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Dear all, BBC Online has invited Voices UK to take part in a Head to Head debate with Peter Rodman from the Nixon Centre in Washington D.C. Mr Rodman and I were asked to provide a 150 word initial statement. I thought this might be of interest to the list. The full exchange will apparently be published at the end of the week. Thus far there seem to be some delays caused by the difference in time zones between London and DC. If anyone has information to share about Mr Rodman or the Nixon Centre, I'd be glad to hear it. Cheers Mil Rai Milan Rai 158 Springfield Road Brighton BN1 6DG ph (0)1273 508 331 milanrai@trinityroad.free-online.co.uk National Office Voices in the Wilderness UK 16B Cherwell St Oxford OX4 1BG 01865 243 232 voices@viwuk.freeserve.co.uk Introductory statement Why we should lift the economic sanctions against Iraq To be persuasive, an argument for lifting the economic sanctions against Iraq must establish three propositions: 1) that there is a humanitarian crisis in Iraq; 2) that the economic sanctions are a major obstacle to the solution of this crisis; and 3) that measures short of lifting economic sanctions cannot end the suffering that has engulfed millions of ordinary families for the last ten years. A defence of the sanctions regime only has to overturn one of these propositions to succeed. Alternatively, a purported 'defence' of sanctions can abandon international law and simple morality, and assert that the basic human rights of the 22 million people of Iraq, including their rights to life, are null and void, and they may be killed at our convenience. I have visited children's wards in Iraqi hospitals. I've seen bone-thin children dying quietly of hunger and disease. This is not an academic exercise. Milan Rai Joint Coordinator Voices in the Wilderness UK Voices in the Wilderness breaks the economic sanctions on Iraq by hand-delivering medical supplies to Iraq without an export licence -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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