DATE=3/17/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=IRAQ SANCTIONS (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-260293
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A coalition of private organizations is
calling for an end to United Nations sanctions on
Iraq. Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports the human rights
groups say sanctions are causing havoc among the
people of Iraq without weakening the government of
President Saddam Hussein.
TEXT: The private groups call the United Nations
decade-old embargo a punishing policy. They say the
economic sanctions are devastating the people of Iraq.
They say the sanctions have been responsible for the
deaths of about one-million Iraqis.
The private groups cited figures released by the
United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, which
estimates 500-thousand Iraqi children have died. The
agency says lack of nutrition has weakened children's
resistance to disease, and it says the medicines
needed to treat illnesses have not been available
because of the sanctions.
Edith Ballentyne represents the International League
of Women for Peace and Freedom. She says her
organization has been opposed to the U-N sanctions
since they were enacted 10 years ago.
/// BALLENTYNE ACT ///
We felt that the sanctions basically harmed the
people and this is what we have opposed from the
very beginning. We have been part of
delegations to Iraq on a number of occasions to
verify ourselves what the situation is. And we
have seen over the years a real deterioration,
but at all levels, whether it's educational,
health and just the maintenance of the city. It
was a beautiful city.
/// END ACT ///
Ms. Ballentyne says the suffering of the Iraqi people
can no longer be ignored.
Phyllis Bennis is a fellow of the Institute for Policy
Studies in Washington. She accompanied a U-S
congressional staff delegation to Iraq last August.
Ms. Bennis says the United Nations' oil-for-food
program is not reversing the accumulated effects of
sanctions. She notes that much of the money from
Iraqi oil sales goes to victims of the Gulf war and to
Kurds in northern Iraq. She says only just over 50
percent of the money is left to assist 85 percent of
the Iraqi population.
/// BENNIS ACT ///
The oil-for-food program is providing a
basically insufficient, but survivable ration
for food. What it has not done is allowed the
repair of the infrastructure of a very advanced
society. The repair of hospitals, the repair of
the water treatment plants, the repair of sewage
treatment facilities, the repair of the
electrical generating grid, etc.
/// END ACT ///
As a consequence, Ms. Bennis says, Iraqis are
continuing to die. She says they are not dying
directly from starvation, but from waterborne diseases
for which they have no access to medical care.
(Signed)
NEB/LS/JWH/KL
17-Mar-2000 13:45 PM EDT (17-Mar-2000 1845 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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