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text of Campbell's remarks on sanctions



Dear Folks,

Here's what the Liberal Democrats Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, Menzies
Campbell, had to say about Iraq at todays conference (copied and pasted from
the Lib Dem web-site). As you can see Campbell's no dove (he supported
Desert Fox) and believes the "suffering [of the ordinary people of Iraq] is
not caused by sanctions" but "by the evil exploitation of sanctions by
Saddam Hussein." Nevertheless he *is* calling for the lifting of all
non-military sanctions.

Note the reference to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty. What he doesn't say is
how he squares his rosy view of British culpability with HRW's assessment
that "human rights principles have been consistently subordinated to
political considerations in the [UN Security] Council's approach to Iraq"
(HRW, Save the Children Fund UK et al., letter to the Security Council, 22nd
March 2000).

Gabriel.

SPEECH EXCERPT FOLLOWS :

IRAQ

Liberal Democrats supported the UN-led action in the Gulf War - we were
right to do so.

When Saddam Hussein sought to flout the will of the UN by expelling
inspectors and manufacturing weapons of mass destruction, Liberal Democrats
supported military action.  We were right to do so.

If today Saddam Hussein were threatening Kuwait by massing troops on its
borders, I would be telling you we should be willing with others to face
down that threat by military means.

But we owe it to ourselves, and to the suffering people of Iraq to keep our
policy under review.

What does that policy towards Iraq amount to now?  Containment -  and
nothing more.

Successive Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reports reveal the
shocking catalogue of unspeakable terror and evil which Saddam Hussein
continues to impose upon his own people.  Their daily lives, save for those
whose welfare and loyalty are essential for the survival of the regime are
blighted by poverty, malnutrition and ignominy.

The ordinary people of Iraq are the oppressed not the oppressors.

Their suffering is not caused by sanctions - it is caused by the evil
exploitation of sanctions by Saddam Hussein.

But, remove the sanctions and you remove the opportunity for that
exploitation.

Remove the sanctions which are used by the regime in Iraq to justify the
systematic degradation of the Iraqi people by its own government and you
take that weapon away from Saddam Hussein.

Remove the sanctions and you will find a collective and sympathetic sigh of
relief from Arab governments throughout the Middle East who believe the
Iraqi people have suffered enough.

So today I say that it should now become the policy of the British
Government that sanctions other than those directly relevant to military or
military related equipment should be lifted.

The removal of non-military sanctions will not prejudice the policy of
containment.

Deterrence allied to the credible threat of military action is a sufficient
basis for containment.

Non-military sanctions do not hurt Saddam Hussein and the elite who surround
him. But they are used by him to hurt his own people.  After ten years it is
time to deny him that opportunity.


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