GENEVA - Millions of Iraqis are in a "disastrous'' situation that is getting worse, with mothers appealing for someone to pick up the bodies littering the street so their children will be spared the horror of looking at them on their way to school, the international Red Cross said Wednesday.
"The conflict in Iraq is inflicting immense suffering on the entire population,'' said a report by the International Committee of the Red Cross. "Every day dozens of people are killed and many more wounded.''
The 13-page report, titled "Civilians Without Protection: the ever-worsening humanitarian crisis in Iraq,'' was produced over the past two to three weeks, a spokesman said.
"The humanitarian situation is steadily worsening,'' said the report, which went beyond the neutral agency's usual appeals for all sides to protect civilians as required by the Geneva Conventions. It added photographs and quotes from the civilians to describe the situation.
"Once I was called to an explosion site,'' it quoted a young Baghdad humanitarian worker named Saad as saying. "There I saw a four-year-old boy sitting beside his mother's body, which had been decapitated by the explosion. He was talking to her, asking her what had happened.''
Pierre Kraehenbuehl, director of operations of the ICRC, said in introducing the report that there had been a steady deterioration of the situation in Iraq in recent years, and especially since the increase in sectarian violence in February 2006.
He said there had been no immediate improvement in the Baghdad area as a result of stepped-up, American-led military operations to secure the capital that began on Feb. 14.
Operations already underway and those in coming weeks may improve the security of civilians on the ground "in the medium term,'' Kraehenbuehl told reporters. "We're certainly not seeing an immediate effect in terms of stabilization for civilians currently. That is not our reading.''
But he said that in southern Iraq, the security situation has improved in certain instances.
ICRC spokesman Florian Westphal said the report, together with Kraehenbuehl's comments, "reflects the situation on the ground now.''
It is difficult to determine the numbers of people killed in shootings, bombings and military operations, but overall the situation in the country has been steadily deteriorating, with numbers of refugees swelling, medical staff fleeing and other problems growing, Kraehenbuehl said.
It is so dangerous for Red Cross workers to move around in Baghdad, however, that "we don't have on a day-to-day basis a full picture of absolutely every situation,'' he said.
Thousands of bodies lie unclaimed in mortuaries, with family members either unaware that they are there or too afraid to go to recover them, Kraehenbuehl said.
A colleague recently asked several Iraqi women what their most pressing need was.
After a long silence, the women answered: "The most important thing that anyone could do would be to help collect the bodies that line the streets in front of our homes every morning.
"No one dares to touch them, but for us it is unbearable to have to expose our children to such images every day as we try to bring them to school,'' she said, the colleague told Kraehenbuehl.
"Humanitarian aid is clearly not enough when it comes to addressing the immense needs of Iraqis in the present disastrous security situation,'' the report said.
The ICRC is one of the few international organizations continuing to operate in Iraq even though it has cut back since attacks on its staff and Baghdad headquarters in 2003. It has 415 Iraqis working for it in the country and has an additional 57 international staff based in Iraq and Amman, Jordan, but relies on the affiliated Iraqi Red Crescent for much of its information.
Based on the Iraqi society's count, some 600,000 Iraqis have fled their homes since February 2006, Kraehenbuehl said. Medical professionals have been fleeing the country after their colleagues were killed or abducted.
"Hospitals and other key services are desperately short of staff,'' Kraehenbuehl said. "According to the Iraqi Ministry of Health, more than half the doctors are said to have already left the country.''
One of the key jobs of the ICRC is to visit detainees, and the number in custody has been growing as well, Kraehenbuehl said.
"The number of people arrested or interned by the multinational forces has increased by 40 per cent since early 2006. The number of people held by the Iraqi authorities has also increased significantly.''
The ICRC regularly visits people held by the multinational forces, and has seen 16,500 since January. Last year some 32,000 detainees were visited by the neutral agency, which also has access to those held by the Kurdish regional government. The ICRC has yet to reach agreement with the Iraqi authorities on visiting their detainees.
