U.N. says starvation looms in Iraq

BAGHDAD, May 26 (Reuter) - U.N. trade sanctions have crippled Iraqi agriculture and caused food shortages that are approaching famine, United Nations agencies said on Thursday.

The Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program said Iraqis were experiencing "massive deprivation, chronic hunger, endemic undernutrition for the vast majority of population, collapse of personal incomes and rapidly increasing numbers of destitute people."

These are "commonly recognized pre-famine indicators" which cause "deep concern", the agencies said in a joint report. FAO representative in Iraq, Amir Abdulla Khalil, said he will appeal to the world community to come to Iraq's aid.

"I can say the situation is serious," he told Reuters. "We have to move." U.N. Trade sanctions were imposed when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 and have been maintained since it was driven out in 1991. Food imports are permitted, but the blockade of oil exports denies Baghdad funds to pay for them. Iraq imported 70 percent of food needs before 1990. Under sanctions it launched a big drive for self-sufficiency, rehabilitating rural infrastructure, cultivating more land, digging giant canals and increasing farm prices. But Khalil said lack of herbicides, pesticides, compound fertilizers, agricultural machinery, sprayer spare parts and seeds prevent Iraq from growing the food it needs. Weeds and pests have hampered harvests and this year's yields "will definitely be affected seriously", he said. This year's grain harvest will be lower than last year's 3.2 million tons, he predicted. "Weeds and thorns constitute 50 to 70 per cent of the crop in some areas," he said. President Saddam Hussein sacked Agriculture Minister Bashir Alwan Hammadi on Wednesday. No reason was given but diplomats in Baghdad said the dismissal was linked to steep price rises in agricultural products and signs of a poor harvest. Khalil said Iraq totaled lacked of weedkillers and its fleet of 22 helicopters for spraying insecticides was grounded at a vital time by lack of spare parts. By the time the U.N. brought in spares pest and diseases had devastated fields. The FAO also had to seek foreign pilots for spraying in northerns and southern regions, from which Iraqi pilots are barred by air- exclusion zones declared by Western powers. Khalil said international assistance amounted to less than seven per cent of Iraq's food needs. A government rationing system provides about half of family food needs and has so far staved off mass famine. But price rises have made it impossible for most people to buy the other half of the food they need on the open market. Flour, the staple of the Iraqi diet, is of very poor quality, reflecting a shortage of wheat. Government mills mix in lower value grains such as barley, millet and corn. Housewives complain that they find high levels of wood, dirt and stones in the mixed flour.