c. 2000 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Decrying the “evil that is happening as a result of sanctions against Iraq,” House Democratic Whip David E. Bonior, D-Mich., asked President Clinton to alleviate suffering in Iraq and call for an end to United Nations-imposed economic sanctions on the country.

“This policy is a weapon that leaves the other side’s weapons completely untouched,” said Bonior at a news conference Wednesday (Feb. 16). “It is a weapon that has killed more than 1 million civilians, mostly children. It’s high time we recognize that this embargo hasn’t hurt Saddam (Hussein) or the pampered elite who support him.”

Bonior joined other members of Congress and 11 American Muslim and Arab American organizations _ including the Muslim American Society and the Arab American Institute _ at the news conference demanding an end to the sanctions imposed in 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait. The sanctions are to remain in effect until the United Nations determines Iraq no longer has any weapons of mass destruction.

“Originally intended to undermine the authority of Saddam Hussein, they (sanctions) serve now only to further the dire circumstances of the Iraqi people,” said Rep. Tom Campbell, R-Calif., in a statement read by a spokesman. “Clearly, economic sanctions are having no effect upon the brutal leadership in Iraq but are devastating for its people. The time has come to turn a new page in our dealings with Iraq.”

Bonior, who along with Campbell and Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., initiated an anti-embargo letter sent to Clinton in January, said the economic embargo has done little to weaken the Iraqi government, and has instead victimized Iraqi civilians, particularly children.

“This is infanticide masquerading as policy,” said Bonior. “Who are the real victims of economic sanctions against Iraq? Not Saddam Hussein. The children are the real victims.”

Though sanctions do permit an oil-for-food program that allows Iraq to sell oil in exchange for food or medicine for its population, even that policy is largely ineffective, said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, in a statement read by a representative.

“Efforts now to deliver food and medicine to civilians have not been successful,” said Kucinich. “People are not receiving aid. The policy does not work, it is counterproductive, and has weakened the people who could support the overthrow of the regime.”

Speakers also called for legislation to ease the sanctions, such as relaxing restrictions on the export of food and medical items to Iraq, and urged the Clinton administration to document the work of humanitarian organizations tracking the plight of Iraqi civilians.

“It is time to reinvent U.N. policy toward the people of Iraq,” said Yousef Al-Yousef, vice president of the American Muslims for Global Peace and Justice. “The sanctions in place now are obviously not working. We must find another way.”

Opposition to the United Nations’ embargo on Iraq have led to resignations by two senior U.N. officials recently. On Monday (Feb. 15), Jutta Burghardt quit as head of the United Nations’ World Food Program in Iraq _ an organization responsible for distributing food from the oil-for-food program.

A week before Burghardt’s resignation, the United Nations’ chief official in Iraq, Hans von Sponeck, announced his intentions to do the same. His resignation, which takes effect March 31, follows that of his predecessor, Denis Halliday, who left the post in the fall of 1998 and has become a vocal opponent of the sanctions against Iraq.

“It would appear that no person of conscience can go to Iraq and administer an ineffective program _ like oil-for-food _ without becoming enraged,” Hussein Ibich, director of communications at the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said at the press conference. “The sanctions against Iraq are unprecedented.”

Sanctions will even prevent Pope John Paul II from visiting southern Iraq during his upcoming spiritual pilgrimage aimed at retracing events of the Old and New Testaments.

The pope had wanted to visit what tradition says is the birthplace of the patriarch Abraham in Ur, but Baghdad nixed the idea because of the U.N.-imposed no-fly zone above Iraq. Instead of visiting Ur, the Vatican said Wednesday John Paul will hold a special religious ceremony at the Vatican on Feb. 23, one day before his departure to visit Mount Sinai in Egypt.

DEA END DANCY