Economic Sanctions on Iraq-
the Silent War Against Civilians

by D'Ann Johnson

for The National Lawyers Guild

 

Once a first world country, with free healthcare and education for all, Iraq now faces the daily death of children under five years old from simple-to-treat diarrheal diseases, leukemia, and complications due to malnutrition.

According to UNICEF, at least 500,000 Iraqi children have died since the imposition of UN sanctions on Iraq. August marked the ten year anniversary of the sanctions, yet their articulated purpose to depose Saddam Hussein has backfired. Saddam Hussein is still firmly entrenched in power while the frustration and anger of the Iraqi people is focused instead on the United States.

In a crowded pediatric ward on a recent trip to Iraq, I met a mother of nine year old Ali who suffers from leukemia-a cancer that has dramatically increased due, in large measure, to the depleted uranium bombs dropped on Iraq during the Gulf War. Ali lay silently, staring at me with blank eyes. His body was shriveled, half the size of my own nine year old daughter's body. When I touched Ali's hair and gave him a brightly colored balloon, his mother began to cry. My tears joined hers as I explained, through a translator, that I, too, had a child that age. I handed her a photo of my daughter, which she immediately kissed and asked to keep. She slipped the photo under her child's pillow. Two children and two mothers, from two countries at odds. Yet, as mothers, we shared respect for the life of each of the children.

Before the war, there was a seventy percent recovery rate for leukemia victims; now no child survives the disease. Ali asked if I could take him home for treatment. The answer of course is no. Ali, the doctor whispered, is not responding well to treatment. His death will be quicker than others. For a little girl outside the Basrah Sheraton in the southern part of Iraq, school is over. She can make more money begging or shining shoes than her parents can earn working. In a country that conducted a widespread and successful literacy campaign in the 80's, the literacy rate for females has digressed to mid-80's rates. And even is she had the shoes, pencils and money to attend school, with 50% unemployment nationwide, her potential employment options are limited.

So far she is lucky. Her chances of getting sick in Basrah are great. Raw sewage backs into the streets, garbage is piled in empty lots, and access to clean water is nearly impossible. Iraq's polluted water is due to the intentional destruction of the civilian infrastructure-for the strategic purpose of long-term leverage- during the Gulf War.

Most of the waste and water treatment plants have not been repaired due to the sanctions. Holds on contracts for the water and sanitation sector placed by the UN Security Council are the prime reason that the materials cannot be imported into Iraq. Of the 18 holds on contracts, all but one was placed by the United States. General aging of pipes and other aspects of the infrastructure further complicates the problem. According to George Somerwill, Head of information of the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, even if the water treatment plants dispense drinkable water, with sewage seeping into cracked pipes, the water will be contaminated when it comes out of the tap. The UN Humanitarian Panel report estimated that only 41% of the population had access to clean water. We didn't drink anything but bottled water even at the hotel in Baghdad.

Children, as usual, are the most vulnerable. Representative Tony Hall noted after his recent trip to Iraq that diarrheal diseases are the prime killer of children under 5 years of age. Doctors and nurses face an uphill struggle to save these children. The doctors complained that they do not have access to new generation antibiotics, and because of dirty water and malnutrition, they are hindered in their ability to help the children.

Next to the children, the situation of women in this male-dominated culture, is nearly impossible. The sparse rations received from the UN Food for Oil Program, which has only been in place for the last three years, last only half the month. Prior to the war, Iraq imported 70% of its food. With irrigation systems and food storage units damaged during the bombing, Iraq is not close to its pre-war production capabilities. Women feed the children first, so if there is too little food, it is the women who most often go hungry.

In the first year of the sanctions alone, 55% of the women resorted to selling their jewelry. Jewelry is their safety net. Ten years into the sanctions, they are out of jewelry, out of furniture, and out of anything to sell. One woman who lost her legs after she caught on fire cooking, had to sell her wheelchair. Women suffer from depression, weight and hair loss, and miscarriages.

According to Dr. Manal Younis Al-Alousi, President of the General Federation of Iraqi Women, sanctions hurt women and children the hardest. The Federation, which has 1.25 million members, provides family planning services, loans for small businesses, and training programs for women. Poverty, they find, is their best method of contraception. Family planning counselors give the economic facts of life to women and girls, explaining how much it costs to raise a child. Sometimes women resort to illegal abortions because they cannot afford another child. Consequently, deaths from abortions are rising.

"Women are creative. We will not let the sanctions keep us down", Dr. Al-Alousi said. Sewing projects, honey production, and rug and mat weaving are taught by Federation personnel. They also have a project that gives support to women lawyers to help them secure office space.

Humanitarian aid workers have been resigning in protest of the sanctions for the past two years. In September 1998, Dennis Halliday, UN Assistant Secretary General and Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, publicly denounced the sanctions. He was followed by Hans Von Sponeck, Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq and Jutta Burghardt, head of the UN World Food Program in Baghdad. UN World Food Program workers at the border said that the aid distribution system in Iraq is unparalleled. In a meeting with George Somerwill, he noted that the internationally accepted standard for loss of humanitarian aid is 5-8% and loss in Iraq is less than that. At the end of our meeting, Somerwill, abandoning his carefully phrased responses to our questions, implored us to go home and tell the American people about the real situation in Iraq. "It's very bad here", he said sadly.

Dr. Akran Al-Witry, member of the Court of Arbitration in the Hague and professor of International Law at the Saddam Law School, declared that the consequences of the sanctions violate international laws, including the UN Charter, the Geneva Conventions, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Teaching under these conditions are difficult, he noted. Under the sanctions, no money was allocated for education. The students do not have desks because wood had been imported from India. And the contract for school pencils was denied, because one million pencils was just too many for 23 millions Iraqis. The requirements for a doctorate in international law do not seem to have been reduced, however. Students must write a 200 page paper on the topic in French, Arabic, and English. Then they have to defend it in all three languages.

The sanctions have destroyed the basic patterns of Iraqi culture. Women spend hours trying to find food and hauling water. One man we met sold his clarinet, which he had traveled the world playing, his home and all his furniture to feed his large family. Crowded into three small rooms, there is no work, no food, and nothing left to sell. Dr. Al-Witry emotionally described the simple act of burying the dead. Before the sanctions, people were buried in caskets. Now because there is no wood or money, the dead are put directly into the ground. Shamefully he told us that he, too, had buried his sister's daughter without a casket.

Congress has a bill pending that could help the people of Iraq. The Humanitarian Exports Leading to Peace Act of 2000 (HR 3825) would do the following:

There are 24 cosponsors of the bill as of June 6, 2000.

The National Lawyers Guild is planning a delegation to Iraq. Such a trip is only for the stout-hearted. Like Cuba, travel, is in most cases, not legal. Unlike Cuba, it is 24 hours to Amman, ten hours by car to Baghdad and six more to Basrah. Basrah was humid and 128 degrees in the shade. We went nowhere without a government "minder". And the US bombed Iraq repeatedly during the visit. For more information, email me at djohnson@tcdla.com.

 

 

Posted on 28 August 2000.

Return to top
CCPI Homepage