Iraq child death rates ‘a fiction’, study claims

Claims that child mortality rose in Iraq following economic sanctions are “a major deception”, researchers have claimed.

A new article published in a medical journal states that Saddam Hussein’s government “successfully manipulated” a major survey which implied that the death rate for under-fives in Iraq had increased hugely between 1990 and 1991.

After Saddam Hussein’s army invaded Kuwait in August 1990, the United Nations imposed economic sanctions on Iraq.

The authors of the new paper, published in the journal BMJ Global Health, wrote that the sanctions “undoubtedly” greatly reduced the country’s ability to import supplies of food and medicine.

In 1999, Unicef conducted a major demographic survey in co-operation with the Iraqi government which found the death rate for under-fives in Iraq increased greatly between 1990 and 1991.

The authors said that the survey results were used both to challenge and support the case for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

But the authors said that the findings were “remarkable fiction”.

They said that since 2003 several more surveys dealing with child mortality have been undertaken and their results show no sign of a huge and enduring rise in the death rate.