Iraq holds collective funeral for children

A collective funeral was organized today in Baghdad for 52 Iraqi children who died as a result of severe shortages in medicine and medical instruments due to the embargo imposed on Iraq. Some 300 persons walked with the funeral which started from the headquarters of the UNDP and staged the capital's main streets.

Participants in the funeral delivered a message to the UNDP officials addressed to the UN secretary-general demanding the lifting of sanctions against Iraq. The chairman of the Iraqi childhood society, Sultan Shawi, told reporters that the mortality rate among Iraqi children in Baghdad tolled 50 per day and he said 250 children die every day in the Iraqi other districts.