31 December 2001
Some 1.6 million Iraqis died as a result of the sanctions

Arabicnews.com


http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/011231/2001123108.html

The Iraqi news agency said that the Iraqi permanent mission at the UN reported the death of 1.6 million Iraqis as a result of diseases resulting from the sanctions imposed on the country since 1990.

The agency added that Iraq has officially informed the UN sanctions committee a statistics on human losses since the imposition of the sanctions until the end of November 2001 and it states that 1614303 persons of different ages including 667773 children under five year old.

The agency added that the deaths are the victims of diseases and epidemics resulted from the lack of medicines in Iraq.

On December 15, Baghdad announced that more than 31,000 Iraqis including 21,000 children are under five year old died during the past three months because of the embargo imposed on Iraq since more than 10 years.

In what is considered an exception for the embargo imposed on Iraq,, the UN permits Baghdad since December 1996 and in the course of the oil-for-food program, to export its oil for buying basics needs.

Members of an American non- governmental organization stressed in a message they extended to the US President George Bush said that the embargo imposed on Iraq is classified as a mass destruction weapon.

Members of the " Voices in the Wilderness " said:" We are five Americans writing to you ( Bush) from Baghdad where we discovered these weapons and its use when we visited children in hospitals who demanded the lift of the embargo on Iraq.

However, this American organization which is financed by donations had carried out 20 missions in Iraq as an expression of their opposition to the sanction imposed on it by the UN.


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