Grades 10-12, College, Adult
Directed by Alan Lowery
Produced by Carlton International
DVD Purchase $59, Rent $35
VHS Purchase $59, Rent $35
US Release Date: 2000
Copyright Date: 2000
Subjects
Killing the Children of Iraq
John Pilger exposes the devastating effect that UN sanctions had on the children of Iraq during the 1990s.
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In a hard-hitting special report, award-winning journalist and filmmaker John Pilger investigates the effects of sanctions on the people of Iraq and finds that ten years of extraordinary isolation, imposed by the UN and enforced by the US and Britain, have killed more people than the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan.
The UN Security Council imposed the sanctions and demanded the destruction of Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological weapons under the supervision of a UN Special Commission (UNSCOM). Iraq is permitted to sell a limited amount of oil in exchange for some food and medicine.
Pilger takes the former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, Denis Halliday, back to the crippled country for the first time since he resigned in protest over the sanctions back in September 1998. Together, they reveal an extraordinary portrait of life in a country with a decaying infrastructure and a population that Pilger says is being held hostage to the compliance of Saddam Hussein.
Pilger has brought back disturbing evidence that the "holds" on humanitarian supplies have paralyzed the country and devastated millions of people, many dying from curable diseases because life saving drugs are only available intermittently. He also finds that the breakdown of the clean water system and health facilities are having a tragic effect on young children, contributing to an alarming rise in their mortality rate.
Pilger also exposes the suffering caused to the civilian population by the illegal bombing campaign being conducted by US and Britain in the "no-fly zones" in northern and southern Iraq.
NOTE: TV rights are NOT available.
Reviews
"A profoundly unsettling programme."
"John Pilger goes some way towards showing just how rotten modern foreign policy is, with a typically shocking and thorough investigation."
"Pilger paints a gut-churning picture of a society 'condemned to a slow death', with 4,000 children dying each month, malnutrition commonplace, medicine hard to obtain, depleted uranium shells from the Gulf War still not cleaned up, and British and American air strikes continuing."