IRAQ SANCTIONS MONITOR Number 157
Monday, November 20, 2000
LATEST NEWS++++++VHS copies of the film 'Big Ben to Baghdad', the epic
account of last year's journey in a 37-year-old Routemaster bus from London
to the capital of sanctions-engulfed Iraq. The 65-minute-film costs £9.99
from the Mariam Appeal, 31a Borough High Street, London SE1 9SE ++++LATEST
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Iraqi shortfall `will be made up'.
OIL: United States Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said yesterday he was
not concerned about crude supply shortages in the event of a disruption of
Iraqi oil supplies, saying they could be made up by other producers, reports
Reuters. Failing that, the United States or the West's energy watchdog, the
International Energy Agency, which has stocks of its own, could top up the
market, he added. "We do believe that Gulf countries or IEA countries or the
United States could make up that shortfall (caused by Iraqi disruption)," Mr
Richardson said during a conference of oil producing and consuming nations
in the Saudi capital Riyadh. "I think the first option would be the Gulf
states filling in that gap." Iraq has called for a surcharge of 50 US cents
per barrel and another charge of 1.50 euros per barrel to offset oil
production costs.
Source: SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST 20/11/2000
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Saudi Arabia says Iraq should comply with UN.
RIYADH, Nov. 19 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia would be the first to call for an
end to U.N. sanctions against Iraq and bring it back into the Arab fold if
it complied with U.N. resolutions, Saudi Defence Minister Prince Sultan bin
Abdullah Al-Aziz said on Sunday.
If Iraq complied with U.N. Security Council resolutions, "then you can be
sure that we would be the first people to call for lifting sanctions on
Iraq," Sultan said at a joint press conference with U.S. Defence Secretary
William Cohen.
Cohen, on a nine-stop tour of the Gulf and Middle East, has been reiterating
U.S. policy that U.N. sanctions on Iraq should continue unless Iraq allows
weapons inspectors to return.
"And when we are certain that Iraq is doing so, and does not have incorrect
weapons, then Iraq will be a friendly brother country," Sultan said,
according to a U.S. embassy translator.
In his last visit to the region as defence secretary, Cohen also met King
Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah with whom he discussed the Middle East peace
process, U.S. elections, and terrorism.
Asked whether he was comfortable with the amount of U.S. military presence
in Saudi Arabia, Sultan replied: "We don't have any American troops in the
Kingdom."
"What we have now is only the embargo planes which were put in place by the
coalition countries," for patrolling the Western imposed no-fly zone in
southern Iraq, he said.
"The aim of these planes is not aggression against Iraq, but to serve peace
and stability in Iraq and the neighbouring countries," Sultan said.
Saudi Arabia is currently not considering any new weapons deals, Sultan
said.
"We are not thinking of any new weapons deals. We are now thinking to build
Saudi society scientifically and industrially and agriculturally and
commercially. Saudi Arabia has enough to defend itself."
Asked whether he believed U.S. foreign policy favoured Israel over the
Palestinians, Sultan replied: "I think the U.S. under the leadership of
President Clinton is seeking world peace, especially in the Middle East. The
question of who is biased or not biased is not a useful question. It has no
use to anybody."
Cohen's trip to the region comes at a time of rising discontent among Arab
states which perceive the United States as showing a bias toward Israel in
the confrontation with the Palestinians.
"There was a clear sense of concern on both sides that we have to find a
solution to this crisis in order to prevent it from getting worse," Pentagon
spokesman Ken Bacon said after Cohen's meeting with Abdullah.
"The Secretary represented that he thought this was serious and that
everybody in the region should work hard to bring the Palestinians and
Israelis to the peace table," Bacon said.
"I would say that based on the countries I've been to to date, and those
that I will visit the next several days, that our standing in the Gulf
region is still very high," Cohen said.
"We enjoy support for the contribution we make to peace and stability and
prosperity throughout the Gulf region," he said.
The leaders also discussed the U.S. election, which is so close that no
winner has been declared nearly two weeks after ballots were cast.
Cohen has been assuring leaders on this trip that no matter who wins, the
United States would remain committed to its ties in the region.
Since the Oct. 12 attack on the U.S. destroyer Cole at the Yemeni port of
Aden in which 17 American sailors died, U.S. troops have been on heightened
alert, with the nearly 11,000 U.S. service personnel in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia
and Qatar on the highest level of alert.
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RUSSIA IS NOT MEDIATING BETWEEN KUWAIT, IRAQ - IVANOV.
Kuwait City. Nov 19 (Interfax) - Russia "is not engaged in any mediation
mission" between Kuwait and Iraq," Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said
before his departure from Kuwait on Sunday. "No one has asked us or
instructed us to mediate," Ivanov said, noting that Russia is making efforts
to facilitate the creation of a zone of stability and security in the
Persian Gulf for all of the regional states.
He said that violence in the Palestinian territories must be immediately
stopped and that "the world community must concentrate its main effort on
this." "We must stop violence, normalize the situation and get the talks
resumed," the Russian foreign minister said.
"There is no alternative to the peaceful settlement of the Middle East
conflict," Ivanov said.
He announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Emir of Kuwait
had exchanged messages.
Regarding the Kuwaiti citizens who went missing during the 1990 Iraqi
aggression, Ivanov said that the work to find out what happened to those
people must be continued, including by international institutions.
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Iraqi interior minister arrives in Doha to take part in fair.
Text of report by Iraqi radio on 19th November
Interior Minister Muhammad Zimam Abd-al-Razzaq arrived in Doha today at the
head of a delegation to participate in a Qatari fair, which will be
inaugurated tomorrow, Monday [20th November], and last three days.
Ali Bin-Sa'd al-Kawari, Qatari minister of state for the Council of
Ministers affairs; the Iraqi ambassador in Doha, and a number of Qatari
Foreign Ministry officials received the interior minister.
Source: Republic of Iraq Radio, Baghdad, in Arabic 2100 gmt 19 Nov 00
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Iraqi Ba'th Party official meets PFLP delegation.
Text of report by Iraqi radio on 19th November
Comrade Abd-al-Ghani Abd-al-Ghafur, member of Iraq Command of the Arab
Socialist Ba'th Party, has said that continuing and supporting the
Palestinian people's valiant intifadah to liberate all of Palestine and holy
Jerusalem is the responsibility of all national, pan-Arab and Islamic forces
and Arab political forces and professional unions. He was speaking during a
meeting with a delegation of the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine [PFLP], led by Abu-Ahmad Fu'ad, member of the PFLP's Political
Bureau, and includes Abu-Ali Hasan and Umar Qatif.
He said that the call of Iraq, led by His Excellency leader President Saddam
Husayn, for jihad to liberate Palestine from the sea to the river emanates
from the pan-Arab principles of the Arab Socialist Ba'th Party and the great
17th-30th July Revolution.
Abu-Ahmad Fu'ad expressed the pride of the people of Palestine and the
heroes of intifadah in the jihad stand of Iraq, led by His Excellency leader
President Saddam Husayn, support for the intifadah and struggle to liberate
all of Palestine. He said that this stand expresses the will of the
Palestinian people and their struggling forces and all strugglers in the
Arab world.
Source: Republic of Iraq Radio, Baghdad, in Arabic 1700 gmt 19 Nov 00.
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Iraqi spokesman says US-UK aircraft conduct 12 sorties.
Text of report by Iraqi radio on 19th November
As an expression of their hostility, the US Administration and its evil
ally, Britain, continue their aggression against our steadfast country in a
desperate bid to undermine the steadfastness of our people, who are
heroically confronting their evil schemes.
In a statement to INA, a military spokesman for the Air Defence Command
said: At 1145 today, the US and British ravens of evil violated the sanctity
of our airspace through Turkish airspace with the support of the Turkish
side and an AWACS aircraft flying in Turkish airspace. The ravens conducted
12 combat sorties from Turkish airspace. They flew over areas in the
governorates of Dahuk, Irbil and Ninawa. They were confronted by our heroic
ground defences and forced to leave our airspace to the bases of evil and
aggression in Turkey.
This raises to 5,524 the total number of combat sorties staged by the ravens
from Turkish airspace since the Conquest Day on 17th December 1998. The
total number of combat sorties conducted by the ravens from Saudi, Kuwaiti
and Turkish airspace is 26,979.
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Paper says fossil fish from 60 m years ago found in Iraq.
A group of Iraqi geologists have unearthed a fossil fish dating back 60
million years, a weekly newspaper said Sunday.
The Al-Ittihad weekly quoted the director general of the Geological Survey
Public Co., Ra'ad Al-Jumaily, as saying the 40 centimeter fossil was
unearthed in the southern desert that stretches along the Iraqi borders with
Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
He said the fossil was found after extensive geological survey of the
rock-beds of the desert that, according to geologists, was part of the
Arabian Gulf shores millions of years ago.
Al-Jumaily also said his geologists discovered, in Iraq's Western Sahara, a
"trilobite" scorpion, considered one of the most ancient fossils. But he not
say how old the scorpion was. He added a 25-million-year old coral fossil
was unearthed at Alus in Anbar Province about 110 kilometers west of
Baghdad.
Source: KYODO NEWS 19/11/2000
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Internet Helps Iraqis Catch Glimpse of Outside World.
BAGHDAD, November 19 (Xinhua) - If an Internet service center can be
compared to a window to see the outside world, three such windows have so
far been opened in Iraq, a country plagued by two wars in the last 20 years
and isolated by decade-old United Nations embargo.
The State Company for Internet Services, the first of its kind in Iraq, is
located at the Saadoun Street in the central capital.
Zainab Nahee, one of the customers who packed the new and bright Internet
cafe since it was opened late last July, has benefited a lot. "Thanks to the
Internet, I can get to know what is happening in the outside world, make
foreign friends and even make business deals," she said.
Nahee, who worked for a trading company, was checking e-mails from a
Rome-based Italian business partner which she got to know through the net
and has since kept contacts with each other. "This would be unimaginable in
the past," she said.
People like Nahee from business circles have been a major part of the
center's customers. Hossam Mubarak, owner of a plastics company and also one
of the earliest patrons of the center, has also made a deal with a firm of
the United Arab Emirates (UAE) through the web.
Mubarak came to surf the net two or three times a week and this has helped
him know many Asian and European companies engaging in the same trade.
Unlike Mubarak and Nahee who live in Baghdad, Haidar Adnadam, a sweet
manufacturer, has to drive an hour to get to the center from Babylon, a city
some 100 kilometers north of the capital. He has visited the center nine
times. "It is worth it," he said, adding that the Internet has given him
inspiration to improve the package of his sweets. "It would be even better
if such a center is opened in Babylon," he said.
The three Internet centers opened so far in Iraq are just too few for its 22
million people. The plan to open more such centers in Baghdad and to expand
Internet services to other provinces has been announced by Ahmad Murtadha
Ahmad Khalil, Iraqi minister of Transport and Communications.
Moreover, such service will also be provided to universities, private
colleges and companies as well as foreign embassies to enable more people in
the isolated country to catch up with what is happening in the outside
world. The cost to surf the Internet is 2,000 Iraqi dinars (1.1 U.S.
dollars) an hour, while the registration fee for an e-mail address is
100,000 dinars (55 dollars) a year and e-mail access each time costs 750
dinars (40 cents).
The charge is "very reasonable", said Duraind Sammi, director of the center,
adding that the costs for computers, lines, air-conditioners, generators and
most importantly, the salaries for the 15 working staff, have to be taken
into account. But it is still too much for the vast majority of the 5
million residents in the capital, where a government employee can only get a
meager salary of 20 dollars a month.
In addition, the center is too small and it is quite often that one has to
wait for several hours to get served, a postgraduate student who just gave
her name as Mouna complained. In spite of the problems such as crowdedness,
frequent power cuts and lack of spare computers, no one can deny that some
Iraqis, mainly businessmen, students, teachers and researchers from the
middle class, have widened their horizons through the Internet.
All the web sites are accessible, except those violating Islamic religion or
containing pornographic substance, Sammi said.
Despite the fact that satellite dishes are prohibited, the media tightly
controlled and the embargo still in place, the computer business has become
more and more flourishing in the country.
This shows that as the world has entered the age of information technology,
Iraq, though crippled by wars and embargo, is just unwilling to be left
behind.
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No one hurt in mortar attack on Iranian city.
Guerrillas fired mortars into the outskirts of Musian in southwestern Iran
on Sunday causing no damage or casualties, the Iranian news agency IRNA
reported.
The agency said the opposition Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization based in Iraq
- whom it calls the Hypocrites - carried out the attack.
"Elements of the terrorist mini-group, the Hypocrites, fired mortars on an
area on the fringes of the border city of Musian, in Ilam Province
(south-western Iran), on Sunday morning. There were no losses or casualties
as a result of this indiscriminate attack by the Hypocrites," the agency
said.
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US considers action on Qatar royal's gift to Iraq.
WASHINGTON, Nov 19 (Reuters) - The United States is investigating a Qatar
royal family member's gift of a jumbo jet to Iraq, a State Department
official said on Sunday, adding the present may prompt the United States to
impose sanctions against the small Gulf state.
Sheikh Hamad bin Ali bin Jabr al-Thani, head of the Gulf Falcon air services
company, presented the Boeing 747 plane at Saddam International Airport on
Thursday, calling it an expression of solidarity with President Saddam
Hussein and the citizens of Iraq, the Iraqi News Agency said.
But a State Department official said it is illegal to supply Iraq with
aircraft under existing United Nations sanctions.
"The government of any country involved in this prohibited transfer of an
aircraft to Saddam has an obligation to seek the return of the aircraft and
to take all possible steps under national law both to prevent future
transfers and to punish those involved in this transfer," the official said.
"We urge other states in the region to conduct their own investigations and
impose whatever sanctions are appropriate, including the possibility of
prohibiting the operation in their territory of any person or company
involved in this illegal transfer," the official said. "When we determine
what the facts are in this case, we will consider our own action against
those involved."
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U.S. urges Kuwait to go on backing patrols over Iraq.
KUWAIT, Nov 19 (Reuters) - The United States urged Kuwait on Sunday to
continue to act as one of the bases for U.S. warplanes patrolling southern
Iraq, dismissing reported suggestions by Russia that the small Gulf state
end its support.
"I raised the issue in terms of the Russian proposal to encourage,
apparently, this again is second hand, for Kuwait to no longer support the
enforcement of the no-fly zones," U.S. Secretary of Defence William Cohen
told reporters as he visited Kuwait.
Russia has repeatedly argued for the lifting of sanctions on Iraq and an end
to the no-fly zones policed by Western warplanes, which regularly bomb Iraqi
targets.
Before leaving Kuwait for Saudi Arabia earlier on Sunday, Russian Foreign
Minister Igor Ivanov said that Moscow was not acting as a go-between to
settle differences between Iraq and Kuwait, denying that he was pushing for
a specific plan.
But in Riyadh Ivanov said a series of political and military measures were
required to turn the Gulf region into a "zone free from all weapons of mass
destruction".
"At issue here is rejecting the use of force in international relations,
respecting territorial integrity and sovereignty and the absence of
interference in each other's internal affairs," he was quoted as saying.
"In other words, matters must be pursued to create a regional system of
security and cooperation which will allow us to avoid a repetition of wars
and conflicts in the strategically important region."
The United States, and to a lesser extent Britain, enforce the no-fly zone
over southern Iraq by mounting patrols of warplanes from bases in Kuwait,
Saudi Arabia and from aboard U.S. warships. Cohen said: "In my judgment (the
zone's removal would) place some stress upon the security of Kuwait
itself... The reason for the no-fly zones is to prevent Saddam Hussein from
posing a threat to Kuwait or to his neighbours."
He was speaking following talks in Kuwait with its leaders on the U.S. role
in defending the small country and ways to force Iraq to meet U.N.
resolutions which followed its invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 and its
defeat in the Gulf War 10 years ago in February.
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Blast in northern Iraq, no casualties - agency.
ANKARA, Nov 19 (Reuters) - An explosion in the breakaway Kurdish enclave of
northern Iraq on Sunday caused little damage and no casualties, Turkey's
state-run Anatolian news agency said.
It said the cause of the blast in Arbil, the second in a week, was not
immediately clear.
Six people were killed on Tuesday when a motorbike loaded with explosives
blew up in the regional capital Arbil - the stronghold of the Kurdistan
Democratic Party (KDP).
Sunday's explosion at 0400 GMT in a minority Turkmen area shattered windows
of nearby buildings. KDP officials were not immediately available for
comment. The breakaway region has been controlled by the KDP and a rival
Kurdish militia group since it fell out of Baghdad's control after the 1991
Gulf War.
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Iraqi Foreign Ministry under-secretary meets Austrian officials in Vienna.
Text of report by Iraqi TV on 18th November
Foreign Ministry Under-Secretary Nizar Hamdun met Austrian Deputy Economy
Minister Josef Mayer in Vienna today. The two sides agreed to strengthen
economic relations between the two countries. They stressed the need to
activate the joint Iraqi-Austrian committee, which resumed its meetings
earlier this year. It was agreed to convene its next meeting in Vienna early
next year.
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Letter - My flight to Iraq.
By GEORGE GALLOWAY MP.
Sir: Had Peter Hain been at the Foreign Office in earlier times, he might
have changed the course of history - by dispatching a gunboat up the wrong
river, such is his inability to master facts (letter, 15 November). In
almost the same breath he asserts that our flight to Baghdad last week was
approved by the UN Sanctions Committee (it wasn't) and was therefore, by
implication, passed by the British government, while spitting out of the
other corner of his mouth that it was "deeply irresponsible" and was also
"not from Britain". Only he could seek to rationalise these two
contradictory statements.
The flight was bought and paid for in Britain, using a British charter firm,
although it is true that it did refuel, necessarily, in Bulgaria. If Mr
Hain's ministerial Montego stops for petrol in a Putney service station,
does that make it the property of BP? The minister clearly believes so.
Hain states that ours was a "humanitarian" flight. It was not. We carried
only passengers and those were dedicated anti-sanctions campaigners. Despite
his attempts to give it his post facto blessing (out of one face), his
officials knew nothing of the flight and the Department of Trade and
Industry did not inspect it. We could have been carrying anything at all,
but in fact we carried only our determination and our hand luggage.
We are grateful for his confirmation that passenger flights from Britain to
Iraq are acceptable if they touch down in a third country less in thrall to
US and British vindictiveness. This is the hole we have blown in Britain's
air embargo and one we shall enlarge in the near future.
I once knew a Peter Hain who was a dab hand at political gestures that
illuminated grave injustice, a man unrecognisable in today's apologist for
infanticide masquerading as politics. Perhaps it was another case of
mistaken identity.
GEORGE GALLOWAY MP
(Lab, Glasgow Kelvin)
House of Commons
London SW1.
Source: INDEPENDENT 18/11/2000 P2
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AEROFLOT PREPARES TO OPEN ITS OFFICE IN BAGHDAD.
MOSCOW. Nov 17 (Interfax) - The Russian airline Aeroflot is completing
preparations to open its office in Baghdad, the Aeroflot press service said
on Friday.
Aeroflot and the Iraqi airline Iraqi Airways are making joint efforts to
resume cooperation under the terms of the bilateral intergovernmental
agreement on air communication, the press release reads.
Aeroflot intends to assist the Iraqi airline in the technical and
terrestrial maintenance of planes and personnel training. In addition, the
parties are planning to sign an agreement on the mutual recognition of
transport documentation.
The agreement to resume the work of Aeroflot's office in Baghdad and open an
Iraq Airways office in Moscow was reached in late September during
negotiations between the administrations of the two airlines.
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Iraq seeks India's help to revoke sanctions.
NEW DELHI, NOV. 17. At a meeting with the Bharatiya Janata Party president,
Mr. Bangaru Laxman, the Ambassador of Iraq, Mr. Al-Mukhtar, today suggested
that India help in ending sanctions against Iraq.
Dwelling on his party's "secular policies" as outlined by him in his address
to the party in Nagpur, Mr. Laxman expressed the hope that all sanctions on
Iraq would be lifted soon.
Earlier, Mr. Al-Mukhtar had pointed out that after the Gulf war Iraq had
accepted the boundary between Iraq and Kuwait as specified by the United
Nations, it had paid compensation to Kuwait, it had destroyed its stock of
chemical weapons under U.N. supervision, but in spite of this sanctions
against the country had not been lifted.
The meeting today comes ahead of the visit to India later this month by the
Iraqi vice-president, Mr. Tahe Ramadan. The Ambassador indicated that Iraq
considers the upcoming meeting between the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Bihari
Vajpayee, and Mr. Ramadan as extremely important.
Source: THE HINDU 18/11/2000
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Saddam Hussein urges Arabs to cut ties with Israel.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has urged Arab countries to revoke their
peace treaties with Israel and said countries bordering Israel must allow
the passage of Arabs to enable them to fight Israel, local newspapers
reported Saturday.
Saddam reportedly said that if Arab countries neighboring Israel do not want
to fight their neighbor, then "at least let others pass through the
battlefield." He did not name the Arab countries he was referring to.
The remarks were reportedly made in a cabinet meeting Wednesday, but were
only published in Saturday's newspapers.
The 56-member Organization of Islamic Conference approved last week a
nonbinding resolution telling members to sever their ties with Israel
because of the country's alleged efforts to remove Arab influence from
Jerusalem.
Israel shares borders with Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, but only Egypt
and Jordan have forged peace pacts with it. Other Arab countries have
unofficial, low-level ties with the country.
Iraq has long been a fierce opponent of Israel. It fired Scud missiles at
the country during the Gulf War in 1991.
Iraq also opposed the 1978 Camp David agreements which led to the cessation
of hostilities between Egypt and Israel.
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Bulgarian Plane in Iraq on "Solidarity" Flight.
BAGHDAD, November 18 (Xinhua) - A Bulgarian plane landed at the Saddam
International Airport in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Saturday to show
solidarity with the sanctions-hit nation.
Some 100 anti-sanction Bulgarian activists, including former government
officials, businessmen, doctors and a number of Iraqi expatriates in
Bulgaria, were on board the direct flight from Sofia, capital of Bulgaria.
Jan Ivanov, head of the visiting delegation, told the official Iraqi News
Agency (INA) at the airport that "they came to show support" for the Iraqi
people, who he said have been hard hit by the decade-old United Nations
economic sanctions.
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Iraq says US, UK suspend oil-for-food contracts.
An Iraqi Trade Ministry official has announced that the US and Britain have
suspended a number of contracts with international companies as part of the
UN oil-for-food and medicines accord.
Iraqi radio on Saturday quoted the official as saying the American and
British representatives to Committee 661 had suspended 14 contracts with a
number of foreign companies, including Russian, French, Indian, Italian,
Turkish, Spanish and Danish companies.
The contracts covered spare parts for oil facilities, agricultural pumps and
the transportation and communications sector, laboratory equipment for the
irrigation sector, laboratories for the education sector, and medicines.
Source: Republic of Iraq Radio, Baghdad, in Arabic 18 Nov 00.
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Six Iraqi children wounded in mine explosion in Basra.
Text of report by Iraqi news agency INA web site
Basra, 18th November: A mine left over from the 30-state aggression has gone
off in the district of Al-Azzah in the governorate of Basra in southern Iraq
wounding six children.
The Iraqi news agency correspondent in the governorate said that the
children, who range between nine and 11 years old, sustained various
injuries when a mine went off while grazing their cattle. They were taken to
the Basra state hospital for treatment.
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Iraqi paper plays down U.N. talks on sanctions.
BAGHDAD, Nov 18 (Reuters) - A leading Iraqi newspaper on Saturday said
little was likely to result from dialogue between the United Nations and
Baghdad on easing the decade-old sanctions against Iraq.
"Counting on the efforts of the U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan at a time
America and Britain dominate the world body might make us bet on a losing
horse," said Babel, newspaper of President Saddam Hussein's eldest son Uday.
"We cannot expect the Security Council to issue a resolution ending
injustice done to us," Babel said in a front page editorial.
Last week discussed deadlocked efforts to ease the sanctions with the
vice-chairman of Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council, Izzat Ibrahim, at an
Islamic summit in Qatar.
Annan described the talks as "frank and useful", while Iraqi Foreign
Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said afterwards: "We have agreed to open a
comprehensive dialogue between the United Nations and Baghdad without
preconditions."
However, diplomatic sources said Annan had made clear he was bound by U.N.
resolutions that stipulate the Iraqis must admit and cooperate with
international weapons monitors before sanctions can be suspended. "The
Secretary General and the influential powers in the Council are required to
show good intentions towards our legitimate demand for lifting sanctions,"
it added.
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MISCELLANY++++++++++++++++++++++++
PRESS RELEASE
voices in the wilderness uk
20th November 2000
tel. 01865 - 243 232
COMEDIAN HELPS LAUNCH WEEK OF ACTION AGAINST SANCTIONS ON IRAQ.
Bishop backs civil disobedience against embargo.
Monday 20th November, 10.30 am, Downing Street : Jeremy Hardy will be
helping to launch a Week of Action against the economic sanctions today,
Universal Children's Day [1]. The comedian will be amongst those handing in
a giant copy of the new National Petition Against Sanctions on Iraq [2] at
Number 10.
The petition notes that 'according to UNICEF, economic sanctions have
contributed to the death of 500,000 children in Iraq since 1990' [3] and
calls for 'the immediate and unconditional lifting of the non-military
sanctions on Iraq'.
There will be a nonviolent sit-down protest outside the US embassy at 1pm on
Saturday 25th November, as part of the Week of Action. The Bishop of
Brentwood, Thomas McMahon, has backed the protest. Earlier this year
protestors blocked Whitehall for 30 minutes in a similar protest. Arrests
are anticipated.
tel: +44 (0)20 7403 5200
fax: +44 (0)20 7403 3823
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
web: www.mariamappeal.com
