[casi] Denis Halliday is in Iraq

[H Sutter <citext@DELETETHISchebucto.ns.ca>]

-- People in Iraq, Halliday says, feel that "no one who
has power will protect them" - neither their Arab
neighbours nor the Europeans.

-- If Americans really want to "prevent the massacre of
civilians, then they have to stand up and do so", Iraqis
feel.

-- That Iraq may pose a threat to the U.S. is regarded
as "just laughable". Iraqis see three reasons for Bush's
warmongering: U.S. imperialistic ambition, control of
Iraqi oil, and support for Israeli expansion."

-- People just don't understand what they have done to
deserve military agression from the United States.

-- And the 12-year-long devastating sanctions have left
nothing but desparation. People want to see and end to
this torture.

So just think, if this could happen: end of sanctions
and peace. NO WAR, NOT SLAUGHTER.

Elga S.


------------------Fwd Message------------------
From: Institute for Public Accuracy <ipamedia@nationalpress.com>
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
Subject: Denis Halliday, Former UN Official, in Iraq
Date: 8 Jan 2003 21:50:18 -0600

Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________

         Tuesday, January 7, 2003

         Interviews Available:
         Denis Halliday, Former UN Official, in Iraq

DENIS HALLIDAY
[Baghdad is 8 hours ahead of ET; best times to call, ET,
are 7-10 am, 3-6 pm and 11 pm to midnight.]

Halliday is a former head of the UN oil-for-food program and a former UN
Assistant Secretary General. Over the last few days he has met with Deputy
Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, and Trade Minister
Mohammad Saleh, as well as the heads of UNICEF and UNDP in Iraq, two Iraqi
families and numerous shopkeepers he knew from his earlier time in
Baghdad.
He said today: "The majority of Iraqis are staying together with families
at home, there's little sign of a mass exodus as there was in 1991. The
government has distributed three months of the oil-for-food program
supplies. There's concern the U.S. would bomb food facilities, as it did
here in 1991 and in Afghanistan. The other major concern is water. The
people who can afford it are hoarding bottled water. The government is
drilling water wells. I can find no preventive arrangements for healthcare
of young children after the expected collapse of electricity, water and
sewage treatment as happened in 1991. No shots for cholera, typhoid, and
other various waterborne diseases that will likely break out if the U.S.
bombs electrical and water facilities as it did in 1991."

Halliday added: "There are some 30 air raid shelters around Baghdad, but
given the U.S. bombing of the Al-Amiriya shelter in 1991, people do not
want to use them. Most Iraqi homes do not have basements; they will be in
their homes and quite vulnerable.... There's little awareness of the
health
effects of the U.S. potentially using depleted uranium in a city of five
million.... There's a desperation regarding the economic sanctions. Some
Iraqis even hope that war will bring an end to the sanctions; not that
they
want war, but they are desperate after 12 years of suffocating
sanctions.... Iraqis do not expect serious assistance from Arab neighbors
or from Europe; no one who has power will protect them. The majority of
Iraqis don't understand what they could possibly have done to deserve the
military aggression of the United States. There's a sense that if the
American people really want to prevent the massacre of civilians, then
they
have to stand up and do so.... Regular people here do not believe that
Iraq
has weapons of mass destruction. The idea that Iraq is a threat to the
U.S.
is widely regarded as just laughable. They see three reasons for Bush's
militaristic stance: U.S. imperialistic ambition, control of Iraqi oil and
support for Israeli expansion."

KATHY KELLY, kkelly@igc.org, http://www.iraqpeaceteam.org
Kelly is coordinator of Voices in the Wilderness, a group challenging the
economic sanctions.

JIM JENNINGS, jimjennings@earthlink.net
President of the humanitarian aid organization Conscience International
and
a longtime professor of Middle East and Islamic Studies, Jennings has
worked extensively in Iraq.

JEREMY SCAHILL, jeremybgd@yahoo.com, http://www.iraqjournal.org
Scahill has spent several months in Iraq over the last year. He broke the
story of Rumsfeld meeting with Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi officials in
the 1980s.

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

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