Children in Iraq pay price for `mother of all battles'

Children in Iraq pay price for `mother of all battles'
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

BAGHDAD, JULY 24: Malnourished and forced to work on the streets rather than go to school because of the impact of United Nations sanctions on family life, the children of Iraq are paying a heavy price for the 1991 Gulf War, better known as the `mother of all battles'.

``I used to dream of becoming a doctor. Now I'm the family's breadwinner at the age of 15,'' said Ahmad Abbas who, like his younger brother, quit school to help feed a family of seven after their father died three years ago. Ahmad earns the paltry sum of 5,000 dinars (the equivalent US to $ 2.5) a month by doing odd jobs at a Shiite Muslim religious meeting place in Baghdad.

In another part of the Iraqi Capital, 13-year-old Zahra Mohammad spends her days in front of the mausoleum of Sheikh Abdelkader al-Kilani. ``From sunrise to sunset, I sell Quranic amulets. Sometimes I take home 1,000 dinars (50 cents),'' she said, adding that her customers often just pay up without taking the trinkets. For her, going back to school also remains a dream.

Like thousands of other children, the workplace of Ali Jassem, 12, is at the traffic lights. He darts between cars to sell water to motorists in the blistering heat of a Baghdad summer. ``I love this spot. I made friends with children of my age who do the same thing to help out the family,'' said Ali, who has no memory of a normal childhood.

According to UNICEF, almost one million Iraqi children failed to sign up for school and another 200,000 dropped out during the 1997-1998 academic year alone. The literacy rate has sunk to 66 per cent from an impressive 90 per cent before the embargo was slapped on Baghdad for its August 2, 1990 invasion of Kuwait, said Hans von Sponeck, former head of the UN humanitarian programme for Iraq.