The Iraqi Ministry of Planning and Development Cooperation (MoPDC) and the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MoLSA), in separate reports, said that millions of Iraqi children are orphans, without shelter, or imprisoned in Iraqi and American controlled prisons. Recent statistics conducted by the MoPDC reveal that "the number of orphaned Iraqi children has reached 4-5 million and that there are some 500,000 street children."

A further study conducted for the UNDP by the Fafo Institute for Applied Social Science, found that "acute malnutrition among Iraqi children has almost doubled since the US invasion despite UN efforts." The study based on a survey of 22,000 Iraqi homes said that approximately 400,000 Iraqi children now suffer from malnutrition and said that acute malnutrition has increased to 7.7 percent since March 2003 for those aged between six months and five years.
Officials from Childhood Voices Association, a children's non-governmental organization, say that "there are 11,000 children addicted to drugs in Baghdad alone, that many girls aged 12 to 16 years old have been victims of rape, and that many girls aged 12 years and above have endured sexual harassment." The organization also quotes international reports stressing that "more than 1 million Iraqi children have entered the labor market with the increase in the rate of poverty (one third of Iraq's population live under the poverty line) and that they suffer violence and sexual abuse."

According to their report, 1.3 million children aged 8 to 16 years old, equal to 6.1% of the population, have become workers. It is also being reported that 1300 children are currently being held in detention centers and in government prisons."

Like the British and US media I'm too squeamish to show the images that accompany this piece, called "Destroying the Children of Iraq" at http://notinhisname.blogdrive.com/