Innocent children

[Alaskan Liberal]

To date, more children have died in Iraq than the combined toll of two atomic bombs on Japan and the ethnic cleansing of former Yugoslavia. The UN's Department of Humanitarian Affairs reports that Iraq's public health services are nearing a total breakdown from a lack of basic medicines, life-saving drugs, and essential medical supplies. The lack of clean water-50 percent of all rural people have no access to potable water-and the collapse of waste water treatment facilities in most urban areas are contributing to the rapidly deteriorating state of public health. Air borne and water borne diseases are on the rise, while deaths related to diarrhea diseases have tripled in an increasingly unhealthy environment. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports a six fold increase in the mortality rate for children under five, an explosive rise in the incidence of endemic infections, such as cholera and typhoid, and a markedly elevated incidence of measles, poliomyelitis, and tetanus. Malaria has reached epidemic levels. The WHO further states that the majority of Iraqis have subsisted on a semi-starvation diet for the past several years.
source

[ultraist]

1. That's horrific

Yet ANOTHER reason to GET OUT NOW.
snips
http://www.unicef.org/media/media_24233.html
Bellamy speaks out for children in Iraq
NEW YORK, 23 November 2004 – UNICEF today again expressed deep concern about the devastating impact the hostilities in Iraq is having on the overall well-being of the country’s children. “This protracted fighting and instability is wreaking havoc on Iraqi children,” UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said.

In addition to the ongoing difficulties of living amidst daily violence and widespread insecurity, children are also suffering from the inadequacy of basic services such as water and sanitation, Bellamy said. “Latest reports are showing that acute malnutrition among young children has nearly doubled since March 2003,” she said. “This means that hundreds of thousands of children are today suffering the severe effects of diarrhoea and nutrient deficiencies.”

“The lack of clean water and adequate sanitation leads to the quick spread of disease, and greatly exacerbates the impact of malnutrition,” Bellamy said. “As always, young children are the most vulnerable.” Humanitarian work in Iraq has been crippled by the fact that international aid agencies, including the UN, have been directly targeted and forced to conduct their humanitarian operations largely from neighbouring countries.

“War is waged by adults, but it is the children who suffer the most,” Bellamy said. In addition to raising our voices on this, those engaged in the battles and violence must themselves recognize and act out their own responsibility to protect children and enable, rather than hinder, the provision of humanitarian assistance wherever needed.



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