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.
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Support from the unlikeliest sources. It may be safe to generalize that NO ONE who has spent time in sanctioned Iraq is a proponent of these policies.
>>>> From CNN's war diva, Christianne Amanpour ...
The following statement was made on CNN's "Larry King Live", December 17, 1998 (transcript at www.undp.org/missions/iraq/nizarking121798.html):
"I don't think you can underestimate just how much the people of Iraq have suffered over the last eight years. These punishing sanctions that are designed to punish the government and to force the government into compliance have only really hurt the people and hurt them very much indeed."
>>>> From the first head of UNSCOM (Butler's predecessor), Swedish diplomat Rolf Ekeus
Excerpt from "Out of the Ashes" by Andrew and Patrick Cockburn, Harper-Collins, 1999, pp 96-97
"When he (Ekeus) arrived in New York, he discovered that no funds had been allocated for the fledgling organization. The only way he could raise some money was to personally vouch for a loan from the secretary general's ready cash fund. ... 'I felt I couldn't afford to wait a day,' (Ekeus) recalled seven years later. 'Iraqi oil exports had been 13-billion dollars a year, just about 35-million a day. My conscience would not permit me to delay even one day. I thought, That day will cost the Iraqi children 35-million dollars."
>>>> From hardline former UNSCOM arms inspector Scott Ritter ...
[1] www.cbn.org/news/stories/990330.asp
"Economic sanctions ... failed. We're killing 5,000 kids under the age of five every month. Now people say Saddam's killing them, but ultimately, sanctions are killing them, and we shouldn't be supportive of something that causes innocent people to suffer to such a degree. Bombing Iraq, enforcing no-fly zones -- to what end? To what purpose?"
[2] www.newsroom.co.nz/stories/HL9811/S00090.htm
Interviewer: "How do you feel about people like Denis Halliday who resigned at a similar time to you in protest at the sanctions?"
Ritter: "I have nothing but the highest respect for Denis Halliday. And it would surprise a lot of people to find out that I totally agree with Denis Halliday. Sanctions are horrible. The sanctions regime being imposed on Iraq is a huge injustice being perpetrated by the United Nations at the behest of the United States. Sanctions were imposed on Iraq to punish Iraq for invading Kuwait. ... But the purpose of sanctions is to create harm in Iraq. To create pain. ... (but) the pain is being felt by 22 million innocent Iraqi people, not by the leadership, not by Saddam Hussein, not by his cronies. So therefore sanctions are going after the wrong people. The people of Iraq are not the decision makers."
[3] www.cnn.com/US/9903/24/ritter.about.face/
"(Ritter) now says dialogue is the best way for Washington to avoid further conflict with (Iraq). ... '(Diplomatic) engagement, I believe, should be focused on the issue of economic resonstruction of the Iraqi economy, what I call ... the new Marshall Plan for Iraq,' Ritter said in New York."
>>> From David Kay, who led the first United Nations inspection team into Iraq in 1991.
Interview at www.salonmagazine.com/news/1998/11/13newsc2.html
Q: "What's wrong with just continuing with sanctions?
A: "First of all, (Saddam's) making $1 billion a year from oil even with the sanctions. Secondly, sanctions have decimated the middle class. Unlike the rest of the Middle East, Iraq has a middle class that's had extensive contact with Europe and the West. Not just a trader class, but doctors, scientists and technicians. These people are suffering, and I think we have failed them."
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Drew Hamre
Golden Valley (suburban Minneapolis), Minnesota USA