MOMENTUM TO END IRAQ SANCTIONS REFLECTS WORLDWIDE PRESSURE U.S. ANTI-SANCTIONS GROUP REACTS TO RECENT UNSCOM MEETING IN BAGHDAD International Action Center 1247 'E' Street, SE Washington, DC 20003 June 16, 1998 Growing worldwide sympathy for Iraq and increasing political isolation of the United States sanctions policy is making the continuation of this policy impossible, according to the International Action Center (IAC). The IAC was founded by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark. The organization initiated the Iraq Sanctions Challenge which was made of 82 U.S. delegates who delivered $4 million worth of medicine to Iraq on May 6-13 as an act of international civil disobedience and solidarity. "UNSCOM has carried out 7,800 inspections and visits looking for Iraqi weapons in the last seven and a half years and they have been cynically used as a pretext to carry out a genocidal policy that has killed more than 1.5 million Iraqis from hunger and disease. In the name of eliminating weapons of mass destruction, U.S./UN sanctions are actually a device to strangle Iraq's economy, destabilize the country and then overthrow the current government and replace it with a client regime," stated Sharon Ayling of the IAC and delegate of the recent Iraq Sanctions Challenge. "The U.S. government's criminal policy has succeeded in killing many people but it has failed in accomplishing its political objectives. The Iraqi people feel that their very sovereignty and independence are at stake and consequently their anger is directed at the perpetuators of the sanctions policy. "Moreover, even those Arab governments that are seen as U.S. allies in the Middle East are alarmed about the seething anger from their own masses who want this slaughter ended," Ayling continued. "It is really the growing worldwide movement of tens of millions of people that is forcing the U.S. and UN to adopt a different political posture toward sanctions." The IAC issued the following special alert to anti-war and anti-sanctions activists: "We are urging the tens of thousands of activists who have worked together in the last months and years to intensify their work against sanctions. It is only the worldwide mass movement that has made a difference. Without mass pressure the U.S. would not even consider a change in its orientation. We must stay very active. This policy must be brought to an end right now because every day another 250 innocent civilians are killed. Beside, the U.S. still has 17,000 troops in the Gulf area equipped with the latest weapons of mass killing. Until they are removed from the Middle East there is a very real danger that the politicians and generals will be tempted to strike Iraq once again if the negotiations should break down as has happened so frequently throughout history."