BERLIN, 2 April 2003 — The United Nations children’s relief agency UNICEF warned yesterday that time is running out for Iraqi children as the US-led war against President Saddam Hussein drags on. “In this war, time is working against the children. Without massive help in bringing in water, medical and food supplies, many children and pregnant women will not survive this conflict,” said UNICEF Iraq operations head Carel de Rooy.
De Rooy said the main problem was getting water to civilians in places where there was heavy fighting, like the southern city of Basra where he said more than 1.2 million people had been without drinking water for more than a week.
He said that 100,000 children under the age of five were in severe danger of falling ill, and that drinking dirty water has been the top killer of children in Iraq over the last year.
UNICEF also warned that as many as 500,000 Iraqi children could be in need of psychological help as a result of trauma suffered during the war.
A Russian doctor famous for his work in war zones said yesterday he would travel to Geneva and New York to persuade the West to organize a “green corridor” for evacuating dozens of Iraqi children injured in the bombings of Baghdad and Basra.
“We are not asking for anything permanent. All we ask for is that the Americans agree that they do not bomb certain roads for a certain stretch of time,” Leonid Roshal told reporters in Moscow.
He said he mentioned the plan to President Vladimir Putin and that the Russian leader agreed with the idea. “I myself asked Putin about this and he said that he supported it,” Roshal told reporters.
“Who would not want to help children?” Roshal added that he was still waiting for a formal response from Washington but that the Iraqi ambassador to Russia approved of the plan.
However, the Russian doctor said the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) — which would have to play a key role in any such evacuation — has been hesitant. “The Red Cross was very cautious and told me it may be too early to review this question,” Roshal said without going into further details. Roshal has worked in many war zones of the former Soviet Union and most recently assisted both civilians and Chechen fighters involved in October’s three-day Moscow theater hostage standoff in which at least 129 civilians died.
Roshal said the Iraqi ambassador told him that 95 children were currently laid up in hospital in Baghdad and that most would probably need to be moved to neighboring countries because the Iraqi health system was desperately short on medicine. “The situation there is difficult but not hopeless,” he said.
“I would evacuate all the children but that is a bit difficult,” said Roshal while estimating that there may be some two million children currently living in Baghdad. “So the first step is to remove the injured children.” He added that France and Morocco have already volunteered to treat the wounded.
Russia has fought furiously against the US-led attack on its Soviet-era ally and the Russian Emergencies Ministry is currently supplying assistance, through Iran, to northeastern areas of Iraq near areas controlled by the separatist Kurds.
Roshal said he would fly to ICRC headquarters in Geneva today to promote his plan. The Russian doctor said he would be in New York on Sunday to lobby the UNICEF to also support the project.
Meanwhile, the chief of the Russian Committee of the Red Cross said the children would have to be evacuated to neighboring countries like Iran and Jordan because it was currently too dangerous for doctors to work in Iraq.
“We would not be able to guarantee the safety of our staff,” Tatyana Nikolayenko said. But she stressed that the situation was more serious that the ICRC might want to admit.
“The television footage we get here confirms that this is an emergency situation,” she said.
“We have very grave concerns.” Roshal for his part admitted that his idea may be a long-shot — but that he was ready to fight for it until the end.
