Local group will carry supplies to Baghdad

Saturday, August 5, 2000

By ISAAC BAKER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Bert Sacks slowly unzips his backpack and sets a small bottle of water
on
the table. It appears clean enough, there are no specks of dirt and no
debris.

But he knows that the water carries fecal coliform and other
contaminants.
He knows that this water he took from a hospital in Basra, Iraq, is a
killer.

"That's become our biological weapon," Sacks said of Iraqi water that
remains contaminated as a result of economic sanctions following the
Gulf
War. "All you have to do is destroy the sewage system and it's there in
the
wells."

Tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of U.S.-backed sanctions, which
were
enacted days after Iraq invaded Kuwait and began the Gulf War.

It is the same date, Aug. 6, that a nuclear bomb was dropped on
Hiroshima,
Japan, in 1945, killing 125,000 civilians and effectively ending World
War
II. For critics of sanctions, the parallel as a weapon of mass
destruction
is powerful. The sanctions, they and others say, have killed far more.
 

Kadhin Hadawi, 67, displays an X-ray showing he likely has tuberculosis
at
Qadysiaha General Hospital in Baghdad. U.S.-backed sanctions against
Iraq
have led to a shortage of medical supplies. Dan DeLong/P-I
But while Sacks will lead a group of local men next week to bring
supplies
to the people of Iraq and to call attention to the sanctions, Iraq
seems to
have dropped out of the American consciousness.

The issue is not pending before Congress, and the United States and
Britain
continue to staunchly support sanctions, despite protests from France,
Russia, China and the Arab League.

Haunted by images of the impoverished nation, Sacks will lead a small
delegation, including three Washington men, to Iraq Tuesday for a
10-day
trip to protest the sanctions.

More than 120 people, including religious and political leaders, have
agreed
to break the sanctions with him on Monday by bringing food and medicine
to a
rally at Steinbrueck Park next to the Pike Place Market.

Sacks' group will bring two duffel bags each of antibiotics, water
filters
and other supplies to deliver to charities and hospitals around Basra
and
the capital city of Baghdad.

A former software consultant who has devoted his life to working for
humanitarian causes, Sacks runs a hand through his silver hair as he
talks
about the desperation he's seen in his six trips to Iraq.

Doctors with advanced training in chemotherapy and cancer treatment sit
by
helplessly as their patients die. They don't have the proper medicines
or
equipment.

It is illegal to bring any aid to Iraq without government approval, a
violation punishable by stiff fines and jail time.

And the consequences are real. Sacks received a letter from the State
Department in 1998 threatening $163,000 in fines. He was never charged.
Despite the risks, Sacks said the trip is worth it.

"We're doing this to publicly violate the sanctions and to call
attention to
their immorality," Sacks said.

After a decade of sanctions, Saddam Hussein remains firmly entrenched
in
power and the country's infrastructure remains in shambles.

Unemployment is rampant, and with no foreign aid, the economy has
stagnated.

By most accounts, a lethal combination of malnourishment, contaminated
water
and a lack of basic medicines has decimated Iraqi children.

The United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) estimates that at
least
500,000 children under the age of 5 have died since the sanctions
began,
most from preventable causes such as diarrhea and dehydration.

International humanitarian organizations estimate that 5,000 children
are
dying each month.

The last two coordinators of the U.N.'s humanitarian mission to Iraq
have
both resigned in protest of the sanctions.

"We are in the process of destroying an entire society," said Denis
Halliday, after resigning in 1998. "It's as simple and terrifying as
that."

But U.S. officials insist that Saddam Hussein is to blame for the
country's
misery. The Clinton administration has repeatedly said it would support
ending sanctions if Saddam would stop all biological, chemical and
nuclear
weapons programs and allow U.N. inspectors free reign in examining
Iraq's
facilities.

"Our concerns about Saddam Hussein's desire to pursue a program of
developing weapons of mass destruction, those concerns remain," State
Department spokesman Philip Reeker said this week. "We need to have
inspectors on the ground."

Saddam frustrated the United Nations for years by limiting access to
inspection teams, and the United States and Britain launched a new
round of
bombings against the country when he expelled the U.N. team in 1998.

Iraq still refuses to allow the team back in.

The monitoring of no-fly zones in the northern and southern regions of
Iraq,
instituted by the United States and Britain after the Persian Gulf War,
is
the longest U.S. air operation since the Vietnam War. This year it will
cost
as much as $2 billion.

Pentagon officials say short of removing Saddam and his weapons
programs,
the United States has accomplished its goals in the region.

"Kuwait is free. It's rebuilt. It has a thriving economy," Pentagon
spokesman Kenneth Bacon told reporters this week. "Iraq is contained.
It has
a broken economy. It is an isolated state.

"I think that's the fundamental accomplishment . . . over the last 10
years."

But for many Iraqis, the suffering continues.

The oil-for-food program begun in 1996 has helped ease some of the
poverty,
allowing Iraq to pump oil and sell it in exchange for food and
medicines, as
well as oil-drilling equipment.

The United States points out that it offered to begin the program after
the
Gulf War ended, but was turned down until Saddam became desperate for
assistance.

About $21 billion worth of oil has been pumped since the tightly
controlled
program began. Under the plan, the United Nations sells oil for Iraq
and
holds onto the revenues. The Iraqi government can then submit proposals
to
spend the money on food and medicine, but they must be approved by a
U.N.
committee which checks for dual-use items that could be appropriated by
the
military.

The bureaucracy of the system has drawn fire from critics who say some
of
the holds placed on orders are deliberate.

Brian Mack, a religion teacher at Seattle Preparatory Academy who's
going on
the trip to Iraq, said withholding basic items from the Iraqi people
makes
no sense.

"An ambulance is dual use?" Mack asked of items held by the U.N.
screening
committee. "A water pump and an incubator are dual use?"

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has also shown concern over the
delays.

"These holds are having an undesirable impact on our humanitarian
activities," he said.

To critics, there are other snags: The United States has accused Saddam
of
stockpiling supplies and withholding them from his people. But since
many of
the products come in separate parts, when one component is held up, the
whole delivery is delayed.

In some cases, boxes of syringes are stacked in warehouses gathering
dust,
awaiting the arrival of needles.

While Iraq is now allowed to pump as much oil as it can, its drilling
equipment dates back to long before the Gulf War and is inefficient
when it
works at all. Much of the money earmarked for repairs and maintenance
equipment has been held up under dual-use fears.

In addition, sanctions opponents point to the distribution of the oil
funds:
About a third of the oil revenues go to war reparations for Kuwait;
another
chunk goes for the overhead of the program and more goes to help pay
for
U.N. operations in the region.

All of the money, peace activist Sacks says, should go to help the
starving
and the sick of Iraq.

"Why do you limit these people to a certain amount of money?" Mack
asked.
"Are you afraid they'll eat too much?"

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright appalled sanctions opponents
when,
after being asked about the death toll on "60 Minutes" in 1996, she
replied
that if it saved the lives of American soldiers, then "the price is
worth
it."

For many, like the teacher Mack, blaming Saddam for Iraq's troubles
does not
excuse U.S. sanctions. America could be helping to save those lives, he
said.

"I feel called by my faith to violate these sanctions and suffer the
consequences," said Mack, a devout Catholic. "You don't starve a people
to
punish a dictator. . . . You can't quash evil with evil."

The issue has received little attention in Congress or in the
presidential
race.

Rep. George Nethercutt, a Washington Republican, has garnered headlines
for
his call for an end to the embargo on Cuba, but Iraq sanctions have
remained
on the fringes.

Republican Sen. Slade Gorton will continue to back the sanctions until
Saddam complies with the terms of the Gulf War cease-fire, said
spokesman
Todd Young, including allowing U.N. weapons inspectors into Iraq and
dismantling his programs for weapons of mass destruction.

A spokeswoman for Democratic Sen. Patty Murray said the issue needs to
be
revisited, but that no one's talking about it.

"Right now we have some major security concerns about Saddam Hussein
and his
weapons," said spokeswoman Tovah Ravitz. "But we need to take a close
look
at what the sanctions are doing to civilians, and especially kids. At
this
point there's no debate at all."

Gerri Haynes, vice president of Washington Physicians for Social
Responsibility and a nurse and grief counselor at Children's Hospital,
said
the reality is easy to ignore.

"The American public doesn't know, and it doesn't want to know," said
Haynes, who's been to Iraq three times. "It would mean that they would
have
to stand up."

P-I reporter Isaac Baker can be reached at 206-448-8366 or
isaacbaker@seattle-pi.com