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イラクは飢饉の危険に直面：国連（正しくは連合国）報告による。アメリカ独立系経由で入手したイギリス『オブザーバー』報道
Iraq in Danger of Starvation, says UN/Published on Sunday, May 11, 2003 by the Observer/UK/
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0511-05.htm
Published on Sunday, May 11, 2003 by the Observer/UK
Iraq in Danger of Starvation, says UN
by Helena Smith, Nicosia and Ed Vulliamy in Baghdad
Iraqi agriculture is on the brink of collapse, with fears that many of its
24.5 million people will go hungry this summer, according to a confidential
report being studied by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization.
A special assessment prepared by the UN agency's staff in Rome, which has
been seen by The Observer, reveals a catastrophe in the making, with crops
and poultry being especially hard hit.
Government warehouses that would have served as the main suppliers of seeds,
fertilizers and pesticide sprays have been looted, particularly in the
center and south of the country.
Iraqi farmers should now be planting tomatoes and onions, potatoes,
cucumbers, water melon, peppers, beans and squash. But without seeds,
fertilizers and pesticides, that will be hard - a situation exacerbated by
the collapse of the pumping stations that powered the irrigation schemes on
which the vegetable crop depends.
'Vegetables and poultry are particularly important because they are the main
source of protein, vitamins, minerals and a host of micro-nutrients that are
missing from the oil-for-food basket which is also why malnutrition is
endemic in Iraq,' said spokesman Barry Came.
Sixty per cent of the population has depended on the oil-for-food program,
instituted at the end of the 1991Gulf war. Under the program, Iraq received
supplies of wheat, pulses and flour in exchange for oil.
The FAO calls the report a 'preliminary desk assessment' and is expected to
release a statement commenting on its main points by Wednesday.
In the southern and central areas, vital irrigation networks have been
destroyed, a once-thriving poultry industry has been ruined and there are
predictions of disease and pestilence among both plants and animals.
Enormous difficulties are anticipated in harvesting winter crops, 1.2
million tons of wheat, barley, rice and maize. Under Saddam, harvesting
normally started this month, with a touring fleet of ageing combined
harvesters.
Lack of spare parts had long put a strain on the harvesters available and
now no mechanism exists for purchasing the yield. In previous years, the
Ministry of Trade bought the crop, stored it and arranged for banks to pay
farmers, who in turn used the revenues to buy the seeds for their summer
vegetable crops.
But this year no seeds have been planted because, even if the farmers had
money to buy them, most of the seed stock has been looted or destroyed.
Iraqi's poultry industry, source of the half of the animal protein eaten by
the population, is also in dire straits. All the soybean and protein
concentrate feed stored in government warehouses was stolen, along with
vaccines, drugs and medicines required to keep the stock healthy.
Both the major poultry projects that once supplied Iraqi chicken farmers
with layers and hatching eggs have collapsed. Thousands of birds have
starved to death.
Animal health is another major concern. Most of the veterinary hospitals and
clinics were looted or destroyed, and vehicles, drugs, medicines and food
ingredients disappeared.
The impact could be severe in a country where disease is rife among the 18
million sheep and goats and three million cattle. Some are capable of
transmission to humans, so constant control is required.
The warning came as America's efforts to get Iraq's Health Ministry up and
running twisted into farce yesterday, when it emerged that the new Minister
concerned was a Saddam crony.
Dr Ali Shnan Janabi, former number three in Saddam's infamously corrupt
Ministry, was presented to an all-day conference of doctors. His appointment
was greeted with disbelief and charges of corruption from many doctors.
Dr Hussein Harith, a senior registrar at the al-Mansour teaching hospital,
said Dr Shnan was one of a 'group of senior Ministers who asked the
directors of hospitals to report that they did not need drugs and medicines
[supplied to Iraq under the oil-for-food program], even though they were
desperate for them.
There were happier scenes in Basra, where the 63-year-old leader of Iraq's
biggest Shia group returned from exile yesterday. Supporters waved flags and
chanted slogans when the convoy of Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim crossed
into Iraq from Iran, where he has led the Supreme Council of the Islamic
Revolution in Iraq since 1980.
Thousands lined the 12-mile road from the border to Basra, where up to
100,000 people packed a stadium to listen to him address them for the first
time in 23 years.
Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003
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