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[The bland headline belies the story -- Child malnutrition has<br>
doubled in Iraq since the USA's invasion and occupation, according to
a<br>
study presented to the UN Human Rights Commission. And we thought
<br>
Albright was a monster for saying that half a million dead Iraqi kids
<br>
during the years of the US blockade of Iraq was "worth the
price!" <br>
Wait'll Bolton takes her old job.-NY Transfer]<br><br>
AP via Seattle Post Intelligencer - Mar 30, 2005<br>
<a href="http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apmideast_story.asp?category=1107&slug=UN%20Iraq%20Malnutrition" eudora="autourl">
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apmideast_story.asp?category=1107&slug=UN%20Iraq%20Malnutrition<br>
<br>
</a>Expert: Malnutrition affects Iraq kids<br><br>
By JONATHAN FOWLER<br>
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER<br><br>
GENEVA -- Malnutrition among the youngest Iraqis has almost doubled <br>
since the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, a hunger specialist
<br>
told the U.N. human rights body Wednesday in a summary of previously
<br>
reported studies on health in Iraq.<br><br>
By last fall, 7.7 percent of Iraqi children under 5 suffered acute <br>
malnutrition, compared to 4 percent after Saddam's ouster in April 2003,
<br>
said Jean Ziegler, the U.N. Human Rights Commission's special expert on
<br>
the right to food.<br><br>
Malnutrition, which is exacerbated by a lack of clean water and adequate
<br>
sanitation, is a major killer of children in poor countries. Children
<br>
who survive are usually physically and mentally impaired for life, and
<br>
are more vulnerable to disease.<br><br>
The situation facing Iraqi youngsters is "a result of the war led by
<br>
coalition forces," said Ziegler, an outspoken Swiss sociology
professor <br>
and former lawmaker whose previous targets have included Swiss banks,
<br>
China, Brazil and Israeli treatment of Palestinians.<br><br>
Overall, more than a quarter of Iraqi children don't get enough to eat,
<br>
Ziegler told the 53-nation commission, which is halfway through its <br>
annual six-week session.<br><br>
The U.S. delegation and other coalition countries declined to respond to
<br>
his presentation, which compiled the findings of studies conducted by
<br>
other specialists.<br><br>
In reporting the 7.7 percent malnutrition rate for Iraqi youngsters, the
<br>
Norwegian-based Fafo Institute for Applied Social Science said in <br>
November that the figure was similar to the levels in some African <br>
countries.<br><br>
Iraq was generally regarded as having good nutrition rates in the 1970s
<br>
and 1980s, but problems emerged when the U.N. Security Council imposed
<br>
sanctions after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.<br><br>
The United Nations later began an oil-for-food program, which allowed
<br>
Iraq to sell oil to buy food and medicine. That was credited with nearly
<br>
doubling the Iraqi population's annual food intake and halving <br>
malnutrition among children.<br><br>
Ziegler did not mention the role of Iraq's insurgency in the nutrition
<br>
problem, something often cited by aid groups.<br><br>
Late last year, Carol Bellamy, head of UNICEF, said the violence hampers
<br>
the delivery of adequate supplies of food.<br><br>
Ziegler also cited an October 2004 U.S. study that estimated as many as
<br>
100,000 more Iraqis - many of them women and children - had died since
<br>
the start of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq than would normally have <br>
died, based on the death rate before the war.<br><br>
"Most died as a result of the violence, but many others died as a
result <br>
of the increasingly difficult living conditions, reflected in increasing
<br>
child mortality levels," he said.<br><br>
The authors of the report in the British-based medical journal The <br>
Lancet - researchers from Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University
<br>
and the Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad - conceded their data were
<br>
of "limited precision."<br><br>
Ziegler also told the commission he was concerned about hunger in North
<br>
Korea, Palestinian areas, Sudan's conflict-ravaged Darfur region, <br>
Zimbabwe, India, Myanmar, the Philippines and Romania.<br><br>
Worldwide, he said, more than 17,000 children under 5 die daily from
<br>
hunger-related diseases.<br><br>
"The silent daily massacre by hunger is a form of murder,"
Ziegler said. <br>
"It must be battled and eliminated."<br><br>
<br>
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