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International Commission of Inquiry on Economic Sanctions
Hugh Stephens, coordinator
BM 2966, London WCIN 3XX, Britain
Tel: (0171) 436 4636
Fax: (0171) 436 4638
E-mail: justice@easynet.co.uk
"Physician, heal thyself!"
Statement on Iraq and "eccentric Western standards of human
rights"
30 August 1997
In his press conference in Indonesia yesterday, Britain's Minister of State for
Foreign Affairs Robin Cook MP stated: "We are not asking Indonesia to
accept any eccentric Western standards of human rights. We want to work to
achieve observation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which
we are both signatories."
The economic sanctions on Iraq, enforced by the UN Security Council under
pressure of the US with the support of Britain, have led to over half a million
avoidable deaths, most of them children, a fact which has not been questioned
and has repeatedly been reported by the agencies of the UN itself. The
Declaration to which Robin Cook refers upholds the "right to life," and aims to
outlaw the "barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind,"
as well as "cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment," and in particular declares
that "motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance."
Robin Cook's declared adherence to these principles must ring hollow in the
ears of the hundreds of thousands of young Iraqi women who have suffered
the loss of infants who would be alive today if the sanctions had not been
imposed.
The Declaration states that "it is essential to promote the development of
friendly relations between nations," and that "everyone is entitled to a social
and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this
Declaration can be fully realised." How can the bi-monthly renewal of the
sanctions by the UN Security Council possibly be classified as promoting
friendly relations between nations?
Surely the time has now come for the new Labour government to reassess its
continued adherence to the policy of its predecessor, abandon the policy of
supporting the US on this issue regardless of all international law and morality,
and seek a reasonable solution to the points at issue through peaceful and
negotiated means.
For the International Commission of Inquiry on Economic Sanctions
Hugh Stephens, Co-ordinator.
Note: The full text of the UN Declaration on Human Rights is available
on the Web at http://www.un.org
Honorary Presidency of the International Commission of Inquiry on Economic
Sanctions:
Former Heads of State:
Ahmed Ben Bella, Algeria
Fransisco Da Costa Gomes, Portugal.
Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua
Former Deputy Head of State:
Clodomiro Almeyda, Chile.
Former Head of Government::
Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, Malta
Former Deputy Head of Government:
Sheikh Mohammad Rashid, Pakistan.
Former Foreign Ministers:
Morad Ghaleb, Egypt.
Fr Miguel D'Escoto, Nicaragua.
Tony Benn MP, Britain.
Ramsey Clark, former Attorney General, US..
Margarita Papandreou, Former First Lady of Greece
Romesh Chandra, President of Honour, World Peace Council.
For more information about recent developments, visit (please place the International
Action Center in your bookmarks before you go!):
Iraq Action Coalition
E-mail: IAC@leb.net
Fax: 1-919-846-7422
International Action Center
39 West 14th Street, Room 206
New York, NY 10011
email: mailto:iacenter@action-mail.org
En Espanol: iac-cai@action-mail.org
Web: http://www.iacenter.org
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