Press
Centre
Official Statment
UNICEF concerned about Iraqi children
- Statement Attributable to UNICEF Executive Director
Carol Bellamy -
AMMAN / NEW YORK, 6 April 2003 - With a large-scale assault
on Baghdad now underway I want to remind all parties to
the conflict of their legal and moral obligation to protect
the lives of civilians, especially children.
Baghdad is a city of 5 million people, half of them under
the age of 18. Over the past two and a half weeks there
have been increasing reports of civilian casualties, with
many graphic accounts of children killed, injured, and
traumatized.
Our extensive experience working with children in conflict
has taught us that in addition to the immediate effects,
there are other profound and debilitating consequences
that last for years to come. The scars of war do not easily
fade. Physical and psychological trauma, fear, and the
loss of loved ones continue to plague the lives of those
who have endured such horrors.
Take for example, the three boys between the ages of five
and six who were severely maimed this week when playing
with a landmine at Garagow, near Dohuk. One boy had both
his hands blown off, another may lose an eye. The lives
of these children and their families will never be the
same.
However sophisticated the methods of waging war, the
end results are as bloody and tragic as they have been
throughout the centuries. But there is at least one thing
that has changed: increasingly, women and children are
the principal victims.
UNICEF is particularly concerned about reports in the
last few days of the use of cluster bombs in densely populated
urban areas. These cruel and clumsy weapons are already
reported to have claimed the lives of Iraqi children and
their use must end.
The taking of a child's life is never an acceptable cost
of war.
* * *
For further information please contact us:.
Wivina Belmonte,
UNICEF Amman: wbelmonte@unicef.org, (962) 79 504 2058
*** Gordon Weiss,
UNICEF Media, New York: (1-212) 326-7426 ****Jo
Bailey, UNICEF Media, New York, jbailey@unicef.org
(1-212) 326-7412 ****For interviews in the region, write
or call directly to the UNICEF NewsDesk in Amman:
(962-79) 50422058
iraqichild@unicef.org
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