[PEN-L:6109] U.N. sanctions kill innocent Iraqi citizens (from OSU Student Paper The Lantern)

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

Can anyone give Nathan Crabbe a job upon his graduation? (Nathan is
currently opinion editor of the Lantern (student paper at the Ohio State
University). Yoshie

                April 28, 1999


                U.N. sanctions kill innocent Iraqi citizens

                Editorial



                It's been more than a year since the CNN Town Hall Meeting
on Iraq at St. John
                Arena thrust Ohio State into the national spotlight. Noisy
protesters turned what
                was supposed to be an easy public relations coup for the
Clinton administration
                into a ugly debacle that exposed the hypocrisy of our
foreign policy.

                Predictably, Clinton started our bombing campaign again at
the height of the
                Lewinsky scandal and we have bombed Iraq on a regular basis
ever since. The
                United States has also continued its support of sanctions
that are aimed at
                preventing Iraq's ability to build up its military, but
instead have devastated the
                common people of the country.

                While protests since have not gotten the attention the CNN
meeting did,
                opposition has remained steadfast in the OSU community. It
culminated Tuesday
                with area activists joining a national call to action in a
demonstration at 15th
                Avenue and North High Street.

                Today we join the call to end the U.S.-backed U.N.
sanctions imposed upon
                Iraq. In our demonization of Saddam Hussein and desire to
topple his regime,
                we have unwittingly inflicted a toll on the Iraqi people
that can be called nothing
                less than genocide.

                The numbers are sickening: According to UNICEF, about 250
Iraqis die daily
                because of the sanctions, as part of the more than 1.2
million who have died
                since 1991 because of our policies.

                The biggest toll is on the children of Iraq. We are
basically killing off a large part
                of a generation of Iraqis too young to know about or not
even born until after the
                Gulf War. UNICEF said the scarcity of food and medicine
because of sanctions
                leads to the death of some 4,500 Iraqi infants and toddlers
a month.

                The sanctions are inexplicably broad. They include bans
against the import of
                ambulances, cloth and fabrics, detergents, magazines,
matches, paper, razor
                blades, soap and toilet paper. While a U.N. food-for-oil
plan was supposed to
                alleviate some of the suffering of common Iraqis, it has
been tragically
                insufficient.

                Dennis Halliday, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for
Iraq, said early last year
                that Iraq needs about $30 million a year to meet its
current requirements for
                food, medicine and infrastructure. The initial U.N.
resolution would have
                allowed $2.14 billion worth of oil to be sold every six
months to be used for the
                purchase of food and medicine, with the U.N. currently
offering to allow a little
                more than double that.

                However, Iraq said it can not pump more than $4 billion
worth of oil in half a
                year because of the effect sanctions and bombing has had on
its oil field
                equipment, a claim backed by U.N. experts. It wouldn't
matter if it could.
                According to the World Health Organization, because after
years of sanctions
                and bombing, most Iraqi hospitals don't have the
facilities, equipment and
                supplies necessary for clean and safe medical care.

                There is no reasonable political explanation for the deaths
of so many Iraqi
                civilians. It would be wonderful if the Iraqi people did
rise up and topple
                Hussein, but that's certainly not going to happen when
they're barely surviving
                and their children are dying. Bombing and brutalizing them
only serves to
                strengthen their hatred of the United States, not their
dictator.

                It was in part because of the town meeting that the United
States pulled back its
                plan to bomb Iraq, if temporarily. It's that kind of
leadership in activism that
                OSU needs to exhibit again. Because of the town meeting,
the Clinton
                administration won't soon be visiting campus again, so this
time we need to
                force the media spotlight to come here.

                Tuesday's protest was a good start, but it can't end there.
Students need to put
                pressure on our congressmen to bring a respect for human
rights into our foreign
                policy. We worry so much about how OSU stacks up against
the University of
                Michigan's football team, but a more important concern
would be catching up
                with their Student Assembly, which earlier this year passed
a resolution
                condemning the sanctions.

                We've entered a war in Yugoslavia supposedly to stop
genocide. The continued
                sanctions against Iraq are just one way we've shown that
our foreign policy
                reeks of hypocrisy, and while ending the sanctions won't
change that, it would
                be a good start.