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Dear list members, After yesterday's postings on chlorine imports to Iraq prior to OFF, I received a posting from someone with UN experience in Iraq during that period. With that person's permission, I forward anonymously some of what was relayed to me. I am happy to forward questions from list members to this person. The source starts with a word of caution, stressing that any complete discussion of chlorine risks having sections of it taken out of context to "suit any opinionated approach". Continuing, the source explains "that in the early days of economic sanctions it was very difficult to get Sanctions Committee approval for even a UN agency to import even small amounts of chlorine." In addition to the approval problems, there "were the added difficulties of having sufficient funds to cover national needs (never), sufficient transportation and verified delivery to water treatment plants and rehabilitation of all water deliver systems (never). I do not think this was ever achieved ----- sanctions blocked so much more that was needed." The source mentions "tens of cases" when international agencies such as UNICEF, the ICRC and OXFAM "struggled to get sufficient chlorine into the country for the projects they covered. Neither separately nor together could they meet the needs." The source concludes that "I believe that adequate supplies of treated water were never available to the extent needed during the period 1991-2003." Best, Colin Rowat work | Room 406, Department of Economics | The University of Birmingham | Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK | web.bham.ac.uk/c.rowat | ( 44/0) 121 414 3754 | (+44/0) 121 414 7377 (fax) | c.rowat@bham.ac.uk personal | (+44/0) 7768 056 984 (mobile) | (+44/0) 7092 378 517 (fax) | (707) 221 3672 (US fax) | c.rowat@espero.org.uk _______________________________________________ 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