My major concern at the moment is the devastating effect that British foreign policy in Iraq, namely the economic sanctions, is having on the people there. I have called it genocide and I do not use the word lightly, understanding its seriousness, but I use it accurately. The most conservative estimate available puts the number of children under five who have died as a result of a decade of sanctions at 227,000. This staggering death toll is almost impossible to comprehend. I try to understand it by thinking of the scene at the terrible Dunblane massacre when 16 young children were killed. I imagine the tragic pile of little bodies, each so beloved, and the anguish of the bereaved parents. Then I think that the death toll in Iraq numbers more than FOURTEEN THOUSAND times this. Sanctions are responsible for this monstrous scale of child deaths by causing complete economic and social collapse in a country whose civil infrastructure was bombed back to a ``pre-industrial age'' (in the words of a UN report) by British and US bombs in 1991. Most crucially, the electricity generating system was totally destroyed in the bombing and every other part of the civil infrastructure has suffered because of the lack of power. Frequent and unpredictable power cuts have crippled hospitals and health care systems, the water and sanitation systems have collapsed, raw sewage flows in Iraqi streets. Malnutrition and water-borne disease affect huge swathes of the population, particularly the most vulnerable, particularly young children. Dennis Halliday, the former UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, who resigned in protest at the sanctions, said, "We are in the process of destroying an entire society. It is as simple and terrifying as that. It is illegal and immoral."The deaths and social breakdown continue. 4,000 Iraqi children a month die as a result of sanctions. The most recent UN report states that the dire humanitarian situation cannot be solved by a remedial humanitarian programme.
I recommend the excellent site of an anti-sanctions group Voices in the Wilderness UK. It contains extensive documentation and very useful briefings that respond in detail to British government claims about its policy in Iraq. In my view, any person of conscience will look at the basic facts and conclude that what we are doing in Iraq is immoral and sanctions must be ended now. There's really no need to refute government claims in detail, though it can be done very easily as you will see. The exercise is salutary, but as I argue in a short essay below, EVEN IF we suspend our disbelief and accept the government's lies for the sake of argument, sanctions are still immoral. The conclusion is the same.
Update (24/05/2002): We can ask, why has the UK persisted with this policy of genocide? The reason is that it is a major US/UK government foreign policy objective to gain control of Iraq’s vast oil reserves and establish military bases in Iraq from which the US can control and subdue the entire region, the most strategically important region in the world. Now that the US’s desire to invade Iraq is clear for all to see, we can also clearly see the real purpose of the sanctions regime. It has been a US/UK strategy for maintaining a situation of perpetual crisis between Iraq and themselves, a crisis that can be exploited whenever the opportunity arises. It also weakens the population who must struggle to survive from day to day in the ruins of their collapsed economy and social structures, thus severely reducing the chances of any truly democratic movement developing – democracy and self-determination for the people of the Arabian peninsular
being the very last thing that the US wants lest those people decide to control their natural resources for their own benefit. Even the limited hope of being able to reconstruct their country by themselves with no external interference may be long gone as educated people have either left or lost their skills after years of unemployment and a whole generation has grown up without education. The siege also makes sure that any vestigial military capability the country might have had will crumble and be degraded even further, so that it will be utterly defenceless when the US moves in to establish its bases.
Here are some letters and essays I have written. Please feel free to use them, in any form.
· Inform yourself. There is a wealth of easily accessible material on the internet. As well as the Voices page, there is CASI (Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq). These two pages are useful for British people since they contain a lot of information about British policy as well as background. Also check out the Iraq Crisis page on ZNet
· Inform others. Put pressure on media outlets. This is the most important issue in British politics but remains hidden. The deaths mount daily. If 4,000 British children a month were dying due to a government policy, every newspaper in the country would have it on the front page until it was ended.
· Raise the political cost. Blair etc. cannot be appealed to on moral grounds. The only way to change policy is to make it not worth their while politically. And that means raising our voices and protesting. Keeping in touch with Voices UK will keep you informed about all the latest anti-sanctions activities, as will joining the CASI email discussion list. You will get media action alerts by email to which you can respond by sending a letter to a newspaper. CASI list members have had many letters published in the Guardian, Independent, Times and Observer.
This webpage is maintained by Fay Dowker f.dowker@ukonline.co.uk
Last up-dated 01/11/02