One document, entitled "Disease Outbreaks in Iraq," reports that:Conditions are favorable for communicable disease outbreaks, particularly in major urban areas affected by coalition bombing... Infectious disease prevalence in major Iraqi urban areas targeted by coalition bombing (Baghdad, Basrah) undoubtedly has increased since the beginning of Desert Storm... Current public health problems are attributable to the reduction of normal preventive medicine, waste disposal, water purification and distribution, electricity, and the decreased ability to control disease outbreaks.
By attacking infrastructure targets without direct military value, the US intended to pressure the Iraqi leadership by imposing widespread suffering on the civilian population. A US Air force planner stated that "we wanted to let people know, "we're not going to tolerate Saddam Hussein or his regime. Fix that and we'll fix your electricity."30 Similarly, Brig. Gen. Buster Glosson, the architect of the 1991 air campaign, explained that bombing telecommunications was meant to "put every household in an autonomous mode and make them feel they were isolated. I didn't want them to listen to radio stations and know what was happening. I wanted to play with their psyche."
During the first Gulf War, attacks against Iraqi infrastructure by US-led military forces claimed a minimum of 110,000 civilian casualties.
Humanitarian Law and the Right to Water: Potential Violations in Iraq
Humanitarian law, derived from the Geneva and Hague Conventions, places limits on the means and methods of combat. It is built on the fundamental principles of distinction and proportionality.32 Under humanitarian law it is illegal to launch either indiscriminate attacks that do not distinguish between military and civilian targets, or attacks against military targets if the result would be excessive civilian casualties "in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated",33 The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court prohibits "intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, that is, objects which are not military objectives."34
It is also illegal to launch attacks intended to demoralize or spread terror among the civilian population. According to the Geneva Conventions, "It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove, or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as... drinking water installations and supplies."35
Depriving civilians of access to safe water whether through direct attacks against water or electricity or the indirect effect of extended blockades--clearly violates these basic principles of international law and constitutes a war crime.
in August 1991 reported the deaths of 47,000 children under the age of five.25 The first United Nations mission to post-war Iraq documented how "apocalyptic damage" to the infrastructure had reduced the country to "the pre-industrial age."
As the UN General Assembly has declared, "Humanitarian assistance must be provided in accordance with the principles of humanity, neutrality and impartiality",41 These legal principles of humanitarian aid have not been respected by Anglo-American military forces invading Iraq.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/...N?OpenDocument
