Regarding the contention that those who oppose sanctions offer no alternative, we quote from a letter of Denis Halliday, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq 1997-98 and HC von Sponeck, Humanitarian Coordinator 1998-2000 printed in The Guardian, Jan 8, 2001:

This is false.

Both of us, for example,  have said time and again that the UN security council should delink economic sanctions from the disarmament debate while imposing arms controls on Iraq and those countries which wish to sell arms to Baghdad, keeping in mind resolution 687, paragraph 14, which calls for the establishment in the Middle East of a zone free of weapons of mass destruction.

We have argued that the hidden agenda of hardline geo-strategic interests be dropped and a dialogue be started;

Regarding the post-embargo rebuilding of Iraq, below are recommendations listed by Mr. Denis Halliday – February 13 2000

The member states of the UN Security Council must immediately TERMINATE THE ECONOMIC EMBARGO.  The strangle-hold of the Sanctions Committee must end. The economy must be free of UN interference and be urgently rebuilt.  The health and agriculture sectors must be revitalised.  The highest levels of education need to be reestablished.  Men and women must be able to earn a decent living again.  Employment opportunities need to be created.  Income levels need to be restored. Inflation needs to be stopped and the dinar strengthened.  Consumer goods, food processing and other forms of manufacturing must be reestablished.  In summary, the whole economic and social spectrum needs to be addressed in depth and with speed.

a. The AGRICULTURE SECTOR will require special focus so that never again will Iraq be vulnerable to importation of basic foodstuffs.  Food security in the future must be a top priority. 
Irrigated systems will need investment.  New land will need to be opened and sustained.  Farmers will need subsidies and support.  Good water management will be critical, particularly in the context of endangered levels of water in the Tigris and the Euphrates.  Reservoirs and water catchment areas will need to be further developed.  It would appear to me that greater self-sufficiency in all aspects of agricultural production – from pesticides to fertilizers, from cereals to animal husbandry – would serve the best interests of Iraq. The over dependency on oil exports and massive importation of foodstuffs creates a vulnerability to be avoided in the future.  Heavy capital investment would appear to be essential.

b. The HEALTH SECTOR likewise requires huge capital outlay to restore rural clinics and urban hospitals throughout the country.  People all over the country need to have their confidence restored in the public health care system in order to bring control over epidemics, water borne disease, anemia and malnutrition.

c.  The WATER SECTOR requires the rebuilding of treatment and distribution systems throughout the country.  Without this restoration, unacceptable high child mortality is likely to continue.  The reestablishment and expansion of urban sanitation systems is equally important.

d. The quality of EDUCATION needs to be restored – primary, secondary and tertiary.  Teachers and professors need to be returned to their students. Class rooms, laboratories and space for computer science will need attention.  Much capital investment will be needed.  Iraqi investment in people, and the future, will need to be revitalised.  The intellectual embargo must be terminated.  Overseas studies will need to be facilitated once again.

e. Perhaps above all other reconstruction prerequisites, is the need to restore the capacity of Iraq to produce and distribute ELECTRIC POWER through its once effective national grid. Agriculture, health care, water and sanitation are all greatly dependent on the availability of cheap electric power.

f. INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT is fundamental to an economy that will be part of the global economy, but will want to remain free and independent of its greed, its exploitation of cheap labour and its pressures leading to environmental negligence.  Iraq will need to participate while at the same time protecting its integrity from the corruption and dangers of superficial opportunities.

g. And we cannot overlook the ENVIRONMENT, in particular the damage caused by the Gulf War together with ten long years of UN embargo, minimal protection and maintenance during this period.  Investment will be required to clean up waters such as the Shatt al Arab, the Tigris, the Euphrates and offshore areas of the Gulf.

h. Likewise, we cannot forget DEPLETED URANIUM, used during the Gulf War by UN allies, and remaining toxic even today in the debris of war, in the soil, and in the water of the South.  Depleted Uranium – DU residue is going to demand special international scientific attention.  A truly independent enquiry into usage by the US and the UK during the Gulf War must be undertaken.  The world must understand the crimes committed, but even more importantly, the global medical profession must assist with combating current and long term effects.  The human damage is already apparent, now a way  must be found to guard against yet more damage, more lost lives, in the future.

We have seen horrific increase in cancers throughout child and adult hospitals, and in particular the increases in Basra and the southern parts of the country.  We have seen the horror of birth defects, and the evidence of medical complications never before seen in this country.  The use of DU when it impacts on civilians constitutes a crime against humanity; a crime for which Britain and the USA will have to answer.  When Iraq is ready, and in addition to prosecution, the issue of compensation for lives destroyed and families maimed should be pursued by the United Nations

i. BANKING, INTERNET LINKS and the TELECOMMUNICATIONS and TRANSPORTATION SECTORS will need to be rebuilt, improved and expanded.  A modern economy must be driven forward – designed to raise the well being of all Iraqis, both urban and rural.  Small towns and villages will need to keep apace with Baghdad and other cities.  FULL EMPLOYMENT and effective INCOME DISTRIBUTION  during the difficult years of economic recovery, and then during success and prosperity, will need to be managed well. Investment and focus on RURAL areas will be needed to avoid urban drift.

j. From my experience working in Iraq, I believe that the expertise to meet all these demands resides amongst the ministers and technocrats of government departments.  However,
there is also an important human resource overseas.  I refer to the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Professionals Overseas who fled the embargo in order to take care of their families.  I have met such Iraqis in Australia, in Canada, in Ireland and elsewhere.  And I know that they are highly regarded overseas, but I believe that most would like to go home to rejoin their extended families.  And to play a part in the recovery of the Iraqi economy.

How is all of this to be accomplished?  I have mentioned the need for both recurring expenditures and capital investment.  Recurring Budgetary costs of the country will presumably have to be met from oil export revenues, maximized when spare parts and equipment for new wells become available. Debt relief will need to be sought from those countries supportive of Iraqi recovery.  When Iraqi is ready, OPEC should be urged to approve, as an exceptional measure, an increase in Iraq’s global export-share in recognition of urgent needs and in acknowledgment of ten years of lost revenue.

Apart from recurring expenditures, it seems clear that massive CAPITAL INVESTMENT will be needed.  I assume those in government planning have such investment needs calculated, but it would appear to be in excess of US $100 billion.  And it needs to be available immediately the embargo is removed, if not before, in order to expand oil production, rebuild and enhance electric power and distribution capacity,  water treatment and distribution systems.  Urban sanitation needs and the restoration of agricultural irrigation systems, animal health and production will be required.

Likewise, capital investment will be needed for health care, education, agriculture, telecommunications, transportation and urban and rural reconstruction.

2. But first, the US and the UK must end their illegal “NO-FLY ZONE” bombing attacks on the north and south of Iraq.  There is no UN provision, including Resolution 688, calling for the continuous bombing of Iraq.  It has resulted in the death of hundreds of civilians.  It terrorizes the children of the country.  It constitutes war and it must stop.  I understand in Washington and within the US Air Force, there are many reservations about the no-fly zone bombing policy.  Certainly, all the members of the Security Council, but for the UK and the US, have condemned it.

3. Although it is an Iraqi domestic issue, and a sensitive one, I want to remind listeners of the need to accelerate peaceful reunification with the northern governorates.  Despite the fact that the Kurds as an ethnic group have been used and betrayed since the fall of the Ottoman Empire by the British, the Iranians, and more recently the USA, there remains European Community and international concern for their well being.  I mention this concern, knowing full well that the Kurds of Iraq have also suffered terribly under the economic embargo maintained by these same countries. They appear to be unaware of the loss of life and malnutrition amongst Kurdish children, and adults, due to the embargo for which they are responsible.

Despite all the difficulties of the past, I believe that the Kurds of the northern governorates need to be treated with tolerance.  Baghdad needs to continue to respond to their economic and other needs, as the UN embargo crumbles and Iraq continues to expand its international dialouge.  This would be consistent with the present commitment of Baghdad to the social, linguistic, educational and cultural rights of Iraqi Kurds.

4. The fear of WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, including chemical and biological, continues.  Today, Iraq is surrounded by countries heavily armed with modern conventional weapons, and some with weapons of mass destruction. Despite the statements of former disarmament inspector Mr. Scott Ritter that Iraq has no such WMD weapons capacity, the politics of the US-driven Security Council appear to require the certainty of that condition.  Despite the double standards of the Council in respect to disarmament within the Region, the need for certainty needs to be dealt with by Iraq in order to hasten the lifting of the embargo.   And I say this, despite legitimate concerns about Iraqi national sovereignty, the right to man its borders and its apparent defensive vulnerability today.

After ten long years, Resolution 1284 and its possibility of suspending the embargo is moot.  Monitoring can be carried out under existing non-proliferation treaty provisions by the IAEA and other international bodies as appropriate.  This should be conditional on the implementation of paragraph 14 of Resolution 687 which calls for the removal of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, from all countries of the Region. However, let us hope that the Security Council and the European Community, will begin to end the application of double standards on this matter, and begin to take nuclear and other disarmament decisions compatible with the UN charter and international law.

5. It is clearly in the best interests of good relations that Iraq continue to reassure the people of Kuwait of its good intentions.  Likewise, Kuwait must stop US bombers using it as a base from which to attack and kill innocent Iraqis.  The Turks and the Saudis must do likewise.  In this connection, Iraq will want to continue searching for the missing 605 Kuwaiti people, much as Kuwait must search for the 1040 missing Iraqis.

It is encouraging to see the ever growing dialouge and cooperation between Iraq and neighbours such as Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and Iran.

6. There must be an immediate suspension by the UN of Compensation Payments, using oil-for food revenues, in respect of all claimants as long as a single Iraqi child, or adult dies unnecessarily.  And then the entire compensation issue needs an independent international examination in order to address, inter alia, legal applications, the use of double standards by the Security Council in regard to the compensation that other states in the Region might be expected to pay.

[Voices in the Wilderness]

Voices in the Wilderness
A Campaign to End the Economic Sanctions Against thePeople of Iraq