Iraq sanctions condemned

The UN sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights 
has condemned the sanctions imposed on Iraq which have now entered their 
11th year. The Commission resolution, which was adopted without a vote 
being taken, says that the sanctions "condemned an innocent people to 
hunger, disease, ignorance and even death". The Commission urged states to 
reconsider their support for economic sanctions and called for "prompt 
termination of all aspects of sanction regimes that adversely affect human 
rights".

The Belgian representative declared the sanctions to be "unequivocally 
illegal". They have caused a humanitarian disaster "comparable to the worst 
catastrophes of the past decades."

The UN Commission is made up of representatives of 26 human rights experts 
who are nominated by their respective governments. They serve in a personal 
capacity and meet every year.

A resolution proposed by Morocco's representative urged all governments, 
including that of Iraq's Saddam Hussein to alleviate the Iraqi people's 
suffering by delivering food and medical supplies.

The Commission said that the oil-for-food program was meeting only a part 
of the needs of the population and said that "the standard of living, 
nutrition and health of the population continued to deteriorate and that 
all economic activities were seriously affected". It named drinking water 
supply, electricity and agriculture as areas affected by the sanctions.

The sanctions are yet another example of the violation of the Geneva 
Conventions by the British and US Governments, the principal enforcers of 
the sanctions.

The Geneva Conventions specifically "prohibit the starving of civilian 
populations and the destruction of what is indispensable to their 
survival".

US Ambassador to the United Nations, George Moose, angrily rejected the UN 
Commission's decisions declaring that the claim that the sanctions were 
illegal was "incorrect, biased and inflammatory". He claimed that the US 
had "worked hard to ensure that the welfare of the Iraqi people is 
protected..."