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]
Brief excerpts from interview with Denis Halliday, former UN humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, in this fortnight's Middle East International (13 November), pp.6-7: 'The sanctions were failing in the purposes they were set up for back in 1990-01. They weren't leading to disarmament and, second, the cost of sanctions was completely unacceptable - killing 6-7,000 children a month. Sustaining a level of malnutrition of about 30% for children under 5 leads to physical & mental problems. It's incompatible with the UN Charter, with the Convention on Human Rights, with the Convention on the Rights of the Child & probably with many other international agreements. I just found that impossible to accept as the head of the UN in Iraq.' 'Inadequacy' of oil-for-food: 'not remotely enough money for water, sanitation, agriculture, electric power and so on... even doubling the programme wouldn't have resolved the problem.' Long discussion about the politics of Iraq, where he refers to the current government as 'moderate', as opposed to the substantial hardline elements in the country. 'Albright says that she cares more for the Iraqi people than Saddam. I don't buy that. Before and during Resolution 986 the Iraqi government was supplementing it quite extensively, feeding orphans, widows and other single parents. In addition to 986, they're running an extraordinarily effective programmme .. through some 50,000 different agents to a country of about 18 million people. Our observers watch that process from the border to the warehouse. It works, & we have no evidence of any significant leakage. The system works because the Iraqis make it work. To say that they don't care about their own people is just rubbish.' -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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