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Grinding Poverty, Insecurity Plague Iraqis: Report
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The number of Iraqis living below the poverty line increased dramatically after the US-led occupation.
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BAGHDAD,
January 25, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Nearly
three years after the US-led invasion-turned-occupation of Iraq, more
Iraqis are falling prey to grinding poverty and countless others are
terrified in the insecurity-marred country.
Recent
estimates indicated that one fifth of the onetime rich Iraqis are
living below the poverty line since the US invasion of Iraq in March
2003, while indiscriminate attacks using car bombs and resistance
operations against US forces have jumped by 30% in 2005.
"A
study conducted by the ministry in coordination with the International
Monetary Fund and the United Nations Development Program shows that 20
percent of the population is affected by poverty," Leila Kazem,
director general of the department of social affairs at the labor
ministry, told Agence France Presse (AFP) Wednesday, January 25.
"Some
two million Iraqi families live under the poverty line, as defined by
international criteria, which is fixed at one dollar per day per
person."
A
recent study by Iraq's health ministry in tandem with Norway's
Institute for Applied International Studies and the UN Development
Program (UNDP) said children are paying the silent cost of the US-led
occupation with malnutrition rates exceeding by far those in the
world’s poorest and disease-plagued countries.
The
report added that acute malnutrition among Iraqi children has nearly
doubled since the US-invasion-turned-occupation in March 2003.
Planned
Aid
Kazem
said that the deteriorating living standards were the result of the
"rise in unemployment, violence and the decline in public sector
and civil services".
"The
number of people requiring social assistance by our minister is
dwarfed by the large number of people in need," she said.
She
added that "actually only 171,000 Iraqi families receive social
assistance," compared to the two million needing it.
The
official said that the small amount of aid, which runs between 40,000
to 50,000 dinars (30 to 35 dollars) a month, will be increased by a
new amendment to a social security law dating from 1980.
According
to the amendment, aid will be set between 70,000 dinars (50 dollars)
minimum for a family of two and 120,000 dinars (85 dollars) for
families with six or more.
It
will also be extended to groups not covered by the former regime of
Saddam Hussein, including the unemployed, the infirm, the elderly and
low income groups.
In
2004, the British medical charity, Medact, said that the US-led war on
Iraq has caused a public health disaster that has left the country's
medical system in tatters and increased the risk of disease and death.
It
added that cases of vaccine-preventable diseases were rising and
relief and reconstruction work had been mismanaged.
Contracting
Battles
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Iraqis no longer feel secure in new Iraq.
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The
stud coincided with a leaked US report that faulted US reconstruction
promises in post-invasion Iraq.
The
report, by the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq,
showed how ordinary and needy Iraqis paid the price of what it termed
"contracting battles" between the US State Department and
the Pentagon over post-war bonanza, according to the New York Times.
It
said that the $25 billion reconstruction efforts were also hobbled by
understaffing, a lack of technical expertise, bureaucratic infighting,
secrecy and rising security costs.
It
further expresses concern about writing contracts for an entity with
the "ambiguous legal status" of the Coalition Provisional
Authority.
It
said "seemingly odd decisions" on responsibility for aspects
of the reconstruction have been recounted repeatedly.
"It
almost looks like a spoils system between various agencies,"
Steve Ellis, a vice president and authority on the Army Corps of
Engineers at Taxpayers for Common Sense in Washington, told the Times.
"You
had various fiefdoms established in the contracting process,"
said Ellis, who read a copy of the document.
The
newspaper said it obtained a copy of the report from a person at a
closed forum at which roughly two dozen experts from outside the
Special Inspector General's office debated the report.
It
comes amid rising concern among Americans about President George W.
Bush's policy in Iraq, where billions of dollars have been spent on a
reconstruction effort that critics say has yielded relatively modest
results.
Growing
Insecurity
Meanwhile,
insecurity, caused by the presence of foreign troops and
indiscriminate attacks, has grown in post-invasion Iraq.
Both
the random and resistance attacks have increased by 30 percent in
2005, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
The
US military said the Iraqi groups have carried out 34,131 attacks
against US forces compared to 26,496 in 2004, counting the attacks
against US and allied troops, Iraqi government security personnel and
Iraqi civilians.
The
number of attacks involving improvised explosive devices (IEDs), or
roadside bombs, increased to 10,593 in 2005 from 5607 in 2004, the
military added.
Attacks
using suicide vests rose to 67 in 2005 from seven in 2004 while
suicide attacks with car bombs rose to 411 in 2005 from 133 in 2004, ,
the military added.
"Given
the fact that the total number of attacks are up and Iraqi casualties
are rising, it is real hard to say we have seen any light in this
tunnel," said Daniel Goure, a defense analyst of the
Lexington Institute think tank.
Some
2,237 US soldiers were killed in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion,
according to a Pentagon tally. Another 16,472 US troops have been
wounded.
The
Pentagon said more than half of the US casualties in Iraq stem from
the homemade bombs, often buried along a roadside or hidden inside
debris or even carcasses and usually detonated by remote control or
with a timer.
The
number of US military deaths last year, 846, was nearly identical to
the previous year, 848, while the number wounded in combat last year -
5939 - fell from 2004's total of 7989.
Resistance
factions have frequently distanced themselves from militants and
suicide bombers who target mosques and innocent civilians.
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