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U.S.
Congressmen Slam Barbaric Sanctions Against Iraq
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Bonior spoke
of “the horrific and barbaric suffering ... particularly
children are undergoing.”
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BASRA,
Iraq, September 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Three anti-war
U.S. congressmen on a rare visit to Iraq on Sunday, September 29,
criticized the 12-year U.N. sanctions regime as “barbaric”, saying
that open weapons inspections must resume to ensure it is lifted.
Democrat
representative David Bonior of Michigan spoke of “the horrific and
barbaric suffering ... particularly children are undergoing,” after
visiting a hospital, a pediatric clinic and two desalination plants in
this southern Iraqi port city.
He
stressed along with colleagues Jim McDermott of Washington state and
Mike Thompson of California “the absolute necessity to end the
sanctions” through “fair, open, unrestricted [weapons]
inspections” by the United Nations.
“If
we go to war again we will simply double or triple the problems we
have created in 1991,” from the Gulf War, said McDermott.
“The
theory was that if we put pressure on the Iraqi people somehow they
would throw out [President] Saddam Hussein, all that has done is
punish the Iraqi people. It did not work and I think that it is not
right what we are doing and that it must stop.”
Representative
Bonior is a long-time opponent of the sanctions devastating the Iraqi
people. He has during his tenure held numerous press conferences
criticizing the brutality aimed against Iraqi civilians. He also
co-sponsored a letter to former president Bill Clinton asking that the
sanctions be lifted.
McDermott
also noted claims that the use of depleted uranium weapons during the
Gulf War had increased “malformations and leukemia in children, and
we wanted to see for ourselves what that was about.”
They
had heard in Baghdad from Health Minister Omid Medhat Mubarak that the
embargo had caused the deaths of more than 1.7 million Iraqis since it
was imposed in 1990.
According
to UNICEF Baghdad, over half of Iraqis killed due to the sanctions
have been children under the age of five.
The
trio intended to “report back to the world community, our own
colleagues in the Congress and the American people,” said Bonior.
“We
will also try ... to be helpful to the children ... that need the
medicine that they are not getting to help them fight their illnesses.
“A
lot of this story has been told before but it hasn’t been told in
the context of an impending war and we have an excellent chance to
make the case again on how inhumane these sanctions are.”
Thompson
stressed “the horrific public health conditions” in the Basra
region, 560 kilometers south of Baghdad. “It’s terrible that
people have to live that way.”
But
he added, “If we are ever going to see it reversed it is going to
start with opening Iraq to the inspectors to make sure that Saddam
Hussein does not have weapons of mass destruction.”
Iraq
agreed September 16 to allow arms inspectors to resume work “without
conditions”, after a break of four years, and an advance party is
preparing to reach Iraq in mid-October.
However,
the U.S. administration, determined to oust the regime, is working to
push through the United Nations a new resolution giving Iraq just
seven days to accept tough conditions on disarmament or face a U.S.
assault.
Two
non-profit groups, the Seattle-based Church Council and the Life
Foundation of Detroit, asked the representatives to report on the
humanitarian situation in Iraq.
The
three congressmen, who arrived Friday and plan a news conference in
Baghdad at the end of their stay Monday morning, have met Deputy Prime
Minister Tareq Aziz and Foreign Minister Naji Sabri.
They
were speaking in Basra only hours after U.S. warplanes knocked out the
radar at the city’s airport for the second time in a week, according
to an Iraqi official.
Their
trip is the second to Iraq by anti-war U.S. lawmakers. Nick Rahall of
West Virginia visited earlier this month.
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