The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
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from a press conference on Saturday with Ramiro Lopes de Silva, the current UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq [http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/71267ed9d99d23d4c1256d1d002bd5f4?OpenDocument] Questions and Answers.... LBC: My question is the American said they will soon start exporting oil. Will the money come to you. And my second point for many Iraqis the United Nations is seen now as the one that impose the sanctions regime . Do you think that image can change Ramiro Lopes da Silva: Let me start with the last one. That depends very much with whom do you speak within the Iraqi population. There are 27 million Iraqis. We were not partners to the implementation of the sanction regimes. The sanctions regime was a regime imposed by the international community represented by the Security Council. Later in that process the international community determined that the sanction regime was having an extremely negative impact on the Iraqi population. That impact can be characterized at two levels: one the fact that as the result of the sanctions regime and the general impoverishment of the Iraqi society we decimated what used to be a dynamic and active middle class. Second because the sanctions regime contributed for a general degradation of the humanitarian situation in the country. Furthermore the sanctions regime was a tool that allowed the regime to create an increased dependency level of the Iraqi population vis a vis the state apparatus. The UN indicated those dangers and they are in the reports of the Secretary General to the Security Council and they are made public. You can check that on the OIP website. You will see that those issues where raised throughout. _______________________________________________ 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