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More on Bellamy in Iraq. And the OIP is hiring ...



Following are two additional reports on the visit of UNICEF Executive
Director Carol Bellamy to Iraq.  According to both the BBC and AFP, Ms.
Bellamy expects to address the Security Council on the humanitarian
situation in Iraq.  Both sources note the US and UK had objected to this
speech.

In a related matter, the UN Office of the Iraq Programme has positions
available in Baghdad and New York, including (apparently) John Mills' slot
(the program's Chief of Information/Spokesman) and Bob Odeh's slot
(Head/MDOU).  The former pays more than the latter -- which seems odd; it
certainly it can't be due to the hazards of dealing with the 'aggressive'
press ....    See http://www.un.org/Depts/oip/vacancies.html for the
details, which are interesting for the background they provide on the OIP's
bureaucracy.

Regards,
Drew Hamre
Golden Valley, MN USA
---
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_477000/477438.stm
Sunday, October 17, 1999 Published at 12:52 GMT 13:52 UK 

'Iraq child death rates still high' 

Child death rates are high in Iraq, but United Nations sanctions are not the
only reason, a senior UN official has said. The head of the UN children's
fund, Unicef, Carole Bellamy, was speaking at the end of a five-day trip to
the country. 

She said Unicef reports showed that the death-rate for children has more
than doubled since the embargo was imposed nine years ago. 

"Child mortality rates are still as high as they were," she said, referring
back to a Unicef survey published in August. The report showed mortality
rates among children under five years had more than doubled in
government-controlled areas since introduction of the sanctions.  The
sanctions were imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. From a rate of 56
per 1,000 in 1989, infant mortality went up to 131 per 1,000 in the period
1994-1999. 

Under the UN's oil-for-food programme, begun in 1996, Iraq is allowed to
export limited amounts of its oil under international monitoring. 

The Unicef report sparked a controversy between Iraq and the United States
over who is to blame.  Baghdad said it proved that sanctions are killing
thousands of children every month. The US alleges that Iraqi inefficiency
and obstructionism are also key factors. 

Ms Bellamy said the Iraqi government could take some steps to improve the
situation.  She recommended stopped the distribution of formula powered milk
and encourage breastfeeding in order to reduce diseases.  "I have raised the
issue of breastfeeding and the removal of infant formula from the food
basket (with Iraqi officials) but I did not receive a commitment," she said.
She urged the Iraqi government to distribute therapeutic milk and high
protein biscuits bought under the oil-for-food programme to underfed and
underweight children.  She said these two items were undergoing health tests
in Iraqi warehouses before they could be distributed. 

Ms Bellamy said she would plead the cause of Iraq's children before the UN
sanctions committee.  "We will advocate with the government of Iraq, we will
advocate with the international community the right of the children to get a
good education and good health care.

"It isn't a matter of feeling sorry for children," she told a press
conference.  "Sanctions are tools that are used, they are decided by others
than Unicef, but we would urge that in imposing them to take into account
the implications for children." 

The 15-member committee regularly assesses the sanctions imposed against
Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait 1990. 

It agreed to hear Unicef's testimony after the United States and the UK
lifted their objections. 

---
http://asia.yahoo.com/headlines/171099/world/940141320-91017062251.newsworld
.html
UNICEF chief to plead cause of Iraqi children before Security Council

BAGHDAD, Oct 17 (AFP) - The head of UNICEF said at the end of a mission to
Iraq that she would plead the cause of its children before the UN sanctions
committee in an attempt to improve their living conditions.

"We will advocate with the government of Iraq, we will advocate with the
international community the right of the children to get a good education
and good health care," the
director of the UN Children's Fund said late Saturday.

"That is the message I will take from here, it isn't a matter of feeling
sorry for children," Carol Bellamy told a press conference at the end of the
five-day visit to Iraq.

"Sanctions are tools that are used, they are decided by others than UNICEF,
but we would urge that in imposing them to take into account the
implications for children."

Bellamy said she would take her case to UN Committee 661 which supervises
the international sanctions that have been in force against Iraq for the
past nine years.

The committee is made up of the 15 members of the UN Security Council, and a
Western diplomat said last Thursday that Bellamy would report to the
committee on her return from Iraq.

It agreed to hear an account from a UN humanitarian agency after the United
States and Britain lifted their objections, the diplomat said.

Committee members review all Iraq's contracts under an oil-for-food
programme allowing Baghdad -- which has been under sanctions since its 1990
invasion of Kuwait
-- to export crude in return for humanitarian goods. 

In August, UNICEF published its first study on child health in Iraq since
1991, highlighting that infant mortality rates were lower in the
Kurdish-held north of the country which remains outside Baghdad's control.

According to the figures, deaths among under-fives in the
government-controlled south and centre have doubled under the UN sanctions
from 56 per 1,000 before 1990, to
131 per 1,000 by 1999.

"It's very important not to just say that everything rests on sanctions,"
Bellamy stressed at her press conference.

"The deterioration in conditions in the south and the centre is the result
of a number of factors," she said.

"We do not discount the impact of the sanctions, but it is also the result
of wars and the reduction in investment in resources for primary health
care," said the UNICEF
head.

Bellamy met here with several officials, including Deputy Prime Minister
Tareq Aziz, as well as visiting hospitals and schools. 
---
Finally, it's interesting to note that the UN Office of the Iraq Programme
has positions available in Baghdad and New York, including (apparently) John
Mills' slot (the program's Chief of Information/Spokesman) and John Odeh's
slot (Head/MDOU).  The former pays more than the latter (hazards of dealing
with the NY press?).

U.K./U.S. nationals aren't elgible for posting to Baghdad.  See
http://www.un.org/Depts/oip/vacancies.html for details (which are
interesting for the background they provide on the workings of the OIP's
bureaucracy).

Regards,
Drew Hamre
Golden Valley, MN USA
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