The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
Views expressed in this archived message are those of the author, not of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
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Please note update for phone number the original phone number that was given is no longer in use. ACTION FRIDAY 4TH AUGUST IRAQ UNDER SIEGE - NOT IN OUR NAME! It has been called Genocide by Denis Halliday, first UN Humanitarian Coordinator to resign. Infanticide masquerading as policy by US congressman David Bonior. The Crime of the century by Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General. It kills more children than the entre population of Dunblane every month. It’s been going on for 10 years in your name. August 6th is the 10th anniversary of the UN sanctions on Iraq. They are devastating the civilian population both physically and psychologically. Only the will of Britain and America is holding them in place. They contravene all international humanitarian law and their continuation is one of the gravest crimes against humanity of modern times. Please, on August 4th will as many people as possible fax, phone or e-mail Tony Blair on the numbers below in protest against this continued policy of mass murder. One Iraqi child dies every 6 minutes! As civilised people we cannot allow this situation to continue. Please use your political voice! If this is the price of oil, it isn’t worth it. Make sure he understands that you want the sanctions lifted and the bombing stoped Also make it clear to him that Britain’s involvement in any military escalation over the weapons inspection issue would be quite unacceptable. Tony Blair Fax office:- - 0207 925 0918 Fax private:- 0207-930-9572 Tel:- - - - - - 0207-270-3000 E-mail:- tblair@no10.gsi.net Please copy and send this message to as many people as possible. "voices in the wilderness uk" Tel:- 01865-243-232. e-mail:-voices@viwuk.freeserve,co,uk and Tel. :- 01994-419-678 e-mail :- voices@hamdden.co.ukBackground Information UNICEF reported in August 1999 that, ‘if the substantial reduction in child mortality throughout Iraq during the 1980s had continued through the 1990s, there would have been half a million fewer deaths of children under-five in the country as a whole during the eight year period 1991 to 1998’. (http://www.unicef.org/newsline/99pr29.htm) 700,000 children under five suffer from chronic malnutrition in Iraq. (UN Secretary-General’s report, 10 Mar. 2000, S/2000/208) Call upon Tony Blair to accept the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Iraq. Responsibility ‘Even if not all suffering in Iraq can be imputed to external factors, especially sanctions, the Iraqi people would not be undergoing such deprivations in the absence of the prolonged measures imposed by the Security Council and the effects of war.’ The conclusion of a special ‘Panel’ of experts set up by the UN Security Council to inquire into the humanitarian crisis in Iraq. (30 March 1999, http://www.un.org/Depts/oip/panelrep.html) ‘We are in the process of destroying an entire society. It is as simple and terrifying as that. It is illegal and immoral.’ (Denis Halliday, former UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, resignation statement, Independent, 15 Oct. 1998) Call upon Tony Blair to accept that the economic sanctions are the main cause of the current humanitarian crisis in Iraq. Disarmament UN Security Council Resolution 1284 offers to suspend economic sanctions ‘with the fundamental objective of improving the humanitarian situation in Iraq’. In other words, economic sanctions are a fundamental obstacle to the improvement of the humanitarian situation. 1284 re-affirms the primacy of disarmament issues over humanitarian issues; the suspension of economic sanctions can only take place after several months of Iraqi compliance ‘in all respects’ with the new inspection agency UNMOVIC. Richard Butler, the former head of UNSCOM, said on 15 June 2000, ‘we now know that using economic sanctions to bring about compliance in the weapons area does not work... ‘So de-linking [military sanctions from economic sanctions] would address the need to stop doing something that isn’t working.’ (http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/zforum/00/freemedia061500_butler.htm) The government has consistently prioritised disarmament issues over humanitarian issues. Call upon Tony Blair to support the ‘de-linking’ of the inspection crisis from the humanitarian crisis, as suggested by former UN Humanitarian Coordinators for Iraq Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck, and supported by Richard Butler. Suspension of sanctions The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation reported in 1995 that the solution to the nutritional crisis in Iraq ‘lies in adequate food supplies in the country, restoring the viability of the [Iraqi Dinar], and creating conditions for the people to acquire adequate purchasing power [ie jobs]. But these conditions can be fulfilled only if the economy can be put back in proper shape enabling it to draw on its own resources, and that clearly cannot occur as long as the embargo remains in force.’ (FAO, Evaluation of food and nutrition in Iraq, 1995) Call upon Tony Blair to accept that merely ‘suspending’ sanctions cannot solve the humanitarian crisis. Congressional action Ask Tony Blair to note that 70 US Congress people - Republicans and Democrats - have signed a letter calling on President Clinton to lift the economic sanctions against Iraq. David Bonior, House Minority Whip, a Democrat from Michigan and a spokesperson for the group, described the economic sanctions as ‘infanticide masquerading as policy’: ‘Millions of children are suffering and we refuse to close our eyes to the slaughter of innocents.’ (‘US congressmen criticise Iraqi sanctions,’ BBC News Online, 17 February) |