The United nations has only ever imposed sanctions
on fourteen countries. Iraq is one of about six countries with sanction.
Afganistan is another (still). The Iraqi sanctions were introduced
on 6 August, 1990. In 1995 the Oil for Food program was introduced
to relieve suffering in Iraq (this is much disputed) and to make
Iraq pay war compensation. After many run-ins with the regime, and
after a gradual loosening of constraints on the export of oil, the
sanctions were altered in 1999 to remove the ceiling on oil exports,
and to allow for conditional suspension of sanctions.The Bush administration
sought an end to sanctions in 2001, but was still blocking oil for
food shipments in 2002.
| |
US policy on Iraq |
" the Bush administration is campaigning in the U.N.
Security Council to end an 11-year embargo on sales of civilian
goods, including oil-related equipment, to Iraq... U.S. officials
say the new policy is aimed at easing restrictions on companies
that conduct legitimate trade with Iraq, while clamping down
on weapons smuggling and other black-market activity."
Colum Lynch,
Washington Post, June 23, 2001 (at gwbush.com) |
| |
Salam Pax |
And who ultimately benefited from the sanctions? Neither the
international community nor the Iraqi people, he who was in
power and control still is. These sanctions made the Iraqi people
hostages in the hands of this regime, tightened an already tight
noose around our necks. A whole nation, a proud and learned
nation, was devastated not by the war but by sanctions.Salam
Pax (blogger of baghdad) March 16, 2003 |
| |
Richard Perle |
" If we were not acting now against Saddam Hussein, what
would we have to anticipate? We would have to anticipate, I
think, looking at the political situation that existed prior
to this war, we would have to look at dwindling support for
sanctions, which were already actively opposed by Russia
and France, with the almost certain ultimate result that
the sanctions would have been lifted and Saddam Hussein would
have achieved a political victory of enormous proportions. That
would almost certainly have been followed by the rearmament
of Iraq with much greater freedom than it has had up until now,
and even under the constraints of the current embargo it has
managed to do things that pose a threat to us." Richard
Perle, AEI seminar March 25, 2003 |
| |
Iraqi health |
"The Sanctions Committee in New York
has blocked or delayed a range of cancer diagnostic equipment
and drugs, even painkillers. Professor Karol Sikora, as chief
of the cancer programme of the World Health Organisation, wrote
in the British Medical Journal: "Requested radiotherapy
equipment, chemotherapy drugs and analgesics are consistently
blocked by United States and British advisers [to the Sanctions
Committee]. There seems to be a rather ludicrous notion that
such agents could be converted into chemical or other weapons.""
John
Pilger March 2001 |
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war as a humanitarian
response |
" A report for the UN Secretary General, written by Professor
Marc Bossuyt, a distinguished authority on international
law, says that the "sanctions regime against
Iraq is unequivocally illegal under existing human rights law"
and "could raise questions under the Genocide Convention".
John
Pilger March 2001 |
| |
John Pilger |
" As of last July, $5.4billion worth of humanitarian
supplies, approved by the UN and paid for by the Iraqi government,
were blocked by Washington, with the Blair government's approval.
The former assistant secretary general of the UN, Denis Halliday,
who was sent to Iraq to set up the "oil for food programme",
described the effects of the embargo as "nothing less than
genocide". Similar words have been used by his successor,
Hans Von Sponeck... Both men resigned in protest, saying the
embargo merely reinforced the power of Saddam." John
Piilger March 26, 2003 |
sanctions