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The following Reuters Report was taken from ABCNews Site on Nov 15th 1999 http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters19991115_4146.html A copy has also been sent tho Lloyd Axworthy MP, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Regards, Peter Griffith WIRE:11/15/1999 19:19:00 ET Bishops want to end economic sanctions on Iraq WASHINGTON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - America's Roman Catholic bishops on Monday called for an end to economic sanctions on Iraq, saying the "moral obtuseness" of U.S. policy caused undeserved suffering among the Iraqi people. The bishops, meeting in Washington, also faulted U.S. and British air attacks on Iraq. "The comprehensive sanctions against Iraq have long since ceased to be a moral tool of diplomacy, because they have inflicted indiscriminate and unacceptable suffering on the Iraqi people," Bishop Joseph Fiorenza said in a statement approved by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. "After more than nine years of unparalleled and unmerited suffering, it is long past time to end the economic embargo against Iraq," the statement said. The United Nations imposed sanctions against Iraq after Baghdad's troops invaded Kuwait in August 1990. Iraqi health authorities said on Monday that nearly 1.2 million Iraqis have died of health problems caused by the sanctions over the past nine years. The bishops said it was primarily up to Iraq to resolve lingering disputes left from the 1991 Gulf War, but said economic sanctions had not been effective. "Political and military sanctions remain acceptable; comprehensive economic sanctions are not," the bishops' statement said. "It's time for a new approach to Iraq," they said. "We cannot turn a deaf ear to the suffering of the Iraqi people or a blind eye to the moral obtuseness of current U.S. policy." The bishops said they were also concerned about ongoing air attacks on Iraq, saying this "low-level warfare" should end. "The moral justification of such attacks is, at best, unclear, yet the risks to Iraqi civilians are real," the bishops said. U.S. and British planes have launched scores of attacks on Iraqi air defence and other targets in the north and south of the country this year in response to attacks on their planes patrolling no-fly zones. Copyright ©1999 ABC News Internet Ventures. Click here for Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and Internet Safety Information applicable to this site. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ***