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CounterPunch
November
25, 2002
Malnutrition in Iraq
by RAMZI KYSIA
UNICEF just released statistics showing a significant
improvement in the nutritional status of children in Iraq. According
to the figures, over the last two years chronic malnutrition
has declined by 23%, and acute malnutrition has declined by almost
50%.
The improvement is visible. At the hospitals
IOve visited, particularly in Central and Northern Iraq, wasting
diseases such as kwashiorkor and marasmus are no longer pandemic.
And while doctors throughout Iraq continue to report shortages
in essential medicines and equipment, pediatric cancers have
replaced malnutrition as their chief complaint. Despite these
improvements--UNICEF figures show that over 1 in 5 Iraqi children
remain malnourished. Our work isnOt over yet.
There are several reasons why malnutrition
has declined--almost all due to busting sanctions. One reason
is, fairly obviously, because more food is available. In December
1999, the UN lifted the limit it had placed on Iraqi oil sales
through the Oil-for-Food program, and in early 2000 exempted
food from the security review process. This allowed Iraq to import
more food, more quickly, and distribute it to families in need.
Of the $24.2 billion in supplies Iraq has been allowed to import
under the Oil-for-Food program to date, almost $10 billion has
arrived in just the last year--allowing the Iraqi government
to increase the food ration they provide to everyone in Iraq.
The last two years have also brought
good rainfall, ending the previous drought in Iraq, and providing
bumper crops. This not only increased the supply of food available
in local markets, but brought down prices as well, allowing some
families to supplement their ration at local markets. However,
the ration still represents the only source of food for a majority
of families, and, for many, their sole source of income as well.
Sanctions still prevent the Iraqi government from spending its
own money within the country. As a result, only dry goods, imported
from outside the country, can be included in the food ration.
The increased ration still does not contain any fresh fruits
or vegetables, or animal protein.
Recent, illegal trade agreements between
Iraq and its neighbors, and increased smuggling, have also impacted
nutrition by bringing more goods and hard currency into the country.
According to a September 2002 overview of the nutritional status
of Iraqi children, UNICEF reports that O[m]ajor shifts in Security
Council Resolutions and government of Iraq regional trade policies
are among the basic factors that have improved child malnutrition
in the South/Centre [of Iraq].O
Additionally, the Iraqi government, in
conjunction with UNICEF, has built 2,800 Community Child Care
Units (CCCUs), staffed by almost 13,000 Iraqi volunteers, in
order to provide nutritional assessment, counseling, and therapy
to children in need. These units now screen an average of 1.1
million children every year.
Without safe drinking water, children
contract chronic diarrhea and are unable to absorb nutrients,
so improvements in essential civilian infrastructures have also
had an effect on malnutrition. Electricity is necessary to run
water and sanitation plants, and Iraq has reduced its electrical
deficit from 3000 megawatts in 1996 to 900 megawatts today. Iraq
has also been able to increase the availability of potable water
in urban areas to almost 2/3 of what it was in 1990. This has
led to a reduction in diarrhea cases among children under the
age of 5. But itOs not all good news. According to the OProfile
of Women and Children in Iraq (UNICEF, April 2002), ODiarrhea
leading to death from dehydration and acute respiratory infections
together account for 70% of child mortality in Iraq. An Iraqi
child suffers an average of 14.4 diarrhea spells a year, an almost
4 fold increase from the 1990 average of 3.8 episodes. During
the same period, typhoid fever increased from 2,240 to over 27,000
cases.O
Despite repeated denials by every UN
agency and NGO working in Iraq, the U.S. continues to claim that
the only reason people are suffering under sanctions is because
of their government. However repressive that government may be,
the programs Iraq has put in place to deal with malnutrition,
and the improvements that have resulted, should finally put to
rest U.S. allegations about Iraqi OinterferenceO in the functioning
of the Oil-for-Food program.
Unfortunately, recent improvements are
likely to be short-lived. There is currently a multi-billion
dollar shortfall in the money available for the Oil-for-Food
program. In order to stem the OcrumblingO of sanctions, the U.S.
has begun enforcing a policy on oil sales called Oretroactive
pricing.O Under this policy, purchasers of Iraqi oil are not
allowed to know the price of the oil they have bought for up
to a month after theyOve received it. Given the volatility of
the oil market, this uncertainty has led to steep declines in
sales. According to the UN Development ProgramOs June 2002 brief
for Iraq, Othe Oil-for-Food Programme is increasingly facing
a financial crisis due to the substantial drop in revenues received
from Iraqi oil exports and to uncertainties regarding the pricing
mechanism.O If this crisis isnOt quickly reversed, the program
will falter, and malnutrition rates will again begin to rise.
The other major problem on the horizon
is the war George Bush keeps promising to deliver. If the U.S.
bombs electrical plants, and water and sewage treatment centers
in Iraq, as was done during ODesert Storm,O the result is going
to be even greater epidemics than Iraq is currently suffering
from. If civil war breaks out, or if the U.S. bombs roads, rail,
and all the bridges, as was done during ODesert Storm,O the result
will be country-wide famine.
Iraq began food rationing prior to the
Gulf War, when sanctions were first imposed. The Iraqi government
only accepted the restrictions on its sovereignty imposed by
the Oil-for-Food program when it became clear in 1995 that internal
stores were no longer able to meet the crisis caused by sanctions.
This distribution of food, to 24 million people on a monthly
basis for over 12 years, is one of the most massive, logistical
operations in world history. How well this program could work,
during the middle of a war and invasion, is not something we
should want to discover.
If we care about the children of Iraq,
then we need to stop this war from happening. But, in the end,
the only thing that will truly end IraqOs humanitarian crisis,
and put an end to malnutrition once and for all, is if we stop
the war that is already going on. Economic sanctions are intended
to damage economies and increase poverty. Increased poverty means
increased malnutrition. And--no matter how hard UNICEF, or the
Iraqi government, or anti-sanctions activists try--there's no
way around that.
Ramzi Kysia
is an Arab-American peace activist, working with the Education
for Peace in Iraq Center. He was co-coordinator of the
Voices in the Wilderness /
Iraq Peace Team (http://www.iraqpeaceteam.org)
from August-October 2002--a group of Americans pledging to stay
in Iraq before, during, and after any future U.S. attack. The
Iraq Peace Team can be reached at info@vitw.org.
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