DATE=9/12/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=BRITAIN - IRAQ (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-266387
BYLINE=LAURIE KASSMAN
DATELINE=LONDON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A new United Nations inspection team is ready
to go to Iraq to verify its compliance with U-N
demands that it scrap its military arsenals. A top
British official told a news briefing (Monday) that
Iraqi compliance could quickly end a decade of
sanctions. So far Iraq refuses to let the U-N team
into the country. Correspondent Laurie Kassman has
more from London.
TEXT: Britain's minister of state for foreign
affairs, Peter Hain, says Saddam Hussein could speed
up the process to suspend and ultimately end sanctions
if he would allow the U-N inspection team, led by Hans
Blix, into the country.
/// HAIN ACT ///
Hans Blix's arms inspection team is now ready to go
and do its work. If Saddam Hussein agreed today to
accept Blix's team in, sanctions could be suspended
within six months. Sanctions could be suspended by
March of next year. The decision really lies with
Baghdad. Do they want the suffering of the Iraqi
people to end or don't they?
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Hain dismisses critics who blame the West for
Iraq's economic crisis and the deterioration of health
conditions there. He accuses the Iraqi government of
blocking delivery of humanitarian supplies provided by
a 20-billion-dollar U-N approved oil-for-food deal.
/// HAIN ACT TWO ///
To the degree that suffering is continuing, it is
often because Iraq itself is blocking the flow of
humanitarian relief into the country and to the
people, refusing to increase daily food rations while,
for example, Saddam Hussein's regime imported ten
thousand bottles of whiskey and 50 million cigarettes
in one month. Now where is the concern of the Iraqi
regime for its own people?
/// END ACT ///
The British minister also accuses Baghdad of failing
to distribute about one-fourth of the medical supplies
brought into the country under the U-N program.
Mr. Hain dismisses Iraqi allegations that U-S and
British jets are targeting civilians as they patrol
the northern and southern no-fly zones. He says the
West's policy of containment during the past decade
has prevented Iraqi aggression against its neighbors
or its Kurdish and Shiite minorities.
Britain is urging regional leaders to increase
pressure on Saddam Hussein to comply with U-N demands.
Mr. Hain says the ultimate goal is to bring a peaceful
Iraq back into the international community. (Signed)
NEB/LMK/KL/PLM
12-Sep-2000 08:49 AM EDT (12-Sep-2000 1249 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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