While the whole world is busy following the Kosovo conflict and the Sino-American crisis, let us not forget the suffering of the Iraqi people.
The daily American bombardment on Iraq is still going on.
Earlier this month, the American warplanes attacked Be Ishiqa village, in Mousil province. The attack claimed the lives of a whole family (parents and five children) and killed 250 cattle, not to mention the severe damage sustained by houses and other properties. Another attack on the same village left more than 20 killed and injured, including women and old people.
Innocent civilians are dying every day.
On May 4, the Iraqi Ministry of Health announced that in March, there were 4,399 children below the age of five who died due to shortage of medicine. The UN reported that one quarter of Iraqi children below the age of five suffer from malnutrition and that 4,000 to 5,000 children are dying every month because of poor water supplies and the lack of health care.
Furthermore, the Iraqi Government has to pay 30 per cent of the money it makes from oil sales in the form of compensation for the Gulf War. In fact, the oil-for-food programme is inadequate. The sanctions against Iraq are not harming Saddam Hussein, but are killing innocent people.
