Iraq Says U.S., Britain Using Terrible Tricks to Delay Medical Aid
May 14, 1998 - 0:0
GENEVA Iraqi Health Minister Umid Medhat Mubarak on Tuesday accused Washington and London of using dirty tactics to stall the delivery of vital medical aid for the country's sanctions-hit population. Mubarak said the United States are Britain are using every means possible in a special committee tasked with approving contracts between the private sector and Iraq to delay the delivery of sorely needed medical items.
They use terrible tricks, he told journalists. The minister, who is attending the week-long annual Congress of the World Health Organization, warned that the lack of medical supplies was having alarming health consequences. Nearly 5,000 children under five and almost 8,000 older Iraqis died in March for reasons linked to the oil and trade embargo imposed on Baghdad after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the minister said.
Under a humanitarian accord with the United Nations, which came into force in December 1996, Iraq is allowed to export limited quantities of oil in return for food and medicine. But the last six-monthly memorandum of understanding has not been properly carried out and Iraq is receiving just 20 percent of its requirements, Mubarak said. (AFP)
They use terrible tricks, he told journalists. The minister, who is attending the week-long annual Congress of the World Health Organization, warned that the lack of medical supplies was having alarming health consequences. Nearly 5,000 children under five and almost 8,000 older Iraqis died in March for reasons linked to the oil and trade embargo imposed on Baghdad after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the minister said.
Under a humanitarian accord with the United Nations, which came into force in December 1996, Iraq is allowed to export limited quantities of oil in return for food and medicine. But the last six-monthly memorandum of understanding has not been properly carried out and Iraq is receiving just 20 percent of its requirements, Mubarak said. (AFP)