BAGHDAD, 4 May 2003 — Iraq is still ripe for a humanitarian disaster even though the shooting has all but stopped, the UN chief of mission here warned yesterday, saying too many people were going without food, water and power. “We have not yet got over the hump. The conditions for the development of a humanitarian disaster still exist,” Ramiro Lopes da Silva said, flanked by other UN officials who fled Iraq two days before the war began March 20.
“It’s (already) a humanitarian disaster in the sense basic services have collapsed or are at the risk of collapsing if we don’t put them back into shape rather quickly,” he said. Lopes da Silva, making his first briefing to reporters since returning to Baghdad on Thursday, said nearly two-thirds of Iraqis were fully dependent on food aid and that malnutrition was rampant.
Many are drinking unsuitable water, which is causing infections, especially in the south, and still have no electricity. Hospitals, which were looted in the aftermath of the war, are overwhelmed and lack medicines and equipment. The United Nations slapped sanctions on Baghdad after Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait that sparked the first Gulf War. Saddam Hussein’s regime said the sanctions were responsible for the deaths of more than one million children. Before the latest war, about four percent of Iraqis suffered from severe malnutrition and nearly a quarter of them never got enough to eat, Lopes da Silva said.
To counter the crisis, he said the United Nations would establish a “collaborative relationship” with the US reconstruction office here despite being so far sidelined by Washington for any political role in Iraq. He also played down rifts between Washington and the United Nations, which did not specifically authorize the US-led war to topple Saddam Hussein.
Meanwhile, Iraqi pupils began making their way back to school yesterday, as teachers said they were unsure what to teach in the post-Saddam era and parents worried about security in the chaotic capital. “The school employees are all here and around 35 girls came today out of 650 in normal times,” said Suheir Labid, assistant director at a high school in Baghdad’s well-off Hay Al-Nil neighborhood.
She said she had not been informed about possible changes for this year’s national history and civic education programs, which for years have been dedicated to praising Saddam and his toppled Baath Party regime. “I would imagine that we will change the curriculum next year and teachers may decide to skip a few pro-Saddam excerpts in the books,” she said.
“We may not laud the Baath anymore but don’t count on me to sing the praises of the US occupation here or that of Israel in Palestine,” history teacher Suheila Al-Windi said angrily. Sina, a young female teacher, said her colleagues were hesitant to change the curriculum themselves because they were afraid. “Most believe Saddam will be back,” she said.
