>From: Mark Clement <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>IRAQ SANCTIONS MONITOR NUMBER 101
>
>Monday, August 7, 2000
>
>LATEST NEWS++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
>Iraq protester climbs London Eye.
>
>A MAN climbed part way up the London Eye millennium wheel yesterday in
>protest at sanctions against Iraq. Dave Rolstone, of Wales, began his vigil
>at 7am and spent about an hour and a half at "5 o'clock" before coming down
>voluntarily. It was not clear whether he would be charged.
>Reuters
>
>London Eye witnesses Foreign Office " crime against humanity"
>
>Dave Rolstone, of Narbeth in Wales has climbed to the top of the Millenium
>Eye as part of a weekend of protest against sanctions on Iraq. Dave was
>there between 7 am and 8.30 am. He came down voluntarily and was arrested,
>then released without charge.
>
>Dave is a member of Voices in the Wilderness, a group protesting against
>sanctions on Iraq. He said. "I have visited Iraq myself and seen first hand
>the devastating effects of economic sanctions. This governments policy is a
>crime against humanity."
>
>Dave will join Monday's anti sanctions Die In, where hundreds of people wil=
l
>assemble in peaceful protest in central London to mark the 10th anniversary
>of economic sanctions on Iraq. After gathering in Trafalgar Square at noon,
>protesters dressed in black will walk to the Foreign Office in Whitehall.
>Many of them, including Ms. Caroline Lucas MEP and Reggie Norton, former
>Oxfam field Director and trustee, will then commit nonviolent civil
>disobedience by staging a symbolic 'die-in' in the road outside the Foreign
>Office to represent the people who have died in Iraq as a result of
>sanctions. A large number of arrests are expected.
>
>Monday's demonstration is sponsored by a number of prominent groups and
>individuals, including Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Wales, Denis
>Halliday, Harold Pinter, Nabil Shaban, Jeremy Hardy, Mark Thomas, MPs Alice
>Mahon and Alan Simpson, MEP Caroline Lucas, Pax Christi and Red Pepper. The
>demonstration is organised by several groups including Voices in the
>Wilderness, Women in Black and Youth CND.
>
>
>Mariam Appeal to launch Iraq International
>Work Brigades
>
>The London based Mariam Appeal recently announced their plans to form
>monthly international work brigades who will help build a friendship villag=
e
>in Iraq beginning May 2001. Mr Stuart Halford the Director of the Mariam
>Appeal told ISM that the monthly work brigades will under the supervision o=
f
>Iraqi tradesmen and engineers engage in "reconciliation through
>reconstruction" in an original form of international solidarity.
>
>Brigadiers will be in Iraq for exactly one month at a time from May until
>October 2001 and every year thereafter. They will have a programme of
>construction work in the mornings, lectures and discussions in the
>afternoons and social and cultural activities in the evenings. Participants
>should be able to speak either English or Arabic (there will be a translato=
r
>always on hand) and should be aged 18 and over. And of course they will nee=
d
>to be fit enough for light construction duties and the heat of the Iraqi
>summer. Brigadiers will be asked to make a contribution towards travel to
>Amman. All other costs will be met by the Mariam Appeal which will fundrais=
e
>for that purpose.
>
>For further information please contact Stuart Halford at the Mariam
>Appeal on [EMAIL PROTECTED] or by telephone on (0044) 207 872 5451
>
>
>
>Trains Resume Syria-Iraq Run.
>By Associated Press.
>In a further sign of their improving relations, Iraq and Syria have agreed
>to resume rail travel - the first such link between the two Middle East
>neighbors in 18 years.
>
>The official Iraqi News Agency said the first train is scheduled to set off
>Aug. 11 for Syria's city of Aleppo from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. I=
t
>will initially run once a week.
>
>The resumption of the rail link constitutes the first step toward normal
>ties between the two former enemies under Syria's new President Bashar
>Assad, who succeeded his father last month.
>
>Last month, Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf met Assad and
>the two pledged to increase bilateral trade and contacts within the terms o=
f
>Iraq's U.N.-approved oil program.
>
>The 520-kilometer service was suspended in August 1982 when relations
>deteriorated over Damascus' backing of non-Arab Iran against Iraq in their
>eight-year war.
>
>
>Protesters Deride U.N. Sanctions.
>By Stephen C. Fehr.
>10-Year-Old Rules Against Iraq Are Hurting Children, Not Saddam, They Argue
>
>Washington Post Staff Writer
>
>The soggiest people in Washington yesterday were also some of the most
>devoted: hundreds of protesters marching from the Lincoln Memorial to the
>White House to rally in the driving rain for an end to the economic
>sanctions imposed on Iraq.
>
>Soaked from head to toe, with only the trees in Lafayette Square to protect
>him from the rain, Ken Giles of the Jewish Peace Fellowship sought to
>explain a cause that would bring people out on such a dreary day.
>
>"This is an international tragedy that needs to be dealt with," Giles said
>through claps of thunder. "All sanctions do is hurt the Iraqi people. To
>allow this human crisis to go on for 10 years is a sin."
>The Washington rally was one of a few around the world over the weekend to
>protest the sanctions, imposed by the U.N. Security Council on Aug. 6, 1990=
,
>four days after Iraq invaded Kuwait, setting in motion the 1991 Persian Gul=
f
>War. The activists-who represent human rights, interfaith and peace
>organizations-contend that the restrictions cause thousands of malnourished
>and sick Iraqi children to die while failing to weaken Iraqi President
>Saddam Hussein.
>"I'm just horrified that the United States-a supposedly loving democracy-is
>willing to kill these thousands of children to get at a man we haven't got
>at for 10 years," said Patricia Cullen, of Mount Rainier, huddling futilely
>under a tree on the saturated, muddy lawn.
>The demonstrators plan to risk arrest today by sitting down in front of the
>Treasury Department building and the White House, where sit-ins are
>prohibited.
>
>"We're going to try and say with our bodies that these sanctions must be
>lifted," said John Dear, executive director of the Fellowship of
>Reconciliation, a New York-based humanitarian group.
>
>President Clinton was not at the White House yesterday and the protesters'
>stand-in was a no-show. Martin Sheen, the actor who plays President Josiah
>Bartlet on NBC's "The West Wing," was to be on hand, said rally organizers,
>but his flight from Los Angeles was canceled. Sheen is one of a group of
>entertainers involved in the movement, which also attracted veteran protest
>singer Pete Seeger, who sang his trademark peace songs.
>
>In international shows of support yesterday, four American activists began =
a
>three-day fast outside the United Nations offices in Baghdad and a proteste=
r
>partially climbed a 450-foot-high millennium memorial in London. In Los
>Angeles, religious groups are preparing protests against the sanctions and
>other causes during next week's Democratic National Convention.
>
>At yesterday's Washington rally, Green Party presidential candidate Ralph
>Nader was one of several speakers who took aim at Clinton and his secretary
>of state, Madeleine K. Albright, who have consistently defended the
>sanctions. She said last week that Saddam Hussein is trying to portray his
>regime as a victim of sanctions, masking the fact that his country's misery
>is his fault.
>"He hopes his people's suffering will worsen so that the pressure for
>lifting sanctions will heighten and the revenues he needs to rebuild his
>weapons of mass destruction will once again begin to flow," Albright wrote
>in an op-ed piece in the Financial Times of London.
>Hussein has lied to U.N. weapons inspectors and concealed his ability to
>build weapons of mass destruction, U.S. officials say. Jim Lawson Jr., a
>Methodist minister from Los Angeles long active in the civil rights
>movement, took offense yesterday at Albright's comments, saying she was
>suggesting the anti-sanctions activists were being duped.
>
>Scanning the crowd in Lafayette Square, Lawson said: "If she thinks these
>housewives, clergy and young people are being influenced by Saddam, she's
>out of her mind. We're here because we know our nation has more to export
>than bombs and sanctions."
>
>In 1996, the Iraqis were allowed to export oil to buy food, medicine and
>other items, a program that State Department officials say should provide
>the means to feed the Iraqi people. "The U.N. sanctions have never
>prohibited or limited the amount of food or medicine Iraq could import,"
>Albright wrote in the op-ed piece. But the program has failed to supply muc=
h
>of the country with adequate health care, water and electricity, the
>protesters say.
>"The children of Iraq are not our enemy," Dear said. "They're suffering mor=
e
>from us than the Iraqi government."
>
>
>Letter to the Editor - Sanctions protest.
>SIR - Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the imposition of economic
>sanctions on Iraq. Over the past decade, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi
>children have died as a result of these sanctions. The BBC's John Simpson
>recently commented that, "if people could hear and see what is being done i=
n
>their names in Iraq, they would be outraged. But they don't, so it
>continues."
>Today there will be an act of mass non-violent civil disobedience outside
>the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, to demand an immediate and
>unconditional end to the economic sanctions. People from all over Britain
>will be there to say "no" to the violence being perpetrated by the British
>Government against ordinary men, women and children in Iraq.
>We agree with John Simpson and are ourselves outraged at the continuation o=
f
>sanctions and the concomitant suffering and death of people in Iraq. We
>fully endorse today's action and urge others who are similarly concerned to
>add their voices to the protest.
>BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH
>CAROLINE LUCAS MEP
>ROWAN WILLIAMS,
>Archbishop of Wales
>JEAN DREZE
>HAROLD PINTER
>ANDY DE LA TOUR
>GEOFF SIMONS
>NABIL SHABAN
>JEREMY HARDY
>BRUCE KENT
>c/o Voices in the Wilderness UK
>Oxford.
>(c) Telegraph Group Limited, London, 2000.
>Source: DAILY TELEGRAPH 07/08/2000 P21
>
>
>Iraq under sanctions - little has changed in 10 years.
>
>Baghdad and its enemies at home and abroad marked the 10th anniversary of
>the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on 2 August with little prospect of any change
>in the tough sanctions regime which has crippled the economy while leaving
>President Saddam Hussain in power as firmly as ever.
>
>State-run newspapers in Baghdad commemorated the event by blaming Kuwait's
>rulers for Iraq's seven-month military occupation of Kuwait in 1990/91. The
>ruling Baath Party newspaper Al-Jomhouriya said there was no option for Ira=
q
>but to send troops into Kuwait to repulse what it described as a conspiracy
>by the US and Kuwait against Baghdad.
>
>The papers stopped short of declaring Kuwait to be part of Iraq as was the
>case in the early years after the invasion. In 1994, as part of efforts to
>get UN sanctions lifted, Iraq recognised Kuwait as an independent state
>within the borders demarcated by a UN commission.
>
>The US Defence Department said on 1 August that Saddam Hussain is now the
>trapped "emperor" of a weak and despirited nation, while Kuwait is free and
>prosperous.
>
>The department conceded that the cost of maintaining air sorties over the
>northern and southern no-fly zones to protect minority Kurds and Shiites is
>running at nearly $2,000 million a year. The US also maintains more than
>24,000 troops in the region, many of them on warships in the Gulf.
>
>Little or no change is expected in US policy following the presidential
>election there in November, analysts say. Both vice-president Al Gore and
>his likely rival Republican George W Bush, whose father was president durin=
g
>the 1991 Gulf war, have indicated there will be no major shifts in the US
>approach. The Republican Party's platform commits Bush to being more active
>than the Clinton administration in rebuilding the anti-Saddam coalition and
>ousting the Iraqi president from power.
>
>Bush's vice-presidential running mate is Dick Cheney, defence secretary at
>the time of the war. His secretary of state may be Colin Powell, the man in
>overall charge of the military campaign against Iraq.
>
>The international anti-Saddam coalition created in 1990/91 remains split
>along familiar lines. The US and the UK continue to advocate tough sanction=
s
>and the eventual ouster of Saddam, with the promise of a relaxation of
>sanctions if Baghdad allows UN weapons inspectors to return to the country
>after a near three-year absence.
>Baghdad is seen as unlikely to allow back inspectors, because, it argues,
>the US and the UK are only interested in finding pretexts for maintaining
>sanctions so long as Saddam Hussain remains in power.
>Russia, France and China want an end to the sanctions. French Foreign
>Affairs Minister Hubert Vedrine described the sanctions on 2 August as
>"cruel, ineffective and dangerous".
>
>Baghdad on 29 July welcomed back Scott Ritter, former weapons inspector, wh=
o
>was once considered one of Saddam Hussain's biggest enemies but has recentl=
y
>said he thinks Baghdad has "qualitatively" disarmed and the UN sanctions
>should be lifted. Ritter was in the country to film a television
>documentary.
>
>On 1 August, the head of the UN programme in Iraq, Benon Sevan, arrived in
>Baghdad for a 17-day tour and to discuss the three-year-old oil-for-food
>deal.
>
>Crude exports in the past three years earned $29,000 million, Sevan said.
>Some $20,000 million was allocated for relief goods and the rest went to a
>UN fund to compensate victims of the 1991 war and the cost of Sevan's staff
>of around 600 as well as staff at a UN inspection body.
>
>Around $8,350 million worth of supplies have arrived in the country, with a
>further $4,200 million in the pipeline, Sevan said. Around $1,600 million
>worth of supplies have been put on hold by the UN sanctions committee.(ae)
>(ab).
>
>Source: MIDDLE EAST ECONOMIC DIGEST 11/08/2000
>
>
>10 years on Stormin' Norman is fighting a new battle.
>From BARRY WIGMORE IN NEW YORK.
>
>HE was once commander of half a million troops. Now he commands a
>multi-million pound bank balance. Ten years on from the start of the Gulf
>War, retired General "Stormin" Norman Schwarzkopf, 66, is enjoying the
>financial fruits of his fighting.
>
>One of the most famous faces of the Gulf War - along with Saddam Hussein -
>he would now be facing life on a =A330,000-a-year army pension. But he has
>worked hard to secure himself a more comfortable retirement as a reward for
>masterminding the allied military triumph.
>
>Working from a modest Washington office, he has made a fortune from securit=
y
