>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: "International"<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > The following letter from former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark > has been sent to each member of the Security Council. Please help > circulate this information widely. > > January 26, 2000 > > Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom to the United Nations > > Dear H.E. Sir Jeremy Greenstock, KCMG, > > A delegation of U.S. citizens from twenty states has just returned from > Iraq. On January 17, we observed in Baghdad the 9th Anniversary of > the beginning of the January 17 - February 28, 1991. U.S. aircraft flew >110,000 aerial sorties against Iraq, averaging one every 30 seconds, >dropping 88,500 tons of explosives, the equivalent of 7 l/2 Hiroshima >bombs. > > This was by far the most intensive bombardment in history. It killed >tens of thousands of people, injuring many more. Medicines and >medical supplies were exhausted. It devastated water systems from >reservoir, pumping station, pipeline, filtration plant to kitchen faucet as > >well as urban sewage and sanitation systems nationwide. Food >production, processing, storage, distribution, and marketing facilities > were widely destroyed. Poultry was nearly wiped out by loss of > electricity and lack of grain. Animal herds were decimated. Fertilizer > and insecticide plants and storage structures were destroyed. > Communications systems, telephone, radio, TV, were shattered. > Transportation was badly battered. Vital industries were attacked > everywhere. Electric power was knocked out across the nation in the > first 24 hours of the assault. Petroleum production, refining, storage > and distribution from well to service station were attacked across the > nation. > > The combined effect of this vast destruction of essential goods, > services and industries with the most comprehensive economic > sanctions of modern times, first imposed on Hiroshima Day, August 6, > 1990, has caused more than a million and a half deaths. > > Conditions of Life and Death in Iraq > > I have traveled to and within Iraq ten times since sanctions were > imposed, once during the bombing in 1991. Each year, the death rate > has risen radically. The numbers of deaths have been reported > internationally regularly and updated each month since 1991. In Iraq, > they are palpable. UN agencies, the World Health Organization, the > Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Program, > UNICEF and others have found and confirmed the deaths time and > time again. They must shock the conscience of every sentient human > being. Comprehensive reports by UN agencies and other sources are > available to you. You are charged with this knowledge. The total > numbers of deaths in every segment of the society has risen radically in > each of the past nine years under U.S./U.N. sanctions. > > As a tragic illustration total annual deaths of children in Iraq under the > age of five from respiratory infection, diarrhea and gastroenteritis and > malnutrition are: > >During >1989:7110 deaths >1991:27473 >1994:52905 >1997:58845 >1998:71279 >1999(Jan.- Nov.): 73572 > > The annual number of deaths of children under age five grew more > than tenfold from 1989 to 1999. Total deaths of children under age > five from these selected causes alone during 1990 to November 1999 > is 502,492. > > While children under age five are the most vulnerable age group, > except for the extreme elderly, every age group has suffered radical > increases in the numbers of deaths. Members of the population with > serious chronic illnesses requiring regular medication, or therapy, > suffer the highest percentages of death of any sectors, approaching > 100% for some illnesses where survival rates were as high as 95% > before sanctions. > > The sanctions target to kill, or injure infants, children, the elderly, >and > the chronically ill. > > The Red Crescent and other knowledgeable professional groups > believe it will be years after the end of sanctions before the increase in > deaths from most causes stops rising because of the cumulative effect > of the sanctions on the physical conditions of parents, children, the > new born and the overall environment. > > Most of those who survive suffer severe physical and mental injury > from the sanctions. Indicative of the impact of sanctions is the > enormous rise in the percentage of registered births under 2.5 > kilograms, a dangerously low birth weight in a nation without adequate > food, medicine and medical supplies and equipment. Like death, > under weight births have risen radically every year: > > Year / % of live births at weights under 2.5 kilograms > >1990:4.5 >1991:10.8 >1994:21.1 >1998:23.8 >1999(Jan. - Nov.): 24.1 > > The percentage of live births below 2.5 kg. has increased more than > fivefold to one in four registered births. The consequence for the lives > of these children is enormous. Many will have underdeveloped > organs, mental retardation, remain smaller and weaker than average > and be more vulnerable to sickness, malnutrition and bad water. Their > life expectancy has been reduced by as much as 30%. Probably 90% > of all the infants born in Iraq since 1990 have significantly lower birth > weights than they would if there were no sanctions. The effect on lives > and health of children with higher birth weights is also drastic. This is > why foreign medical teams for five years have referred to a "stunted > generation" in Iraq. > > Suggestive of the struggle the children living and dying under > sanctions in Iraq face are the following increases since 1990 in > treated cases of nutrition related sicknesses and deficiencies. > > Year / Number of cases > Kwashiorkor > 1990: 485 (base) > 1991: 12796 26.3 times > 1994: 20975 42.6 " > 1998: 30232 61.4 " > > Year / Number of cases > Marasmus > 1990: 5193 (base) > 1991: 96186 18.5 times > 1994: 192296 37 " > 1998: 264468 50.8 " > > Year / Number of cases > Protein, Calorie, Vitamin deficiency, Malnutrition > 1990: 96809 (base) > 1991: 947974 9.8 times > 1994: 1576194 16.3 " > 1998: 1910309 19.7 > > Kwashiorkor is an extremely dangerous end product of malnutrition > in which the victim wastes and dies without early intensive care. Few > doctors in Iraq had ever seen a case before late 1990. From > medical school and continuing studies they associated Kwashiorkor > with starvation in the poorest regions of Africa and south Asia during > periods of war, drought, pestilence and other calamities. Marasmus > inflicts a lower death rate than kwashiorkor, but is extremely > dangerous, permanently damaging and requires early and extended > care for survival. The effects of severe and protracted malnutrition > are permanent and life shortening. > > Common communicable diseases preventable by vaccination which > are provided nearly all children in developed countries and were > standard in Iraq before 1990 have increased by multiples. While > rates for these diseases fluctuate unlike the death rates and rates for > malnutrition related sickness, because of the cyclical nature of their > communication, they have been regularly higher, increasingly so, and > have afflicted additional hundreds of thousands of children. Increases > in 1998 over 1989 were as follows: whooping cough, 3.4 times; > measles, 4.5 times (25, 818 cases); mumps, 3.7 times (35,881). > The Sanctions Committee of the Security Council has failed to > approve negotiated contracts for Iraq to purchase vaccines for these > and other diseases. Poliomyelitis, which had been virtually > extinguished in Iraq, has increased by a multiple ranging from 2 to > 18.6 times since 1989. Cholera rose from zero cases in 1989 to > 2560 cases in 1998 and conditions in Iraq threaten an epidemic. > Amoebic dysentery was 13 times greater in 1998, totaling 264,290 > cases, over 1989 and much higher in several earlier years. Typhoid > fever was up 10.9 times to 19825 cases in 1998 over 1989. > Scabies increased every year from zero cases in 1989 to 43,580 in > 1998. Every adult knows the misery, suffering and sometimes > heartbreak these preventable communicable diseases cause. > > Doctors, nurses, therapists, pharmacists, all persons in health care, > work under tragic conditions. Doctors and nurses uniformly state > that patients they could easily save under normal conditions die every > day. The hospitals are in wretched condition: dark, cold, dirty, > stairwells crumbling, walls peeling, beds without sheets, plumbing > inoperable, electricity erratic, equipment without parts, medicines, > oxygen, aesthetics, antiseptics, antibiotics, x-ray film, catheters, > gauze, aspirin, light bulbs, pencils always scarce, often unavailable. > Common life saving medicines from dehydration tablets to insulin are > never in adequate supply. > > In plain numbers without measuring the conditions under which they > were performed, or the availability of important equipment and > supplies, major surgical operations have declined each year from a > monthly average of 15,125 in 1989 to 3823 in November 1999 or > by 74.7%. The monthly average number of laboratory investigations > has declined from 1,494,050 in 1989 to 454,375 in November > 1999, or by 68.6%. > > Drastic deterioration in the whole environment, the physical plant, > sanitation and the introduction of some 25,000,000 ounces of > depleted uranium by U.S. aircraft and missiles have caused enormous > increases in illnesses from tuberculosis to leukemia and other cancers, > tumors and malformations in fetuses. These conditions will take > many years and billions of dollars to restore to 1989 levels. The > hundreds of thousands of lives destroyed and the health of millions > damaged can never be restored. > > Today unemployment is 60%. 95% of the private sector of the > economy is shut down. There are no ambulances. 80% of the > sanitation trucks from 10 years ago are inoperable. There are no > new trucks, cars, tractors, buses, or other vehicles. Food > distribution from a comprehensive rationing system controlling staples > delivers 1100 calories per day for every person throughout the > country, Kurd, Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim, Christian, Jew, rich, poor, > alien, with special rations for infants, pregnant women, the severely > malnourished, and others with special needs. The poor cannot > significantly supplement their food rations. In 1989, daily caloric > intake in Iraq averaged 3400. > > These brief facts demonstrate the deadly conditions of life > deliberately inflicted on the entire population of Iraq, but which > inherently impact on infants, children, the elderly and chronically ill > first and destroy a vast part of the nation and its overwhelmingly > Muslim peoples. > > Representative of the attitude of the U.S. government foreign policy > makers toward Iraq and the sanctions are the considered remarks of > former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in a syndicated > newspaper article published in the second week of January 2000 in > which he referred to the "alleged suffering of the Iraqi people." Then > U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Albright spoke > more forthrightly, if more cruelly. She stated in an interview on the > top-rated CBS national network magazine show 60 Minutes, seen > by tens of millions of people in the spring of 1997, that she believed > the deaths from the sanctions of 585,000 Iraqi children under the age > of five as direct result of sanctions reported by the U.S. Food and > Agriculture Organization in late 1986 was a price worth paying to > maintain the sanctions against Iraq. > > The Sanctions Violate the Genocide Convention of 1948 > > Genocide is defined in the Genocide Convention, in part, as follows: > > Article II...genocide means any of the following acts committed > with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, > racial or religious group, as such: > > (a) Killing members of the group; > (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the > group; > (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated > to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; > > There can be no doubt that the sanctions against Iraq intentionally > destroyed in major part members of a national group and a religious > group, as such, killing members of the groups, causing bodily and > mental harm to their members and deliberately inflicting conditions of > life calculated to bring about their physical destruction, at least, in > part. If this is not genocide, what is? > > The United States, after decades of resisting, finally ratified the > Genocide Convention before these sanctions were imposed. It has > frequently accused other governments of genocide, sometimes > assaulting them severely with its massive, high tech military weapons > against which nearly all nations are defenseless. > > The Food for Oil Program has failed to stop the increased death rates > > The Food for Oil program was approved in December 1996 as a > means of maintaining the sanctions against Iraq which were meeting > growing opposition in the Security Council. After three years of > operation barely six billion dollars in contracts under the program > have been received from 19 billion dollars of oil sales. Despite Iraq's > desperate needs, more of the funds from sales of its oil have been > turned over to the U.S., the UN and others making claims against > Iraq than have been allocated to contracts approved for purchase of > food, medicine, equipment and equipment parts for the people of > Iraq. Five billion in contracts for purchases entered into by Iraq has > not been approved. > > As has been seen the deaths of children and every other segment of > the society from the sanctions have continued to rise in 1997, 1998 > and 1999. To rebuild the health care system, the food production > processing, storage and distribution system and the water systems > will cost many billions. Restoring facilities for health, > communications, transportation, education, industry and clean up of > the environment polluted by the U. S. aerial assaults, including the use > of depleted uranium found in extremely dangerous concentrations in > parts of Iraq, will cost many tens of billions of dollars. > > Iraq was devoting more than 20 billion annually to public facilities, > goods and services before 1989. Income from oil sales for 1997- > 1999 averaged under 2 billion dollars annually, 10% of the amounts > available before sanctions. If Iraq devoted all of the funds under the > Oil for Food Program to food, medicine and water, the deaths > caused by sanctions would continue to rise and the health of the > nation decline. The United States has proceeded to frustrate > approval of contracts under the program in a systematic way to > prolong the genocide against Iraq. > > United States military aircraft deliberately destroyed Iraq's water > storage, distribution and quality control systems during the intensive > bombing during January and February 1991. Within two weeks > there was no running water in any city or town in Iraq. Many tens of > thousands of people in Iraq have died as a direct result of drinking > contaminated water. > > Iraq has entered into contracts totaling $700,000,000 for water and > sewage projects. This sum is a very small fraction of current needs. > Only $65,000,000 has been received, less than 9%. This is done > deliberately to continue conditions of life destructive of the population > of Iraq. Purchase of chlorine for municipal water treatment, a > standard international usage, has been completely rejected. People > continue to die at increasing rates from bad water. > > Oil production for even the very low levels authorized under the > program, less than 1/3 of the pre-sanctions level, has been difficult to > achieve and usually below authorized amounts, because of > deteriorated and destroyed facilities and lack of equipment and parts. > Still the sanctions committee has approved only 18% of the tendered > contracts for oil production, refining and transport. This is done to > prevent Iraq from restoring its ability to save its people through the > sales of oil. > > Of the $207 million sought for communications under the program, > not a penny has been approved. The sanctions committee fears > communicated truth will set opinion free and end the sanctions. > > The Oil for Food Program has never been anything more than a > means for slowly increasing the rate of destruction of the people of > Iraq. Security Council Resolution 1284 is simply a means of starting > the process over again. During three years under the program from > 1996 to 1999, well over 200,000 children under age five died in > drastically increasing numbers each year at a rate growing from just > under 9 to well over 10 times the number who died in 1989. That > experience must not be repeated. The sanctions must be ended now. > > It is criminal to hold the lives of the people of Iraq hostage to demands >of > the U.S. against their government, whatever those demands may be. In war >it is > prohibited to use starvation as a weapon. Medical aid must be given enemy > wounded. Under sanctions an Iraqi is being deliberately killed every two > minutes by conditions of life inflicted by the sanctions. Sanctions are >the > functional equivalent of pointing guns at the heads of Iraq's children and > elderly while saying do what we demand to their government, or we > will shoot, then pulling a trigger every two minutes, or less. > > To save the United Nations in the judgment of history, the Security > Council must end the sanctions immediately. They are genocide. > > To save itself from the judgment of the people of the world, the U.S. > must immediately act to end the sanctions and account for its acts. > > Sincerely, > Ramsey Clark > > > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
