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Economic Sanctions on Iraq: Frequently Asked Questions
By the Interfaith Network of Concern for the People of Iraq (INOC)March 17, 2000
A contentious issue concerns the U.S. and U.N. policy of economic sanctions and bombing against Iraq, the reasons for this policy, the effects of this policy upon its civilian population and our position on this as people of faith. In general, there has been and continues to be an embargo of truthful discourse on this topic in the U.S., Canadian and British media.
INOC recognizes that President Saddam Hussein is a cruel despot, but he has been demonized, and the interests of the U.S. are not simply to see the overthrow of Mr. Hussein. Well over one million persons in Iraq, particularly children under-five, have died as a result of the economic sanctions. While the mass media has kept us largely factually uninformed on this, we must assess the issue of our complicity in what is termed by many as 'genocide.'
INOC invites dialog on this issue; elucidation with sources is available at: http://www.scn.org/ccpi, http://www.churchcouncilseattle.org and from Dick Blakney (rbblakn@aol.com or 206-522-4934) or Randall Mullins (ccnrandall@igc.org or 206-721-6268).
1. Q: Why are there economic sanctions on Iraq?
A: The sanctions were imposed on Iraq at the conclusion of the Gulf War. They are intended to prevent Iraq from using the revenue from its oil to re-arm and particularly to prevent Iraq from building "Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)." The sanctions were first imposed as a nonviolent way to force Iraqi troops to leave Kuwait. After the war they were continued by another UN resolution. The violence of the war killed 100,000 soldiers, while the "nonviolent" sanctions have now killed over one million civilians, including 500,000 children under five.
2. Q: What effect have the sanctions had on the people of Iraq?
A: Reports from UNICEF and other UN agencies operating in Iraq estimate that over one million civilians, mostly children under age five, have died from malnutrition and disease as a result of the embargo. Malaria, cholera and typhoid, which were largely eliminated by Iraq's government, have now reached epidemic proportions. Raw sewage pours into the drinking water for much of Iraq as a result of the bombing of the electrical, sewage and water systems; the electrical systems cannot be repaired due to the impoverishment of Iraq; and import of chlorine has been prohibited and is now allowed only in limited quantities.
3. Q: Do the economic sanctions have any effect on Saddam Hussein?
A: The sanctions have made it difficult for Saddam Hussein to buy military equipment. But many expert observers have pointed out that the sanctions have strengthened his control over Iraq, e.g., an article in the May/June 1999 issue of Foreign Affairs states: "The U.S. .. continues to support crippling economic sanctions on Iraq that have neither weakened Saddam's hold on power nor prevented him from pursuing his WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) programs. .. The Clinton administration .. have it backward .. and should formulate a 'take it or leave it' proposal involving a substantial revision of the sanctions in exchange for the return of ... inspections."
4. Q: Aren't the sanctions and the bombing supported by U.N. resolutions?
A: Contrary to U.S. claims, UN Security Council Resolution 678 justifies bombing to expel Iraq's troops from Kuwait, and Article 14 calls for the Middle East to be an arms-free zone. Sanctions breach the Charter of the UN, the Convention of Human Rights, and the Rights of the Child. The Geneva Protocol I, Article 54, prohibits starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. The 'no fly' zones have been established by the U.S. and Britain, not the U.N.
5. Q: Doesn't the 'Oil for Food' program take care of the sanctions' problems?
A: The UN-sponsored 'Oil for Food' program allows Iraq to export oil worth up to $5.2 billion every six months, but has had limited effect. The funds created for food are insufficient for several reasons: the UN takes one-third of all oil revenue as reparations to Kuwait, an oil-rich country, for the Gulf War; Iraq is unable to pump the required quantities of oil due to dilapidated infrastructure; and many orders are disallowed or 'on hold' by the controlling UN Security Council committee. None of the oil-for-food funds go directly to President Saddam Hussein.
6. Q: What about the weapons of mass destruction (WMD)?
A: A report to Congress in April 1998 stated there is no firm evidence that Iraq still retains biological and chemical weapons or precursor materials. A writer in the May/June issue of Foreign Affairs states: a) the dangers posed by WMD are often exaggerated; b) by contrast, the dangers posed to human well being by comprehensive economic sanctions are clear, present and sometimes devastating; and c) excluding the deaths in Nazi gas chambers, sanctions have contributed to more deaths than all the WMD since WW II.
7. Q: What are the underlying reasons for the U.S. policy toward Iraq?
A: Several reasons have surfaced. U.S. arms dealers sell approximately two-thirds of weapons going to the Middle East. With Iraq's territory containing 10% of the world's known oil reserves, long-term control is viewed by the U.S. government as critical; further, the 1980 Carter doctrine stipulates U.S. should, if necessary, intervene militarily in the Gulf to protect access to oil. Reluctance to admit policy errors appears to be another reason.
8. Q: What historical factors have contributed to the U.S. policy of sanctions against Iraq?
A: Since the discovery of oil, Iraq has been a land of colonial and post-colonial open and covert efforts to dominate it - largely by Britain, France, and in recent decades by the U.S. There have been assassinations of leaders, armaments support of Iraq (e.g., for Iran-Iraq war) and Gulf War against Iraq. A few days prior to the Gulf War the U.S. ambassador told Saddam Hussein "We have no opinion on Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait."
9. Q: Isn't Saddam Hussein responsible for the suffering of the Iraqi people?
A: It would be more comfortable for all in this country if the over-simplified and widely-promoted statement were true that "Saddam Hussein is responsible for the deaths in Iraq." However, the best documented facts do not support this view. The two most recent UN Humanitarian Coordinators in Iraq, Denis Halliday and incumbent Hans von Sponeck, as well as the head of the UN's World Food Programme in Iraq, Dr. Jutta Burghardt, have all resigned in protest over the economic sanctions. Mr. von Sponeck stated: ".. as a UN official I should not be expected to be silent to that which I recognize as a true human tragedy that needs to be ended."
10. Q: What is the position of faith groups and Congress-persons on the sanctions?
A: Calls from numerous groups and the Pope have been made to end the bombing of Iraq and unconditionally end the economic sanctions, which are termed morally intolerable. Among these groups are the World Council of Churches (WCC), the National Council of Churches, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Orthodox churches, Quakers, Fellowship of Reconciliation, many Muslim and Arab-American groups, Gulf War veterans groups, Voices in the Wilderness, The Washington Association of Churches, Church Council of Greater Seattle, Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility and INOC. On 2/18/00 the WCC wrote to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan: "The WCC .. believes that the time is overdue for the Security Council to lift with immediate effect all sanctions that have direct and indiscriminate effect on the civilian population of Iraq." On February 1, 2000 seventy U.S. Congress-persons requested President Clinton de-link the economic sanctions from the military sanctions.
Note: The Interfaith Network of Concern for the People of Iraq (INOC) was formed in February 1999 when former U.N. Assistant Secretary General Denis Halliday, and Middle East foreign affairs expert Phyllis Bennis, gave presentations in Seattle to faith group leaders. In January 2000 INOC formally became a program unit of the Church Council of Greater Seattle. While it is related to a Christian organization, it is interfaith in that participants are from the Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist faiths, as well as Catholic and Protestant.