The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) published in late in 1995 a study in which it attributes to the US/UN sanctions against Iraq the responsibility for the death of over 560,000 children. This genocide continues the line of manifold war crimes for which the US administration should be made accountable.
The sanctions are maintained by Washington because of strategical and politico-economical reasons and attempts - by holding the Iraqi people hostage - to uphold its superpower interests in the Gulf.
The main reasons for the maintainance of the embargo seem to me the following:
1. The sanctions should suggest that Iraq still constitutes a danger [to world peace]. Thus the fears of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait of Iraq are continuously fuelled. The regimes of both Gulf states believe that they cannot be without the 'protection' of US troops. The permission to permanently station its troops in the Gulf - long-sought by Washington - with the aim to directly exert military and economic control of the oil fields, has now been granted by the regimes. The costs of stationing US troops is borne by these countries. In this connection one should point to the significant arms trade by the US with these countries, which does not increase their security but permits the flow of billions of petro- dollars back into the deficit-plagued US budget.
2. The lifting of the sanctions would lead to massive oil sales by Iraq. This would rapidly result in oil price reductions in the international market. This cannot be neither in the interest of Saudi-Arabia nor of Kuwait. Both countries depend - as a result of the high costs of stationing US troops and of costly arms purchases - on a stable oil price. Such a situation would not be welcome by the US either. Saudi- Arabia and Kuwait would not be able to honour their debts or reduce dramatically their expenditures, which would primarily affect their trade with the USA. An additional argument is that a declining oil price might negatively affect the standing of the dollar.
3. The current so-called peace negotiations between Israel and its Arab neighbours would provide another reason for the maintainance of the sanctions. Here we are faced with two unequal parties: On the one hand militarily weak Arab countries, divided by intercine conflicts; on the other a state (Israel) possessing atomic, biological and chemical weapons of mass annihilation and backed by the main superpower. The aim of this superpower (the United States) is to impose an order in the region which would ensure the long-range interests of its protigi, Israel, and increase its own influence. If Iraq were permitted to regain its strength and rejoin the community of Arab states, this might strengthen Arab unity including a rejection of the imposed 'peace negotiations'.
From the above discussion we see that Iraq is not in a position to influence the interests which underpin the sanctions. The interests affecting the continuation of the sanctions lie outside the reach of Iraq. It is thus irrelevant whether Iraq fulfils the US-imposed UN resolutions or not. These resolutions serve rather to hide the true motives of the Gulf war and the sanctions. They serve however very well to justify - for public opinion - the continuing genocide against the Iraqi population. Western media - serving Washington's agenda - have hitherto failed, alas, to question the compatibility between these resolutions and international law. It seems to me also urgent to discuss the legitimacy of resolutions made by a non-democratically legitimized Security Council.
In our regular visits to Iraq we were not only witness to continuously worsening conditions of existence for the majority of the population, but also to the extent of the destruction caused by disproportionate means of warfare (in relation to the war's declared intent). If the aim was to free Kuwait, it was not necessary to destroy human habitat, hospitals, schools, kindergartens as well as the civil infrastructure such as water and electricity supplies. Unless of course the aim of the war was different from what was publicly claimed. Those who demand com- pensations for the victims of Iraqi deeds in Kuwait, should also demand reparations for the Iraqi people who have been subjected to unmeasurable sufferings by allied bombings and the sanctions.
(Translated from German by: Elias Davidson)
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