Eyewitness Iraq
4th Iraq Sanctions Challenge returns
By Deirdre
Sinnott
When the wheels of Royal Jordanian Flight 6874 touched the
ground at Saddam International Airport in Baghdad, Iraq, on
Jan 13, a piece of history was written.
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark and 50 delegates
from the Iraq Sanctions Challenge had flown from the United
States to Iraq.
This act of solidarity and international civil
disobedience comes at a time of increased U.S. saber rattling
and bombings against Iraq.
This Iraq Sanctions Challenge--the fourth such
delegation--included people from 15 U.S. states and seven
countries including Canada, Japan, Lebanon, Greece, Scotland,
and Palestine. Among the delegates were students, teachers,
longtime activists, social workers and lawyers.
The delegation did not apply for or receive permission
from either the U.S. State Department or the United Nations
Security Council's Sanctions Committee to fly to Iraq to
bring medicine and school supplies.
"We believe that the UN Sanctions Committee, whose job it
is to maintain the U.S./UN sanctions, is guilty of genocide
and therefore not fit to judge who should and shouldn't
travel to Iraq," said Gloria La Riva, co-director of the
ISC.
According to reports from the UN's own organizations, the
sanctions that were imposed in August 1990 after Iraq's
invasion of Kuwait have killed over 1 million people. Most of
them were either elderly, chronically ill or under 5 years
old.
The ISC delegates learned firsthand about the effects of
the sanctions.
They visited the Amariyah bomb shelter in a quiet
middle-class neighborhood. This shelter had been filled
mostly with women and their children when it was destroyed by
two "smart bombs" in the early morning hours of Feb 13, 1991.
Many people had sought a safe refuge from the intensive
allied bombings.
Hundreds were incinerated instantly in an act the United
States still calls "justified."
At the Saddam Hospital for Children, delegates learned
that the UN 661 committee--the group that oversees all
contracts under the Oil-for-Food Program--had just denied the
right to purchase blood bags. Personnel at the hospital,
which has 360 full beds, have to hand wash blood bags,
disposable syringes and catheters.
Delegates toured a food distribution center. The center is
part of Iraq's A-rated rationing system that, begun four days
after the sanctions were imposed, has prevented mass
starvation.
The rationing system allows each person per month: 3 kg.
rice, 3 kg. flour, 2 kg. sugar, 1.25 kg. oil and 150 grams
tea, salt, pepper, beans and soap. In addition, infants
receive eight cans of milk and two cans of baby food. People
supplement this diet with foods from the markets.
Depleted uranium & destruction
An investigating team from part of the delegation found
"extremely high levels of radioactivity" in soil samples in
the Iraqi desert south of Basra. In that region, during the
1991 war against Iraq, U.S. forces fired hundreds of
thousands of shells reinforced with depleted uranium.
Ramsey Clark and New Mexican activist and researcher
Damacio Lopez recorded the radioactivity. On Jan. 19, Clark
reported his team's findings of high radiation levels at a
news conference at the Italian Parliament in Rome.
Clark condemned the Pentagon's use of DU weapons in Iraq
and Yugoslavia. He demanded that scientists from these
countries be included in the investigation of DU's dangers to
humans.
The delegates also traveled to the Al Wathba water
treatment plant on the Tigris River. The plant serves 35
percent of Baghdad.
It needs 10 metric tons of chlorine per month to properly
clean the water. But only three metric tons per month are
allotted.
Most illnesses seen in the hospitals are due to drinking
improperly treated water. The plant is deteriorating. Pumps
and other equipment are badly in need of replacement.
The Rostamia Sewage Treatment Plant is also on the Tigris.
It was built in 1963 and is badly in need of an overhaul.
Only 40 to 50 percent of the machinery and pumps work on
any given day. Workers must continuously repair
equipment.
The UN 661 Committee denied a contract for safety
equipment like masks, gloves, and protective clothing.
Workers have been killed and injured attempting to make
repairs.
Sometimes, delegates were told, because of these and other
problems, untreated sewage gets dumped directly into the
Tigris. This causes an environmental hazard and more water
problems and illness down river.
Parts to repair the machinery at both the sewage and water
treatment plants have been on order for years, frozen by the
661 Committee.
End the sanctions now!
In 1995, when the "Oil-for-Food" deal was originally
proposed, the Iraqi government opposed it, saying that it
could provide for its own people if it was given control of
its economy. "Oil-for-Food" has proven to be a financial
bonanza for many--with the notable exception of Iraq and its
people.
According to a report by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan,
from December 1996 to July 2000, $32 billion dollars of oil
was sold. Only $8 billion reached Iraq--roughly $7 per
person.
Instead, 30 percent of the $32 billion went to
"compensate" Kuwait and several major U.S. oil corporations.
$1.5 billion went to maintain UN operations like the UN
Compensation Commission and the defunct spy operation
UNSCOM.
UNSCOM was supposedly investigating "weapons of mass
destruction." Instead it was planting powerful listening
devices and coordinating targeting for U.S. and British
bombing operations.
$12 billion are frozen in the Bank of Paris. $3.5 billion
has been allocated for contracts that the 661 Committee has
yet to approve--for electrical, health, culture, education,
water and other needs.
Delegates also met with Dr. Manal Younis Abdul Razaq, the
head of the Iraqi Federation of Women, the ministers of trade
and health, and Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz.
There were also visits to elementary schools, the school
for the blind and Moustaserya University. Delegates sampled
Iraqi culture at the Baghdad Museum. They visited the ancient
site of Babylon, a 12th Century mosque, and a minaret built
around 800 C.E.
After flying from Baghdad to Amman, Jordan, half the
delegation stayed in Amman. There they visited the Wahadat
Palestinian Refugee Camp and met with notables from the
Palestinian struggle like Leila Khaled of the Palestine
National Council and the Palestinian Women's Federation.
Khaled attracted world attention to the plight of the
Palestinian people when she led a dramatic hijacking of a
plane in 1969.
A high-level member of the Palestinian National Congress,
Mr. Caswer Cuba, briefed the delegates on the state of the
Israeli/Palestinian negotiations that were in progress.
Deirdre Sinnott was co-director
of the 4th Iraq Sanctions Challenge.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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