The day the music died

by NSTP

ALI H has a degree in biology from the College of Science in Baghdad, but works as a
taxi-driver.

Ahmad D holds an electrical engineering degree and is employed at a green grocer's.
Ammar Ad has a degree in mechanical engineering but works on a weaver machine.
Salah A, a qualified architect, is a signpost writer in a small shop. Laith I, a graduate
from the College of Medicine, is jobless.

The list goes on - of young Iraqis who are unable to find work in the fields they were
trained for, simply because there are none.

Compiled by humanitarian group CARE to prove a growing trend towards
"deprofessionalisation", it was submitted to Hans von Sponeck, the UN co- ordinator
for Iraq who recently resigned in protest against the injustices resulting from the
sanctions that have messed people's lives in ways that were unimaginable.

One group badly affected is youth. Not only have these young people resigned to a
future of unemployment, they have also to contend with hunger, poverty and diseases
they never knew before.

Only a short while ago, theirs was a thriving country - the richest in the Middle East -
where education and living standards were high and life was easy.

"We used to live in heaven, now it's hell," says Mohamed Ali Hussein, a student of
computer science (pictured above centre, in a jacket).

The music has stopped and the parties non-existent these days for him and his friends.
No more cinemas or discos. There was a time when holidays in Europe were normal
and designer jeans at the mall were within everybody's means.

"Clothes and things were cheap compared to Paris because our economy was strong
and our government provided subsidies," said Mohamed, who is convinced that the
sanctions are part of a plan by the superpowers to destroy Iraq.

"The embargo is meant to wipe us out," he said.

"Look, there are no medicines and people are dying. Talk to people my age and you'll
see they don't laugh anymore."

The daily struggle to meet basic needs like enough food, clean water, electricity and fuel
for cooking has sapped their spirit. The disappearance of traditional family values like
getting together for feasts has made them unhappy. Young people are postponing
marriages as they cannot afford the costs. An increasing number has dropped out of
school and many have succumbed to depression.

Ahmad Diah Fadhil, 26, is one of them. He has been treated for depression for the last
10 years after miraculously escaping death from a bomb attack at the Al-Amiriah shelter
where he and his sister took refuge. In the 1991 tragedy 400 children including his sister
died.

Ahmad said he keeps thinking of her and can't understand why his life was spared. "I
can't sleep, I can't concentrate. I don't have a job."

At Ibn Rashid Hospital, Baghdad's only clinical teaching psychiatric hospital, the cases
of depression and anxiety among young people are alarming.

According to the World Health Organisation, the number of young people and
adolescents suffering from mental disorders increased by 124 per cent from 1990 and
1998. The number of children below 10 suffering from mental distress rose from 42 per
cent in 1996 to 56 per cent in 1997.

"Before, we had no anxiety or depressive illnesses like now," said Dr Azar al-Shama, a
psychiatrist. "These last five years have been miserable for all, high- and low-income
families."

She estimates that she sees 30-40 per cent more young people than she did before the
sanctions, most for depression or anxiety.

"Parents are not around as much, so children's personalities suffer," she said. "They
watch their parents searching for food, medicine and clothes."

Jalil al-Abbas left school at 17 a year ago to work in a bakery. He prefers this to selling
cigarettes in the streets.

"I was upset at having to do this because I wanted to become an engineer. But my
father is ill and I have to help my family," he said. "I want to return to school but this is
going to be very difficult, so I will not think about it and just make bread."

In March 1999, Unicef cited figures from the Iraqi government that painted a gloomy
picture of the impact of the sanctions: a 13.9 per cent drop in primary school enrolment
and 14.7 per cent at tertiary level.

The problem of street children has also emerged. Some have turned to crime to survive,
resulting in a rise in the number of young men in rehabilitation centres. There's also an
increase of 77 per cent among female street children sent for rehabilitation sine 1996.

Mohamed says he is not surprised that people have dropped out of school. "School
used to be fun. Everything was free - books, bags, uniforms, pens, pencils and canteen
food. Now, even pencils are forbidden by the embargo. This is ridiculous."

"If I speak to President Clinton, I would say you have destroyed our families and our
lives," Jalil said.

The young man's sentiments confirm the fears of George Somerwill, information officer
for the UN office of the Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Iraq. He said:

"A whole generation of young people has grown up with absolutely nothing. We are
producing a generation of young children who will be violently anti-West and we will
have to deal with them."

When von Sponeck resigned, he condemned the sanctions as "a true human tragedy
that needs to be ended." ..TX: * The writer was part of working group that
accompanied Datuk Seri Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali to Iraq from March 25 to 29 to
observe the impact of the UN sanctions. ..TX: Note: The United Nations imposed
sanctions on Iraq in 1990 after its invasion of Kuwait as a punishment. Among others it
forbids Iraq from importing goods, neither can she export products. Because of the
sufferings resulting from the shortage of basic needs, the UN introduced the Oil for
Food programme in 1996. It allowed Iraq to sell US$5.2 billion worth of oil every six
months under strict UN monitoring, in exchange for food, medicines and (unspecified)
basic requirements.