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Sanctions hurt Iraq's poor, enrich elite
Leaky embargo boosts Washington's case
for a new approach against Hussein
By
Tuesday, March 12, 2002 � Print Edition, Page A9
UMM QASR, IRAQ -- There are two faces to the international embargo against Iraq,
and the kind one can be seen in Umm Qasr.
As oil refineries flare above the harsh desert, at the northern tip of the Persian
Gulf,
trucks trundle through the port's gates and up the highway, heavily laden with wheat,
toothpaste, water pipes -- just about anything a war-weary population would need to
survive.
But that's all. Before the trucks left the port, they were screened by United Nations
inspectors, armed with high-tech gear, whose job is to ensure that Iraq's handsome
oil revenue does not pay for the import of electronics, chemicals, weapons or
anything else banned under the embargo.
The other face of the UN's oil-for-food program can be found an hour's drive away in
Basra.
At a privately owned pier in Iraq's second-largest city, where the UN has no authority,
vessels from the United Arab Emirates arrive with shipments whose contents are
unknown to the outside world. Aside from Iraqi officials, no one has authority to
inspect the incoming containers, although U.S. naval vessels in the gulf occasionally
board them and try.
Here, near the Kuwaiti border, and along Iraq's borders with Jordan and Turkey, the
gaping hole in the embargo is big enough, according to Western diplomats, to allow
as much as $4-billion (U.S.) a year in contraband into the country.
"This whole thing is a complete joke and everybody knows it," a European diplomat
based in Baghdad said. "The sanctions don't work, and that's why the poor people
are taking such a hit. But to get rid of them, everybody would have to admit they have
been a complete failure for all these years, and I don't see that happening."
The illegal goods do include food staples, medicine and other basics, meaning that in
Iraq there is no real shortage of such items -- for those who can afford them. But for
the most part, the smugglers who sidestep the UN inspectors bring in pricier
consumer items: microwaves and computers (banned under the embargo), designer
clothes, perfume, CD players and anything else that Iraq's upper crust might fancy.
As the United States steps up its war rhetoric against Iraq, the failure of the UN
sanctions to take any bite out of the country's ruling elite has bolstered Washington's
case for a new tack against Baghdad.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledges the sanctions have failed,
referring to them last year as "a Swiss cheese." He suggested replacing them at the
end of May, when the latest six-month phase of sanctions ends, with more targeted
"smart sanctions."
The proposal, initially floated by the British, would allow Iraq to import whatever it
wants, as long as the goods do not have any "dual use" military applications. But how
the smart sanctions would work remains unclear, even to the diplomats developing
the plan.
Washington has said that enforcing smart sanctions would require posting teams of
inspectors at all of Iraq's points of entry, Basra included, a logistical exercise so
vast
as to defy credibility.
As the West considers its options -- sanctions, smart sanctions or war -- the
embargo is having a devastating effect on ordinary Iraqis.
At Basra's Maraib primary school, the 510 pupils struggle through each day with no
lights or fans in the summer heat because there is no electricity. Windows are
broken. The only water supply comes from a single tap in a yard. The toilets are foul.
Apart from the desks and textbooks, there isn't a single piece of school equipment --
pencils are banned from import because their graphite could have a "dual use."
Despite the shortages, a group of clean and neatly dressed Grade 3 pupils rises
smartly to attention to chant the line they must repeat several times a day: "Long live
President Saddam Hussein. Long live the Baath Socialist Party."
"If the embargo ended, maybe we could get some equipment, especially some sort
of air conditioning," principal Muna Mohammed Shakir said. "All the children
understand is that this is because of the United States."
But there may be more to it than that. As sweeping as the sanctions are, some
people believe the Iraqi government is cynically exploiting the situation, which has
crippled teaching colleges, hospitals, health clinics and municipal services such as
water and sanitation. It was those needs the oil-for-food program was supposed to
address when it began operating in 1997.
Since then, the program has generated more than $50-billion (U.S.) for a UN-
administered escrow account in New York. But apart from food, the arrangement has
little to show for its effort, even though Iraq's oil output is almost back to the
levels
enjoyed before the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
One reason is that a quarter of the revenue is paid to Kuwait in compensation for the
costs of Iraq's abortive invasion. A further 13 per cent goes to the semi-independent
Kurdish enclave in the north of Iraq, where the humanitarian aid is administered by
the UN.
Still, Western diplomats say the Iraqi government, at any given time, has several
billion dollars sitting unused in the escrow account.
"The Iraqi government doesn't want the oil-for-food program to succeed. . . ." the
European diplomat said. "They could buy all the food they want. The same with
medicine and everything else. It all helps the propaganda effort."
Copyright � 2002 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
End<{{{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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