>Mailing-List: ListBot mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] >STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG >Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To fellow Iraqi activists - I just sent this editorial off to the Inquirer, >who covered the Von Sponeck story with one of its short paragraphs in the >second page International News section (no coverage of the UN protest, of >course). Bob Allen is working on another Von Sponeck editorial. I agree >that the more of us who write, the more pressure there is to cover the story. >----------------------------------------- > >The Inquirer reported on February 15 that Hans von Sponeck, the top >United Nations humanitarian official in Iraq, resigned his post because he >had lost hope for an improvement in conditions for the Iraqi people. He >became the second top UN official in Iraq to resign in protest, following >in the footsteps of his predecessor, Denis Halliday, who resigned in >December 1998 after spending a little less than a year in Iraq overseeing >the Oil-for-Food program. Yet another top official has now resigned, >Jutta Burghardt, the chief of the UN World Food Program, who said in a >CNN interview, "It is a true humanitarian tragedy what is happening >here... ." > The US pressured UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to fire von >Sponeck back in October 1998, when he began criticizing US policy. >According to a recent Reuters report, when Annan extended von >Sponeck's term to April 25 (rather than for a full year), von Sponeck had >been told to curb his public statements. In resuming his public criticism, >von Sponeck said, "So I'm not alone in my view that we have reached a >point where it is no longer acceptable that we are keeping our mouths >shut." > While the US blames Saddam Hussein for the suffering of the Iraqi >people, the voices of career UN diplomats, speaking courageously from >personal knowledge, tell a different story. They know why the >Oil-for-Food program has failed to provide the basic necessities for the >people of Iraq. First, at least 30% of the revenues from Iraqi oil sales go >for war reparations and to pay for the extensive UN bureaucracy. What >is leftover is not enough to provide an adequate diet for the Iraqi people >who exist on a UN food basket. Second, the high death rate of Iraqi >children is due largely to Iraq's ruined infrastructure, so that children >drink polluted water, play in sewage-drenched streets, and hospitals >struggle with electric failures and unhygienic conditions. It is the US's >insistence on strictly enforcing what are called "dual use" sanctions that >has prevented Iraq from rebuilding its electric, sewage and water >treatment facilities. Over a billion dollars of Oil-for-food revenues >remain unspent because of US refusal to approve expenditures on >infrastructure-related goods. > As the United States becomes increasingly isolated in the UN, its >efforts to silence people of conscience such as Von Sponeck should be >roundly condemned. We in the United States must applaud these >truthtellers and rally behind their example to demand that the US stop its >war against the people of Iraq. > >Kitty Bryant >5 Awbury Road >Philadelphia, PA 19138 >(215)438-4181 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > __________________________________ 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] ___________________________________
