http://www.bernama.com/bernama/features/fe1004_1.htm

 BAGHDAD: Names like Sultan Harun Al Rashid, Abu Nawas, Ali
 Baba, Aladdin and Sinbad the Sailor invoke memories of a unique
 Islamic civillization in the land of Iraq more than 1,000 years ago.

 The country that is blessed with rich resources was the seat of
 civilization that flourished with several empires before the birth of
 modern Iraq, among them the Sumeria, Akkadia, Babylon, Assyria,
 Ottoman and Ummayad empires.

 Whether the figures in the tales of "One Thousand and One Night"
 were real or not is not important. What is important is that
 despite the rise and fall of these empires, Iraq had managed to
 remain a progressive Islamic nation for a long time.

 But not anymore today. The prosperity and wellbeing enjoyed for
 thousands of years seem to have ended.

 Iraq today is on the brink of destruction.

 Its 25 million people are in the grip of misery that is beyond
 imagination.

 All these stem from the economic sanctions imposed by the United
 Nations as punishment for invading Kuwait in 1990.

 In the midst of their suffering, and expressions of sympathy by
 the global community, several nations, the United States in
 particular, are pressuring the UN to keep the sanctions because a
 strong Iraq would apparently pose a threat to the stability of the
 region.

 Unfortunately, even after 10 years of restrictions, the real
 objective of the sanctions - to topple President Saddam Hussein -
 is still not realised. Instead, it serves to punish the Iraqi people
 who are denied all necessities and their human rights.

 "Everything is on the verge of destruction... including agriculture,
 industries, education, health, housing and other basic amenities,"
 said the former UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq, Hans Von
 Sponeck, in an interview a few days before his resignation from
 the post took effect recently.

 He said the sanctions, if allowed to continue, would destroy a
 civilization that is the pride of the Iraqi people.

 According to Sponeck, Iraq is in no position to record any
 economic growth when all other nations of the world, including the
 poorest, can achieve some positive gains.

 The per capita of Iraq has nose-dived from US$3,000 in 1996 to
 only US$252 now.

 Under the sanctions, Iraq is banned from exporting its main
 revenue earner, oil, except in quantity allowed by the UN under its
 "Oil for Food" programme for the embattled country. Iraqi air space
 is strictly a "No Fly Zone", killing instantly any tourism trade while
 denying the country any chance of conducting its economic life
 by air.

 With an empty treasury, Iraq, reputed to have one of the best
 educational standard in West Asia at one time, could only provide
 an allocation of US$229 million for education this year, compared
 with US$2.1 billion in 1989.

 The result is that literacy rate has plummeted to below 60 percent
 compared with 90 percent before the UN sanctions.

 According to Sponeck, more and more Iraqi children cannot afford
 to go to school now. In most schools, students have to sit on
 bare floor while teachers are using the walls as blackboard
 because the broken chairs, tables and other facilities cannot be
 replaced.

 An officer of the Iraqi Information Ministry, Mohamed Shakir Ali,
 confirmed Sponeck's statements, and admitted that many school
 children are now turning to begging to augment the family incomes
 since the currency "Dinar" continues to lose value while inflation
 soars.

 In pre-sanctions days, a Dinar fetched US$5 but a greenback now
 is worth 2,000 Dinar.

 He said a family with a small income would have to take on
 additional jobs to supplement the cost of living.

 For example, a teacher or doctor gets about 6,000 to 10,000
 Dinar (US$3 to US$5) a month, compared with 300 Dinar before
 the UN sanctions. That salary can only buy a kilo of meat or
 several kilos of flour.

 "Although begging was not in the vocabulary of our lives before,
 we now have no choice but to survive," said Mohamed Shakir.

 Sponeck described the begging by the young children as a
 manifestation of the fate of the new generations of Iraqis, who
 have to bear the sufferings and poverty as a result of deeds done
 before they were born.

 He said the revenue from oil under the "Oil For Food" programme,
 enforced since April 1995, was far from adequate to meet basic
 food and medical needs of the people.

 Under the programme, Iraq can sell US$2 billion of oil every six
 months, of which US$1.3 billion can go to buy food and medicine,
 But this is not enough as the actual need for those items is
 US$2.1 billion.

 According to Sponeck, the lack of a balanced diet and an
 adequate supply of medicine has caused infant mortality rate to
 skyrocket from 56 per 5,000 births in 1991 to 231 per 5,000 births
 at present.

 UNICEF, he said, believed that 500,000 deaths among infants and
 children in the 1990s could have been avoided, if there were no
 sanctions.

 Iraq itself claimed that 1.5 million people died as a result of the
 sanctions during that period. The deaths were caused by
 starvation, malnutrition, diarrhoea and other diseases brought
 about by a deteriorating environment and lack of potable water.

 Sponeck said one out of every five Iraqi childen now suffers from
 malnutrition, while diarrhoea and respiratory infection cases
 balloned 10-fold more from normal.

 Quoting a World Health Organisation (WHO) report, he said Iraqi
 children are now getting less than 2,200 calories of food a day,
 compared with 3,700 calories before 1990.

 Although Iraq has tried its best not to depend on food imports, its
 agriculture and animal farming could not meet local demand
 because a direct impact of the sanctions is to impair its farm
 production.

 He said the irrigation system in Iraq is limited because of power
 rationing or spare parts could not be procured for the broken
 ones.

 Many places in Iraq, especially the rural areas, now get only eight
 hours of electricity per day.

 Without adequate water supply or suitable vaccines, some 1.5
 million farm animals like goats, sheep and cattle have died last
 year. These animals are important to the people whose main diet
 consists of meat, milk, cheese and butter.

 Sponeck said in the pre-sanctions days, the Iraqi government
 spent US$600 million a year on farm developments. This year, that
 sector receives only US$20 million.
 

 70 PERCENT UNEMPLOYED
 The sanctions also left some 70 percent of the people jobless
 because almost all factories are closed.

 Apart from farmers and the lower income groups, the
 middle-income groups are also not spared the miseries, to the
 extent that they have to change their daily life style.

 Many of them are forced to sell off their cars, furnitures, or
 anything of value like their homes till a new culture has emerged
 -- several families sharing a house on an eight-hour rotation basis.
 This means a family can use the house for eight hours while the
 others spend their time elsewhere.

 What is also sad is that more and more Iraqi youths have to
 remain a bachelor since he is jobless and can't afford the dowry,
 not to mention the furniture and home for his partner.

 Sponeck is worried that if the situation persists, the Iraqis would
 be exposed, and saddled, with social ills like prostitution, crime
 and mental illnesses because of extreme pressure.

 Sponeck resigned from the UN post because he said he "feels it
 was immoral and unethical to be a party to the cruelty inflicted
 upon the Iraqi people."

 That cruelty is sure to bring down another civilization in that
 country. -- Bernama