Dear RN, Well, I thought I was "gone" from the RN list but I got up early enough to send you something that has been on my mind - an update of the situation in Iraq. The comments from Voices in the WIlderness, at the beginning of this posting, help to put the news stories which follow in perspective and provide us with facts to help show that most news stories about the humanitarian crisis in Iraq (and Yugoslavia) are designed to place blame on demonized leaders, not on our own actions. all the best, Jan ***************************************************************** From: "andrew loucks" <•••@••.•••> Subject: Fw: The Executive Director of UNICEF explains the differences in Iraqi mortality rates (North vs. South) Date: Sun, 15 Aug 1999 12:46:25 -0400 -----Original Message----- From: Hamre, Drew <•••@••.•••> Date: August 13, 1999 6:43 PM Subject: The Executive Director of UNICEF explains the differences in Iraqi mortality rates (North vs. South) U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin has cited UNICEF's mortality report as illustrating that "in places where Saddam Hussein isn't manipulating the medicines and the supplies, (the sanctions regime) works." This statement figured prominently in today's New York Times report by Barbara Crossette, which was heavily syndicated in the U.S. It's unfortunate the Times chose *not* to report UNICEF's own explanation of the discrepancy of mortality rates. Following is a key paragraph from an Associated Press story, including comments from Carol Bellamy, the Executive Director of UNICEF (see http://www.msnbc.com/news/300149.asp): <begin snip> UNICEF EXPLAINS THE NUMBERS Bellamy said she believes the difference in mortality rates is the result of several factors: The Kurdish north has been receiving humanitarian assistance for longer than central and southern areas; agriculture in the north is somewhat better; and evading sanctions is a little bit easier in the north. Iraq's child mortality rate had been on the decline in the 1980s, Bellamy noted. If that decline had continued in the 1990s, she said there would have been half million fewer deaths of children under 5 during the period from 1991 to 1998. Bellamy said the findings cannot be easily dismissed as an effort by Iraq to mobilize opposition to U.N. sanctions. <end snip> Ms. Bellamy's comments echo those of other humanitarian workers in Iraq. Below, I've attached the comments of Hans von Sponeck (Dennis Halliday's successor as administrator of oil-for-food) in conversation with Kathy Kelly and others from Voices in the Wilderness; the full AP article is also attached. Upon review, it appears that the NYTimes article - while damaging - was virtually alone in its simplistic finger-pointing. Crossette is one of 3 NYT reporters that covers Iraq regulary (Judith Miller and Steven Kinzer are the others), and she consistently finds the sins of Saddam more newsworthy than the plight of the Iraqi people. Her analyses have been indifferent to the fact that blame for this tragedy is shared, and that the functional cause of the disaster remains the embargo. Regards, Drew Hamre Golden Valey, MN USA --- (First item from Kathy Kelly, VITW) Here are a few more items from the April 5 transcript of the interview with Hans von Sponeck. Summarized, the main points are: The reasons for the difference between the North and rest of Iraq are: (1) the North has more funding per capita, (2) the North has a more non-monitored goods flowing in, from Turkey, and (3) there is more private activity in the North. <snip> ------------------------------------------- (Second item from Kathy Kelly, VITW) --- VITW Update Letter - May 25, 1999 The US government's readiness to starve and bomb both Iraqi and Yugoslavian civilians shows a readiness to sacrifice whole populations by use of force when nonviolent means could have been used and when it seems the US could predict, in advance, the adverse effects of decisions to use threat and force. It's maddening to watch the US government use moralistic arguments about using force to protect innocent people, only to then pursue policies that have the same effect as the one ostensibly being attacked, only ten times worse. An Iraqi teenager's frustrated and impassioned plea still rings in my ears: "You come and you say, 'you will do, you will do,' but nothing changes! I am sixteen. Can you tell me, what is the difference between me and a sixteen year old in your country? Aren't we all human beings? But we watch our children die, every day, and we have no rights...my father heads the electric company in this country and I study by candle light at night...and that is only to mention one human right!" We must work very hard to become voices for the young ones who struggle beneath weighty cruelty. In your outreach efforts, you may encounter questions about recent concerns over stockpiling of medicines and medical supplies within Iraq. UN officials in Baghdad have helped us understand prevailing complexities which affect these efforts. Special thanks to Chris Allen Doucot, Bert Sacks and Joel Schorn for helping us summarize these observations (below). Those of us who lack health insurance may have a special window of understanding into what happens when people lack money to effectively distribute medicines. Nine years ago, Iraqi health care professionals knew how to distribute medicines and medical supplies with astonishing efficiency. Now, they don't know how because they don't know how to do it without money....and neither do underfunded health care facilities in the US that attempt to serve uninsured patients! In response to recent media stories in which U.N. Secretary General Koffi Annan reported that $3 million of medical supplies are languishing undistributed in Iraqi warehouses, and other press reports charging Iraqi government with deliberately withholding the distribution of medical supplies and overstocking the same supplies for military purposes, Voices in the Wilderness would like to present the following information regarding the stockpiling drawn from sources close to the humanitarian effort in Iraq. In an April 5, 1999 meeting with a delegation of doctors, medical personnel, and peace activists, Hans Von Sponeck, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, warned of a great deal of misinformation about the overstocking of medicines in hospitals and warehouses. "If you get from someone a monocausal explanation, then start getting suspicious." While the Iraqi government has at times ordered the overstocking of items, Von Sponeck calls this act "one factor and not a major factor in our opinion." He also disputes the military nature of the medicines. "What the military in a war situation needs in terms of medicine is not the kind of medicine that we are bringing in for normal diseases and illnesses into the warehouses," Von Sponeck said. More important in explaining the overstocking are the following factors: Low wages of Iraqi warehouses workers, insufficient transport, and the poor condition of Iraqi warehouses in the provinces hinders distribution of medical supplies. A lack of cash in the hands of Iraqi authorities also makes it difficult to insure shipments will be paid for and therefore go through. The Iraqi government has to overcome numerous obstacles put up by the sanctions to even find suppliers of medicines. In an interview, Dennis Halliday, the former U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, indicated another problem regarding contracts: the Iraqi government did not do a good job finding the right-sized companies to distribute medicine. In addition, the U.N. Security Council has delayed for months approving the distribution contracts. The U.N. Security Council has not approved the refrigerator trucks required to transport the medicine nor the computers necessary to run the inventory system. Inefficiencies in the Iraqi Ministry of Health also hurt efforts to distribute medicines. In an April 22 1999 conversation with Hartford, Connecticut Catholic Worker member Chris Doucet, the Deputy Director of the U.N. Humanitarian Program in Iraq, Farid Zarif, cited not only the lack of refrigerated trucks but also the roving electrical blackouts that spoil some of the medicine and hamper its distribution. Through U.N. Resolution #986, in which Iraq was allowed to sell a limited amount of oil in order to raise cash to buy food, many items arrived at the same time and could not be distributed because of lack of trucks. Finally, Zarif said, technicians needed to install medical equipment and devices needed to run the equipment have yet to arrive, and thus the equipment continues to sit in the warehouse. Dr. Hans Von Sponeck concluded: "The sanctions are an experiment that failed. We must not do it again." Sincerely, Kathy Kelly Voices in the Wilderness ************************************************************** From: "andrew loucks" <•••@••.•••> Subject: Fw: From the news Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 13:43:52 -0400 -----Original Message----- From: Harriet Griffin <•••@••.•••> Date: August 13, 1999 4:51 AM Subject: From the news a.. Results of the 1999 Iraq Child and Maternal Mortality Surveys (URL) b.. Children pay price for Iraq blockade (The Independent) c.. d.. Children's Death Rates Rising in Iraqi Lands, Unicef Reports (New York Times) e.. f.. With Little Notice, U.S. Planes Have Been Striking Iraq All Year (New York Times) g.. Iraqi children 'dying because of sanctions' & Britons defy ban (The Times) (Thanks to Dave Muller for the UNICEF URL) ******************** Results of the 1999 UNICEF Iraq Child and Maternal Mortality Surveys UNICEF, http://www.unicef.org/reseval/iraq.htm <snip> ******************** CHILDREN PAY PRICE FOR IRAQ BLOCKADE The Independent, Friday 13 August 1999 CHILD MORTALITY in most of Iraq has more than doubled in the nine years since United Nations sanctions were imposed, a leading UN agency said yesterday. Citing "an ongoing humanitarian emergency," a report by the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) said that in the south and centre of the country, the area controlled by Saddam Hussein, the death rate for children under five rose from 56 per 1,000 live births in the period 1984-89 to 131 per 1,000 in the past five years. <snip> The United States, which opposes lifting sanctions until Iraq is disarmed, blamed the Iraqi leader for the malnutrition and deaths of Iraqi children in government-controlled areas. James Rubin, a spokesman for the US State Department, said: "The bottom line is that if Saddam Hussein would not continue to hoard medicines and capabilities to assist the children of Iraq, they wouldn't have this problem. Clearly the blame for the suffering of the Iraqi people falls squarely on the shoulders of its tyrannical leader. "In places where Saddam Hussein isn't manipulating the medicines and the supplies, this [the programme] works. We can't solve a problem that is the result of tyrannical behaviour by the regime in Baghdad." ******************** Children's Death Rates Rising in Iraqi Lands, Unicef Reports New York Times, August 13 1999, by BARBARA CROSSETTE UNITED NATIONS -- The first major survey of child mortality in Iraq since the Persian Gulf War in 1991 has found that in areas of the country controlled by President Saddam Hussein, children under 5 years of age are dying at twice the rate they were before the conflict, UNICEF reported Thursday. But in Kurdish areas in the north of the country, where U.N. officials and not the Iraqi government administer food and medical programs, the health of children appears to have improved to some degree, and mortality rates have fallen. <snip> Iraq has consistently used the suffering of children to argue its case against sanctions, a policy the Clinton administration has clung to in the face of international criticism. When important foreign visitors go to Baghdad, funerals of children are staged in the streets. The administration is involved, however, in developing a Security Council plan to offer Iraq new ways to cooperate in clearing itself of charges that it is still harboring or attempting to make biological, chemical or nuclear weapons. That could lead to a suspension of sanctions, but no decision is expected until the fall. <snip> ******************** With Little Notice, U.S. Planes Have Been Striking Iraq All Year New York Times, 13 August 1999, by Steven Lee Myers WASHINGTON -- It is the year's other war. While the nation's attention has focused on Kosovo, American warplanes have quietly, methodically and with virtually no public discussion been attacking Iraq. Over the past eight months, American and British pilots have fired more than 1,100 missiles against 359 targets. That is more than triple the targets attacked in four furious days of strikes in December that followed Iraq's expulsion of U.N. weapons inspectors, an assault that provoked an international outrage. By another measure, the pilots have flown some two-thirds as many missions as NATO pilots flew over Yugoslavia in 78 days of around-the-clock war there. The strikes, including ones as recently as Tuesday, have done nothing to deter Iraqi gunners from firing on American and British planes patrolling the "no flight" zones over northern and southern Iraq. They, like officials in Baghdad, are acting as defiant as ever. And there appears to be no end in sight to the war -- to the surprise and chagrin of some administration and Pentagon officials. <snip> Overshadowed for much of the year by the war in the Balkans, the administration's policy toward Iraq is increasingly facing criticism. On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of prominent senators and congressmen sent a letter to Clinton scolding him for what they called "the continued drift" in the administration's efforts. While they expressed support for the strikes, they called on Clinton to give Iraq a new deadline to comply with U.N. inspections and threaten "serious consequences" if Saddam refuses, including more potent air strikes throughout Iraq and an expansion of the "no flight" zones. They also called for increased support, including military aid, to Iraqi opposition groups. The letter was signed by the Senate majority leader, Trent Lott of Mississippi; Sens. Jesse Helms of North Carolina, Richard Shelby of Alabama and Sam Brownback of Kansas, all Republicans; Sens. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, both Democrats; Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., and Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif. <snip> With the increase in tempo, the fighting over the zones is costing upwards of $1 billion a year, though Pentagon officials say it is difficult to fix an exact cost. More than 200 aircraft, 19 warships and 22,000 American troops are devoted to the effort. The officials acknowledge that the strikes alone will not topple Saddam, even though the White House has openly called for the overthrow of his government and promised nominal support to opposition figures. That has led to frustration. "He has been kept in check," one Defense official said. "But the question is: Have you met any of your long-term goals? I don't think so." A senior administration official said that until a change in government occurs, containment was the only viable policy at this time, politically and diplomatically. "Neither this administration, nor this Congress, nor any other country is prepared to take the measures that would be truly necessary to ensure there was a change of regime," the official said. "If you want to go beyond containment, you have to put your money where your mouth is. And that means ground troops." Note from Jan: I snipped out big sections of this article. It basically would cite this bad thing that "Saddam" did and then another dumb response from the US military/government. Reminds me of the discussions I have sometimes had with children about their tiffs when I teach in schools. After a while, the whole story gets so intricate and boring.... and I am left feeling that this tit for tat retaliation stuff is a real dead end. What is needed is the courage and creativity to step back and decide to get out of the vicious circle of violence, of tit for tat. To ask not, "What crummy thing did the other side just do?" but instead, "What might I do here that would be useful?" ******************** Iraqi children 'dying because of sanctions' The Times, August 13 1999 New York: The first survey of child deaths in Iraq since shortly after the 1991 Gulf War shows a sharp increase in child mortality in government-controlled areas and a significant decrease in the autonomous north, Unicef, the UN Children's Fund said yesterday. Carol Bellamy, Unicef Executive Director, said that the findings revealed an humanitarian emergency in Iraq, which Unicef officials said was caused by a host of factors, including sanctions, two wars, a collapsed economy and the response of the Baghdad Government. <snip> Ms Bellamy noted that Iraq's child mortality rate was on the decline in the 1980s. If that decline had continued in the 1990s, she said, there would have been half a million fewer deaths of children under five from 1991 to 1998. Ms Bellamy said that the findings could not easily be dismissed as an effort by Iraq to mobilise opposition to UN sanctions. She called on the UN committee overseeing sanctions and the Iraqi Government to give priority to "food-for-oil" contracts that will have a direct impact on the wellbeing of children. (AP) Britons defy ban Two Britons have challenged police to arrest them when they return to Heathrow today after defying UN sanctions against Iraq. Joanne Baker, from Bristol, and Dave Rolstone, from Narberth, Pembrokeshire, from the Voices in the Wilderness group, delivered medical supplies and textbooks without export licenses. Mr Rolstone, 52, a boat builder, said the sanctions amounted to a "policy of mass murder targeting Iraq's children". ********************
