>X-Authentication-Warning: beirut.leb.net: majordomo set sender to >[EMAIL PROTECTED] using -f > >=========Iraq Action Coalition ========http://iraqaction.org/ ======= >February 8, 2000 > >Top UN Official Urges End to Iraq Trade Sanctions > >Filed at 6:54 a.m. ET > >By Reuters >BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The senior United Nations humanitarian coordinator in >Baghdad urged an end to U.N. sanctions on Iraq, calling them ``a true human >tragedy.'' > >Hans von Sponeck, a German, told CNN television in an interview monitored in >Baghdad late on Monday night that the United Nations' oil-for-food program >was not meeting the ''minimum requirements'' of the Iraqi people. > >The program was set up, with von Sponeck at its head, to ease the hardship >of U.N. sanctions imposed on Iraq for its August 1990 invasion of Kuwait. > >``As a U.N. official, I should not be expected to be silent to that which I >recognize as a true human tragedy that needs to be ended,'' von Sponeck >said. > >``How long the civilian population, which is totally innocent on all this, >should be exposed to such punishment for something that they have never >done?'' he asked. > >Von Sponeck has drawn harsh criticism from the United States and Britain for >similar statements he has made in the past. > >Press reports have said Washington and London were pushing for his >dismissal, but Secretary General Kofi Annan was believed to have resisted >and asked him to stay for another year. > >``I am...very sorry that two important member governments are questioning my >integrity and questioning whether I stay within my bounds,'' he said. > >``I CANNOT BE SILENT'' > >``The very title that I hold as a humanitarian coordinator suggests that I >cannot be silent over that which we see here ourselves.'' > >Asked if he thought he could keep the job in the face of U.S. and British >opposition, he said: ``If I am leaving for the right reasons then I will not >regret it, but the moment I am in this job I will do my work as best as I >can.'' > >The oil-for-food deal allows Baghdad to sell $5.26 billion worth of crude >oil over six months to buy food, medicine and other supplies for the Iraqi >people. > >Von Sponeck said the program had ``certainly done some good'' for the Iraqi >people but did not ``guarantee the minimum of that a human being requires >which is clearly defined in the universal declaration of human rights.'' > >Last October he urged the members of the U.N. Security Council to separate >relief issues for ordinary Iraqis from the more controversial political >issues of disarmament. > >Iraq, which is under U.N. orders to destroy its weapons of mass destruction, >has banned U.N. disarmament inspectors since December 1998 when Washington >and London launched four days of extensive air and missile attacks on it for >failing to cooperate with the monitors. > >Baghdad has since dismissed a new U.N. resolution which could ease the >sanctions in return for the return of the inspectors. > > __________________________________ 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] ___________________________________
