Genocide in Iraq

The Iraqi government accuses the United Nations Organisation of perpetuating the policy of genocide caused by the US/UK attacks and by the sanctions imposed in the aftermath of the Gulf War.

UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy confirms that the prolonged sanctions caused 500,000 child deaths in Iraq between 1991 and 1998. The United Nations Children’s Fund published a survey in August, 1999, which indicates that the child mortality rates in Iraq had doubled during the first eight years of sanctions.

The Iraqi government claims that the use of Depleted uranium weapons by the US and Royal Air Forces during the Gulf War contaminated land and water supplies, which have since caused a further 1,000,000 deaths, mainly among women and the elderly “and has destroyed the social fabric of Iraqi society”.

The World Health Authority confirms that children under 5 years of age are dying at double the 1991 rate (before the Gulf War started). In the period 1984 – 1989, there were 56 deaths per 1,000 live births, whereas between 1994 and 1999, the figure rose to 131 deaths/thousand. Infant mortality rate (first year after birth) increased from 47 per 1,000 to 108, and the maternal mortality rate is 294 deaths/1,000 live births in the ten-year period 1989/1999.

John ASHTEAD PRAVDA.Ru LONDON UNITED KINGDOM