XIE20000420.0165 2000-04-20 
U.S. Congressman Concludes Landmark Visit to Iraq 
BAGHDAD, April 20 (Xinhua) -- 
             
U.S. Democratic Party Congressman Tony Hall left here Thursday after 
concluding his landmark visit to Iraq, which has been under sweeping U.N. sanctions since 1990. 
In a statement, Hall expressed regret over the negative impacts of the decade-old sanctions on Iraqi people. 
During his four-day stay, Hall visited hospitals and health institutions in Baghdad and the southern Muthana 
Province. 
The U.S. lawmaker got acquainted with the sufferings of the Iraqi children because of acute shortage of food 
and medicine as a direct result of the embargo, reported the Iraqi News Agency (INA). 
He also witnessed cases of malnutrition and poliomyelitis that have doubled since 1990, when U.N. 
imposed the sanctions against Iraq for its invasion of Kuwait, said the INA. 
Hall said on Monday that he regretted the miserable humanitarian situation in Iraq while visiting a hospital 
in the Mansour district of the Iraqi capital. 
                      
Iraq has claimed that over 1.2 million people, mostly children and the elderly, have died during the last 10 
years, and blames the deaths on shortages of food, medicine and other essential supplies. 
Iraq has been accusing the U.S. and Britain of deliberately impeding the implementation of the U.N. oil-for-
food deal which allows Baghdad to sell oil under U.N. supervision, thus worsening the humanitarian crisis 
in Iraq. 
Hall's landmark visit to Iraq started on Sunday evening when he arrived here by land from Amman, Jordan. 
Upon arrival, Hall said that his visit, the first of its kind by an American congressman since the 1991 Gulf 
War, was not political but humanitarian. 
"There are a lot of issues I want to look at, but the issue of humanitarian concerns is number one," he said.