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> Evening all ! Can any members please tell me why, if true, that > whisky$ is delivered to the regime when their dying people have no > clean water ? At public meetings this was not said. Also, in > Resolution 1284 it mentions Tripartite Commission and people to be > returned to Kuwait - what do you say on that as an aspect of the > fight to completely lift sanctions ? I would not make the return of these Kuwaitis a condition of lifting the sanctions which are killing so many Iraqis. I'm sure if the West were to seek to normalise relations with Iraq (and indeed SH) and enter into dialogue (jaw-jaw not war-war) then this problem would be resolved. As I understand it, H.E.L.P which is campaigning for their release does not seek to make their release a condition of lifting sanctions. > IRAQ: House of Commons Hansard Debates for 29th June 1999 > 10.39 pm. (Mr Geoffrey Hoon) Geoffrey has been promoted for his highly effective part in supporting our highly unethical foreign policy. As usual it is what is not said that is important. > Iraq has already used > chemical weapons extensively against Iran and against its own > Kurdish civilians, at Halabja, in March 1998, attacking them with > mustard gas and the nerve agent Tabun and killing thousands in the > process. The wrong year! What Goeffrey does not say is that we were supporting Iraq at the time and that when the reports of these atrocities surfaced our lot did their best to ignore and suppress these reports. > Nor should we forget that more than 600 Kuwaitis and others > detained by Iraq during the Gulf War are still unaccounted for. > That represents about 0.1 per cent of the Kuwaiti population: to > us, the equivalent would be about 50,000 British citizens > unaccounted for. It is very hard for us to say with any moral authority how nasty the Iraqi government is when we have presided over a war which murdered retreating soldiers and targetted the country's civilian infrastructure followed by sanctions which have killed over 1 million of a population of 20 million (5%). Did Geoffrey ever state any figures for Iraq or indeed how many were killed in the Gulf War? Did he tell us how many civilians were killed by the Kuwaiti police and others when the Iraqis retreated out of Kuwait. > My honourable friend is right to be concerned about the humanitarian > situation in Iraq - the Government are also concerned, but we > reject the propaganda that seeks to hold the UN sanctions regime to > blame. Let me remind my honourable friend once again that food, > medicines and goods for essential civilian needs are not prohibited > under sanctions. That means Iraq can and does import, for example, > food, medicines, bandages, pencils, ambulances, chemotherapy drugs, > educational materials, medical journals and school desks. Claims > that the United Nations, or the United Kingdom itself blocks those > goods are nonsense. Again Geoffrey is telling the truth but not the whole truth! Iraq needs to BUY these items. It's only significant export is oil which is strictly controlled and then we see these items being effectively prohibited by the UNSC committee. Iraq cannot buy freely what it considers necessary for its people. Why else do Iraqis still die because of untreated water? Do you know what happens in the UK if you buy some urgently needed medicines and try to post them to someone who needs them in Iraq? > Meanwhile, the Iraqi regime continues to import large > quantities of whisky$ and cigarettes - since 1st January 1999, more > than 53,000 cartons of cigarettes have been delivered to Iraq. > This is part of the propaganda war aged so effectively by our government. Compared to feeding and caring for 20 million people this is insignificant. Are these black market imports by gangs and individuals? Mark Parkinson Cornwall -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq For removal from list, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk Full archive and list instructions are available from the CASI website: http://welcome.to/casi