From: "Sandeep Vaidya (LMI)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> WORLD AFFAIRS Iraq's struggle Despite the sufferings of the past 11 years, Iraq seems undaunted by the sanctions imposed on it. JOHN CHERIAN in Baghdad (Frontline, Chennai, June 9, 2001) http://www.frontlineonline.com/fl1812/18120630.htm ELEVEN years after the Gulf war ended, the people of Iraq are still suffering the impact of draconian economic sanctions imposed on the country by the United Nations, dominated as it is by the Western powers. As mandated by the international community, Iraq has recognised the sanctity of the Kuwaiti border and destroyed the weapons of mass destruction in its possession. The United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), which was mandated to find and destroy Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, admitted in 1998 after much painstaking investigation that 95 per cent of such weapons in the Iraqi arsenal had been destroyed. Scott Ritter, the high- profile American who was the United Nations arms inspector for Iraq, has said that the country is completely free of them. U.N. Security Council Resolution 678 explicitly states that once the weapons of mass destruction are destroyed "sanctions should be lifted". The issue now is Iraq, and not Kuwait or weapons of mass destruction. More than 10.5 lakh Iraqis have perished owing to the adverse impact of the sanctions in the past 11 years. In this period, war or deprivation has claimed at least one relative of every Iraqi. The infant mortality rate has continued to increase as the people have been deprived of essential medicines and food. The international community has belatedly recognised that Washington and a few of its close allies have been using sanctions as a political weapon in order to undermine the government in Baghdad. President Bill Clinton explicitly stated in 1998 that the sanctions would be lifted only after the government had been substituted by a more pliable regime. His Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, was even more forthright: she told an American television interviewer that Iraqi children dying because of the blockade was not an issue and that getting rid of President Saddam Hussein was the major goal. A visit to a children's hospital in Baghdad makes clear the gravity of the situation. The lack of essential medicines has made the suffering unbearable for children afflicted with diseases such as tuberculosis and cancer and respiratory infections. Statistics put out by the authorities show an alarming increase in the mortality rate, especially among children. According to the Ministry of Health, over 6,000 children under the age of five died in March this year; 2,503 children died owing to malnutrition, while pneumonia and respiratory infections claimed 2,518, and diarrhoea 1,617. The child mortality rate in Iraq in March 1989, that is, before the Gulf war started, was only around 350. The mortality rate among people above 50 years has also increased significantly. The figures illustrate the steady decline of living standards and health care under the sanctions regime. According to Iraqi experts, cases of cancer have risen five-fold owing to the use of depleted uranium by t! he U.S. and its allies in the Gulf war. Hospitals in Iraq do not have the equipment, the medicines or the finances that are needed to treat advanced stages of cancer. Meanwhile, attacks on Iraq's sovereignty by the U.S. and the U.K. continue virtually every day. When this correspondent was in Iraq in the last week of April, U.S. planes attacked a site that was about 50 km from Najaf, an important pilgrimage centre for Muslims. Three Iraqis were killed. About 400 were killed in missile attacks by the U.S. planes that ventured into the so-called "no fly zones" over Iraq. Iraqis have begun to take these attacks in their stride. In fact, the Iraqi forces are talking of downing a U.S. fighter plane one of these days. U.S. pilots who have flown over Iraq recently have reported that they have come "very close" to being hit by Iraqi anti-aircraft fire. The U.S. planes take off from bases in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Turkey. These countries do not want to give publicity to such missions. Turkey has at times objected to specific missions, especially the ones that targeted Kurdish areas in northern Iraq. Turkey has a vested interest in seeing that areas where the Iraqi Kurds form a majority do not secede from Iraq. Turkey fears that an independent Kurdish state would give a fillip to the Kurdish rebels on its own soil. Until late last year, the U.S. Air Force had admitted that it targeted anti-aircraft batteries that were kept near mosques and other crowded civilian sites. In 1998, U.S. aircraft bombed and strafed a group of Iraqi shepherds because U.S. analysts misinterpreted satellite imagery, mistaking a water trough for a missile launcher. In March, a U.S. aircraft hit a site manned by its own personnel on the Kuwait-Iraq border, killing Americans and Kuwaitis in uniform. In early May, the Pentagon announced that it was considering the possibility of stopping flights over the "no fly zones". Losing aircraft and pilots to Iraqi fire is the last thing the U.S. wants to happen at this juncture. The Bush administration wants to play a more covert role in the region, financing Iraqi dissidents and propping up secessionist elements. Western analysts themselves have concluded that the Iraqi government has never been stronger in the last 11 years than it is today. The Bush administration's call for introducing "smart sanctions" is seen as an admission of the failure of Washington's Iraq policy. The Arab world has almost unitedly turned its back on the sanctions policy against Iraq. Amr Musa, the Foreign Minister of Egypt, one of the U.S' allies in the region, said earlier in the year that public opinion in the Arab world had turned almost 180 degrees on the issue. Iraq's participation in the last two Arab summits is further proof that its isolation has ended. Hundreds of "humanitarian flights" from many countries have reached Baghdad, breaking the embargo symbolically. The much awaited flight from India has not materialised. Iraq has already re-emerged as a big oil exporter; it is the third biggest oil producer among the members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). It is, in fact, the sixth largest oil exporter to the U.S. However, the bulk of Iraqi oil is exported through non-conventional channels. Large quantities of oil are taken by truck to Jordan and Turkey. Washington is aware of this fact but has not done anything to stop it. It is trade with Iraq that mainly sustains the Turkish economy. According to Iraqi officials, the bilateral trade is worth around $3 billion annually. The other outlet for Iraq is Jordan. The Jordanian economy is doing well by West Asian standards, thanks mainly to the country's booming trade with Iraq. In fact, many Iraqis feel that Jordan thrives on Iraq's misery. The embargo on Iraq has been further undermined by the re-opening of the Syria-Iraq pipeline in November last year. As many as 150,000 barrels of oil a day can be pumped through this route, which is outside the area under U.N. control. Some 100,000 barrels of oil is smuggled every day through the Shatt-al-Arab waterway into the Gulf. Iraq levies a surcharge on every barrel of oil exported under U.N. regulations. The companies, some of them American, that buy the oil deposit the money directly into the accounts of the Iraqi government, despite protests from Washington. Western sources estimate that the Iraqi government gets an additional $1 billion annually from selling oil through channels that are outside the supervision of the U.N. People who travel frequently to Iraq say that the quality of life in the country has shown a marked improvement in the past one year. Shops in Baghdad are well stocked and the residents of the capital have started complaining of "traffic jams". New cars, many of them of American make, are more visible on the wide and well-maintained streets of Baghdad than before. But the situation is still far from normal. With daily attacks from the air and the sanctions continuing to bite, Iraqis still feel that the war is not over. The night life for which Baghdad was famous in the 1980s has not returned. There has been a growing emphasis on Islamic values since the Gulf war ended. According to Narsa el Saddoun, the Editor of Baghdad Observer, Iraq's only English daily, a puritanical atmosphere prevails in the country in keeping with the difficult times the people are going through. But Saddam Hussein's birthday on April 28 was marked by celebrations. More than a lakh of Iraqis reached the President's hometown of Tikrit that day, which was declared a holiday. The top leadership of Iraq was present in Tikrit along with the heads of diplomatic missions. The celebrations were spontaneous and genuine. Saddam Hussein was, however, not present at the festivities owing to security constraints. Iraq has known no other leader but Saddam Hussein since the early 1970s. The people expect him to lead them out from the most difficult situation they have been in since independence. With many of the factories shut down, the unemployment rate is high. More than a million highly qualified Iraqis have emigrated. According to Sadoun, many of them have been forced to work as taxi drivers. THE "dual use" clause in the U.N. resolutions bars Iraq from importing any materiel which the West feels can be diverted for military purposes. Under this clause, even the import of pencils is prohibited. The power grids are in need of an overhaul. Since power supply is regulated, hospitals are at times forced to function without electricity. This has affected refrigeration facilities for life-saving drugs. Only computers of "286" vintage are allowed to be imported. More powerful computers are deemed dangerous as they could be diverted for military use. "Medicines come without needles. Import of ambulances is prohibited under the dual use clause," said Saddoun. Iraq had the biggest pharmaceutical factory in the region which manufactured the vaccine for the foot and mouth disease in cattle that is now causing havoc in Europe. Iraq used to export the vaccine to Europe until the Gulf war broke out. The factory was destroyed by UNSCOM in 1996 on the grounds that it could be put to "dual use". Iraq is known for its cattle wealth, which needs to be protected against diseases such as foot and mouth. Said Saddoun: "We were producing the vaccine for ten cents a unit. Now we have to import it for a dollar and a half." President George W. Bush seems to be as committed as his predecessors to "keeping Iraq in its box". The overthrow of the Saddam government continues to be Washington's goal and the latest attempt is being made under the facade of "smart sanctions". According to Saddoun, the whole concept of smart sanctions is being propagated with a view to putting Iraq under the permanent supervision of the U.N. The larger game plan is also to remove Iraq's oil resources from the control of its people. Iraq has more than 10 per cent of the world's known reserves of oil. It is the control over this resource that has made the Iraqi government an important player in regional and international politics. Washington hopes that if the so-called smart sanctions succeed, Iraq will have no option but to open its oil sector to companies from all over the world. Russian, French and Chinese companies have been promised a stake in the lucrative sector if they go along with the idea of smart sanctions. Under the smart sanctions, all goods coming into Iraq and every financial deal it enters into will be strictly monitored. Iraq has no great expectations from any of the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. Saddoun feels that France and Russia will support the idea of smart sanctions. She points out that China has not exercised its veto whenever the issue of Iraq and the sanctions has come up. "We do not rely on any one country. Every country has its problems. Economic cooperation has to be mutually beneficial," said Saddoun. India is already carrying on trade with Iraq under Article 50 of the U.N. Charter. Article 50 allows countries that were adversely affected by the Gulf war to trade with Iraq. Iraq owes around $1 billion to India in unpaid bills dating from the 1980s. Economic links between the two countries were strong until the Gulf war started. According to senior Iraqi officials, the major goal of the West now is to make the Iraqi state irrelevant by denying the government the funds needed for the administration of the country. Depriving the people of basic necessities such as power, education and transportation, Washington hopes, will lead to the disintegration of Iraqi society. Smart sanctions also seek to strengthen the role of the private sector. Iraqi officials say that their country has been a strong centralised state since the 1950s, with the state looking after health care, education and the other fundamental necessities of the people. "If the role of the state is eroded, Iraq will disintegrate," said an official. According to a senior Iraqi official, the idea of smart sanctions was first mooted by France two years ago when two high-power delegations came to Baghdad, making complete financial transparency a condition for lifting sanctions. Iraq rejected the idea. Iraqi officials say that if they accept smart sanctions, they would have to submit to a fate that is worse than colonialism. "Even protectorates have more rights," said an official. Iraqi officials feel that the military sanctions are equally unjustified. The sanctions continue only on the basis of the suspicions in Washington. Iraqi officials insist that they have implemented Resolution 687. Article 14 of the resolution calls for the establishment of a zone that is free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction in the region. Iraqi officials say that Iraq has cleared its territory of dangerous weapons but the same is not the case with its neighbours such as Israel, Turkey and Iran. Iraq is also facing a threat to its internal security, and the continuing sanctions could lead to a military vacuum in the region. Neighbouring countries have been trying to interfere in the affairs of Iraq. Iraqi officials say that Turkey has territorial ambitions, setting its eyes on parts of northern Iraq, particularly Mosul. Baghdad has historically been suspicious of Iran's game plan in the region, especially in the Shia-dominated southern part of Iraq. In the end of April, Iraq said that Iran, after signing a security agreement with Saudi Arabia, had fired 64 long-range missiles into its territory. Iraqi officials allege that Washington has given the green signal to Saudi Arabia to overthrow the government in Baghdad. Iran, according to them, has also been coopted into the grand U.S. strategy to overthrow the Saddam Hussein government. Until 1998, the Iraqi leadership believed that complying with the U.N.'s stringent terms would eventually lead to the lifting of the embargo. They have no such illusions now and Baghdad no longer cares about the blockade. Iraqi officials point out that Cuba has survived a U.S. embargo for the last 40 years. "We will face it for 100 years. It will after all be only an American embargo," said an Iraqi official. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
