Washington, DC, May 4 – Three former senior UN officials denounced and
called for the lifting of economic sanctions against Iraq at a
congressional briefing on Wednesday, May 3.  Former UN Humanitarian
Coordinators in Iraq, Hans von Sponeck and Denis Halliday, and former
weapons inspector Scott Ritter, called on the US government to abandon
its policy economic sanctions against Iraq.  Despite their diverse
backgrounds, all three agreed that economic sanctions are the principle
cause of the humanitarian disaster in Iraq, and dismissed claims that
American policy is not to blame.  US Representatives Dennis Kucinich
(D-OH), John Conyers (D-MI) and Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) also called for
the lifting of sanctions.

Former UN weapons inspector in Iraq Scott Ritter debunked what he
called
“the myth” of a threat from Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, which
typically cited as a reason for maintaining sanctions.  Calling himself
“an unlikely ally in this matter,” Ritter said that “a lot of the blame
for this perception can be laid at my doorstep.”  But, Ritter said,
“the
reality is that when you judge Iraq’s current weapons of mass
destruction capabilities today, they have none.”

Hans von Sponeck, who resigned in March in protest of the effects of
sanctions on the civilian population of Iraq, said that the “oil for
food” program which he had administered was not meeting the most basic
needs of the Iraqi population.  He said that because of sanctions,
Iraqis simply do not have enough to eat.  “The conditions in hospitals
are atrocious,” he added.  “Diseases that had disappeared from a
country
with one of the best infrastructures in the Middle East have reappeared
and have become a major killer of children under five” he said.  The UN
estimates that about 5,000 Iraqis die every month as a result of
economic sanctions.

Denis Halliday, who was von Sponeck’s predecessor as UN Humanitarian
Coordinator in Iraq  resigned in September 1998 in protest of the
effects of what he yesterday called “the human calamity going on in
Iraq
today on account of widespread deprivation caused by US-driven economic
sanctions.”   Halliday presented a plan calling for the lifting of
economic sanctions, an end to US bombing of Iraq, renewed weapons
inspections, a dialogue between the Iraqi and  US governments,
releasing
the oil production equipment on hold in the UN sanctions committee,
private investment in Iraq and postponement of reparations payments.

The UN estimates that about 5,000 Iraqis die every month as a result of
economic sanctions.