Gulf Peace Action
Committee
PO Box 653 Tynte
St North Adelaide 5006
When the then US ambassador to the UN (now Secretary of State), Madeleine Albright was asked on the TV show "Sixty Minutes" about half a million children dying from the sanctions on Iraq, she replied: "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price - we think the price is worth it."
It has been estimated by UNICEF that between August 1990 and August 1997, about 200,000 children in Iraq died from embargo related causes1. This figure is comparable to the number of people killed by Pol Pot in Cambodia, or by the genocide in Rwanda.
Sanctions were first imposed in August 1990 by the Security Council in response to the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. These sanctions ban all trade except for "supplies intended strictly for medical purposes, and in humanitarian circumstances, foodstuffs". In reality because Iraq's overseas assets have been frozen and it was unable to export oil, it was unable to import food and medicine. Any imports of food or medicine also had to be approved by the UN. Things improved slightly with the negotiation of an "oil for food" agreement which allowed Iraq to sell a limited amount of oil to purchase food and medicine. Iraq did not agree to this deal until 1995, and the implementation of the agreement was delayed by the US on technical grounds until August 19962.
The oil for food agreement only provided 25c per Iraqi per day, nowhere near enough to cater for people's basic needs. This year the amount of oil Iraq has been allowed to sell has increased from $2 billion to $4.5 billion, but people are still starving and dying of preventable diseases.
DISEASE
AND STARVATION
A study by UNICEF in 1997 showed that approximately 960,000 children
are malnourished3. There had been a six-fold increase in disease
of starvation such as kwashiorkor and marasmus4. The effects
of malnutrition on a child can affect it for the rest of its life. Malnutrition
affects children for the while lives, stunning growth and affecting brain
development.
Iraq's health system has been crippled. Pharmacies are nearly empty due to lack of medicine. There are severe shortages of medical supplies such as fresh linen, bandages, antiseptic leaning liquids, oxygen and blood bags. Hospital equipment such as x-ray machines, incubators and dialysis machines are scarce or inoperable due to lack of spare parts. Surgery is often performed without anaesthetic. Some hospitals have resorted to using kerosene in an attempt to sterilise things due to lack of proper equipment. Before the Gulf War, Iraq's domestic pharmaceutical industry produced over 250 different products, now it produces fewer than five5,2.
There has been a significant increase in various diseases amongst the Iraqi population. Malaria has increased by over 10 times; there was a surge in tetanus cases in 1991; there were no cases of cholera in 1989 or 1990, but there were over 1000 cases in both the years 1991 and 1994; the incidence of typhoid has increased by over 14 times. The increase in cholera and typhoid is partly due to the bombing of water purification and sewerage treatment plants during the Gulf War. Untreated sewage systems difficult to repair 2.
The sanctions have had a particularly bad impact on Iraq because it is an oil exporting nation and is dependant on imports for many basic supplies particularly food. The effects of sanctions have also been exacerbated by the Gulf War. Inflation has been made worse by the US smuggling large amounts of counterfeit currency across the border into Iraq 6.
WAR CRIMES
Over 150,000 people were killed during the Gulf War. Mant of these
were Kurds or Shiite conscripts. Only 17% of the ordinance dropped during
the Gulf War were "smart-bombs" or guided munitions. The most common form
of weapon used was cluster bombs - bombs which scatter hundred of bomblets
over a large area to kill a large number of people. The US also used Napalm
and fuel air explosives. The city of Basra was carpet bombed. Many Iraqi
soldiers were buried alive by tanks equipped with bulldozer blades.
The west also used depleted uranium anti-tank shells in the Gulf War. The radiation caused by this has resulted in an increase in leukemia in southern Iraq, and has possibly endangered the health of people who fought in the war.
On the night of the 25th of February 1991, a convoy of what was left of the army fled out of Kuwait City back to Iraq. Groups of eight allied aircraft were assigned specific "kill zones" and sent into the desert. The massacre has been described as a "turkey shoot" by some of its participants. There is no reliable figure of Iraqi casualties because General Schwarzkopf ordered most of the bodies o be buried in mass graves - a violation of the Geneva Convention.
LIES
After Iraq invaded Kuwait, the Kuwaiti government in exile hired the
public relations firm Hill and Knowlton to improve the image of the Kuwaiti
regime. This was one of the largest ever contracts in the history of public
relations, valued at $0.9 million.
In October 1990, Hill and Knowlton, on behalf of the Kuwaiti government, has a 15 year old girl "Niyirah" testify before the White House Human Rights Caucus. She tearfully testified that whole working in a Kuwaiti hospital she saw Iraqi soldiers take babies out of incubators and let them die on the cold floor. President Bush mentioned in the incubator incident in five of his speeches backing a pro-war resolution.
It turned out that "Niyirah" was actually the daughter of Kuwaiti's ambassador to the US and had never worked in a hospital. The story was a total fabrication. Hill and Kowlton also produced 24 video news release which resulted in tens of millions of dollars worth of free air time. It is not unusual for PR firms to manipulate public opinion. One study found that 40% of the news in a typical US newspaper originated with public relations press releases, memos, or suggestions 7.
There were many lies produced during the Gulf War, for example although Iraq's military may have set fire to some oil wells, many oil platforms were bombed by the US air force. During the war, members of the media were escorted at all times in the war zone by the military. Today there is little coverage in the media of the starvation caused by sanctions, even though it is of great international significance.
WEAPONS INSPECTIONS
There is a certain amount of hypocrisy in the US's insistence on continuing
sanctions until weapons inspections have finished. The US is the world's
largest holder of weapons of mass destruction. It also produced chemical
and biological weapons. Private companies from the US supplied Iraq with
bacteria that could be used to produce biological weapons. This even continues
after Saddam Hussein had used poison gas against Kurds.
The US government is not very partial to weapons inspectors on its own soil. The US Senate act ratifying the Chemicals Weapons Convention says that "the President may deny a request to inspect any facility in the United States in cases where the President determines that the inspection may pose a threat to the national security of the United States."
There were many other countries which also have convert nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons programs. Most of these countries do not have crippling UN sanctions. Another more serious threat to the world's security is the danger of plutonium and uranium disappearing from nuclear facilities in what was the Soviet Union. The west seems to be more interested in chasing certain third world dictators than in this issue. The focus on weapons inspections also helps demonize Saddam Hussein in the media, a process that has been going on since the beginning of the Gulf Crisis.
There is also considerable evidence that UN weapons inspectors have been involved in spying for the United States. This jeopardises any future role the UN may play in disarmament.
WHY SANCTIONS?
There are many
possible reasons why the UN is continuing sanctions against Iraq. The official
reason is that Iraq has not fully complied with UN resolutions. The main
country in the UN pushing for sanctions is the US. Sanctions continue because
the US and it's allies have enough power in the UN to ensure that sanctions
continue.
There are several reasons why the US wants the embargo to continue. One is that the US wishes to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Sanctions are unlikely to achieve this because it encourages people in Iraq to unite against the external threat, and thus less likely to overthrow their own government. The conflict with Iraq also encourages some people in western countries to rally behind their own governments in fits of nationalistic pride. It will also be politically difficult for many western governments to lift sanctions given the amount of anti-Iraq propaganda that has been produced.
There is also pressure on the US government from Saudi Arabia not to lift the embargo due to the possibility of Iraqi oil replacing Saudi oil in many markets6. If Iraq comes back onto the oil market it is also likely to result in a decrease of its economy. This could mean it is less of a military threat to the US and US's clients in the Middle East. The continuation of sanctions also means that there is an increased US military presence in the region.
The sanctions and the war that preceded it are unlikely to result in any lasting peace in the Gulf region. In the aftermath of the Gulf War billions of dollars worth of weapons have been sold by the West to countries in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is now the worlds largest arms importer.
The death and destruction caused by the trade embargo could quite accurately be describes as a form of warfare - a continuation of the Gulf War. They also require a significant military presence to be maintained, in which Australia participates. With over a million people dead, the sanctions are also a form of genocide. Even the people who survive will be scarred for life from the effects of malnutrition and misery.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
There are many things that can be done to stop the sanctions against
Iraq. If more people knew the full extent of the damage caused by sanctions,
it would be hard for them to remain in place. Ways of informing people
include talking to people and writing letters to newspapers. Direct action
can also be used to sight the sanctions. Recently about 4 millions dollars
worth of medical supplies have been delivered by activists to Iraq in breach
of the sanctions.
In Adelaide the Gulf Peace Action Committee is a group which is doing what it can to help stop the sanctions. If you want to help, get in contact with us.
REFERENCES
1. Felicity Arbuthnot, "Dying of Shame", New Internationalist,
Jan-Fed 1998, pp 12-13
2. "Iraqi Sanctions, Human Rights and International Law", Middle East Report, Vol. 26, No. 3, Summer 1996, pp 40-43
3. "Revealing a crisis: Surveying child nutrition in Iraq", Development Bulletin, No. 44, Jan 1998, pp 80-81
4. "The Health Conditions of the Population in Iraq Since the Gulf Crisis", World Health Organization, March 1996
5. Ramsey Clark, "Report on the civilian Impact of UN Sanctions to the Members of the UN Security Council" March 1996, available from http://www.iacenter.org/reportun.htm
6. Robert Bissio, "The World Guide 1997/98", Oxfam Publications, pp 309-311
7. Johan Carlisle, "Public Relationships: Hill and Knowlton,
Robert Gray, and the CIA", Covert Action Quarterly, No. 44, Spring 1993