Dover couple, back from Iraq, rip U.N. sanctions

              By ROBERT EMRO

              Staff Writer

              DOVER — A local couple has returned from Iraq, several pounds lighter but more committed than ever to
              the lifting of U.N.-imposed economic sanctions against the Gulf War aggressor.

              Lauren Cannon, 30, and Tom Jackson, 40, endured 130-degree heat, squalid conditions and a diet of
              mainly lentils and rice to highlight the plight of Iraqis living under the 10-year-old embargo.

              Participants in the Summer 2000 Voices in Basra Project, the couple ate the same food their hosts receive
              in the "oil-for-food" ration basket. The vegetarians avoided local egg and dairy products as well as meat for
              fear of contamination from the depleted uranium used in armor-piercing shells during the war.

              "We had a good education for two months. You certainly can get by on it. But why should people just have
              to get by?" said Cannon. "They’re just two steps
 
                from going under if anything were to happen."
 

              Cannon left Dover for the 5,800-mile trip to Basra in early July. Jackson joined her in the poor al-Jumhuriya
              district of the once thriving oil port a month later. Both returned Sept. 8.

              The project was organized by the anti-sanctions group Voices In The Wilderness. On Aug. 6, Cannon,
              group founder Kathy Kelly and two other Basra project participants, Lisa Gizzi of St. Paul, Minn. and
              Mark McGuire of Winona, Minn., began a fast to mark the 10th anniversary of the sanctions. The four
              attracted international media attention as they sat in tents across a highway from a U.N. compound in
              Baghdad and consumed nothing but water for three days.

              The couple said sanctions have prevented the country from repairing basic infrastructure like power plants,
              sewage treatment facilities and garbage trucks. U.N. officials administering the "oil-for-food" program
              restrict the importation of the necessary spare parts because they are "dual use" — meaning they could also
              be used for military purposes.

              "The trash used to be picked up two times a week. Now its picked up, maybe, two times a month. It’s just
              left there to rot, literally, in these mounds," said Cannon. "I became accustomed to jumping over piles of
              garbage and stepping over sewage ditches."

              The Americans ate only well-cooked vegetables and drank only bottled water to ensure they did not
              contract any water-borne diseases. The cost of the water for the whole group was about $5 each day, a
              princely sum in Iraq, but necessary.

              "We’d be drinking the equivalent of what they’d make in a month," said Cannon. "If we had eaten tomatoes
              or cucumbers that were washed in the water, we could have gone under real quick. The people that live
              there get sick from the water."

              Iraq was one of the most technologically advanced countries in the Middle East, but now electricity —
              necessary for air conditioning, fans and refrigeration in the brutal desert heat — shuts down for six hours at
              a time, phone calls are often impossible, even from one neighborhood to another, and the Internet is just a
              mirage.

              "Just everything is a struggle for people in ways it was not 10 years ago," said Cannon. "The infrastructure is
              so degraded, we could not phone or fax for our lives."

              Iraqis can supplement their ration with food from local markets, said Cannon, but the country’s crippled
              economy has left many without money to spend on such luxuries as meat and vegetables.

              The nutritionally inadequate ration, coupled with the poor sanitation, is taking its toll on Iraq’s children.
              More than 500,000 children younger than five have died as a direct result of the sanctions, according to the
              U.N.’s own estimates. A 1998 UNICEF report stated the mortality rate for young children has doubled
              since 1990, claiming an additional 5,000 each month.

              "If kids and infants get any infection, they’re just down for the count," said Cannon. "Everyone’s just run
              down."

              "At one time or another while we were there, all the kids had these horrendous colds," said Jackson. "It’s a
              matter of susceptibility — their immune systems are weakened."

              Children and adults often go without medical treatment because many supplies and equipment are restricted
              as dual use, said Jackson. "The ability to treat them is just so nonexistent," he said. "That’s the danger."

              The survival rate for children with certain types of leukemia is 73 percent in the United States, according to
              the American Cancer Society. In Iraq it is zero, according to VITW.

              But U.S. officials argue that it is the country’s leader, not the sanctions, who is responsible for the suffering
              of the Iraqi people. Anti-sanctions groups like VITW are misguided, they say.

              "While those groups are well-meaning, they need to understand who the villain is," Secretary of State
              Madeline Albright said on Tuesday. "The villain is Saddam Hussein. It is very, very simple."

              Albright reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to the sanctions, saying they will not be lifted until
              Hussein complies with the U.N. requirements, including the resumption of weapons inspections. Only
              Hussein "can pick up the key to let himself out of the sanctions box," she said.

              "The regime’s strategy is to ignore its U.N. charter obligations and seek to preserve at all costs its capacity
              to produce the deadliest weapons humanity has ever known," Albright told the opening session of the U.N.
              General Assembly. "We must continue to do all we can to ease the hardships faced by Iraq’s people. But
              we must also defend the integrity of this institution, our security and international law."

              Cannon said the sanctions appeared to be doing little to weaken Hussein’s grip on power. "The regime is
              stronger than ever," she said. "There’s propaganda blasting from every single TV set and a picture of
              Saddam at every corner."

              Yet, people are persevering. The couple spoke of the incredible hospitality of their hosts. Although they had
              little to eat themselves, they would offer up huge bowls of rice and lentils to their guests, and bake special
              "ration cakes" for them with the sugar and flour they receive. The couple said they were constantly refusing
              special gifts of food to prevent their hosts from spending what little money they had.

              To protect their belongings, they stayed at the house of a woman named Nadra, a girls school headmaster.
              She earns the equivalent of $2 a month, but is helped by her two sons. One a physicist before the war, now
              sells cigarettes. The other a former mathematician, makes his living exchanging money. The extra income
              allows them the luxury of a room with five pieces of furniture and a door that locks.

              Nadra was much better off than the Shakur family with whom the couple spent most of their time. Majid
              makes the equivalent of $5 a month as a factory worker, just enough to pay the rent of one room and a
              courtyard for his family of seven. He sells drawings at the local market for a little extra money and depends
              on the food rations to survive.

              "Their whole life is just transformed under these sanctions," said Cannon. "People are just exhausted and
              beat down from every angle ... They’ve lived
              10 years in a stranglehold."

              VITW has sent more than 30 delegations carrying medical supplies to Iraq in violation of the sanctions.
              Cannon first traveled to Iraq on one such mission in May of 1998. Jackson heard her give an account of
              that trip at the Dover Friends Meeting House and was moved to join her in the anti-sanctions campaign. On
              this trip, he brought 360 blood bags, prohibited because a chemical in them could be used to make
              weapons.

              Basra project participants further violated the sanctions by buying Iraqi goods and bringing them back to the
              United States. They purchased 50 hand-held fans the Iraqis use to cool themselves during power outages.
              The homemade fans are fashioned from the rice bags and milk powder packaging
 
                from the "oil-for-food" rations.
 

              The couple was briefly detained by a U.S. customs agent after voluntarily declaring the fans at John F.
              Kennedy International Airport in New York, but were eventually released.

              "We think that buying products from Iraq is not the crime," said Cannon, "the sanctions against Iraq are the
              real crime."

              VITW plans to present fans to presidential candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush, Albright and U.N.
              Secretary General Kofi Annan. They plan to auction the rest on eBay, not for money but for commitments
              to visit congressional offices to urge the lifting of sanctions against Iraq.

              "What is so amazing about these fans is they’re made out of the rations," said Cannon. "In typical Iraqi
              creativity, while pressed against the wall they find a way to use every possible resource."

              Both Cannon and Jackson have quit their jobs to work full time on their cause. They are considering joining
              a VITW bus tour of West Coast colleges. Jackson is working to produce a documentary from the video
              footage he took on the trip. The couple discussed moving to Chicago to work at the group’s headquarters,
              but Cannon also said the trip has rekindled her interest in enrolling in graduate school to study theology.

              "This definitely brought out my desire to be in school next fall, because it’s just such a privilege to have
              education and so many people I met didn’t have that opportunity," she said.

              In the meantime, the couple plans to speak about their experiences in Iraq at several locations throughout
              New England, including an upcoming appearance on WBUR’s "Here and Now," broadcast at noon on
              New Hampshire Public Radio. They will be at the Dover Public Library on Sept. 26 at 7 p.m.

              Information from the Associated Press contributed to this report.