A group of relief organizations said in a report that living conditions in Iraq have been worsening drastically since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, leaving nearly one-third of the inhabitants in want of crisis support.
According to the report, 70% of the Iraqi population is in need of sufficient water supplies compared with 50 % in 2003. More than 4 million of the people have been dislocated during this time And yet, financial support for humanitarian aid in Iraq has deteriorated abruptly - from $453 million in 2005 to $95 million in 2006.
The statistics presented in the report differ sharply with the image of increasingly progressive conditions in Iraq presented by the Iraq government and the U.S. military over the preceding months.
Researchers from the British humanitarian group ‘Oxfam International’ and an alliance of non-government organizations functioning in Iraq said in the report -
Iraq’s civilians are suffering from a denial of fundamental human rights in the form of chronic poverty, malnutrition, illness, lack of access to basic services, and destruction of homes, vital facilities, and infrastructure, as well as injury and death. Basic indicators of humanitarian need in Iraq show that the slide into poverty and deprivation since the coalition forces entered the country in 2003 has been dramatic, and a deep trauma for the Iraqi people.
The United States, nevertheless, seems quite indifferent to the outcomes of this report. Spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh, an aide to Iraqi government, was out of the country and unavailable to remark on the report. A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad could also not be contacted for a comment.
And on the whole, the US is trying their best to ignore the implications presented by this report. Recently, the U.S. military officials have mentioned a decline in the number of dislocated families across Iraq and particularly in Baghdad. Rear Adm. Mark I. Fox, the leading U.S. spokesperson for the Baghdad security plan, said at a news conference that Iraqi and American forces had stopped sectarian dislocation.
Although, security conditions in Iraq are reportedly at their worse, and Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, himself admitted in an interview with ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’, that would take the US forces at least till 2009 to establish ’sustainable security’ in Iraq.
However, according to the report, Iraq continues to stand for the fastest-growing refugee predicament in the planet. Two million people have been displaced to other parts of Iraq and a further 2 million have escaped to other countries, mainly Syria and Jordan, as the report concludes. The crisis is especially severe among professionals. The report estimates that more than 40 % of doctors, engineers and other capable human resource have left the country.
The most crucial condemnation from the authors of this report is directed towards the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, which, according to the researchers, - ‘did not adequately take into account emergency needs that would arise from deteriorating security over time‘ when it administrated Iraq during April 2003 to June 2004.
The government of Iraq, international donors, and the United Nations system have been focused on reconstruction, development, and building political institutions, and have overlooked the harsh daily struggle for survival now faced by many
- said the report.
The report suggests a number of policy proposals for the Iraqi government, which include the formation of a government panel exclusively focused on humanitarian aid and increased financial support to families lead by widows. It also bids the U.S. military, the United Nations and the Western nations to raise the amount of aid provided.
It seems that the United States, will typically turn a deaf ear to the warning bells that have started ringing in Iraq. The situation might lead to another global disaster, but at present it is already annihilating numerous lives in Iraq.
The global powers along with a major part of the mainstream media present an altogether different picture of Iraq, one that is an illusion, not a reality. The reality, from behind the scenes, is feeding on innocent lives. The Iraq crisis is being ignored at large, when it is too huge a crisis to be ignored.
Via : Washington Post
Image Credit : Infoshop
