DATE=3/17/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=IRAQ SANCTIONS (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-260293
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:

INTRO:  A coalition of private organizations is 
calling for an end to United Nations sanctions on 
Iraq.  Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports the human rights 
groups say sanctions are causing havoc among the 
people of Iraq without weakening the government of 
President Saddam Hussein.

TEXT:  The private groups call the United Nations 
decade-old embargo a punishing policy.  They say the 
economic sanctions are devastating the people of Iraq.  
They say the sanctions have been responsible for the 
deaths of about one-million Iraqis.

The private groups cited figures released by the 
United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, which 
estimates 500-thousand Iraqi children have died.  The 
agency says lack of nutrition has weakened children's 
resistance to disease, and it says the medicines 
needed to treat illnesses have  not  been available 
because of the sanctions.

Edith Ballentyne represents the International League 
of Women for Peace and Freedom.  She says her 
organization has been opposed to the U-N sanctions 
since they were enacted 10 years ago.

            /// BALLENTYNE ACT ///

      We felt that the sanctions basically harmed the 
      people and this is what we have opposed from the 
      very beginning.  We have been part of 
      delegations to Iraq on a number of occasions to 
      verify ourselves what the situation is.  And we 
      have seen over the years a real deterioration, 
      but at all levels, whether it's educational, 
      health and just the maintenance of the city.  It 
      was a beautiful city.

            /// END ACT ///

Ms. Ballentyne says the suffering of the Iraqi people 
can  no  longer be ignored.

Phyllis Bennis is a fellow of the Institute for Policy 
Studies in Washington.  She accompanied a U-S 
congressional staff delegation to Iraq last August.

Ms. Bennis says the United Nations' oil-for-food 
program is not reversing the accumulated effects of 
sanctions.  She notes that much of the money from 
Iraqi oil sales goes to victims of the Gulf war and to 
Kurds in northern Iraq.  She says only just over 50 
percent of the money is left to assist 85 percent of 
the Iraqi population.

            /// BENNIS ACT ///

      The oil-for-food program is providing a 
      basically insufficient, but survivable ration 
      for food.  What it has  not  done is allowed the 
      repair of the infrastructure of a very advanced 
      society.  The repair of hospitals, the repair of 
      the water treatment plants, the repair of sewage 
      treatment facilities, the repair of the 
      electrical generating grid, etc. 

            /// END ACT ///

As a consequence, Ms. Bennis says, Iraqis are 
continuing to die.  She says they are  not  dying 
directly from starvation, but from waterborne diseases 
for which they have  no  access to medical care. 
(Signed)

NEB/LS/JWH/KL




17-Mar-2000 13:45 PM EDT (17-Mar-2000 1845 UTC)
NNNN

Source: Voice of America
.