The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
Views expressed in this archived message are those of the author, not of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
[Main archive index/search] [List information] [Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq Homepage]
The following article and leader appear in todays Independent (4th August 1998). The latest news is that the talks in Baghdad have collapsed and Butler is leaving early. There's been speculation on the news that this may be the start of a fresh "crisis". Patrick Cockburn also had two very good articles on Saturday and Monday which, due to computer problems I was unable to mail to the list. If I get time I'll transcribe them by hand. If anyone can make the fast/vigil (12 noon Sunday 9th August - 6 pm Wednesday 12th August, opposite Downing street) who hasn't already signed on please contact either myself (01865-276012) or David Polden (0171-607 2302). Gabriel Carlyle Magdalen College, Oxford. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Iraq on collision course with UN By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad Iraq moved closer to a confrontation with the United Nations yesterday when a senior Iraqi leader accused Richard Butler, head of the UN team looking for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, of seeking to implement an American policy of continuing sanctions. Tariq Aziz, the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, who is in charge of the negotiations with Mr Butler, said the UN team "is back to its old games, to its old tricks, games of confusing the major issues and the minor issues". He denied that Iraq had any biological, chemical or nuclear weapons or the means to deliver them. After the first morning session with Mr Butler, the former Australian ambassador to the UN, Mr Aziz held an unprecedented briefing in Baghdad. He said that, despite strict monitoring of Iraq by the UN, Mr Butler's team had no evidence to show that Iraq still possessed non-conventional weapons. An Iraqi complaint is that the UN holds Iraq guilty unless it can prove its innocence. Iraq's sharp tone may mean that relations with the UN will move to a crisis faster than had been expected. Mr Butler produces his six-monthly report on Iraqi compliance with UN resolutions in October when Iraq has implied that it might end the whole inspection process if sanctions were not lifted. In a statement last week a meeting of the Iraqi leadership, chaired by President Saddam Hussein, said that this week's talks with Mr Butler would be decisive in deciding Iraqi policy. It asked why Iraq should submit to intrusive inspections and monitoring if the United States and Britain were determined to resist "taking any step whatsoever to alleviate and lift the embargo". Mr Aziz made the same points yesterday, accusing the inspection team led by Mr Butler of procrastinating by giving undue attention to minor issues. It is not clear, however, if Iraq intends to stop co-operation with Mr Butler and whether it will do so immediately. As Mr Aziz and Mr Butler met, taxis arrived outside the Foreign Ministry each carrying a small wooden coffin on its roof rack said to contain an Iraqi baby which died as a result of sanctions. The taxis were accompanied by grieving, black clad women. While the propaganda is cruel Unicef, the UN children's fund, says almost a third of Iraqi children suffer from malnutrition and in the Saddam Children's Hospital, the largest paediatric hospital in Baghdad, Dr Dhia al-Obaidi, the director and consultant paediatrician, said: "Before the war the mortality for children under five was 23 per thousand; now it is 120 per thousand." If Iraq does throw out Mr Butler and declares it has fulfilled the terms of the cease-fire agreement of 1991 it is unclear what the UN Security Council could do. Use of armed force is unlikely to be effective in winning Iraqi compliance. There would also be international resistance to starving Iraq out. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ These Iraq talks are achieving nothing The regular meetings between the United Nations weapons inspector, Richard Butler, and the Iraqi ministers have become an endless litany of polite hopes and practical hopelessness. Each time, Butler comes out saying that the inspectorate is close to completing its work and sanctions should soon be lifted. To which Tariq Aziz, the smooth-talking deputy leader, replies that sanctions are no longer justified, that Iraq has fully complied with the resolutions and that maintaining punitive measures is simply a plot by the Americans to keep Iraq on its knees. There is more truth to this than America's allies, Britain in particular, may care to admit. The ritual in Baghdad is being played out at the expense of Iraq's ordinary citizens, as many as 2 million of whom have been brought to the edge of starvation by sanctions. America does want to bring Saddam Hussein down. His continued presence in the Middle East makes a mockery of its victory in the Gulf war and is increasingly embarrassing to its relations with the Arab world. The Arab Middle East is tired of a conflict that has all the appearances of a West-versus-East act of bullying and has made Saddam Hussein, one of its history's most vicious tyrants, appear as a victim. For the more cynical, there is also a case for arguing that America, at this stage, does not want the complete collapse in oil prices that unrestrained increases in Iraqi exports would bring. It would damage terribly both American (and North Sea) oil producers at home, and Saudi Arabia and the other pro-Western regimes in the Gulf. The problem for America is that it does not know what to do. It can't seem to bring Saddam Hussein down, and yet it is loth to let him off the hook. Pressed by Congress, President Clinton has come up with a plan that spends $5m on promoting a "Free Iraq" Radio and another $5m on bolstering the exiled opposition. No one seriously believes that either will have much effect on a dictatorship that has used every outside pressure to increase its own power Thus sanctions have become a gesture not of intent or of value - they may even make Hussein's hold over his country stronger, not weaker - but of lack of alternative. They should not be. If the object is really to topple the regime and reintroduce Iraq into the Middle Eastern fold, then there is a lot to be said for relieving sanctions and promoting the free trade of goods and ideas. these have had far more success in bringing down Communism than ever force has. Why not in the Middle East too? The time has come for a new strategy to cope with the Butcher of Baghdad. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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