[Peace-discuss] UN, Red Cross alarmed by civilian casualties in Iraq

[Ricky Baldwin]

UN, Red Cross alarmed by civilian casualties in Iraq
April 4, 2003

GENEVA (AFP) - International aid agencies said they
were alarmed by the number of civilian casualties in
the war in Iraq, and their inability to reach many of
the wounded. 
"At the moment in Iraq the biggest public health
problem is the level of civilian causalties, there is
no question about that," Iain Simpson, a spokesman for
the World Health Organisation (WHO) told journalists
Friday. 

"The reports from Baghdad, Karbala and Hilla are very
worrying indeed," he said, insisting that aid agencies
needed access to Iraq to help the wounded. 
Simpson's comments were echoed by other agencies,
including the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC). 

"What concerns us most in Iraq at the moment are the
threats to safety and health of civilians, the two
things are closely linked," Antonella Notari, an ICRC
spokeswoman said. 

"With particular incidents or any observations on the
way war is waged, we continue to have talks with the
warring parties, but confidentially," Notari insisted.

Apart from providing aid, the ICRC also has an
internationally-recognised role as the guardian of the
Geneva Conventions, which protect civilians, wounded
combatants and prisoners of war during conflicts. 

Notari said the ICRC's staff in Baghdad was now cut
off from a hospital at Hilla, south of Baghdad, where
they had found 300 wounded. 
The aid agencies were unable to give an estimate of
the number of people killed or wounded during the war.


They also voiced concern about the use of cluster
bombs. 

Notari underlined that the munitions -- clusters of
small bomblets used against troop concentrations and
artillery -- were not outlawed. 

But she warned that armies using them were responsible
for clearing any unexploded cluster bombs. 

"I do notice that British forces confirmed the use of
cluster bombs outside of Basra," Notari said. 

"In keeping with international humanitarian law we
always appeal that they be used well outside places
where civilians live and work," she added. 

WHO said it had reports from northern Iraq of 35
injuries caused by unexploded ordinance around the
city of Sulaymaniya over the past two weeks. 

"Unexploded ordinance very often means the bomblets
that come from cluster bombs, these are a very serious
problem already," Simpson said. 

On Tuesday, an AFP correspondent at Hilla saw what
seemed to be the parts of cluster bombs peppered over
a large area. 

Hospital officials and witnesses said 48 civilians had
died in a bombardment of the area by coalition forces.




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