WASHINGTON, April 3: A recent UN Human Rights Commission report says that malnutrition among Iraqi children under the age of five nearly doubled last year to 7.7 per cent and blamed the US-led war for this deterioration. The US State Department, however, says that such reports are “open to doubts and questions” as “many of these assessments are based on pre-war statistics”.

The UN report, which is supported by previous studies of the crisis in Iraq since the occupation, says lack of clean water, food, and adequate sanitation were main factors of this sudden increase in malnutrition among Iraqi children.

In a separate report, the World Health Organization says that before the war Iraq had a modern sanitary infrastructure with an extensive network of water-purification and sewage-treatment systems. Water networks distributed clean, safe water to 95 per cent of the urban population and to 75 of those in rural areas. In 1990, Iraq was ranked 50th out of 130 countries on the UNDP Human Development Index, which measures national achievements in health, education, and per capita GDP, the report said.

The deterioration began after the 1991 war, which destroyed Iraq’s infrastructure such as water purification plants hospitals and sewage treatment plants. The situation worsened during 13 years of sanctions.

Now — according to the UN Human Rights Commission report — more than a quarter of Iraqi children do not get enough food to eat. The author, Jean Ziegler, also cited the Lancet report of November 2004, which shows that more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians — mostly women and children — have been killed as a direct result of the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

“Most [Iraqis] died as a result of violence, but many others died as a result of the increasingly difficult living conditions, reflected in increasing child mortality levels.”

The report accuses US forces of blocking food and destroying water reservoirs during the siege of Fallujah last year to force the rebels to surrender. The blockade was “used as weapon of war,” the author said.