Heh heh heh, you said.................
Posted on 03/31/2005 12:29:16 PM PST by UB355
More Iraqis suffering now
Geneva - The war in Iraq and its aftermath have almost doubled malnutrition rates among many Iraqi children, a United Nations specialist on hunger has told the world's major human rights body.
Acute malnutrition rates among Iraqi children under five rose late last year to 7.7% from 4% after Saddam's ouster in April 2003, said Jean Ziegler, the UN Human Rights Commission's special expert on the right to food.
Malnutrition, which is exacerbated by a lack of clean water and inadequate sanitation, is a major child killer in poor countries. Children who manage to survive are usually physically and mentally impaired for the rest of their lives and are more vulnerable to disease.
Acute malnutrition signifies that a child is actually wasting away.
The situation facing Iraqi youngsters is "a result of the war led by coalition forces," claimed Ziegler, an outspoken Swiss sociology professor and former lawmaker whose previous targets have included Swiss banks, China, Brazil and Israeli treatment of Palestinians.
Overall, more than a quarter of Iraqi children don't get enough to eat, Ziegler told a meeting of the 53-nation commission, the top UN rights watchdog, which is halfway through its annual six-week session.
The United States delegation and other coalition countries did not respond to the report.
Ziegler's criticism on Wednesday was in line with previous studies of the food crisis in Iraq since the US-led war to oust Saddam two years ago.
In November, the Norwegian-based Fafo Institute for Applied Social Science released a report that found that malnutrition had reached 7.7%among Iraqi children between the ages of six months and five years.
Officials from the institute, which conducted a survey with the UN Development Programme and Iraq's Central office for Statistics and Information Technology, said the Iraqi malnutrition rate was similar to the level in some hard-hit African countries.
Ziegler did not mention the insurgency in Iraq, something often cited by aid groups.
Late last year, Carol Bellamy, head of the UN children's agency UNICEF, said there was little relief workers could do to ease the plight of Iraqi children because fighting hampers or prevents most aid operations in the country. UNICEF officials were not immediately available to say if the situation had changed in recent months.
The insurgency has led to problems getting adequate supplies of food into hot spots, particularly in and around Sunni areas to the north and west of Baghdad.
Ziegler also cited an October 2004 US study that estimated as many as 100 000 more Iraqis - many of them women and children - had died since the start of the US-led invasion of Iraq than would normally have died.
- AP
Edited by Jonathan Fowler
A report from the always trustworthy and corruption-free UN. Shove it, UN.
According to UNESCO, 5000 (mostly children) were DYING from malnutrition and such per month under Hussein. Sounds like at least they are getting enough to eat to survive nowadays.
I have no doubt that the UN had accurate malnutrition information prior to Saddam being booted out. After all
Iraq has such an open society with Saddam in power.
What a POS article. All you heard about prior to the invasion was how the sanctions had effect the quality of life for the children of Iraq.
The insurgency has led to problems getting adequate supplies of food into hot spots, particularly in and around Sunni areas to the north and west of Baghdad.
THEN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! They can't claim as they've done for a long time, that they don't know who is who, they live there, they know who comes and goes, whose friends with who, etc. Someone get me a hacksaw.
(2) There is no mention of the methodology he used, but I doubt it's very dependable.
(3) The UN relief agencies are the ones who abandoned the Iraqis. Because of their cowardice, it is likely that some Iraqis were left deeply in the lurch. It's not America's fault they're yellow.
Heh heh heh, you said.................
ROFLMAO!
Also the "2004 US study" is highly unbelievable. It was based on information gathered which in some cases showed a larger "increase" in deaths (supposedly due to the war) than the actual total number of deaths in the area (in other words, they would say that 10 extra deaths happened in a town, when the total reported deaths for the town was less than 10.
If you pulled the study (which isn't listed in this article) you would find that methodology was to ask people how many relatives died and if it was because of the war.
I'm still laughing...
I should believe the UN, why?
Silly you.....how dare you question the veracity of this report...The story is factually correct..Everyone knows that dead people don't eat..
Oh sure, more Iraqis suffering now since the evil Bush bombed their little utopian Disneyland into poverty. What a crock.
Congressman Billybob
This is an old report. A recent emanation from the moonbat community now puts this number at 250,000.
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