-ever pre-war assessment of children's mental
health.
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- ''With war looming, Iraqi children are fearful, anxious
and depressed,'' they found. ''Many have nightmares. And 40 percent do
not think that life is worth living.''
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- The finding ''is powerful evidence that the concern for
children's well-being needs to be considered in the decision making process
about to take place in the United Nations Security Council'', says the
report, which was released in Ottawa.
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- "As medical professionals, we call on all parties
involved in the conflict with Iraq to insure the safety of children and
all innocent civilians and to do everything humanly possible to resolve
the conflict peacefully," said IPPNW spokesman John Pastore in a statement.
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- The report points out that the United Nations estimates
that, in the event of war, as many as 500,000 Iraqis could require emergency
medical treatment but that hospitals and clinics will run out of medicines
within three to four weeks of the start of a conflict.
-
- The report was also sent to the U.N. Security Council,
the government of Iraq, and the Canadian government.
- <http://www.ipsnews.net/copyright.shtml>Copyright
© 2003 IPS-Inter Press Service. All rights reserved.
- http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=15571
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