Gujarat Pogrom

Communalism

Globalisation

Humanrights

Economy

Kashmir

Palestine

Iraq

Environment

Gender/Feminism

Dalit/Adivasi

Arts/Culture

 

Contact Us

 

War Will Traumatise ''at least half a million children''

By Naomi Koppel

31 March 2003

More than half a million traumatised Iraqi children could need psychological counselling or aid at the end of the war in their country, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) representative said today.

"There are 5.7 million primary school age children in Iraq, and we estimate that a minimum of 10 per cent of those would need support," Carel de Rooy told reporters.

He gave the example of an Iraqi colleague he spoke to recently whose 9-year-old son became hysterical and had to be sedated after a missile fell close to their home.

"We don’t know what we will find when we come back, but we suspect there may be a major issue of traumatised children," de Rooy said.

UNICEF has provided psychological care for children in previous conflicts and natural disasters, including in East Timor, Kosovo, Mozambique and in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch in Central America.

The agency trains older children to work with the traumatised youngsters in a series of carefully controlled games designed to allow them to come to terms with what has happened to them and learn to interact with the people around them and concentrate in school again.

"We can do this on a large scale if we have the money," de Rooy said. The work costs around US$20 per child. A smaller number of children are so traumatised that they need individual counselling.

De Rooy, the UN representative in Iraq, was evacuated from the country with all other non-Iraqi UN employees before the start of the war. The agency still has 200 Iraqi staff working in Iraq, but almost all of them are based in the capital, Baghdad.