Children Starved of Childhood

[babylonsister]

Children Starved of Childhood
Submitted by davidswanson on Fri, 2008-02-15 17:32. Media

By Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail, Inter Press Service


BAQUBA (IPS) - The violence around the continuing U.S. military operations in this city has robbed children of their childhood.

Only two provincial schools and one private kindergarten school are functioning in this city of 280,000, located 50 km north of Baghdad. Most children know neither school nor play.

Or even the food they want. "We parents can hardly meet the basic requirements of food," Mahdi Hassan, a father of four, told IPS.

"Nobody even mentions chocolate or pastries or anything else because Iraqis know they are not important," Baquba resident Wissam Jafar told IPS. "Children eat what the other members of the family eat. Toys and games are offered only at festivals and on special occasions."

Baquba city, capital of Diyala province, has been at the centre of major U.S. military operations to fight al-Qaeda like forces. People have suffered from the violence from both sides.

By now Iraq has seen a generation of children pass with just survival a major issue. During the period of economic sanctions imposed on Iraq in the 1990s, more than half a million children died, according to the United Nations.

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[Joanne98]

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