U.N. Report: Sanctions Ineffective
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000815/wl/un_sanctions_1.html

Tuesday August 15 3:28 PM ET
U.N. Report: Sanctions Ineffective

By NAOMI KOPPEL, Associated Press Writer

GENEVA (AP) - Economic sanctions aimed at changing government policy are
usually ineffective and often illegal under international law, according
to a U.N.-commissioned report released Tuesday.

``The theory behind economic sanctions is that economic pressure on
civilians will translate into pressure on the government for change. This
theory is bankrupt both legally and practically,'' said the report by
Belgian law professor Marc Bossuyt.

The worst case is Iraq, where 10 years of U.N. sanctions driven by the
United States and Great Britain has led to ``a humanitarian disaster
comparable to the worst catastrophes of the past decades,'' Bossuyt said
in his report for the U.N. Subcommission on Human Rights.

Bossuyt said the Security Council's decision to continue sanctions while
knowing they caused an untold number of Iraqis to die was ``unequivocally
illegal'' under international humanitarian law.

The 40-year U.S. trade blockade on Cuba, which caused its people to
suffer, was also illegal on humanitarian grounds, Bossuyt said.

He said sanctions should carry a time limit to achieve an aim, and should
not be targeted at civilians. Alternatives include freezing the foreign
assets of the ruling elite, and bans on imports of luxury goods.

Bossuyt's report comes amid a growing movement to end the sanctions in
Iraq on moral grounds. Varied calls to end the sanctions have come from
the Vatican, U.S. peace activists, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez,
former weapons inspector Scott Ritter, and two former U.N. humanitarian
coordinators, Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck, who resigned in
protest of the sanctions policy.

On Tuesday, the current head of U.N. humanitarian programs in Iraq, Benon
Sevan, said an oil-for-food program that allows Iraq to sell limited
amounts of oil for some humanitarian goods and to fund Gulf War
reparations and U.N. operations can never be a substitute for normal
economic activity in Iraq.

Others are more critical.

In the May/June 1999 issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, American political
scientists John Mueller and Karl Mueller said economic sanctions in Iraq,
which they call the true ``weapons of mass destruction,'' are far more
deadly than the nuclear, chemical and biological weapons that the
sanctions are aimed at eradicating.

Strict trade sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait are
being kept in place until U.N. inspectors certify that Iraq is free of
weapons of mass destruction.

Aid distribution under the oil-for-food program has been plagued by delays
as members of the Security Council, particularly the United States, raise
questions about whether items ranging from sprinkler parts to agricultural
chemicals could have military uses.

As a result, some medicines and basic equipment such as chlorinators to
purify drinking water are forbidden by the sanctions. Bad water has
created an epidemic of dysentery and infectious diseases, resulting in
thousands of child deaths.

UNICEF said the number of child deaths has doubled since the sanctions.