Sir, - November 20th was the United Nations International Day for Children, a day which supposedly celebrates the wonder of children throughout the world. The children of Iraq, unfortunately, were not aware of it; they are too busy trying to survive in a country that has been devastated not by natural disasters, not because of its inability to generate income, but because of a cruel and murderous policy imposed for over 10 years by the UN Security Council, led by the US and Britain. Over 1.5 million people have died as a direct result of these sanctions, half-a-million of them children. Because of the sanctions, 200 children die every day.
I have seen at first hand the effects of ten years of this genocidal policy on the children of Iraq. Everywhere you go the children have that shrunken, starved look which is a result of long-term deprivation of the most basic minerals and vitamins. In a school of 120 children - which was more like a derelict building, having no electricity, only limited access to contaminated water, every window broken, and sewage flowing onto what was called the playground but which was more like a desert - one lucky child wore glasses. He was brought specially to meet us. In a school of that size surely more than one child needed glasses? The long-term effects of sanctions on these children are immeasurable: stunted physical and mental health, irreparable damage to their eyes and vital organs and, for many, death from curable and preventable diseases.
All this is a direct result of imposed sanctions by so called democratic countries, which have the arrogance to designate a day to celebrate children. What children? Certainly, for the children of Iraq it was a day like any other. They starved, were bombed and left to die in agony, without any pain-killing medication, their natural vibrancy, curiosity and fun stamped out by the very institution which was founded to protect their human rights.
Iraq is bombed daily by both the US and Britain. Last weekend, while I was in Baghdad, the planes hit a school in Basra, injuring four children and three teachers. The best present the UN can give to truly honour International Children's Day is to stop the bombing, starvation, and contamination by depleted uranium of these innocent lives. - Yours, etc.,
S. Flood, Campaign to End Iraq Sanctions, Winter Gardens, Dublin 2.