>From: "Khaled" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Let�s Destroy This Lethal Weapon! > >�Economic sanctions are a weapon of mass destruction, used for the last ten >years to annihilate the Iraqi people� > > >August 2000 will witness the tenth anniversary of the economic embargo against >Iraq. Ten years ago the United States, as part of its �New World Order�, >turned the invasion of Kuwait by the Iraqi regime into an international crisis >and an excuse to assert its arrogance and militarism. > >At the beginning the pretext was to force the Iraqi regime to withdraw from >Kuwait and return the Sheiks - the guards of the oil wells - to power. But to >maintain the economic embargo they hypocritically claimed that the sanctions >are a tool to defend the Iraqi people�s human rights and to destroy the >weapons of mass destruction of the Saddam Hussein dictatorship. > > > >This hypocrisy means that the population of twenty million has been deprived >of food, medicine and the basic necessities of life for ten years. This has >hit the most vulnerable sectors of Iraq - the children and the elderly � the >hardest. > > > >Over ten years the US propaganda machine, its puppets in the mainstream media >networks and its friends in the reactionary Islamic and nationalist parties of >the Iraqi opposition have all strived to hide the real misery caused by the >sanctions from international public opinion on the one hand; while yelling in >the name of the Iraqi people about the need for sanctions in order to >overthrow Saddam�s regime on the other. > > > >The last ten years for the Iraqi people have seen innumerable suffering, >destruction, and deprivation. The expectations of the Iraqi masses have been >reduced to such a level that their dream is to eat a piece of bread that >actually tastes like bread. Instead they are offered sawdust. > > > >Diseases that can be easily treated by tablets claim the lives of many Iraqis >every day. Hospitals are no longer places for treatment; they have become >sources of epidemics. They have lost all semblance of being hospitals. >Generations of children are born deformed and malnourished. Malnutrition has >lead to the death of nearly two million Iraqis. > > > >The whole of the Iraqi population is effectively unemployed. Those who still >work are unable to earn their daily expenses. The misery the Iraqi people have >suffered during these ten years is indescribable. > > > >The excuses the United States and other western governments use to maintain >this embargo are completely false and deceitful. The Ba�ath regime is still in >power and continues its oppression, militarism, execution and mass killings. >Sanctions have given this regime more reason to intensify its oppression and >dictatorship. > > > >The only victims of this brutal policy of economic embargo are the Iraqi >people � both adults and children. US claims that it defends human rights by >the embargo have not only become meaningless but have turned into real farce. > > > >Contrary to the claims of the media and pro-US Iraqi bourgeois opposition, the >economic embargo has not helped to weaken and overthrow the Saddam regime. The >embargo has destroyed the resistance of the masses against the Saddam regime. >It has weakened their will against its arrogance. > > > >Are the claims of the United States and its puppets in the Iraqi opposition >true? Has the economic embargo weakened the Iraqi regime and increased the >possibility of its collapse? > > > >If we assume this is true, then we have the right to ask - what kind of savage >and inhumane policy is it that punishes the Saddam regime by killing thousands >of children and cutting the milk, food and medicine supplies for newborn >infants? What kind of policy is it that starves innocent people and destroys >the fundamental pillars and institutions of their lives? > > > >Whoever uses such means to force Saddam Hussein to surrender is more criminal >and cruel than him. The fact is that millions of Iraqi people are outraged and >frustrated at the starvation, deprivation and death and have started to >protest and struggle to end the embargo and overthrow the regime. But the >United States and its friends in the Iraqi opposition work to deepen this >despair and deprivation by falsely claiming that the sanctions aim to liberate >the Iraqi people and defend their human rights. > > > >We should be in absolutely no doubt that those in the Iraqi bourgeois >opposition which support the economic embargo and try to hide its results >without any embarrassment are completely alien to the Iraqi masses and their >suffering. Those who hope to gain power through death and starvation of >children are also criminals. Their actions demonstrate that they are a bad >alternative to Saddam�s regime and they are the other face for the same coin. >Like the Ba�ath regime they care little for human rights and freedom, so we >must expose them from now and remove their influence from Iraq. > > > >The US and its Iraqi opposition puppets defend the inhumane policy of >sanctions claiming that the genocide of the first six years has stopped. They >claim that the �Food For Oil� program enforced during the last four years >under United Nations resolution 986 has stopped the impact of the sanctions on >the Iraqi people and that they now effect only the regime. > > > >The truth is this program is simply unable to stop this human disaster or even >alleviate it. Both the continued suffering of the people and the statistics >make it obvious that this tragedy, this process of death and deterioration is >in fact intensifying. What is distributed to the Iraqi people is a very small >portion of the oil income. > > > >After paying the various UN agencies expenses and the ransom to the Persian >Gulf sheiks, what is left is stolen by those who are supposed to distribute it >to the Iraqi people. The amount paid a month to a family of five is less than >the income the UN staff who supervise the distribution earn in a few hours. > > > >It is the sanctions that are weapons of mass destruction, used against the >Iraqi people for the last ten years. It is a weapon that kills large numbers >of people; it is a weapon that kills innocent children and adults without >discrimination. > > > >If anyone who regards themselves as a supporter of freedom and human rights, >if there is any party, organisation, or personality that defends freedom and >yet has any doubt about the lethal and inhumane results of the sanctions � of >these weapons of mass destruction - I invite them to come and see the evidence >for themselves, to come and remove all doubt. > > > >The sanctions against Iraq must be lifted immediately. This weapon of mass >destruction must be abolished and prohibited forever. > > > >This is a task for all defenders of humanity all over the world. This was the >view of Worker- Communism and the Worker Communist Party of Iraq (WCPI) of the >economic embargo from the beginning. The struggle to end the embargo has been >one of the major campaigns of our movement and our party during the last ten >years. The fact that sanctions are still in place means that there is now a >real danger of destroying the whole of Iraqi society. > > > >Due to the continuance of this brutal policy for ten years against the Iraqi >people the Worker Communist Party of Iraq is announcing a large international >campaign against the economic embargo in the next few days. > > > >The aim of this campaign is to expose this deliberate policy to international >public opinion and to mobilise the wide range of forces that support human >rights in order to put pressure on the US, its Western allies and the UN to >stop using this weapon of mass destruction and force them to immediately and >unconditionally lift the sanctions. > > > >Participation in this struggle and support for the campaign of the WCPI is a >decent, humane task for all parties, organisations, individuals and media >institutions that regard themselves to be defenders of human rights, freedom, >the rights of children and human dignity. > > > >It is a task for all who oppose arrogance, weapons of mass destruction and >human misery. We ask all of you to stand with us to remove this nightmare from >the life of the deprived Iraqi people. The organisations of the WCPI around >the world are in the forefront of this struggle. They hope you will take the >initiative to organise and run this campaign and devote all your efforts to >make it a success. > > > >Rebwar Ahmad > >The secretary of the Worker Communist Party of Iraq. > >18th Jun. 2000. > __________________________________ 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] ___________________________________
