UNICEF pleas for Iraq children

UNITED NATIONS, May 23 (UPI) -- Amid calls for increased U.N. involvement in Iraq, UNICEF plans to help Iraq's "most vulnerable children" but needs $42 million to do so.

The U.N. Children's Fund Wednesday said children in the war-torn nation are at a critical point and the $42 million is only good enough to help Iraq's children for six months in their homeland and in neighboring Jordan and Syria.

"Humanitarian aid offers a lifeline to Iraq's children and stepping up support now is the best way to protect and invest in Iraq's future," said Daniel Toole, acting deputy executive director of UNICEF and chief of emergency operations.

"Plans are in place to reach Iraq's most vulnerable children with basic health, water, sanitation and education support, particularly displaced children living in host communities, as well as children living in Iraq's most violent districts," he said.

Toole told reporters there are 4 million displaced persons in Iraq and neighboring nations, a population equal to that of Ireland or the U.S. state of Connecticut; half of them are children, and two-thirds of those have no clean water.

School attendance has dropped from 70 percent to 30 percent because parents hold pupils back from school out of fear of violence or there are not enough teachers because many stay home for safety's sake or have become part of Iraq's brain-drain problem, he said.

The United Nations substantially pulled out of Iraq after the August 2003 bombing of its Baghdad headquarters that killed 22 people, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top U.N. envoy. The United Nations has been cautiously increasing its presence since.

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William M. Reilly, UPI U.N. Correspondent