Iraq: 1.6 million dead

The Iraqi press agency, INA, has confirmed that statistics have been communicated to the UNO revealing that in the last ten years, 1,614,203 people have died, including 667,773 children under five years of age.

The information was addressed to UN Secretary-General and Nobel Peace Prize-winner, Kofi Annan. The message declares that in the year before the sanctions were imposed, in 1989, 258 children under five died in Iraq, as compared with an average of 66,777 per year under the sanctions.

The deaths are ascribed to various diseases which run out of control due to the difficulty in obtaining medicines. However, under the oil-for-food exchange scheme, Iraq is allowed to sell its oil in exchange for vital commodities, such as food and medicines, which has to be approved by the United Nations Security Council.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru