Tracking Number: 219274
Title: "Editorial: Iraqi People Deserve Better Leaders." President Bush has said many times that the US and the other members of the international coalition have no quarrel with
the Iraqi people or military. The Iraqis are a talented and industrious people who deserve better leaders than Saddam Hussein's regime--leaders who will guide Iraq toward pluralism, prosperity and peace. (920312)
Translated
Title: Editorial: El pueblo Iraqui merece lideres mejores.; Les Irakiens meritent de meilleurs dirigeants. (920312)
Date: 19920312
Text:
EDITORIAL: IRAQI PEOPLE DESERVE BETTER LEADERS (550)
(Following is an editorial, broadcast by the Voice of America March 12, reflecting the views of the U.S. government.)
As representatives from around the world gather at the United Nations, they are once again faced with the lies and distortions of Saddam Hussein -- the tyrant who controls Iraq. As President George Bush said recently, "We salute the efforts of thousands of brave Iraqis who are resisting Saddam's rule both inside and outside of Iraq. The United States reiterates its pledge to the Iraqi people and the Iraqi military that stand ready to work with a new regime. A new leadership in Baghdad that accepts the U.N. resolutions and is ready to live at peace with its neighbors and its own people will find a partner in the United States, one willing to seek to lift economic sanctions and help restore Iraq to its rightful place in the family of nations."
But that cannot happen as long as Saddam Hussein remains in power. Since becoming president of Iraq in 1979, Saddam has consolidated all power in his own hands. He has imprisoned, tortured or murdered anyone thought to be a threat to his absolute control. All basic human rights, including freedom of speech, freedom of association and due process of law, are denied in Iraq.
In 1980, Saddam plunged Iraq into war with neighboring Iran. Over the next eight years, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed and tens of thousands were taken prisoner. When the war finally ended in 1988, Iraqi soldiers had managed to wrest the Shatt al Arab waterway from Iran. Shortly after Saddam's next military adventure -- the 1990 invasion of Kuwait -- he gave the waterway back to Iran.
Saddam's failure in Kuwait is well known to people around the world -- for many nations joined the coalition that drove Iraqi forces from Kuwait. But Saddam's brutality did not end with the liberation of Kuwait. In the aftermath of the war, Saddam's forces went on a rampage, killing tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens and driving hundreds of thousands from their homes. Saddam's 1991 rampage compared in brutality to a similar rampage in 1988, when untold numbers of Iraqis were killed -- some with chemical weapons -- and thousands of villages were destroyed.
Although food and medicine are not subject to U.N. sanctions, millions of Iraqis continue to suffer because of Saddam Hussein's refusal to implement U.N. Security Council Resolutions 706 and 712. Those resolutions would authorize the sale of more than a thousand million dollars' worth of oil from Iraq's vast reserves to help finance emergency humanitarian relief for Iraq under strict U.N. control. To make matters worse, the Iraqi government has established internal embargoes calculated to deprive millions of innocent civilians of food, medicine and other essentials.
President Bush has said many times that the United States and the other members of the international coalition have no quarrel with the Iraqi people or military. The Iraqis are a talented and industrious people who deserve better leaders -- leaders who will guide Iraq toward pluralism, prosperity and peace. The United States stands ready to work with new Iraqi leaders who are ready to live in peace with their neighbors and their own people.
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File Identification: 03/12/92, TX-406; 03/12/92, AR-425; 03/13/92, AE-509; 03/13/92, NA-507; 03/12/92, PX-489; 03/12/92, EU-425; 03/12/92, NE-412; 03/16/92, AS-109; 03/17/92, AF-208
Product Name: Wireless
File; VOA Editorials
Product Code: WF; VO
Languages: Arabic; Spanish; French
Keywords: IRAQ-US RELATIONS; IRAQ/Politics & Government; HUSSEIN, SADDAM; PERSIAN GULF WAR; IRAQ/Economic &
Social; HUMANITARIAN AID; IRAN-IRAQ WAR; UNITED NATIONS
Document Type: EDI
Thematic Codes: 1UN; 1NE
Target Areas: AR; EA; EU; NE; AF
PDQ Text Link: 219274; 219712;
219899
USIA Notes: *92031206.TXT
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