UN warns of Iraqi Malnutrition by Reuters 11:05am 29th Sep, 2004   September 29, 2004.    One in four Iraqis are dependent on food rations to survive and many of them have to sell what little food they have for basic necessities like medicine and clothes, the UN World Food Program (WFP) said.    In a grim report underscoring troubles in Iraq, the Rome based WFP said support from the state run Public Distribution System was grossly insufficient to prevent chronic malnourishment.    "The political environment before the war made it impossible to analyse the level of poverty and hunger in the country," said Torben Due, the director of the WFP's program in Iraq.    "For the first time, we are getting an accurate picture of people's access to food," he said in a statement.    Squarely blaming the situation on years of international sanctions and war, the WFP said that some 6.5 million Iraqis, or about 25 per cent of the population, were "highly dependent on food rations and therefore vulnerable".    Of those 6.5 million, 2.6 million resell part of their rations to buy other items, like medicine.    The survey on food security, which took place last year and covered 28,500 households in Iraq, also showed that 27 per cent of all children up to the age of five are chronically malnourished.    "Despite receiving food rations from Iraq's Public Distribution System, these people are still struggling to cope," Mr Due said.    "Once (Iraq) stabilises politically and economically it can take care of this portion of the population. But until that happens, external assistance will be required," he added.    The WFP receives most of its funding from the United States.    The group said it had launched a one year emergency operation that will cost $84 million and reach 220,000 malnourished children and 350,000 pregnant and lactating women.    The report comes at a time of increased scrutiny into the former UN oil-for-food program, the $94 billion humanitarian aid plan that operated from 1996 and was shut down last year.    It allowed Iraq to sell oil to buy civilian goods to ease the impact of 1991 Gulf War sanctions on ordinary Iraqis.    After the fall of Saddam Hussein documents surfaced that appeared to show the program had been rife with bribery and kickbacks, prompting UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to order an investigation.
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