Young Boy Crying

Since the gulf war, a minimum of 450,000 people, mostly children, have died as a direct result of sanctions. The conditions in Iraq have deteriorated to the point of collapse. The "Oil for Food" program is a total disaster, and according to UNICEF and other world organizations it simply maintains a level of chronic malnutrition. Canada has supported this. This boy is one of the victims of the sanctions. Medicines in the hospitals are not available. Our governments have claimed that Iraq is not distributing the medicine, but we heard a different story from UNICEF, The Red Cross, and the people at the UN in Baghdad. There are good reasons why it is difficult to distribute and test medicines when a civilian infrastructure has been bombed out of existence. Also, 5 million migrant workers who used to maintain repairs on vehicles and the infrastructure, have now left the country because of lack of funds. Children are dying of leukemia and other diseases without painkillers.

An American humanitarian group, "Voices in the Wilderness", is being charged $160,000 for 'successfully' getting medicines into Iraqi hospitals. Their actions are in defiance of the sanctions. The children of Iraq are dying because of the brutal indifference of the United States.

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