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Over 4,500 Iraqi children die every month because of malnutrition and lack of medicine
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By
Kazi Mahmood, IOL Southeast Asia Correspondent
KUALA
LUMPUR, October 18 (IslamOnline) - The South East Asian Nation group
(ASEAN) called for the immediate review and lifting of the more than
decade-long crippling comprehensive sanctions on Iraq, Bernama
reported Thursday, October 17.
Malaysia's
representative to the United Nations (U.N.) Rastam Mohamed Isa said
ASEAN was concerned with the plight of children suffering under the
sanctions as they had the most debilitating effects on children.
"Reports
of U.N. specialized agencies and NGOs have highlighted the
catastrophic effects the comprehensive sanctions imposed on Iraq have
had, claiming the lives of more than 1.5 million people, mostly
children," he told the 57th session of the U.N. General Assembly
in New York.
A
total of 250 people die everyday in Iraq because of hunger and lack of
medicine – a direct result of the economic embargo which prevents
the entry of such basic goods into Iraq.
More
than 40,000 deaths are attributed yearly to diarrhea, pneumonia and
malnutrition; while 4,500 children die in Iraq every month because of
the 12-year-old sanctions.
In
1997, the death toll reached 1.2 million with 750,000 children dying
before the age of 5. The same year another 960,000 children suffered
chronic malnutrition.
Isa
delivered the speech on behalf of the ASEAN group at the Third
Committee of the U.N. Assembly. He said ASEAN hoped that the Special
Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict
would look into the plight of Arab children living under occupation
under the terms of his current mandate.
He
also said there were gaps in the promotion and protection of the
rights of children, adding that these gaps were glaring as they
consistently failed to address the plight of children in the occupied
Palestinian territories and the Syrian Golan heights.
Earlier,
Mahathir Mohamad, the Malaysian Prime Minister, said a new war against
Iraq should not take place, arguing there should be a war against
Israel instead.
Mahathir,
currently on a visit to India, also said Thursday that a unilateral
war against Iraq might lead to Muslim outrage worldwide and urged the
United States to reconsider its move to attack the Muslim country that
has long suffered from economic sanctions.
Meanwhile,
a Muslim NGO in the Philippines issued a statement decrying the U.S.
anti-Iraq agenda. The Muslim Solidarity for the People of Iraq (MUSPI)
said Iraq is being attacked because its people are Muslims.
“Condemned
to a life of unbearable misery for over ten years, they find
themselves in the brink of yet another vicious war.
“The
perpetrators of the inhuman sanctions imposed on the Iraqi people are
once again maliciously trumpeting democracy to unleash its ‘war of
terror’ on a people whose only crime is being of a different
faith,” the statement read.
It
also said that Iraq was targeted for being a country where the natural
resources are viewed by the greedy as war booty.
Calling
the impending U.S. attack on Iraq “barbarity”, the MUSPI said it
condemns the U.S. brutal acts that brought immeasurable damage to the
Iraqi people.
The
group also reminded the U.S. of its “crimes” against Filipino
Muslims in the 19th century, at a time when the U.S. had
military control of the islands of Mindanao.
