Children Starving
In New Iraq
By BBC
31 March, 2005
BBC
Online
Increasing numbers of children in Iraq
do not have enough food to eat and more than a quarter are chronically
undernourished, a UN report says.
Malnutrition rates
in children under five have almost doubled since the US-led invasion
- to nearly 8% by the end of last year, it says.
The report was prepared
for the annual meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.
It also expressed
concern over North Korea and Sudan's Darfur province.
Jean Ziegler, a
UN specialist on hunger who prepared the report, blamed the worsening
situation in Iraq on the war led by coalition forces.
He was addressing
a meeting of the 53-nation commission, the top UN rights watchdog, which
is halfway through its annual six-week session.
When Saddam Hussein
was overthrown, about 4% of Iraqi children under five were going hungry;
now that figure has almost doubled to 8%, his report says.
Governments must
recognise their extra-territorial obligations towards the right to food
and should not do anything that might undermine access to it of people
living outside their borders, it says.
That point is aimed
clearly at the US, but Washington, which has sent a large delegation
to the Human Rights Commission, declined to respond to the charges,
says the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva.
Mr Ziegler also said he was very concerned about the lack of food in
North Korea, where there are reports that UN food aid is not being distributed
fairly.
In Darfur, the continuing
conflict has prevented people from planting vital crops, he said.
Overall, Mr Ziegler
said he was shocked by the fact that hunger is actually increasing worldwide.
Some 17,000 children
die every day from hunger-related diseases, the report claims, calling
the situation a scandal in a world that is richer than ever before.
"The silent
daily massacre by hunger is a form of murder," Mr Ziegler said.
"It must be battled and eliminated."