[Peace-discuss] US bomblets resemble food - again!

[Ricky Baldwin]

UN Fears US Bomblets Resemble Food Packets

April 2, 2003

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. children's fund
UNICEF expressed concern on Wednesday that Iraqi
children might mistake yellow food packets being
handed out by U.S.-led forces with small bombs with
identical coloring. 

"Confusing unexploded ordinance with food places
children at huge risk of injury or death," UNICEF
said, calling on the military to urgently change the
color of the food packets. 

A UNICEF statement said food packets known as
"humanitarian daily rations" that were being handed
out by the U.S. and British forces in Iraq were
covered in a bright yellow plastic wrap. 

The color of the wrapping was identical to that of an
air-dropped bomblet that UNICEF identified as a BLU
97. 

A similar problem had arisen during the war in
Afghanistan, where the U.S. military eventually
changed the wrapping on food packets to blue, the U.N.
agency said. 

In Afghanistan, both the food packets and the bomblets
were dropped from U.S. aircraft while in Iraq only the
bomblets were being air-dropped. But children can
still confuse the ration and unexploded ordinance,
because of their identical coloring, UNICEF warned. 



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