Yahoo! News - UN rights expert charges US using food access as military tactic

Yahoo! News - UN rights expert charges US using food access as military tactic:

"GENEVA (AFP) - A UN human rights expert sharply condemned the invasion of Iraq and the global anti-terror drive, accusing the US-led coalition of using food deprivation as a military tactic and of sapping efforts to fight hunger in the world.

'The situation of the right to food in Iraq is of serious concern,' the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, said in a report to the UN human rights commission. The report also highlighted 'widespread concerns about the continued lack of access to clean drinking water' and allegations by British campaigners that water sources were deliberately cut off by coalition forces.

'Those are the allegations, but what is proven is that at Fallujah, denial, the blockade imposed on food and the destruction of water reservoirs was used as weapon of war,' Ziegler told journalists. He insisted that the practice was a 'clear violation' of the Geneva Conventions and delivered a firm condemnation of any attempt to deny food or water supplies."