By
Angy Ghannam, IOL Staff
CAIRO,
December 24 (IslamOnline) - There is no justification for the decision
to attack Iraq; it is a breach of international law and will further
damage the credibility of the United Nations, said the former U.N.
assistant secretary general and head of the oil for food program in
Iraq.
Denis
Halliday, who resigned in protest of the sanctions on Iraq, said in an
interview with IslamOnline that the Iraqi people are guilty of no
crimes, they are innocent, and that they should not be punished further.
“We
punished them for 12 years and now we are going to bomb them again and
we are going to allow for more American war crimes,” he said.
On
why he resigned from his prestigious position in the U.N., Halliday said
that he found in Iraq conditions which can be identified as genocidal.
“As
a U.N. official, I refuse to take orders from the security council, I
needed to go public, I needed to brief journalists, I couldn’t do that
as a civil servant, therefore I resigned, and I spent my time since
trying to explain to people around the world, including the U.S. of
course, what is really happening in Iraq,” he said.
“I
needed to tell the world why the situation in Iraq is unacceptable, why
it is in breach of international law, why civil society all over the
world, as well as world leaders must stand up and confront the U.N. to
change its policy, and not particularly to avoid any form of a
warfare,” he added.
Halliday
said that sanctions doesn’t impact on governance effectively and
instead it damages the innocent people of the country. It probably
strengthens the leadership and further weakens the people of the
country.
Halliday,
who has resigned after more than 30 years with the United Nations
,
was coordinator of the program that allows Iraq to sell limited amounts
of oil to buy food, medicine and other supplies.
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Maintaining
sanctions are incompatible with U.N. charter as well as U.N.
conventions on human rights and the rights of the child: Halliday
|
He
said maintaining the crippling trade embargo imposed on Iraq for its
1990 invasion of Kuwait was incompatible with the U.N. charter as well
as U.N. conventions on human rights and the rights of the child.
Halliday
said it was correct to draw attention to the “4,000 to 5,000 children
dying unnecessarily every month due to the impact of sanctions because
of the breakdown of water and sanitation, inadequate diet and the bad
internal health situation.”
In
case of war, there is no doubt that many thousands of Iraqis will loose
their lives and that’s grossly unacceptable, Halliday said.
Although
the U.S. administration thinks it will benefit from an attack on Iraq,
such interest will be served only in the short run and then the
situation will turn dangerous for the United States because of the
instability the war will cause.
“In
the short run, the U.S. will benefit from the war in terms of control of
oil, that undoubtedly they see as their interest, but I think that’s
likely to fail.
“The
Arab world perception of the attack will be that this is an attack, not
just on Iraq, but on the Arab world and on Islam, and this a frightening
and dangerous phenomena.
“I
think we will see great instability throughout the Arab world and this
may lead to catastrophic changes,” Halliday said
I
believe the U.S. interests are, or should be, a stable Middle East, to
have good relations with all of the Arab states, to do business by all
means and to make sure that the Arab world and the economies of the Arab
world grow via pursuing fair practices with the oil, its purchase and
its proper prices,” he added.
The
real interest of the U.S. should be to ensure and encourage change but
ensure that the Arab countries make change of their pace, consistent
with their requirements and that they invest their oil revenues “not
in Wall Street, but in the Arab world.”
For
the future, this region needs its wealth to be invested in education,
technology, and most of all change that must come from within the Arab
countries themselves, not imposed on them from external power, he added.
