Baghdad defies embargo by pilgrimage plane to Mecca

Once again Baghdad has defied the UN embargo by sending a plane carrying elderly pilgrims to Mecca and asserted its determination to send a second shift today. A Saudi source said the Iraqi plane arrived on Tuesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, experts from some 11 Arab governmental and non-governmental organizations stressed following a meeting convened at the Arab Institute for Human Rights the "catastrophic condition" of Iraq's children as a result of the sanctions.

An Iraqi report released by the end of February 1999 said that 1.74 million Iraqi children had died between 1990 and 1998 due to reported diarrhea and inflammation cases.

The report added that some 2,400 Iraqi children die every month in Iraq due to malnutrition, whereas "hospitals are crowded with children who are dying because they did not take vaccines."