New statistics on Iraqi deaths under UN embargo

The Iraqi Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday that some 11,000 Iraqis died in January this year, bringing the number of Iraqis who have died since the beginning of the embargo imposed on Iraqi since 1990 to 2.173 million.

The statement of the Iraqi ministry said that 8,153 children died in January because of diseases such as diarrhea, lung and breathing diseases and malnutrition and that 3,054 adults had died because of heart problems, high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer.

However, two UN officials working in the humanitarian areas, Hans von Sponeck and the representative of the World Food Program, Jutta Burghardt,, resigned last week in protest against the embargo imposed on Iraq which the two UN officials considered as a humanitarian catastrophe.

Vin Sponeck criticized the oil-for-food program, which permits Iraq to sell certain amounts of oil under tough controls by the UN, a matter which doubled the number of deaths among Iraqis, especially children.