http://www.post-gazette.com/forum/20001007lets9.asp Inhuman and unnecessary Pittsburgh Post Gazette. October 7, 2000. I would like to comment on the Sept. 19 editorial "Sanctions Must Stay." In 1998, the United States withdrew the weapons inspectors so it could bomb Iraq. Tariq Aziz, deputy prime minister of the Republic of Iraq, has since stated that if the sanctions are lifted, Iraq will allow the inspectors to resume their work. And the former U.N. arms inspector who aggressively pursued disarmament in Iraq, Scott Ritter, recently stated that he believes Iraq is qualitatively disarmed and the Security Council should reassess its position. A careful reading of the latest U.N. Resolution regarding Iraq makes it clear that sanctions will not be automatically lifted if the inspectors are readmitted. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's statement that Saddam Hussein can let himself out of the sanction box by letting the inspectors in is a lie. There is no rational excuse for maintaining economic sanctions that are killing Iraqi children at the rate of one every six minutes. The editorial states that Iraq has been able to buy billions of dollars worth of food and medicine with the oil for food money. In fact, out of these proceeds, Iraq is paying $400 million per month compensation in war reparations to Kuwait and others who lost property during the Gulf war. What is left amounts to about 70 cents per Iraqi per day. And billions of dollars worth of medical and food supplies requested by Iraq have been blocked by the sanctions committee under pressure from the United States. During the Gulf war, the U.S.-led allied forces deliberately destroyed the infrastructure in Iraq needed to produce clean water. Since then, the sanctions have blocked the importation of equipment needed to rebuild this infrastructure and the importation of medicines with which to combat the waterborne diseases that are now killing thousands of Iraqis, mostly children. The statements I am making are contradicted by information put out by the State Department, but I believe that my sources are credible and that my statements are based in fact. Iraq is often called the cradle of civilization. If the economic sanctions are not soon ended, the ashes of Iraq will be the deathbed of our humanity. MARK L. CLEMENT Farmington, Pa. Editor's note: The writer is a member of the Bruderhof Communities, a group of Christian pacifist communities. His family is hosting a child from Iraq, Mariam Hamza, who is in the United States for medical treatment.
