10 years after the war, Innocent New Lives are Still Dying and Suffering In Iraq
Report of a Fact Finding Mission on congenital birth defects in Fallujah, Iraq in 2013 (Full Report )

April 19, 2013 - ... After the war, particularly in the most recent few years,a deeply troubling rise in thenumbers of birth defects has been reported by doctors in Iraq, leading to suspicions that environmental contamination from the war may be having a significant negative effect on the health of local people, and in particular infants and children. In Fallujah where white phosphorous weapons and depleted uranium munitions were allegedly used in 2004, the data of Fallujah General Hospital shows that around 15% of infants of all births in Fallujah since 2003 have some congenital birth defect. In order to further investigate the situation of an increasing number of birth defects in Iraq , Human Rights Now (HRN), a Tokyo based international human rights NGO ,conducted a fact-finding mission in Fallujah, Iraq in early 2013. In addition to investigating recorded birth defects at a major hospital in Fallujah for the year of 2012, the mission also recorded birth defect incidences first hand over a one-month period in February 2013, and conducted interviews with doctors and parents of children born with birth defects in order to gaininsights into the actual situation surrounding the birth defects in Fallujah and other areas heavily affected by conflict....

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