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Attached are Denis Halliday's remarks from Beirut [1] on the FAO killings, followed by Barbara Crossette's [2] thinly veiled suspicions that the attack had motivations beyond those of a solitary gunman. Finally, the British Medical Association [3] has stated that that sanctions are causing severe health problems among Iraqi women and children, and is urging the World Medical Association to act. Regards, Drew Hamre Golden Valley, MN USA === [1] http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2000/0629/wor14.htm Thursday, June 29, 2000 Two UN officials are shot dead by Baghdad gunman <... snip... > Michael Jansen adds from Beirut: Mr Denis Halliday, the former UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Baghdad who resigned in 1998 to protest against the sanctions regime, reacted to the news from Iraq with surprise and shock in Beirut, where he had been addressing a conference about the issue. He told The Irish Times: "I believe this is certainly not ntended by the government or government policy. In fact, the Iraqi government has bent backward over the years to protect the lives of UN staff . . . and we have never had any reason to fear for our lives." Mr Halliday had earlier in the week proposed alternatives to sanctions to a conference convened in Beirut by the Association of Arab-American University Graduates. He proposed the re-establishment of the UN inspection and monitoring of Iraq's weapons programme; imposition of "smart" sanctions to prevent Iraq from obtaining prohibited weaponry; an end to the "demonisation" of Iraq and dialogue with Baghdad; lifting of economic sanctions; release of equipment to repair the severely damaged oil industry; investment in the country's devastated economy; postponement of reparations payments which consume 30 per cent of gross oil revenues, and an end to the "illegal" daily bombing of Iraq which has killed 150-200 people. He admitted that he is not "very happy" with this plan, that it is "imperfect" but he said he had drafted it in such a way as to secure the support of the parties imposing sanctions as well as those who oppose them. Mr Halliday, an Irish national who held the rank of assistant secretary general, said he designed his plan to "help Washington and London to get out of this dreadful mess they have gotten themselves into" by insisting on the continuation of the punitive sanctions regime until the Iraqi President, Mr Saddam Hussein, is no longer in power. Mr Halliday believes that the US could "be blamed ultimately for crimes against humanity, including possibly genocide. "What I am working on now is trying to get other governments . . . to put pressure on Washington to change its policy. For, in much of the world there is outrage amongst many parliamentarians over the continuation of economic sanctions." He believes the efforts of these parliamentarians could reinforce the position of the 70 "courageous" US Congressmen who have taken a stand against sanctions. These lawmakers have come to realize that the "human calamity" caused by sanctions "is not serving the best interests of the USA, or Europe". The sweeping embargo is "illegal", he asserted. "What is happening in Iraq is a complete breach of international humanitarian law." It amounts to punishing "a people in order to get at their ruler. "So, today 18 months after leaving Iraq and resigning from UN, I find myself advocating that those countries of the UN, small, neutral and with some integrity still remaining . . . work together to form an informal coalition both inside and outside of the Security Council for an end to the killing in Iraq. Member states of the General Assembly have got to take back the UN from an undemocratic and corrupted Security Council" dominated by "self-serving and vetowielding permanent powers . . . The UN is in very bad shape. More discredited now than ever before in its history". He said "I have been harassing my own government in Dublin" to assume a role in the campaign to end sanctions on Iraq and restore the UN role. [2] http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/062900iraq-attack.html June 29, 2000 Iraqi Gunman Kills 2 in Hostage Siege at U.N. Office in Baghdad By BARBARA CROSSETTE UNITED NATIONS, June 28 -- An Iraqi man brandishing two machine guns and explosives shot his way into a United Nations office today in Baghdad, Iraq, killing two officials, wounding seven and taking some 50 hostages. After a siege of nearly three hours, he gave himself up and said he had taken the hostages to demand an end to United Nations sanctions against his country. Iraqi officials, who later made the man available to reporters and television cameras, identified him as Fuad Hussein Haider, 38, a car mechanic. But the demands he made and the fact that Iraqi citizens do not normally have access to automatic weapons in a country that is very tightly policed raised questions among diplomats and some officials here about possible complicity of the Iraqi government or one of its many security services. "The reason is the embargo, the death and murder of thousands of Iraqi children and elderly," Mr. Haider told reporters after the event in an unusual news conference in Baghdad. "I wanted to relay a message, to explain the tragedy." United Nations officials said that Mr. Haider had demanded the resumption of now banned civilian flights between Baghdad and Amman, Jordan; an increase in food rations distributed under the "oil-for-food" program; an end to American and British sorties over no-flight zones in northern and southern Iraq, and compensation for Iraqis who have suffered because of them; and the installation outside United Nations headquarters of a statue in memory of Iraqi children who died because of the embargo. Benon Sevan, who directs the Iraqi oil-sales program from New York and is also in charge of United Nations staff security, told reporters that the gunman first tried to enter the oil-sales program's offices at the edge of Baghdad in a heavily fortified former hotel school shared with United Nations arms inspectors. When Mr. Haider could not get into that building , he went to the offices of the Food and Agricultural Organization in a wealthy residential neighborhood near Baghdad University. The Iraqi police and officials of the Food and Agricultural Organization said Mr. Haider began to fire in the office reception area on the ground floor, then went upstairs and continued shooting. Mr. Haider told a different story to reporters in Baghdad. He said that he did not shoot first, but was fired at by Iraqi guards in the building. "When the guards opened fire on me, I started shooting indiscriminately," Mr. Haider said. "I wanted to take foreigners working in this organization as hostages." He said he was prepared to die, as many other Iraqis had died since sanctions were imposed in 1990 after Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, and that he had been persuaded to surrender by an Iraqi official. The United Nations identified the dead as Yusuf Abdilleh, a Somali administrative officer, and Marewan Mohammed Hassan, an Iraqi hired to maintain a computer data base. The Food and Agricultural Organization, based in Rome, works with the oil-sales program both in areas controlled by the Iraqi government and in autonomous Kurdish regions, where the United Nations takes direct charge of relief projects. Among the seven injured in the building were a Nepali consultant and four government-supplied guards. Mr. Sevan said that 50 hostages were being held at one point. There was no explanation for why it took the government more than two hours to send police reinforcements to free them. [3] http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000629/hl/iraq_1.html Thursday June 29 6:24 PM ET BMA Urges Dropping Sanctions Against Iraq By Georgina Kenyon LONDON (Reuters Health) - The British Medical Association (BMA) asserts that sanctions against Iraq are causing severe health problems among Iraqi women and children, and are urging the World Medical Association to act. At the BMA annual meeting in central London this week, Dr. Edwin Borm, chairman of the international committee said, ''There are very real humanitarian concerns by allowing these economic sanctions to continue.'' ``And it is women and children who are suffering the most from illnesses as a result,'' Borm added. Sanctions, he explained, have not affected the Iraqi regime, as those in power are benefiting through the black market. The British Medical Council is urging the World Medical Council to send a delegation to Iraq to assess the full effect of sanctions on the Iraqi people. An Iraqi-born British physician explained at the BMA annual meeting that children in Iraq are suffering from malnutrition and infectious diseases as well as a high incidence of childhood leukemia. ``We must be physicians first and politicians second, `` he said. The British Medical Association also voted for the UK Government to press the other G8 countries to cancel world debt because of its serious effect on health. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 details of CASI's various lists can be found on the CASI website: http://welcome.to/casi