|
Peace Action Opposes
Economic Sanctions on Iraq
After Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, the United Nations, acting
under US pressure, imposed stiff economic sanctions on Iraq intended
to pressure Iraq to stop manufacturing weapons of mass destruction.
ave remained in effect ever since and have exacted a staggering
toll on Iraqi civilians.
While it may seem ironic that an organization as committed to disarmament
as Peace Action would oppose sanctions intended to limit Iraq's
capability to build weapons of mass destruction, a closer examination
shows that the sanctions themselves are being used as a weapon of
mass destruction. This is something Peace Action cannot support.
Sanctions Punish
Innocent Iraqi Civilians
As a direct result of the sanctions, Iraq's economy, infrastructure
and health care system are all crumbling. At the same time, diseases
thought to be virtually eradicated, such as malaria, typhoid and
cholera, have re-emerged and reached epidemic levels. The United
Nations estimates that roughly 500,000 Iraqi children died between
1991 and 1996 due to lack of medical care and a third of Iraqi children
went undernourished during that same period.
In 1996, the UN responded to humanitarian concerns by implementing
the "oil-for-food" program, which allows Iraq to exchange oil for
basic necessities through tightly monitored UN accounts. Health
statistics since then have been difficult to keep, but anecdotal
evidence suggests that the "oil-for-food" program has done little
to alleviate the suffering of Iraqis. This is because the program
puts such cumbersome restrictions on the goods Iraq may purchase
that almost none of the basic necessities ever reach civilians.
Iraq is unable to purchase "dual-use" items such as chlorine, which
is a component in various chemical weapons, but is more commonly
used to purify water and sanitize operating rooms. Without chlorine,
drinking water is less likely to be potable and patients are more
likely to suffer from post-operative infections. In short, without
chlorine, and other equally vital necessities, more people get sick
and die.
Although the US and Britain recently pushed for a new sanctions
regime to allow more civilian goods to enter Iraq, the Security
Council abandoned the plan after Russia, with Iraq's support, threatened
to veto the plan because it didn't do enough to help civilians.
While both the Russian and Iraqi governments may have had ulterior
motives in stopping the plan, there is no question that the sanctions
continue to exact an unacceptable toll on Iraq's civilians; a toll
so great, that several UN officials involved in administering the
program have resigned in protest.
Sanctions
Don't Work
And what has the US gained from these sanctions? What is the benefit
to offset this huge civilian cost? Apparently, very little.
The original motive for the sanctions was to stop Iraq from reconstituting
its weapons of mass destruction. However, the mere fact that the
US and its allies feel the need to keep the sanctions in place for
more than eleven years suggests that they have not worked. In fact,
a German intelligence report released in February warned that Iraq
is quickly rebuilding its capacity to construct weapons of mass
destruction.
Another, more subtly stated goal of the sanctions is weakening
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, thereby allowing opposition groups
to remove him from power. While the Bush administration has been
coy in stating the relationship between the sanctions and overthrowing
Hussein, it has been even more reluctant to suggest it would remove
sanctions if Iraq were to comply with weapons inspections laid out
by the UN sanctions resolutions.
The goal of overthrowing Hussein seems even more obvious when one
considers the continued enforcement of the "no-fly zones" in Northern
and Southern Iraq (which few countries accept as legitimate), and
the more than $90 million allocated toward Iraqi opposition groups
in this year's foreign operations budget.
Despite this, Iraq's opposition remains weak and fractured while
Hussein remains firmly in power, where he continues to put resources
toward weapons of mass destruction and violates the civil and political
rights of Iraqis. Thus, it seems the less often stated goal of the
sanctions is also a failure.
|
