Iraqi parliament opposes return of UN inspectors
Iraq, Politics, 9/20/1999

An Iraqi military spokesman said on Sunday that ten formations of US and British planes carried out some 28 sorties over the provinces of Al Muthanna, Dhi Qar and Al Qadisiyah in southern Iraq, adding that the Iraqi planes and anti-aircraft missiles intercepted these formations and forced them to retreat.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi National Assembly (parliament) opposed any attempt aimed at resuming inspection operations and bringing UN inspectors back to Iraq, because these "attempts aim at resuming the spying operations for the service of the US intelligence."

The opposition pronounced by the Iraqi parliament came in response to a US report which accuses Baghdad of continuing its weapons of mass destruction program. Moreover, Baghdad stressed on Sunday that London and Washington will continue their hostile moves against Iraq after the failure of last week's London conference of the five permanent member states at the UN Security Council.

The Iraqi daily al-Thawra (revolution) said the conference aimed at trying to make Russia, China and France join the British project which was submitted to the UN Security Council and backed by the US.

The British project proposes the suspension of sanctions concerning exports for renewable periods of 120 days, while France called for a complete suspension of the sanctions for 100 days when the new system for monitoring the Iraqi weapons is practical and accompanied by similar monitoring of Iraqi funds. A Russian project calls for suspending the sanctions for an unlimited time without any monetary control.

Meanwhile, Iraq announced on Sunday that more than 10,000 Iraqi children died in August of various diseases due to the continued reinforcement of the

Statistics released by the Iraqi Ministry of Health said that some 10,187 Iraqi children and old people died in August of various diseases. The statistics said that some 7,632 Iraqi children under the age of five died as a result of diarrhea, lung and breathing diseases and malnutrition in comparison with the same month of 1989 when deaths among children only numbered 300.

Statistics stressed that the number of deaths increased since the beginning of the sanctions on August 8, 1990 to 1,187,486 -- most of them being children and old men women.

Meanwhile, it was announced officially on Sunday in Tripoli that the Libyan international people's committee of Gaddafi award for human rights decided to offer the prize of this year to the children of Iraq.

Previous Stories:
  Baghdad is not concerned with UN Security meeting on sanctions   (9/14/1999)
  Iraq calls for converting Middle East into nuclear-free area   (9/13/1999)
  Iraq vows to confront US planes   (9/6/1999)
  Increasing deaths in Iraq as a result of the embargo   (8/26/1999)

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