Despite the Pentagon
More people, nations challenge Iraq sanctions
By Brian
Becker
Anti-imperialist protests throughout the Middle East are not
only supporting the Palestinians, they are also eroding
U.S.-imposed sanctions against Iraq.
Before a bomb ripped through its midship, the USS Cole was
in the Red Sea as part of the immense Pentagon naval blockade
of Iraq. The sanctions could not continue without this naval
blockade.
And in the current pan-Arab climate generated by the
protests, "a trickle of international flights, border openings
and calls for lifting the economic embargo on Iraq has turned
into a flood." (Washington Post, Oct. 10).
Meanwhile, a U.S. group, defying the blockade for the fourth
time, has announced plans to bring humanitarian aide to Iraq in
January.
5,000 children die monthly
More than 1.2 million Iraqis have died from hunger,
nutrition-related diseases, water-borne parasites and other
bacteria since sanctions were imposed in 1990. Some 5,000
children die each month. Without U.S. military muscle the
sanctions would unravel.
In the name of searching for "cargo from Iraq," the U.S. and
British navies have arrogantly boarded more than 12,000 ships
and boats in the Persian/Arab Gulf, the Red Sea and in other
international waters during the past decade, angering many.
The Pentagon and the British Royal Air Force also blockade
Iraqi airspace by unilaterally declaring a "No-Flight Zone"
over more than two-thirds of Iraq. Fighter jets patrol the
skies and prevent air travel. The U.S.-dominated United Nations
Sanctions Committee denies other countries permission to fly to
Iraq.
Sanctions begin to unravel
A Syrian plane with senior government officials, doctors,
nurses and 10 tons of humanitarian aid landed in Baghdad on
Oct. 9, the first such flight in more than 18 years. The flight
came two weeks after France and Russia challenged the
decade-old sanctions against Iraq by sending planes to Baghdad
without authorization from the UN Sanctions Committee.
Additionally, since early October, there have been flights
to Iraq from Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Yemen, the United Arab
Emirates and Algeria. Two Egyptian planes carrying artists,
intellectuals and doctors openly defied the blockade, landing
in Baghdad to give aid and expressing solidarity with the Iraqi
people. One of the flights from Egypt called itself the
"Muhammad al-Durrah trip," named after the 12-year-old
Palestinian boy from Gaza who was killed by Israeli
soldiers.
Sanctions had begun eroding even before the Palestinian
uprising began. On Sept.12, Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright announced that the United States "would not use force"
if Iraq refused to let a new team of UN weapons inspectors into
the country.
Albright's statement was a last-ditch effort to hold
together a pro-sanctions political coalition inside the UN.
Clinton and Albright feared that another dramatic military
confrontation with Iraq would ignite worldwide support for
lifting the genocidal sanctions. But as soon as Albright made
her announcement, anti-sanctions forces started flying directly
to Baghdad's airport, closed since 1991.
U.S. activists to break
the blockade
Anti-sanctions activists in the United States also plan to
defy the air travel ban. The fourth Iraq Sanctions Challenge,
initiated by the International Action Center, will deliver
large quantities of donated medicine to Iraq in January 2001.
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark will lead the
delegation, which will include health-care providers,
water-system experts, religious and civil-rights leaders, and
student activists.
To support the Iraq Sanctions
Challenge or to be part of the upcoming delegation, call the
International Action Center at (212) 633-6646 or
email iacenter@iacenter.org.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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