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The following important article appeared in the Financial Times on Tuesday 2nd November. Letters to the editor can be e-mailed to letters.editor@ft.com. UK wants UN chief in Iraq to be sacked. by Roula Khalaf, Middle East Editor The US and Britain are pressing for the dismissal of Hans von Sponeck, the United Nations humanitarian co-ordinator in Baghdad, according to senior western diplomats. The push to get rid of Mr Von Sponeck is driven by frustration with his public statements on the debilitating effects of nine years of UN sanctions on Iraq. But Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, who has suffered his own share of criticism from Washington and London on his handling of Iraq, is resisting. He is believed to have told Mr Von Sponeck to stay in his job for another year. Senior Western diplomats said yesterday the pressures being exerted on Mr Von Sponeck were similar to the events that led to his predecessor, Denis Halliday, an Irish national, to leave the job in October 1998. Mr Halliday quit the UN and now campaigns for a lifting of sanctions on Iraq. US and UK policy aims to maintain sanctions on Iraq and to blame the effects of the embargo on the regime of Saddam Hussein. They consider UN officials who speak out against sanctions as playing into Mr Saddam's hands. US and British officials maintain that Iraqis are not receiving enough food and medicine under the oil-for-food programme, which allows Iraq to sell $5.3 bn (3.2 bn pounds) of oil every six months to buy humanitarian goods, because the Iraqi government refuses to distribute the goods. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 send emails with attached files to the list *** Archived at http://linux.clare.cam.ac.uk/~saw27/casi/discuss.html ***