rn: Solidarity with Iraqis
April 28, 2000 by Jan Slakov
Jan Slakov
From: "Voices in the Wilderness" <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Action alert
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2000 22:12:06 -0500
Write the U.S. Mission at the UN to End Sanctions on Iraq.
We are going to flood the U.S. Mission with thousands of letters
from all over the world
I.  Address of U.S. Mission, & letter receipt
II.  Purpose
III. List of organizations endorsing this action alert
IV. Sample letter (write your own or print out this one)
I. Address of U.S. Mission, & letter receipt
Please mail letters to:
Ambassador Richard Holbrooke
Permanent Mission of the United States to the United Nations
New York, NY, USA 10017-3505
If you are able to write a letter, please help us track how
many letters we generate by sending a blank e-mail with
the words "Sent Letter" in the subject line to:
If you are working on a letter writing campaign, please
try and track how many letters you send, and then send
us a blank e-mail with the words "Sent Letter" in the
subject line, followed by the number of letters (e.g. Sent
Letter 25, if you send 25 letters)
II. Purpose
The hope of this action alert is to put pressure on the
United States by generating as many letters as possible,
from individuals in as many different countries as
possible, demanding that the U.S. end Sanctions. While
the British government's support for Sanctions has been
helpful to the United States, it seems clear that
Sanctions will end as soon as, and not before, the U.S.
changes its vote on the Security Council.
On March 24th, Secretary General Kofi Annan
addressed the Security Council, saying, in part, "The
United Nations has always been on the side of the
vulnerable and the weak, and has always sought to
relieve suffering, yet here we are accused of causing
suffering to an entire population. We are in danger of
losing the argument, or the propaganda war - if we
haven't already lost it - about who is responsible for this
situation - President Saddam Hussein or the United
Nations."
Mr. Annan is wrong when he implies that this is a
"propaganda war." This war is all too real. We need to
make it clear to Ambassador Holbrooke that we are
paying attention to this war, and that we strongly oppose
it. The United States government will relent and allow
Sanctions to be lifted only when the pressure to lift
Sanctions outweighs any possible interests they have in
maintaining them. It's *our* job to provide that pressure.
III. List of Organizations Endorsing this Action Alert:
American Muslims for Global Peace & Justice, USA
http://www.global-peace.org
Campaign to End the Sanctions Against the People of Iraq, Canada
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/CommunitySupport/NSCEIS/
Disarmament and Security Centre, New Zealand
contact: Kate Dewes <•••@••.•••>
EPIC - the Education for Peace in Iraq Center, USA
http://www.saveageneration.org
Green Earth Organization, Ghana
contact: George Ahadzie <•••@••.•••>
International Action Center, USA
http://www.iacenter.org
Iraq Action Coalition, USA
http://www.iraqaction.org
New Zealand Foundation For Peace Studies, Auckland NZ
http://www.peace.net.nz
Peace Action, USA
http://www.peace-action.org
Voices in the Wilderness, USA
http://nonviolence.org/vitw
IV. Sample Letter
(you can print this out, add your signature & mail it,
or write your own letter - whichever you prefer)
Dear Ambassador Holbrooke,
I am writing to you out of deep concern over the on-
going humanitarian crisis in Iraq - now approaching its
10th year without resolution. According to the United
Nations own agency reports, hundreds of thousands of
children have died as a direct result of critical shortages
in nutritious food, safe drinking water, and medicines.
This is intolerable. It is not a status quo any of us should
be willing to accept for any reason. In its April 8th issue,
The Economist writes:
"Slowly, inexorably, a generation is being crushed in
Iraq. Thousands are dying, thousands more are leading
stunted lives, and storing up biter hatreds for the
future. If, year in, year out, the UN were systematically
killing Iraqi children by air strikes, western governments
would declare it intolerable, no matter how noble the
intention. They should find their existing policy just as
unacceptable. In democracies, the end does not justify
the means."
To date, at least three senior UN administrators have
resigned in protest over this crisis, and in opposition to
the U.S.-led, UN sanctions: Denis Halliday, Hans von
Sponek, and Jutta Burghardt. The response to these
resignations by U.S. State Department spokesperson
James Rubin, "good," was not helpful. Mr. Rubin's
further implication that these officials are "pro-Saddam"
was also troublesome; as is your Mission's persistent
refusal to consider the growing opposition to your
position among your partners on the Security Council
and among the international community in general. The
continuing excess deaths of some 5,000 Iraqi children
every month due to your intransigence is not simply a
humanitarian crisis - it is a strategic crisis to the interests
of peace in the region and around the world, and,
overwhelmingly, this is a moral crisis. Given the
immensity of this catastrophe, the power of your veto
over the Security Council, and the incredible financial
and military resources of the United States in general,
this intransigence is truly frightening.
The United States has accused Saddam Hussein of
"cynically manipulating" the humanitarian catastrophe for
his own political ends. With all due respect, U.S.
manipulations seem no less cynical. Addressing the
Security Council on Feb. 7th, Benon Sevan, Executive
Director of the Iraq Programme, expressed his "serious
concern at the persistent high level of holds placed on
applications for humanitarian supplies and especially on
oil sector equipment." The United States is holding up
98% of these contracts, totaling more than $1.7 billion
dollars. This is inexcusable. I welcome your recent
initiative to increase the amount of Iraqi oil revenues that
Iraq is allowed to spend for repairs to its own oil industry.
I welcome your recent initiative to release a few of the
hundreds of contracts your Mission is holding up in the
Sanctions Committee. However, I'm afraid that I
question whether these changes are more cosmetic than
substantive: an attempt to hold off the growing isolation
of the United States on this issue, and the mounting
political opposition to your siege of Iraq.
Sir, this blockade is being enforced by your veto on the
Security Council, and by an active U.S. military presence
in the Gulf. Hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps
well over one million people, are dead as a result of this
blockade. As former Assistant Secretary General Denis
Halliday has said, "We are destroying an entire society.
It is as simple and as terrifying as that." Whatever
concerns the United States has about Saddam Hussein
cannot in any way justify the collective punishment of an
entire people. Furthermore, Security Council Resolution
687, adopted in early 1991, calls for the establishment of
a WMD-free zone throughout the Middle East. It is not
clear how the United States hopes to achieve this by
destroying Iraqi civil society through sanctions, engaging
in extra-legal bombings in its self-declared "no-fly-
zones," while at the same time pursuing record arms
sales to Turkey, Israel, and Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, as
well as other Gulf states.
Ambassador Holbrooke, stop this madness. End the
sanctions. End this war. All anyone is asking for is that
the children of Iraq be allowed to live. That is not too much
to ask, nor is it so much to give.
(printable version)
rn> Elan & global fascism
rn: In moral accounting, First Wld is debtor