New York    Cesar Chelala

The increasing number of Iraqi children affected with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is one of the saddest, and least known, legacies of the Iraq war. A new clinic for their treatment just opened in Baghdad. That it is the first of its kind says a lot about how this problem is being addressed. Until now, as related by journalist Lourdes García Navarro, hundreds of children suffering from PTSD have been treated by Dr. Haider Maliki at the Central Pediatric Teaching Hospital in Baghdad.

Dr. Maliki, who is the only child psychiatrist in the entire country who works at a government hospital, hasn’t even been trained as a child psychiatrist, and only took up the position when he saw the tremendous needs for that kind of professional in the country. When Dr. Maliki approached the authorities asking them to conduct more training he was initially told that there were no funds for it. Only later did the government officials agree to fund a new clinic that will treat children with psychological problems, including PTSD.

Critics of the government charge that, to a large degree, the corrupt and incompetent Ministry of Health is, to a large degree, responsible for the situation. Even if that weren’t so, what is true, however, is that the Ministry has to deal with a situation of need that shows no sign of abatement. Hardly a week passes by in Iraq without renewed signs of violence that leave both children and adults with permanent mental scars.

Dr. Haithi Al Sady, Dean of the Psychological Research Center at Baghdad University has been studying the effects of PTSD in Iraqi children. According to him, 28 percent of Iraqi children suffer some degree of PTSD, and their numbers are steadily rising.

Children have been the victims of Iraq political situation for several years. It began with the United Nations sanctions imposed on Saddam Hussein’s regime, and continued with the U.S. lead wars against the country. The victims have mostly been children. According to some estimates, almost two million children had to leave school and start working in the streets to supplement their families’ meager incomes.

It is easy to see children’s psychological status being affected by daily explosions, killings, abductions, threatening noises and turmoil in Iraq’s main cities. And it is not only children the ones being affected. As I was able to see in New York following the World Trade Center bombing, even adults were afraid by the sound flying aircraft.

PTSD in children can affect their brain and lead to long term effects that will alter their development. Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine found that children with PTSD were likely to experience a decrease in the size of the brain area known as hippocampus, which is a brain structure important in memory processing and emotion.

Stress sustained over a long period of time is likely to cause more serious effects. An estimated half a million Iraqi children had been traumatized by conflict, according to a 2003 UNICEF report.

UNICEF states that almost two million children have been displaced from their homes since the last war began. “Iraqi children, already casualties of a quarter of a century of conflict and deprivation, are being caught up in a rapidly worsening humanitarian tragedy, “according to that organization. “Iraqi children are paying far too high a price,” stated Roger Wright, UNICEF’s Special Representative for Iraq in December of 2007.

And information collected by UNICEF from different sources support his assertion. By the end of 2007, approximately 75,000 children had resorted to living in camps or temporary shelters. Many of the 220,000 displaced children of primary school age had their education interrupted. This is in addition to the estimated 760,000 children already out of primary school in 2006.

UN Security Council Resolution 1483 establishes that both the United States and Great Britain are recognized as Iraq’s occupying powers, and as such are bound by the Hague and Geneva Conventions that demand that they be responsible not only for maintaining order, but also for responding to the medical needs of the population.

What is now needed is to increase funding to UNICEF and other organization working with children and vulnerable groups in Iraq. In addition, U.S. professionals with experience in working in conflict situations and with PTSD-affected children can give valuable assistance. There is a moral imperative to help Iraqi children. The crippling of a generation of Iraqi children cannot continue without a more generous, committed response.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant and a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award. He is also the foreign correspondent for Middle East Times International (Australia).