Call for WHO to investigate Iraq War: Break the Silence demands PHM!

The People’s Health Movement has called upon the WHO to break its silence on the growing number of casualties and collapse of public health systems in Iraq due to the US occupation.

‘Armed conflict is an obvious source of avoidable deaths and injuries and the WHO should take a clear stand on the issue as one of the major determinants of health instead of avoiding it for political reasons” said Jihad Mashal, a member of the Global Secretariat of the PHM, a global coalition of health activists and groups working towards the goal of ‘Health for All’.

According to Mashal, who is in Geneva to attend the 60th World Health Assembly, the war on Iraq over the past four years is a man-made, humanitarian disaster with few parallels in recent history and one that the WHO should investigate closely.

A survey published in the prestigious medical journal Lancet in October 2006, said the risk of death following the US invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq to be 50% higher than that prior to the invasion. According to the study an estimated 654,965 excess deaths were related to the war, or 2.5% of the total Iraqi population, by the end of June 2006.

Regular reports coming from Iraq also reveal a complete breakdown of the public health system, the absence of basic security to lives of ordinary people, large numbers of citizens disabled due to injuries, lack of access to proper nutrition or vital necessities such as drinking water and medicines.

An example of the problems faced by Iraqi citizens on a daily basis comes from the city of Samara, 124 km north of Baghdad and with a population of 200,000, that has been under siege by US and Iraqi troops for the past two weeks.

According to Doctors for Iraq, one of the constituents of the People’s Health Movement, the city has come under a number of US and Iraqi military attacks in the past nine months and is currently encircled from all sides with soldiers placing very strict control on the movement of people entering and leaving the city. The military operation is crippling the inhabitants of the city and civilians are unable to access healthcare.

“ We condemn in the strongest terms any activities that prevent civilians from accessing healthcare or human Ismael of Doctors of Iraq in a statement sent to delegates at the WHA.

The main hospital in the city he said which was already short of medical supplies before this latest military operation says it's in urgent need of medication to treat hypertension, diabetes and chronic surgical diseases.

Doctors for Iraq and PHM call for:

- The immediate and full lifting of the military siege of Samara as these kind of military actions are an act of collective punishment on the cities inhabitants and cause deeper hardship for people.
- Immediate and full access for local NGOs and health workers into the city.
- An end to all military activities that breach the Geneva Conventions and discriminate against unarmed civilians.