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http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1049000/1049892.stm
BBC NEWS
Friday, 1 December, 2000, 14:33 GMT
Eyewitness: Bitter legacy of sanctions
These mothers say sanctions killed their
children
By Ben Brown in Baghdad
Saddam Hussein brought sanctions upon
his
country - but it is not him who is
suffering.
Instead, the Iraqi people are paying the
price
from the cradle to the grave.
In Iraq's hospitals, doctors say there
are
frequent power cuts and only rudimentary
equipment because of sanctions.
Many babies are severely malnourished
and of
every 1,000 babies born, 108 will die
before
their first birthday.
Paediatrician Dr
Abdullah Hamzawi
showed me one baby in
his run-down ward.
"She weighs only 40%
of the weight she is
supposed to be," he
said.
"Such babies carry the
risk of 50% mortality.
Fifty per cent she may
die. I just ask why
should this happen," he
adds.
Back in time
Ten years after sanctions were first
imposed,
Iraq is being driven further and further
back in
time. This oil-rich nation is becoming
more and
more under-developed
Even for babies lucky
enough to leave
hospital, the prospects
are a life of poverty
and misery.
In Iraq, education used
to be a priority, but
under sanctions and
Saddam, it comes
second to survival.
One 14-year-old boy I
met sells cigarettes to
support his family. Like
about half of Iraq's children, he's
dropped out
of school.
"My father is old, my mother can't work
and my
brother is a conscript. I have to sell
cigarettes
to keep my family alive," he said.
If you do make it through school and on
to
university, you might wonder whether
it's
worth it. Forget the internet, books
from the
1970s and 80s may be your latest works
of
reference.
Brain drain
Although there is a brain drain from
Iraq, some
students are staying.
"Here education is free,
so I think it's my turn
to pay back, says one
young woman. "I'd stay
here and I'd serve my
country."
But in Iraq's blockaded
economy, teachers and
civil servants, for
example, earn around
50p a week. Out on
the streets, many
choose to sell their
books to supplement their income.
What is the point of graduating, some
feel, if
you end up at an auction house, selling
off
your most treasured possessions just to
make
ends meet?
Recently, the United Nations have eased
their
blockade and would lift it entirely if
Saddam
Hussein would comply with their demands.
But for now, those with nothing left to
sell
have one last choice - to beg.
A decade on, this is still the agony of
sanctions, from birth until death.
=====
Want to know the TRUTH about Iraq?
Iraq Resource Information Site
http://www.geocities.com/iraqinfo
American Intifada
http://www.egroups.com/group/American_Intifada
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