RAMSEY CLARK CHALLENGES UN SANCTIONS
ISC DELEGATION DEFIES SANCTIONS WITH THIRD MEDICINE TRANSPORT, INCLUDES DELEGATES FROM AROUND CALIFORNIA

On January 14, 2000, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark and a 60-person delegation from the United States, as well as from Japan, Spain, Italy and England, will defy United Nations sanctions in effect against the people of Iraq. For the third time in 20 months, the delegation, the IRAQ SANCTIONS CHALLENGE, will transport a large shipment of medicine (approx. $2 million) to Iraq to ameliorate a severe health crisis caused by the sanctions. Similar trips in December 1998 and May 1998 were successful efforts by people from the U.S. to rally support for the people of Iraq while providing them life-saving medicine.

"This is the third time we’ll challenge the US/UN sanctions", says Richard Becker, spokesperson for the California delegates of the ISC. "These sanctions are a severe abuse of human rights. Since they were first imposed in 1990, more than 1.7 million Iraqis have died. Babies, children, the elderly, the disabled, and sick - the most vulnerable members of Iraqi society - suffer the consequences of an illegal, genocidal U.S. policy."

According to ISC organizer Gloria La Riva, the UN sanctions thinly disguise U.S. intent to safeguard American and British oil interests in the Persian/Arabian Gulf. "This insistence on new weapons inspection is a ruse to violate the sovereignty of Iraq. More than 9,000 inspections were carried out between 1991-1998. The inspections teams were later proven to be fronts for CIA operations."

"Punishing Iraq for rejecting new weapons inspection is nothing more than UN sanctioned imperialism," La Riva continues. "The ‘Oil for Food’ provision is the best example of this. ‘Oil for Food’ was the UN’s provision to relieve mass starvation in Iraq. However, 50% of the escrowed proceeds from oil sales are never used for food. The money is paid to US/UK oil companies and the Kuwaiti Royal family as war reparations. The remainder pays for the administration of the sanctions. This is the thin edge of the wedge of neo-colonialism."

Members of the delegation represent a cross section of the U.S.—students, religious leaders, community activists, health care workers, and trade unionists. Delegates will travel to Iraq from San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Chico. They are people of conscience who "refuse to allow this [U.S.] government to speak in our name to facilitate genocide."

More details about the upcoming ISC trip and the recent UN vote on sanctions are available on the website www.iacenter.org. Local delegates traveling on the Iraq Sanctions Challenge are available for interview before or after the trip. To contact them, call (415) 821-6545.

As activists prepare to defy sanctions, recent developments at the United Nations prompted the International Action Center to issue an analysis of the U.S. resolution on Iraq at the UN.

Back to: IAC Reports and Statements on Iraq

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