Lib Dems accuse MoD of misusing no-fly zones

              Special report: Iraq

              Richard Norton -Taylor
              Guiardian /UK, Saturday November 11, 2000

              http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/

              The government was accused yesterday
              of conducting an undeclared war against
              Iraq as new figures showed that RAF
              planes have been dropping an average of
              four tonnes of bombs a month on the
              country.

              Well over 100 bombs - 84 tonnes of
              weapons - have been dropped on southern
              Iraq by British aircraft since operation
              Desert Fox in December 1998. This
              compares with 2.4 tonnes over the
              previous six years.

              The figures were provided by the Ministry
              of Defence to Menzies Campbell, the
              Liberal Democrat foreign affairs
              spokesman. "The continuing operations
              seem to be more designed to degrade
              Saddam Hussein's air defence systems
              than to fulfil the role of humanitarian
              protection," he said last night.

              He described the legal justification for the
              no-fly zone policing campaign, which has
              cost the MoD over £800m, as "doubtful to
              say the least". Mr Campbell also called
              for the lifting of all non-military sanctions
              against Iraq.

              His remarks, coming at a time when
              sanctions against Iraq are crumbling fast,
              are particularly significant since Mr
              Campbell is close to the Foreign Office
              establishment. There are many in the FO
              who believe that the government's policy
              towards Iraq is unsustainable.

              The vast majority of bombs - 450 tonnes
              since December 1998 - have been
              dropped by US aircraft which police no fly
              zones over northern and southern Iraq.

              On all the occasions RAF and US planes
              have dropped bombs on southern Iraq in
              recent months they have targeted Iraqi air
              defence systems. Yet Geoff Hoon, the
              defence secretary, continues to insist that
              the purpose of the no-fly zones is entirely
              humanitarian.

              The zones are not backed up by any UN
              security council resolution and do not
              include flights by Iraqi helicopters. Iraq is
              now flying civilian aircraft over the zones.

              France and Russia, who are on the
              security council, recently participated in
              the Baghdad trade fair.

              "The sanctions regime is being steadily
              eroded, aided by certain members of the
              security council," Mr Campbell said. "If
              this persists, the authority of the security
              council and the United Nations will be
              irretrievably damaged."

              He said that sanctions "contribute nothing
              to the policy of containment. They make
              no difference to Saddam Hussein or his
              brutality. They damage the lives of the
              ordinary people of Iraq. They hand
              Saddam Hussein a gratuitous propaganda
              advantage. It is time they went."

              He added: "Ten years of sanctions have
              driven the Iraqi people into poverty,
              malnutrition and ignominy and have done
              nothing to bring Saddam Hussein to heel.
              Saddam Hussein exploits the existence of
              sanctions, and he uses them as an
              excuse. They are his justification for
              brutality and privations he has imposed on
              his own people."

              In Arab capitals, Mr Campbell said, "there
              is much anxiety and a belief that the Iraqi
              people have suffered as much as they
              need to. The Iraqi people are the
              oppressed not the oppressors. The elite
              whose survival depends on Saddam are
              left untouched".

              • A group of British politicians has flown to
              Iraq in a defiant gesture aimed at ending
              the sanctions.

              They include the Labour MP for Glasgow
              Kelvin, George Galloway, the Labour peer
              Lord Rea, and Father Noel Barry, a former
              press secretary to Cardinal Thomas
              Winning, head of the Catholic church in
              Scotland.