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Anyone writing to the papers about the UNICEF report should try to preempt what the other side are saying in response to it. Patrick Coulson, Institute for Near East Affairs (Washington) told BBC radio yesterday 1) that sanctions had no effect on child mortality, as the north of Iraq (not controlled by Saddam) had seen a FALL in death rates, 2) that Saddam had stockpiled half the western medical aid in warehouses, and 3) that UNICEF was only hearing Saddam's side of the story. When asked if sanctions had any role to play in child health, he airily said 'No, not at all.' Geoff Hoon (UK government minister) also told radio 4 that additional aid for Iraq could be made available tomorrow if only only Saddam complied with inspections. Leaving aside whether this is true or not, it still explicitly links aid to inspections. My customary plea about letters to the press, ministers or anyone else - keep 'em SHORT. Editors, and more importantly readers, have the attention span of a goldfish. Jeff Vernon -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To be removed/added, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk, NOT the whole list. Please do not sent emails with attached files to the list *** Archived at http://linux.clare.cam.ac.uk/~saw27/casi/discuss.html ***