Iraq Urges U.N. Chief to Help Lift SanctionsIraqi parliament Human Rights Committee Saturday urged United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to do his best to lift the decade-old U.N. sanctions to end the suffering of the Iraqi children.In a statement carried by the official Iraqi News Agency (INA), the committee said that the sanctions "have killed" over half a million Iraqi children over the 10 years, and "have deprived Iraqi children of enjoying their simplest human rights such as life and existence." With the Christmas and the end of Islamic holy month Ramadan in the coming days, both the Arabs and Christians will have big celebrations. However, because of the sanctions, "Happiness will prevail in all houses except those of the Iraqi children," the statement said. The statement called on Annan as well as the international community to make efforts to get the sanctions lifted to ensure Iraqi children's basic human rights. Iraq claims that more than 1.3 million people have died as a direct result of malnutrition and medicine shortages caused by the stringent U.N. sanctions, triggered by its invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Iraqi Health Ministry on December 17 announced that a total of 10,946 people, among them 7,556 children under the age of five, died in November of various curable diseases. Such a high mortality rate was in sharp contrast with the same period in 1989, when only 258 children died, the announcement said. |
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