Foreign Affairs Editorial Opinion (Published)
Source: Sunday Herald (UK)
Published: 2/27/00 Author: Felicity Arbuthnot
Posted on 02/29/2000 09:41:26 PST by Antiwar Republican
Publication Date: Feb 27 2000

A second UN co-ordinator inside a month has resigned in protest at the effects of continued sanctions on Iraq, as it emerged that US industry is profiting from the oil for food programme.

Jutta Burghardt, head of the World Food Programme, quit just weeks after her fellow German Hans von Sponeck. Von Sponeck's action came as no surprise to Iraq watchers, he had been increas ingly outspoken over his concerns at the crippling effect of the embargo on the most vulnerable in Iraq, and the inadequacies of the oil for food programme.

In June last year he told a delegation from Physicians for Social Responsibility: "The programme provides just $180 a year per person out of which everything has to be financed, from electrical services to water, sewerage to food, health, the lot. Do you consider that adequate for survival? I can say at very best the nose is just above the water É but over the years the nose is increasingly touching the water and many people are drowning.

"The effect of sanctions were he said "setting the stage for depriving another generation of the opportunity to become responsible national and international citizens of tomorrow and that might be the most serious aspect of it all, apart from the nutritional deficiency".

And in a situation breathtaking in its hypocrisy, over a dozen companies are now said to be exporting parts and machinery for the repair of Iraq's oil fields by routes via European subsidiaries and associates. One of the companies, the vast Schlumberger Ltd, has on its board former CIA Director John M Deutch who masterminded US attempts to depose Saddam Hussein. Another, Dallas-based Halliburton, has its board is graced by Dick Cheyney, US Secretary of Defence during the Gulf War, who oversaw the reduction of Iraq to a "pre-industrial age."

While the civilian population of Iraq struggles to survive, US big business benefits from the country's destruction. A situation that perhaps gives credence to those who have long believed that for all the rhetoric there is a curious complicity between Washington and Baghdad. The former preferring the current regime rather than another which could risk internal breakup and thus further regional instability.

It was Ireland's Denis Halliday, a former UN Assistant Secretary General who first resigned as UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Iraq on September 30 1998, in protest at sanctions being res ponsible for "the destruction of an entire nation". He did not, he said, join the United Nations to "oversee genocide".

Now his also-resigned successor - von Sponeck - will arrive back in New York for a meeting with the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan tomorrow. When he returned to New York for consultation last October, it was widely reported that he had been recalled for his position to be terminated. However, when speaking to the Sunday Herald in Baghdad the evening before his departure, the unmistakable impression was that he was going to tender his resignation in protest at the situation, but was then persuaded to remain in his position.

To have one senior UN diplomat resign in protest is unfortunate, to lose a second is deeply embarrassing. While both von Sponeck and his spokesman George Somerwill are saying little, a senior source speculated that the last straw was the "hopelessness" of the situation and deteriorating relations with Benon Sevan, Executive Director of the Office of the Iraq Programme. "They have not spoken since October," added the source, claiming that Sevan had repeatedly "undermined, second guessed and played games" with von Sponeck's proposals.

Resolution 1284 provides a framework for the suspension of sanctions, but is seen by Iraq as simply another "moving goal post". Although the ceiling on the amount of oil Iraq can pump has been lifted, the state of the oil industry - with such a shortage of parts - that it is a largely meaningless gesture.

However, more than a dozen firms have signed millions of dollars worth of contracts with Baghdad, placing bids through overseas subsidiaries and associates. "A lot of the equipment for Iraq's oil industry was originally made in America and if you want spare parts you go back to the original suppliers," James Placke, an expert on Gulf oil production for the US is quoted as saying. Ironically Iraq's oil installations have been targets in the almost daily bombings which have continued since December 1998 it is a positive business boon to US companies such as Schlumberger, Halliburton, Ingersoll Rand, Baker Hughes, Fisher Rosemount, Emerson Electric and United Technologies.

Moreover, although most US oil companies have been prohibited by Baghdad from purchasing Iraq's oil since the massive four day attack by Britain and the US in December 1998, Larry Goldstein, President of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation, cites Iraq as the fastest growing source of US oil imports via brokers who dispatch the Iraqi crude mainly to ports in the Gulf of Mexico.

At a meeting at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on February 3 entitled: "The Future for Iraq" and attended by representatives of the American Embassy, Iraqi opposition and academics (it seems only one representative had been in Iraq in recent years) reported the unanimous conclusion was that sanctions had comprehensively failed as a policy, were completely moribund, and the human cost incalculable. Yet a loss of face and the lack of political will in the UK and the US made it likely that the subject would remain far from a priority.

Another stumbling block is the return of "son of UNSCOM" - UNMOVIC. Given relations between Iraq and Israel and Baghdad's conviction from day one of UNSCOM's arrival that it was simply a tool to share all its findings with Israel, the possibility of the Iraqis conceding to the return of the weapons inspectors is virtually nil.

According to Denis Halliday, the political impasse "constitutes genocide" - and London and Washington are responsible. "It represents the corruption of the Security Council in implementing Resolutions in direct contravention of articles 1 and 2 of the UN Charter and is in contravention of the Geneva Convention.

"The UN Security Council - set up in 1945 by the five victorious states - needs a complete restructure of its power base because it is no longer right or relevant," he argues. The war of words is set to rage, with US State Department spokesman James Rubin implying the meticulous and measured Count von Sponeck had gone native and become too close to the Iraqi regime and Ms Burghardt's spokeswoman saying that von Sponeck's evaluation "is correct and reflects the views of all observers of the situation on the ground".

Sources, meanwhile, are predicting another two high profile resignations from the UN in Baghdad "resulting from this unprecedented abuse and undermining of the UN Declaration on Human Rights".
 

Felicity Arbuthnot and Denis Halliday are senior researchers on Paying the Price: The killing of the Children of Iraq, a special report by John Pilger, to be shown on ITV, 9.30pm on March 6