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U.S. Activist Accuses U.S. of Using Innocent Iraqi Civilians
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| Sacks
accuses
U.S.
armed forces of deliberately targeting electricity and water
installations in
Iraq
in order to increase human suffering.
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WASHINGTON,
June 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A Seattle activist refused
Monday, June 17, to pay a 10,000-dollar fine imposed for alleged
violations of sanctions against Iraq,
accusing the U.S. government of using innocent Iraqi civilians as
pawns in its campaign against Saddam Hussein.
Retired
engineer Bert Sacks has made eight trips to
Iraq in association with the Voices in the Wilderness
anti-sanctions group to deliver medicines to civilians.
He
said that
hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are suffering after attacks on
Iraq's infrastructure in the 1991 Gulf War and subsequent
international sanctions.
“Why
should we have to ask
authorization to bring medicines to people from our
government?” Sacks asked at a press conference, Agence France-Presse
(AFP) reported.
He
had until Monday to pay a 10,000-dollar fine, imposed by the
Department of the Treasury after a 1998 trip to
Iraq.
Fines
totaling 163,000 dollars have been threatened on Voices in the
Wilderness, but Sacks is the only activist so far served with a bill.
Sacks
was targeted for currency-related infringements of
Iraq sanctions, after the Treasury accused Sacks of spending
money on food, transportation and lodging while in the country.
But he demands that they produce evidence to back up the charge.
Sacks
was not fined for the act of distributing medicines also prohibited by
the sanctions without a government license.
Sacks,
the first American to be so sanctioned, accuses U.S. armed forces of
deliberately targeting electricity and water installations in Iraq
in order to increase human suffering and raise the chances of a
popular revolt against Saddam Hussein, said AFP.
He
says the situation will get worse if the United States fulfills
expectations that it will attack Iraq
in the context of the so-called U.S. war on terrorism.
“What
will it do to people
our actions impact upon?” he asked at a Washington press conference.
What will happen to the Iraqi people if we again destroy their
civilians' infrastructure? How many hundreds of thousands of Iraqis
will die if we attack again?”
The
12-year sanctions regime against Iraq
is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and
causes much civilian suffering.
“The
sanctions regime against Iraq
is unequivocally illegal under existing international humanitarian law
and human rights law. Some would go as far as making a charge of
genocide,” Sacks said, quoted by AFP.
“Given
this finding, I am morally and legally obligated not to obey U.S. laws
which violate international law.”
U.S.
officials claim that the human misery caused by the sanctions is the
fault of Saddam Hussein.
Meanwhile,
U.S. Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stoked expectations of an eventual U.S.
assault on sanction-hit Iraq,
claiming that Iraq’s so-called threat to the United States grows
“every day that goes by.”
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