[Nasional-e] The path to peace lies in humanitarian relief

[Ambon]

POINT OF VIEW: The path to peace lies in humanitarian relief

 By Michiya Kumaoka

There is still time to appeal to the United States not to act rashly and
encourage Iraq to be more cooperative. We should seek a peaceful resolution
through humanitarian relief, not economic sanctions. Instead of relying on
military action, countries should join hands and transcend national borders
to oppose war.

I visited Iraq in mid-January amid growing tensions of an imminent war.
Because of economic sanctions, many Iraqi children and mothers are suffering
from inadequate health care and welfare services. The purpose of my visit
was to take part in a medical and welfare aid program organized by the Red
Crescent Society and a French nongovernmental organization.

During my visit to a maternal hospital, I was told the infant death rate has
more than doubled in the 12 years since economic sanctions went into effect.
I was also told that because of deterioration of medical services, the
mortality rates of both mothers and children in childbirth are rising.

When I visited a children's hospital, I met young patients with such
diseases as leukemia and hemophilia. Not only is there a serious shortage of
drugs and blood plasma needed to treat them, but some children are also
developing hepatitis C from blood transfusions. If war breaks out, what
little medical treatment currently available will be discontinued, and many
people will die in hospital, not to mention in battle.

As was the case with Vietnam and Cambodia, strict economic sanctions in Iraq
are giving rise to unemployment and hitting people mostly at the lower
levels of society. Instead of going to school, children of poor families are
told by their families to work on the streets doing such odd jobs as shining
shoes, selling candies and guarding parked cars. Although such work pays
less than 100 yen a day, the wages make up an important part of the income
of poor families.

As a result, the ratio of children who cannot go to elementary school has
jumped to 23.7 percent from less than 9 percent before the economic
sanctions went into effect. (The ratio is 17.5 percent for boys and 31.2
percent for girls, according to a UNICEF white paper.)

The situation is not only affecting children. While many Iraqi women are
socially active, the literacy rate, which is relatively high, has begun to
decline among adult women.

Although the situation is very serious, it is not totally without hope.

One encouraging factor is Iraq's large class of committed intellectuals, if
it can manage not to break apart. Once peace is restored, Iraqi society has
the potential to re-establish itself with little outside help. It is also
worthy to note that peace talks are under way in the region involving
Turkey, Iran, Syria and other countries whose relations with Iraq have
remained unfriendly. These countries are worried about the consequences of
war, which is expected to cause great casualties.

Furthermore, the anti-war movement is spreading globally. Peace activists
have based themselves in a Baghdad hotel where many nongovernmental bodies
from around the world have their offices. They include ``Voices in the
Wilderness'' (a peace group organized by Kathy Kelly, an American women
living in Iraq); anti-war activist Kenneth Nichols O'Keefe, a former U.S.
Marine who fought in the Persian Gulf War; and members of September Eleventh
Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. Together, they are calling for activists to
form ``human shields'' to stop war.

Meanwhile, in Japan, debate is active within the government to advance
post-conflict peacekeeping, reconstruction and refugee relief. The Japanese
government appears to regard war as a given. It sounds as though it is
discussing ways to treat injured people and rebuild broken roads, bridges
and buildings based on that assumption. Such discussion seems to me too
technocratic and businesslike.

If war breaks out, the hopes that are budding within Iraq and the region
will be trampled. The important thing is to make an effort for a peaceful
resolution and to provide humanitarian relief in a conflict. Doing so would
boost Japan's evaluation in the eyes of international society.

Debate on whether to extend inspections for Iraq's suspected weapons of mass
destruction continues. There is still time to appeal to the United States
not to act rashly and encourage Iraq to be more cooperative. We should seek
a peaceful resolution through humanitarian relief, not economic sanctions.
Instead of relying on military action, countries should join hands and
transcend national borders to oppose war.

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The author is president of the Japan International Volunteer Center. He
contributed this comment to The Asahi Shimbun.(IHT/Asahi: February 21,2003)