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Dear all, While the 'after the sanctions' section in the report is interesting, as far as I'm concerned the 'killer fact' in it is the following two paragraphs from the summary: "There is a clear consensus that the humanitarian and developmental situation in Iraq has deteriorated seriously since the imposition of comprehensive economic sanctions whilst, at the same time, sanctions have clearly failed to hurt those responsible for past violations of international law as Saddam Hussein and his ruling elite continue to enjoy a privileged existence. Not all this humanitarian distress is the direct result of the sanctions regime. It appears that Saddam Hussein is quite prepared to manipulate the sanctions regime and the exemptions scheme to his own ends, even if that involves hurting ordinary Iraqi people. This does not, however, entirely excuse the international community from a part in the suffering of Iraqis. A sanctions regime which relies on the good faith of Saddam Hussein is fundamentally flawed." This seems to directly contradict the FCO line that it's all Saddam's fault. The Select Cttee has admitted that the 'international community' (ie the US/UK) bears some of the responsibility for the suffering. How much is 'a part'? Perhaps wisely, they've decided not to define that more closely, but if it's only 10% (and I cannot see how anyone can argue that it's less than that - and I know that many people would agree with me that it's a lot more) then we're talking about a minimum of 30,000 dead children. Chris Williams -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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