By Richard Becker

Baghdad, Iraq

Visiting Iraq in the Year 2000 is a searing experience. The devastation inflicted on a once-thriving society and people by nearly 10 years of war and sanctions/blockade is apparent everywhere.

Delegates of the third Iraq Sanctions Chal lenge, more than 50 people from 15 states and five countries, saw first-hand the suffering and destruction. They visited hospitals, schools, universities, mosques, water treatment and food distribution facilities, the Blind Society and the Al-Ameriyah bomb shelter. The shelter is where 1,176 Iraqis, nearly all women and children, were incinerated by U.S. cruise missiles on Feb. 13, 1991.

The Iraq Sanctions Challenge, defying U.S. law and the U.S./UN blockade, arrived in Baghdad on the ninth anniversary of the Gulf war. A few hours after reaching the Iraqi capital, ISC delegates, led by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, joined a militant march timed to coincide exactly with the start of the U.S. bombing of Iraq nine years ago at 2 a.m. on Jan. 17.

Thousands of demonstrators, including students from all over the Arab world and Africa who are studying in Iraq, chanted, "Down, down USA. Down, down British crown." At the end of the march they burned a coffin draped with U.S., British and Israeli flags. A Lebanese student marcher told us, "The Arab masses in every country—even those that are U.S. puppets like Saudi Arabia—oppose the sanctions."

The ISC contingent joined in chanting, "Clinton, Bush, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide," and "Sanctions are genocide, end the sanctions now." Just behind the ISC group came a 100-strong Spanish contingent organized by the Campaign to Lift the Embargo on Iraq, who chanted "Clinton, asesino," and "El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido." ("Clinton, assassin," and "The people united will never be defeated.")

The third Iraq Sanctions Challenge, organized by the International Action Center, brought more than $2 million worth of life-saving medicine and other supplies to Iraq. The U.S. delegates challenged the reactionary Trading with the Enemy Act, which provides for penalties of up to 12 years in prison and a $1 million fine for taking humanitarian aid to Iraq without a special license from the U.S. Treasury Department.

‘MOST COMPLETE EMBARGO OF MODERN TIMES’

For the past nine-and-one-half years, Iraq has been under U.S.-forced United Nations Security Council sanctions. U.S. National Security Advisor Samuel Berger termed it "the most complete embargo of any country in modern times."

The sanctions/blockade that U.S. officials openly boast about has wreaked havoc on the lives of the Iraqi people. At least 1.25 million Iraqis have died as a direct result of the sanctions, and millions more are suffering from severe malnutrition, illness and psychological distress.

Iraq’s infrastructure has deteriorated disastrously. A large majority of the population no longer has access to clean water, the sew age system has collapsed in many areas, and frequent electric power outages negatively impact on all sectors of modern society.

Sanctions-induced inflation has destroyed the buying power of workers and middle-class professionals alike. The most common currency denomination in circulation is the 250-dinar bill. Worth $750 before the sanctions, its value is now 12 cents. The dinar has lost 99.98 percent of its former value in relation to the dollar.

Pensions and salaries have been increased by 20 times in the same period, yet they are worth almost nothing today. A mid-level government employee who earned a salary of 300 dinars in 1990 might be making 6,000 dinars today. But today the exchange rate is about 1,900 dinars to the dollar, compared to one dinar to three dollars before the sanctions.

Only a food rationing system described by all observers as exceptionally equitable, combined with free health care, education and social services, has prevented the sanctions from taking an even greater toll. Still, there are extreme shortages of food, medicine, clothing, paper and many other basic goods. The food ration currently provides about 1,100 calories a day, far below the minimum requirements for a healthy diet.

Before the blockade, Iraq had made great strides in providing nutrition, housing, health care, education, clean water, electrification and other necessities to its people. Iraq provided humanitarian assistance to a number of Arab and African countries.

Dr. Abdul Rizzak al-Hashimi, president of the Organization for Peace, Friendship and Solidarity, told the ISC delegation, "Iraq is not a country that needs humanitarian aid. The problem is that we are being prevented from using the resources we have by the sanctions."

‘OIL FOR FOOD’ LITTLE HELP TO IRAQIS

Dr. al-Hashimi explained to the assembled delegates of the ISC why the UN Security Council "Oil for Food" Resolution 661 had failed to resolve Iraq’s crisis, and was, in fact, never meant to. He pointed out that of the approximately "$18 billion in oil sales since Resolution 661 was implemented three years ago, more than $6 billion has gone to compensation to Kuwait and multi-national corporations, and to pay for UN costs related to Iraq. If a UN official is working on Iraq, no matter if they are located in New York, Geneva or Iraq, their salaries are paid out of the Oil for Food fund."

Of the remaining $12 billion, representatives on the 661 Committee, a sub-committee of the Security Council, have blocked the completion of contracts worth $5.9 billion that Iraq had negotiated to purchase needed imports. Virtually all contract vetoes have been cast by the U.S. and Britain.

The 661 Committee has particularly blocked contracts related to rehabilitating the shattered infrastructure, al-Hashimi said. In dollar amounts, only 12 percent of electricity, 18 percent of water and sewage treatment, 6 percent of irrigation, 19 percent of oil installation, 13 percent of higher education, 12 percent of school, and 0 percent of communications-related contracts have been approved.

The approximately $6 billion in approved contracts, most for directly consumable food and medicine, amounts to $7.58 per month for each Iraqi citizen. This is far less than what is needed to provide for the immediate needs of Iraq’s people. But even if it did meet those needs, it wouldn’t begin to solve the sanctions-created catastrophe.

Without repairing the devastated infrastructure, the water, sewage, power and other systems in Iraq as a whole cannot recover. Even if children with severe diarrhea and dehydration can be saved by medical treatment, they return home from the hospital to drink the same contaminated water.

Ramsey Clark responded to Dr. al-Hashimi’s remarks, saying, "Four years ago, when we opposed the ‘Oil for Food’ deal, people thought we were crazy. But we said then that it was just a slow process of strangulation. It was a device by the U.S. to avoid having to deal directly with the question of ending the sanctions," after world opinion had turned against them.

Clark said, "We owe a great debt to the Iraqi people for their courage, fortitude and sacrifice. We must demand accountability for what has been done to them, and not 50 years from now, but now."

The great anger here toward the U.S. and its imperialist junior partner Britain is based on their joint bombing operations, which continue on an almost-daily basis, and their insistence that the sanctions against Iraq remain in place. These two "great powers" are the same ones that together exploited Iraq and its vast oil resources before the 1958 revolution, consigning the Iraqi masses to lives of extreme poverty.

The aim of Washington today is to roll back history and return Iraq to its old colonial status. But despite all the suffering and death, Iraqi people from all walks of life that our delegation has met are determined to never let that happen.

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