CANADIAN MEDICAL TEAM PREDICTS MASSIVE CHILD DEATH TOLL IN IRAQ REPORT TO BE RELEASED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2003

A team of experts in health, nutrition, child psychology and emergency preparedness arrived back in Canada on Tuesday following a one-week study in Iraq to investigate the impact of a new war on the more than 13 million Iraqi children.

The team forecasts a "grave humanitarian disaster" in its report Our Common Responsibility: The Impact of a New War on Iraq Children prepared by 10 experts from the International Study Team (IST). The International Study Team's report on the humanitarian situation in Iraq following the 1991 war was considered the most comprehensive of such reports.

Its backers include War Child Canada, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and its Canadian affiliate Physicians for Global Survival (PGS), Oxfam Canada, World Vision Canada, and the United Church, as well as 15 other non-governmental organizations. The independent team did not receive any help from the Iraqi government.

The experts found that 500,000 Iraqi children are already malnourished, and Iraq currently has only one month's supply of food and three months of medicine remaining.

"While it is impossible to predict both the nature of any war and the number of expected deaths and injuries, casualties among children will be in the thousands, probably in the tens of thousands and possibly in the hundreds of thousands," Canadian team leader and medical doctor Eric Hoskins said. Dr. Hoskins has been to Iraq more than 25 times.

The report's findings are based on data collected in three Iraqi cities - Baghdad, Karbala and Basra - and include interviews with more than 100 families. Child psychologists interviewed more than 300 children to determine their mental health condition and found they have 'a great fear' of a new war. Children as young as four and five had clear concepts of the horrors of war.

"Iraq's 13 million children are at grave risk of starvation, disease, death and psychological trauma," Dr. Samantha Nutt, the team's health expert, said, summing up the survey findings, conducted January 20-26. "Iraqi children are more vulnerable than ever."

IPPNW, recipient of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize, and its affiliated medical organizations throughout the world have joined with international efforts to prevent another war on the people of Iraq. "As medical professionals, we call on all parties involved in the conflict with Iraq to insure the safety of children and all innocent civilians and to do everything humanly possible to resolve the conflict peacefully," said IPPNW spokesman Dr. John Pastore.

The team's report has been sent to the Security Council and the Government of Iraq, as well as the Canadian government. IPPNW national affiliates will be sending the report to their governments as well.

Team members in Canada are available in Toronto for interviews. Video footage of the team's assessment in Iraq is available on APTN and Reuters.

Copies of the team's report Our Common Responsibility: The Impact of a New War on Iraq Children are available from IPPNW at ldmartin@ippnw.org or jloretz@ippnw.org and from War Child Canada at aubrey@warchild.ca

IPPNW spokespersons are also available for comment on the report as well as IPPNW's global effort to prevent another war on Iraq. Copies of the report Collateral Damage: The Health and Environmental Costs of War on Iraq produced by Medact, IPPNW's affiliate in the United Kingdom, are available from IPPNW at ldmartin@ippnw.org

Contacts: Lynn Martin, IPPNW 617-868-5050, x209; email ldmartin@ippnw.org John Loretz, IPPNW 617-868-5050, x280; email jloretz@ippnw.org Michael Christ, IPPNW 617-868-5050, x207; email mchrist@ippnw.org Aubrey Charette, War Child Canada, 416-971-7474; cell: 416-949-0445; email aubrey@warchild.ca

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