Foreign Affairs Editorial Opinion (Published)
     Source: Jordan Times
     Published: 1/16/00 Author: Amy Henderson

'Sanctions most dangerous weapon of mass destruction'

By Amy Henderson

      AMMAN — A former U.S. official on Saturday said that economic sanctions are the most dangerous weapons of mass
destruction on earth.

“The principle excuse that the U.S. uses to maintain sanctions is that of preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction,”
said former U.S. attorney General Ramsey Clark. “Never doubt that sanctions is the weapon of choice for people in power.
[Sanctions are] cheap, silent and like a bomb, but better, because they only kills people; they don't destroy property. So they
can steal what's left when everyone else is dead.”

Clark, in open defiance of U.N./U.S. sanctions and U.S. federal law, departed Amman for Iraq on Jan. 15, along with a
60-person delegation, known as the Iraq Sanctions Challenge (ISC).

The ISC will transport approximately $2 million of medicine and medical supplies to Jordan's eastern neighbour.

All American citizens on the delegation could be fined up to $1 million in fines and 12 years in prison for violating the sanctions.

While in Iraq, the delegation will visit hospitals, schools and other institutions weakened by the sanctions. The delegation is
composed of students from seven U.S. colleges, members of Plowshares, the International Action Centre, New Hampshire
Peace Action, American Muslims for Global Peace and Justice, and Save the Children as well as delegates from Italy, Japan,
England and Canada.

Clark, who is on his tenth trip to Iraq, where ten years of sanctions have ravaged the economy and devastated infrastructure
and healthcare, spoke on Saturday at the Professional Associations Complex in Shmeisani ahead of his departure.

“Sanctions weaken and permanently debilitate the strongest of a society and kill the weakest and most vulnerable,” he said,
alluding the often-repeated expression by leaders of the sanctions regime that the U.S. and U.N. have “no grudge” against the
Iraqi people, but against the Iraqi regime. “Everyone knows that these are precisely the people that sanctions kill first.

“These sanctions say that our international community, our United Nations, the people of those nations [who support the
sanctions] have so little awareness or understanding or caring that they permit that to happen.

“Sanctions are the most direct and immediate means to impoverish a whole people,” Clark said.

“These sanctions are a severe abuse of human rights,” Clark said. “Since they were first imposed in 1990, more than 1.7 million
Iraqis have died. The most vulnerable members of Iraqi society have suffered catastrophic conditions due to U.S. policy. There
is no sign that these conditions will abate in light of the recent U.N. vote.”

Clark was referring to the Dec. 17, 1999, Security Council vote, in which four members of the council abstained, three from
the five permanent members and one from rotating members.

“This insistence on new weapons inspection is a ruse to violate the sovereignty of Iraq,” Clark said. “Punishing Iraq for rejecting
new weapons inspections is nothing more than U.S. sanctioned genocide.”

“The `oil-for-food' programme is the best example of this. `oil-for-food' was the U.N.'s provision to relieve mass starvation in
Iraq. However, 50 per cent of the escrowed proceeds from oil sales are never used for food. The money is paid to U.S./British
oil companies, the Kuwaiti royal family and even Israeli El Al Airlines as war reparations. The remainder pays for the
administration of the sanctions. This is the thin edge of the wedge of neo-colonialism.”

Meanwhile, Mariam Hamza, who caught the world's attention when British MP George Galloway flew her from Iraq to
Scotland for cancer treatment two years ago and who returned to Amman's Al Amal Cancer Centre late last year after her
health deteriorated, will again return to Iraq.

A press release from the National Jordanian Mobilisation Committee in Defence of Iraq said doctors will release the child
today, after stabilising her health. They said her eyesight will be permanently damaged.

Galloway, who travelled to Iraq in November, announced during the Holy Month of Ramadan the launch of a campaign to
collect funds for a suite to treat cancer at the Saddam Hospital in Baghdad, the press release said.

According to the United Nations, more than 1.5 million Iraqis have died as a direct result of economic sanctions, the vast
majority of them children under five years of age.