For more than five years now, the effectiveness of the sanctions against the 20 million people of Iraq has been discussed in the absence of any morality about its lethality. The mainstream media has been silent, ignoring the greatest tragedy ever committed by the United Nations against a sovereign state. This painful silence is about to be broken. Sanctions are war. They are the most brutal form of war because they punish an entire population, targeting children, the future, most of all.
Sanctions are a weapon of mass destruction.
So begins The Children Are Dying, a book that exposes and documents the truth behind the UN sanctions against the people of Iraq. Having seen the effects of the embargo in Iraq both in 1993 and the summer of 1995 as well as comparing this and the prewar situation, malnutrition, beggars, crime, street children, a collapsed health care system, hyperinflation, and widespread suffering are the new realities. In addition to the 1995 UN FAO report that evaluates the food and nutrition situation in Iraq, The Children Are Dying includes a photographic documentary, an international appeal against the use of sanctions, supporting documents and articles, and a listing of international organizations working to end the blockade of Iraq. A new video, also entitled The Children Are Dying, has been released as a companion to the book. The video records Ramsey Clark s 1996 visit to hospitals, schools, and neighborhoods in Iraq, and includes interviews with members of the UN FAO team.