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There's a feast of very useful quotes in that Amnesty International: "Amnesty International and the current Iraq crisis" http://web.amnesty.org/web/web.nsf/pages/iraq_faq AI predicts that military intervention in Iraq will lead to a "humanitarian crisis". Regarding the impact of sanctions: it mentions how there is a "general consensus that sanctions are significantly contributing to the humanitarian crisis" and that "the situation overall remains critical". It notes, that "Sanctions have jeopardized...the life of hundreds of thousands of individuals, many of them children." AI's use of the word "jeopardized" leaves much to be desired. In a highly critical condemnation of the UN Security Council it suggest that it bears its "share of the responsibility for failing to heed the calls to lift all sanctions provisions that result in grave violations of the rights of the Iraqi people". Regarding our, ahem, attempt to introduce freedom and democracy to Afghanistan: It notes how "Despite the repeated calls of human rights and humanitarian organizations, the international community failed to make Afghanistan a priority until the conflict spread well beyond the country's borders." Referring, presumably, to our buddies in the Northern Alliance, it mentions how "Others [in addition to the Taliban] who have committed human rights abuses with impunity remain". It saves some withering comments for the recent UK government dossier on human rights violations in Iraq: It mentions how the UK Foreign Office dossier "re-publishes many of our findings". Furthermore, this attention is now being given to these abuses rather "belatedly". Perhaps most damning of all, it ends with a devastating indictment of our human rights policy: "Selective and opportunistic attention to human rights serves only to undermine international human rights standards". _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk