IAC to publish report: Sanction are an act of war

By John Catalinotto, Workers World 18 January 1996

Will progressives and humanitarians worldwide be able to mobilize the forces needed to stop the massive deaths of Iraqi children caused by United Nations sanctions? International Action Center leaders see their plans to publish and publicize a book on these sanctions as a big first step to moving this effort forward.

In the United States, the IAC has led the fight against these sanctions. This group sees sanctions as the ultimate weapon of the major capitalist powers--a sort of economic neutron bomb that leaves buildings intact as it kills the population.

And it is a selective weapon that strikes hardest against the poor, the very young and the very old, causing no casualties among the aggressors.

Workers World spoke Jan. 8 with IAC Coordinator Sara Flounders about the organization's plans to publish a book.

Some argue that sanctions are a reasonable alternative to war, said Flounders. This book will show that sanctions are themselves an act of war. This is especially true of sanctions imposed by the major imperialist powers against Third World nations.

The core for the book is a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report issued at the end of 1995, she said. This report shows that over 560,000 Iraqi children have died due to the sanctions.

And it shows, in precise detail, how these sanctions prevent the Iraqi economy from recovering from the damage done during the Gulf war.

Similar reports were prepared under UN aegis in prior years. Each time pressure from the U.S. government prevented them from being publicized. They became lost in the recesses of the UN.

One of the reports was even disowned by the UN to keep it from being reproduced as a UN-approved statement, said Flounders.

We hope to reproduce the latest report, distribute it to the media, libraries and political figures, and make it available for use in school classes. We want to build a public consciousness and strengthen opposition to sanctions.

No politician will be able to say, `I didn't know what the sanctions were doing.

Along with the report we'll put explanations, statements by anti-sanctions groups and other supporting material in the book, Flounders concluded. We are asking for donations to make this book an effective tool for all those wanting to fight sanctions.

RALLIES IN JANUARY

The IAC is coordinating protest meetings with groups in London and in Spain on the fifth anniversary of the start of the Gulf war. The IAC meetings are set for Jan. 20 in New York and Jan. 21 in San Francisco.

Among the speakers are former U.S. Attorney General and IAC founder Ramsey Clark, former Malta Prime Minister Karmenu Misfud Bonnici and former Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Miguel D'Escoto.

Over the past five years the IAC has been a source of material on sanctions. Last year the group did a national satellite broadcast of a video explaining the harm sanctions do to civilian populations.

Clark has raised a legal and moral protest at each meeting of the UN Security Council required to re-approve the sanctions against Iraq.

On Jan. 4 President Bill Clinton reported to the U.S. Congress on the ongoing sanctions against Iraq. He noted, The Multinational Interception Force conducting the maritime enforcement of sanctions against Iraq ... has [since my last report] encountered the busiest sanctions enforcement period since 1991, diverting 20 dhow vessels carrying Iraqi dates worth an estimated $3.45 million.

Before the 1991 Gulf war, Iraq earned tens of billions of dollars annually exporting oil. With part of this revenue, it fed its population and provided high-level medicine to all. Now gunships, most from the U.S., forcibly stop Iraq from earning a few million dollars selling dates.

The IAC calls this an act of war against the Iraqi people- -and is taking steps to spread this truth.