Some people live with the meager income they obtain from government projects funded by the western donors. If the funds are suspended, as a result of sanctions imposed upon their governments, they will fall into pits of misery and acute poverty. Sanctions are a whip to strike at governments with the aim of alerting them to change their ruling behavior but it is also a way to wipe out the poor, as they cannot sustain life without the money from projects. Sanctions were imposed in many countries and under different circumstances but always it was the poor communities who felt the burden of aid or trade suspension. In Iraq during Saddam days, sanctions were imposed and the level of malnutrition had gone to unprecedented levels causing thousands of children to die in their early childhood years. And this has continued until UNICEF intervened the matter and conducted a survey on the situation of Iraqi children. Now do we know what is happening in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe? To what extent is the sanction torturing the children in these countries? I think everybody knows the answer. People especially the children are in terrible economic condition, which do not allow them to celebrate their next birthday if something is not done urgently. It is sad that children are dying just because their leaders are bad. What does a child know about a good or bad leader. A child only knows food to eat, water to drink and a bed to sleep. The world should think of the hazards these children face as a result of sanctions. Thanks

The axe of UN sanctions may fall
When a leader threatens the world
With dangerous or lethal weapons
Or it falls when governments violate
Rights of the very people they ruled
Denying their own people the right
To write and speak as they please
Or denying them the right to vote

But sanctions are no solutions
To the government
Or the elite at the top
it could be a punishment
But to the poor majority
It is no less than a death sentence
As their life-line had been cut off
Can the UN devise better strategies
Whereby the culprit is punished
Without harming the poor people?