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From: International Action Center <iacenter@iacenter.org>
International Action Center
39 West 14th St., #206
New York, NY 10011
(212) 633-6646 Fax: (212) 633-2889
http://www.iacenter.org
email: iacenter@iacenter.org
June 5, 1998
UNSCOM & BUTLER'S "ROADMAP" IS A ROADBLOCK TO LIFTING
U.S./UN SANCTIONS
STAGE IS SET FOR NEW MILITARY CRISIS UNLESS SANCTIONS ARE
ENDED, SAYS IAC
United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) Chairperson,
Richard Butler ended two days of briefings before the UN
Security Council on Thursday, June 4 without revealing the
so-called roadmap for the lifting of the deadly U.S./UN
Sanctions.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Al-Sahaf said, "There is
no roadmap. They [UNSCOM] failed to get a new mandate
[from the Security Council]. They said they'd bring a
roadmap and share their information with the Security
Council and Iraq. But instead they distributed the same
vague points. It isn't anything new."
The International Action Center (IAC) and the Iraq
Sanctions Challenge (ISC) demonstrated outside of the
United Nations on Wednesday, June 3rd while Butler spoke
to the Security Council. The group chanted "End the
Sanctions Now, Let Iraq Live" and "Richard Butler You
Can't Hide, We Charge You With Genocide!"
"The U.S. Government's roadmap for ending the sanctions is
the Highway of Death for the children, the elderly and the
sick of Iraq," said Sara Flounders co-coordinator of the
International Action Center. Flounders was a member of the
Iraq Sanctions Challenge that recently delivered $4
million in medical aid to Iraq in defiance of the
sanctions. "The Iraqi people must have the sanctions
lifted. It would be useful to remember how the November
1997 - February 1998 military crisis began. The Iraqis
said that there was no `light at the end of the tunnel.'
They insisted that they were in compliance of paragraph 22
of Security Council Resolution 687, yet there was no
timetable to lift the sanctions.
"It was the mobilization of anti-war forces around the
world that prevented what appeared to be an imminent U.S.
air war in February," Flounders continued. "It is possible
that U.S. intransigence or a new U.S. provocation could
lead to a new military crisis.
"Since the February 23rd agreement between Kofi Annan and
the Iraqi leadership, Iraq has opened it's Presidential
sites for inspection. Butler and the U.S. are now busy
creating new roadblocks to the lifting of sanctions. We
urge all anti-war activists to be on the alert and begin
preparations for reviving the movement that sprang up from
New York to San Francisco to Ohio State University and
everywhere in between."
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