| Former U.N. aides call Iraqi sanctions genocide
By WAIEL FALEH, Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq (June 17, 2001 03:41 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) Two former humanitarian officers for the United Nations on Sunday urged an end to the U.N.'s sanctions against Iraq, calling them "genocidal" and "a crime against humanity." Hans von Sponeck of Germany and Dennis Halliday of Ireland finished a 10-day fact-finding tour of Iraq, where each served for a year as U.N. humanitarian coordinators. "The embargo is incompatible with the (U.N.) charter, declaration of human rights and the Geneva Convention," von Sponeck told journalists. Von Sponeck and Halliday resigned their posts in 2000 and 1998 respectively to protest the U.N. sanctions they said were destroying the lives of ordinary Iraqis. An embargo and wide-ranging sanctions were imposed on Iraq following its 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent 1991 Gulf War. The embargo has crippled Iraq's economy and drawn international criticism, including from Security Council members Russia, China and France. Revisions to sanctions under the U.N. oil-for-food program, proposed by Britain, supported by the United States and opposed by Iraq, are currently under Security Council consideration. The proposal - known as the "smart sanctions" plan - would remove most restrictions on trade in consumer goods and materials for rebuilding public services, but see controls tightened on items considered dangerous, particularly those which could be used to manufacture weapons of mass destruction. Von Sponeck rejected the British and American view that smart sanctions will allow Iraqis to live normal lives. "Only when there is a full lifting of economic sanctions ... (will) Iraqis have a chance to live again a normal life," he said. Halliday said the Security Council was under moral and international legal obligations to end the embargo. "The results of (the) embargo meet the definition of genocide under the U.N. Convention on Genocide," he added. The U.N.'s humanitarian coordination agency directs the oil-for-food program, which allows Iraq to sell oil to buy food and other humanitarian goods under U.N. supervision. The sanctions cannot be lifted until the Security Council certifies Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction. Iraq demands the sanctions be lifted unconditionally, saying it has fulfilled all the U.N. resolutions. |
