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************************** ALAN BATES Christ's College St. Andrew's Street Cambridge CB2 3BU Tel: 01223 767443 Mobile: 0966 167594 College Fax: 01223 334967 ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 15:05:09 +0000 From: Anne Campbell MP <anne.campbell.mp@dial.pipex.com> To: "Alan Bates (Nemo)" <atb24@hermes.cam.ac.uk> Subject: Re: Paying Washington's price with their lives (sanctions) Thank you for writing to me about the situation in Iraq. Before replying in detail to your letter, I would like to set out the background to recent events. Following the end of the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein was ordered by the UN to destroy all his chemical and biological weapons and other weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Yet Iraq has up until now defied the will of the UN Security Council and has sought to frustrate the efforts of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) in implementing fully the UN’s resolutions. Under UNSCR 687 (1991), UNSCOM is charged by the UN Security Council with eliminating Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons and long-range missiles, supporting the IAEA in eliminating its nuclear weapons programme, and setting up long-term monitoring systems to ensure that such programmes cannot be revived. For this purpose, Iraq is required to give its full co-operation and in particular to give UNSCOM immediate, unrestricted access to any site in Iraq which it needs to inspect. Iraq’s compliance with UN Security Council resolutions has been our aim throughout. In that respect, we welcome the apparent progress made by Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General. If the agreement reached proves satisfactory - and we will clearly want to examine it in detail - this will be a very clear victory for diplomacy backed by force. It is this international pressure and our robust military stance which have forced Saddam Hussein to give ground. Our quarrel all along has been with Saddam, not the Iraqi people. The Iraqi regime has access to substantial sums of money including hard currency which could be used to alleviate the suffering of his people. The UK also co-sponsored the UN-approved food for oil deal under which Iraq is allowed to sell significant amounts of oil on the international markets in order to purchase essential foods and medicines. Saddam’s suggestion that there is not enough money to rebuild vital hospitals and clinics is sheer nonsense. According to reliable estimates, Saddam has built or rebuilt at least 45 palaces since the end of the Gulf War at a cost of US $1 billion. That money could have been spent on hospitals for the Iraqi people if Saddam had not chosen to spend it on more presidential palaces. Saddam has used weapons of mass destruction before - against both his neighbours and his own people. He must not be allowed to do so again. Until UNSCOM’s work is complete, he remains a real threat to regional and international peace. -- Anne Campbell MP Alex Wood Hall, Norfolk Street, Cambridge CB1 2LD Tel: (01223) 506500. Fax: (01223) 311315 http://www.worldserver.pipex.com/anne.campbell/ -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To be removed/added, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk, NOT the whole list. Archived at http://linux.clare.cam.ac.uk/~saw27/casi/discuss.html