Baghdad - The International Committee of the Red Cross reported yesterday that war and sanctions had reduced Iraq to such a low level that it would "take years for the country to return" to where it was before the 1991 Gulf conflict, Michael Jansen reports.
Iraq: A Decade of Sanctions describes the ICRC's work in Iraq over the past 12 years and appeals to donor states to augment financial support for 22 million Iraqis suffering from severe deprivation.
"Deteriorating living conditions, inflation and low salaries make people's everyday lives a continuing struggle, while food shortages and lack of medicines and clean drinking water threaten their very survival," the report says.
In mid-February, the UN humanitarian aid co-ordinator in Iraq, Mr Hans von Sponeck, and the head of the World Food Programme in Baghdad, Ms Jutta Burghardt, resigned in protest at the Security Council's decision to make the lifting of sanctions conditional on Iraq's acceptance of a new weapons monitoring regime. Two other UN officials based in Baghdad are expected to follow suit.