C
cor
Guest
Original source URL:
http://www.countercurrents.org/cogan060108.htm
Cutbacks To Iraqi Food Rations Threaten Malnutrition And Starvation
By James Cogan 06 January, 2008 WSWS.org
Under conditions of widespread malnutrition, run-away inflation and
mass unemployment, the Iraqi Trade Ministry is preparing to slash
the provision of subsidised food and basic hygiene necessities under
the Public Distribution System (PDS).
The ministry insists that cutbacks are unavoidable because it has
not been promised a sufficient budget for 2008. Mohammed Hanoun,
chief-of-staff to the trade minister, told Al Jazeerah last month:
3In 2007, we asked for $3.2 billion for rationing basic foodstuffs.
But since the price of imported food stuff doubled in the past year,
we requested $7.2 billion. That request was denied.2
Trade Minister Abid Falah al-Soodani told the Iraqi parliament:
3Since the government9s financial support will not be available
next year, we will reduce the items from 10 to five and the quantities
of the remaining items will not be the same as this year and in
past years.2
According to Al Jazeerah, the first changes will take effect this
month. Basic itemsbaby milk formula, tea, chick-peas, soap and
washing detergentwill no longer be given out. Only flour, sugar,
rice, cooking oil and powdered milk will be available. The monthly
amount will fall, according to UN newsagency IRIN, to just 9 kilograms
of flour, 3 kg of rice, 2 kg of sugar, 1 litre of cooking oil and
250 grams of milk powder, per family member covered by a ration
card.
A further change will be introduced in June. An income test will
be introduced that will essentially strip anyone with a modestly
paid job of the ration card needed to receive the monthly hand-out.
An estimated five million people will no longer be eligible to use
the PDS.
The PDS was introduced by Saddam Hussein9s Baathist regime as a
short-term answer to the UN economic sanctions imposed during the
Gulf War of 1990-1991. The food rationing continued after the first
US-led war on Iraq, as the UN refused to lift the trade embargo on
the grounds that Iraq had to prove it had destroyed its chemical
and biological 3weapons of mass destruction2.
By late 1996, amid outrage over the humanitarian consequences of
the sanctions, the UN established the so-called 3oil-for-food2
program, in which Iraq was permitted to sell a limited amount of
oil to be used to purchase food and essential items, as well as to
pay reparations to Kuwait and finance the UN9s own administrative
and weapons inspections costs.
While the food ration helped prevent mass starvation, Iraq was
unable to purchase essential medical supplies, causing a drastic
rise in infant mortality and a sharp fall in overall life expectancy.
It is estimated that the sanctions led to as many as one million
Iraqi deaths, including 500,000 children, between 1991 and 1998.
Denis Halliday, a UN official responsible for enforcing the regime,
resigned in protest in October 1998, declaring: 3We are in the
process of destroying an entire society. It is as simple and
terrifying as that. It is illegal and immoral.2
By the time of the March 2003 invasion, virtually the entire Iraqi
population was to some extent reliant on the ration to meet their
basic nutritional requirements. The US military occupation therefore
had little choice but to continue the program. It has utterly failed,
however, to ensure that the population received it.
In 2004, a survey by the World Food Program (WFP) found that at
least 6.5 million Iraqis were highly dependent on the food ration
and a further 3.9 million would become 3food insecure2 without it.
The WFP estimated that at least 27 percent of Iraqi children were
already suffering chronic malnutrition. Many of the poorest Iraqis
were not consuming their ration, but selling part on the market to
help get the money necessary for other essentials such as clothes
and rent.
More than three years on, Oxfam International estimates that just
60 percent of Iraqis are still able to pick up their ration, compared
with 96 percent in 2004. Security concerns prevent large numbers
of people from going to nearby distribution centres. Sectarian
militias fostered by the US occupation use the allocation of food
as part of the systems of patronage they preside over. The WFP has
announced this year that it will try to provide emergency food
relief to more than 750,000 Iraqis who have been displaced by
violence and cannot access the PDS.
Those who can reach distribution centres find that many do not have
items in stock due to delivery delays and shortages caused by the
wholesale theft. The quantity of food available has fallen by 35
percent under US occupation, according to experts cited by the IRIN
UN newsagency. The quality has also sharply deteriorated, with
people expected to consume substandard products or items past their
expiry date.
At the same time, the social need is glaring. Official unemployment
is 17.6 percent, with an additional 38.1 percent of the workforce
classified as under employed. Annual inflation is estimated at over
20 percent, down from 52.8 percent in 2006 when the Baghdad government
abolished fuel subsidies that once gave Iraqis among the lowest
petrol and diesel prices in the world. Oxfam estimates that at least
four million people live in what it classifies as 3absolute poverty2.
Cutbacks to the food ration will only heighten the immense difficulties
facing the population. A health worker told Dahr Jamail of the
International Press Service (IPS) last month: 3I and my wife have
five boys and six girls so the ration costs a lot when it has to
be bought. I cannot afford food and also other expenses like study,
clothes and doctors.2
Among the most deprived layers of Iraqi society, hundreds of thousands
face the prospect of malnutrition and outright starvation. A Baghdad
mother of two told Al Jazeerah: 3If they reduce the quantity of the
ration, we will be displaced [made homeless] as the money to pay
bills will have to be used for food. If we are considered a poor
family today, tomorrow we will be considered absolutely desperate.2
An unemployed man told the newsagency: 3Reducing the number of
subsidised items will turn my sons into malnourished children and
put us into a level of poverty worse than we have any seen.2 Mohammed
Falah Ibrahim, a food expert working for the health ministry, warned:
3There should be a complementary plan in place to ensure that
financial aid reaches those poor families who will be affected by
this, otherwise many Iraqis could die of hunger.2
The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is under pressure
to provide sufficient funds in the upcoming budget to maintain the
program.
The main Shiite cleric Ali al-Sistani, who is sensitive to dangers
of social discontent among the Shiite urban poor, has called for
the changes to the ration system to be reversed. His spokesman
Abdulmahdi al Karbalaai told Azzaman on December 6: 3Do they [the
government] know that 60 percent of Iraqi people depend on food
rations? What will happen to these people if the government goes
ahead with its plans? Suffering will aggravate and famine will be
on its way in Iraq.2
The Maliki government claims it cannot find additional money to
feed the population, but its 2007 budget allocated $7.3 billion to
building up the military and police apparatus which is assisting
the American military repress opposition to the occupationan increase
of some 150 percent.
The Bush administration, which is responsible for creating the
social catastrophe and spends some $15 billion a month on maintaining
military occupation forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, provides scant
humanitarian assistance.
--
-------------------------------------------------------- newslog
archives:
http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/?lists=newslog
Escaping the Matrix website: http://escapingthematrix.org/ cyberjournal
website: http://cyberjournal.org
How We the People can change the world:
http://governourselves.blogspot.com/
Community Democracy Framework:
http://cyberjournal.org/DemocracyFramework.html
Moderator: rkm@quaylargo.com (comments welcome)
Yahoo! Groups Links
< > To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newslog/
< > Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
< > To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newslog/join (Yahoo! ID required)
< > To change settings via email:
mailto:newslog-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:newslog-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
< > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
newslog-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
< > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
http://www.countercurrents.org/cogan060108.htm
Cutbacks To Iraqi Food Rations Threaten Malnutrition And Starvation
By James Cogan 06 January, 2008 WSWS.org
Under conditions of widespread malnutrition, run-away inflation and
mass unemployment, the Iraqi Trade Ministry is preparing to slash
the provision of subsidised food and basic hygiene necessities under
the Public Distribution System (PDS).
The ministry insists that cutbacks are unavoidable because it has
not been promised a sufficient budget for 2008. Mohammed Hanoun,
chief-of-staff to the trade minister, told Al Jazeerah last month:
3In 2007, we asked for $3.2 billion for rationing basic foodstuffs.
But since the price of imported food stuff doubled in the past year,
we requested $7.2 billion. That request was denied.2
Trade Minister Abid Falah al-Soodani told the Iraqi parliament:
3Since the government9s financial support will not be available
next year, we will reduce the items from 10 to five and the quantities
of the remaining items will not be the same as this year and in
past years.2
According to Al Jazeerah, the first changes will take effect this
month. Basic itemsbaby milk formula, tea, chick-peas, soap and
washing detergentwill no longer be given out. Only flour, sugar,
rice, cooking oil and powdered milk will be available. The monthly
amount will fall, according to UN newsagency IRIN, to just 9 kilograms
of flour, 3 kg of rice, 2 kg of sugar, 1 litre of cooking oil and
250 grams of milk powder, per family member covered by a ration
card.
A further change will be introduced in June. An income test will
be introduced that will essentially strip anyone with a modestly
paid job of the ration card needed to receive the monthly hand-out.
An estimated five million people will no longer be eligible to use
the PDS.
The PDS was introduced by Saddam Hussein9s Baathist regime as a
short-term answer to the UN economic sanctions imposed during the
Gulf War of 1990-1991. The food rationing continued after the first
US-led war on Iraq, as the UN refused to lift the trade embargo on
the grounds that Iraq had to prove it had destroyed its chemical
and biological 3weapons of mass destruction2.
By late 1996, amid outrage over the humanitarian consequences of
the sanctions, the UN established the so-called 3oil-for-food2
program, in which Iraq was permitted to sell a limited amount of
oil to be used to purchase food and essential items, as well as to
pay reparations to Kuwait and finance the UN9s own administrative
and weapons inspections costs.
While the food ration helped prevent mass starvation, Iraq was
unable to purchase essential medical supplies, causing a drastic
rise in infant mortality and a sharp fall in overall life expectancy.
It is estimated that the sanctions led to as many as one million
Iraqi deaths, including 500,000 children, between 1991 and 1998.
Denis Halliday, a UN official responsible for enforcing the regime,
resigned in protest in October 1998, declaring: 3We are in the
process of destroying an entire society. It is as simple and
terrifying as that. It is illegal and immoral.2
By the time of the March 2003 invasion, virtually the entire Iraqi
population was to some extent reliant on the ration to meet their
basic nutritional requirements. The US military occupation therefore
had little choice but to continue the program. It has utterly failed,
however, to ensure that the population received it.
In 2004, a survey by the World Food Program (WFP) found that at
least 6.5 million Iraqis were highly dependent on the food ration
and a further 3.9 million would become 3food insecure2 without it.
The WFP estimated that at least 27 percent of Iraqi children were
already suffering chronic malnutrition. Many of the poorest Iraqis
were not consuming their ration, but selling part on the market to
help get the money necessary for other essentials such as clothes
and rent.
More than three years on, Oxfam International estimates that just
60 percent of Iraqis are still able to pick up their ration, compared
with 96 percent in 2004. Security concerns prevent large numbers
of people from going to nearby distribution centres. Sectarian
militias fostered by the US occupation use the allocation of food
as part of the systems of patronage they preside over. The WFP has
announced this year that it will try to provide emergency food
relief to more than 750,000 Iraqis who have been displaced by
violence and cannot access the PDS.
Those who can reach distribution centres find that many do not have
items in stock due to delivery delays and shortages caused by the
wholesale theft. The quantity of food available has fallen by 35
percent under US occupation, according to experts cited by the IRIN
UN newsagency. The quality has also sharply deteriorated, with
people expected to consume substandard products or items past their
expiry date.
At the same time, the social need is glaring. Official unemployment
is 17.6 percent, with an additional 38.1 percent of the workforce
classified as under employed. Annual inflation is estimated at over
20 percent, down from 52.8 percent in 2006 when the Baghdad government
abolished fuel subsidies that once gave Iraqis among the lowest
petrol and diesel prices in the world. Oxfam estimates that at least
four million people live in what it classifies as 3absolute poverty2.
Cutbacks to the food ration will only heighten the immense difficulties
facing the population. A health worker told Dahr Jamail of the
International Press Service (IPS) last month: 3I and my wife have
five boys and six girls so the ration costs a lot when it has to
be bought. I cannot afford food and also other expenses like study,
clothes and doctors.2
Among the most deprived layers of Iraqi society, hundreds of thousands
face the prospect of malnutrition and outright starvation. A Baghdad
mother of two told Al Jazeerah: 3If they reduce the quantity of the
ration, we will be displaced [made homeless] as the money to pay
bills will have to be used for food. If we are considered a poor
family today, tomorrow we will be considered absolutely desperate.2
An unemployed man told the newsagency: 3Reducing the number of
subsidised items will turn my sons into malnourished children and
put us into a level of poverty worse than we have any seen.2 Mohammed
Falah Ibrahim, a food expert working for the health ministry, warned:
3There should be a complementary plan in place to ensure that
financial aid reaches those poor families who will be affected by
this, otherwise many Iraqis could die of hunger.2
The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is under pressure
to provide sufficient funds in the upcoming budget to maintain the
program.
The main Shiite cleric Ali al-Sistani, who is sensitive to dangers
of social discontent among the Shiite urban poor, has called for
the changes to the ration system to be reversed. His spokesman
Abdulmahdi al Karbalaai told Azzaman on December 6: 3Do they [the
government] know that 60 percent of Iraqi people depend on food
rations? What will happen to these people if the government goes
ahead with its plans? Suffering will aggravate and famine will be
on its way in Iraq.2
The Maliki government claims it cannot find additional money to
feed the population, but its 2007 budget allocated $7.3 billion to
building up the military and police apparatus which is assisting
the American military repress opposition to the occupationan increase
of some 150 percent.
The Bush administration, which is responsible for creating the
social catastrophe and spends some $15 billion a month on maintaining
military occupation forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, provides scant
humanitarian assistance.
--
-------------------------------------------------------- newslog
archives:
http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/?lists=newslog
Escaping the Matrix website: http://escapingthematrix.org/ cyberjournal
website: http://cyberjournal.org
How We the People can change the world:
http://governourselves.blogspot.com/
Community Democracy Framework:
http://cyberjournal.org/DemocracyFramework.html
Moderator: rkm@quaylargo.com (comments welcome)
Yahoo! Groups Links
< > To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newslog/
< > Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
< > To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newslog/join (Yahoo! ID required)
< > To change settings via email:
mailto:newslog-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:newslog-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
< > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
newslog-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
< > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
