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U.S. group brings $4 million of aid to Iraq
9 May 1998
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Former U.S. Attorney
General Ramsey Clark arrived in Baghdad
Friday bringing $4 million worth of medical
aid to sanctions-hit Iraqis.
He was accompanied by 100 U.S. peace
activists representing American
humanitarian and human rights
organizations.
"We are here bringing nearly four million
dollars worth of medicines ... trying to save
children, the weak and the elderly," said Fred
Champagne of U.S Veterans for Peace.
"We are here to defy the U.S. sanctions
against Iraq. We are in defiance of the
American policy against starving the people
of Iraq," he said.
Clark said the visit was a reaction to last
month's U.N. Security Council resolution
prolonging the punitive sanctions imposed
on Iraq after its 1991 invasion of Kuwait.
"The message we carry is that the American
people love the Iraqi people," Clark told
reporters shortly after arriving in Baghdad. "It
is painful to feel the ... suffering. This is a
place which people ought to come and help."
Clark has visited Iraq several times since the
Gulf War and was a strong opponent of U.S.
and allied air and missile attacks against
Baghdad.
Humanitarian aid to Iraq has been gaining
momentum during the last few months. Some
18 planes have landed in Iraqi airports since
the beginning of this year bringing medicines
and food supplies to Iraqis after obtaining
the approval of a U.N. sanctions committee.
Last month a cargo plane from the aid
organization AmeriCares landed in Baghdad
with 38 tonnes of medical supplies, the first
airlift of humanitarian aid from a U.S. relief
group since the Gulf War.
An Iraqi Trade Ministry source said the
United States had put on hold several
contracts to buy humanitarian goods under
Iraq's "oil-for-food" deal with the United
Nations.
"The American representative at the
(sanctions) committee suspended 12 food
and medicine contracts at the beginning of
this month," the source, quoted by state-run
newspapers, said.
The source said the blocked materials
ranged from medicines bought from Syria
and Jordan to electrical spare parts and
utilities from Britain, Germany and Italy.
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