Sanctions on Iraq background consequences strategies Proceedings of the Conference hosted by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq 13–14 November 1999, Cambridge CASI ISBN 1-903488-22-2 Proceedings of the Conference hosted by Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq 13–14 November 1999 Cambridge, England SANCTIONS ON IRAQ background consequences strategies Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq Cambridge 2000 © 2000 by the Campaign against Sanctions on Iraq All rights reserved. Published 2000. Printed in the United Kingdom. ISBN 1-903488-22-2 published by the Campaign against Sanctions on Iraq c/o CUSU, 11-12 Trumpington Street Cambridge CB2 1QA http://welcome.to/casi email: [email protected] distributed by Barque Press c/o A Brady Gonville & Caius College Cambridge CB2 1TA TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction.................................................................7 History ‘20 Years of Saddam Hussein, 1979–1999.’ Ivor Lucas...................................................................12 ‘How did we get here? A history of British and American relations with Iraq.’ George Joffé................................................................21 Health ‘Changes in health and well-being in Iraq during the 1990s.’ Richard Garfield..........................................................32 Non-Governmental Organisations ‘NGO Opportunities, Options and Constraints Regarding Iraq.’ Rita Bhatia and Andrea Ledward..................................52 Society and Culture ’The Iraqi Exodus.’ Harriet Griffin............................................................66 ‘Sanctions and Women in Iraq.’ Nadje Al-Ali................................................................73 ‘Sanctions from an Iraqi perspective.’ Emad Salman..............................................................85 5 Weapons of Mass Destruction Hugh Macdonald........................................................92 Depleted Uranium ‘Depleted Uranium and its effects in Iraq.’ Doug Rokke..............................................................121 Personal Accounts ‘Experiencing Iraq today.’ Felicity Arbuthnot and Nikki van der Gaag................144 ‘Popular anti-sanctions groups in the UK.’ Milan Rai..................................................................160 International Politics ‘Sanctions and the Middle East.’ Chris Doyle..............................................................167 The British and French Government Positions ‘Address to the Security Council’ Sir Jeremy Greenstock [Jon Davies]............................183 ‘Iraq/Adoption of the Security Council Resolution: Communiqué issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.’ M. Hubert Vedriné [Anis Nacrour]............................187 ‘Between Iraq and a Hard Place: A Critique of the British Government’s Narrative on UN Economic Sanctions.’ Eric Herring.............................................................192 Appendices Appendix 1: United Nations Resolution 1284............202 Appendix 2: Glossary of Terms .................................215 6 Introduction On 13–14 November 1999, over 150 delegates from five countries arrived in Cambridge to attend a conference enti- tled ‘Sanctions on Iraq: Background, Consequences, Strate- gies’. In the packed auditorium, they listened as eighteen speakers from four countries – including prominent histori- ans, diplomats, public health specialists, anthropologists, jour- nalists, activists and Iraqi citizens – chronicled Iraq’s mani- fold suffering under the sanctions regime imposed after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. In session after session, the audi- ence contributed their challenges, questions, private reflec- tions and professional experiences. The result was an impas- sioned debate. While the whole dynamic of this dialogue cannot be reproduced in print, the Proceedings offer the speeches that launched it. We invite readers to engage criti- cally with this story of disaster. The ‘narrative’ of our government, as our final speaker Dr Eric Herring points out, deserves our most alert and critical attention. It was exactly this concern that motivated the host, Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq (CASI), to begin organ- ising this conference in the summer of 1999. Students founded this University of Cambridge society in 1997 to cam- paign for lifting non-military sanctions in Iraq in response to the humanitarian crisis. Since then, the official story of con- tainment and relief has been seriously questioned. Few may now believe that sanctions effectively ‘contain’ Saddam Hussein’s weapons development programme with minimal human suffering. But who can provide a more reliable ac- count of the impact of sanctions on the state of Iraq, from public health to weapons of mass destruction to family and social ties? And how can we validate that account, except by comparison with other viewpoints? We hope that these Proceedings can plug that gap. The 7 CAMPAIGN AGAINST SANCTIONS ON IRAQ speeches offer a variety of viewpoints, sometimes conflicting and often mutually elaborating. They are anything but ho- mogeneous; nor do they express the views of CASI. They do however reflect the contradictions inherent in the official line. Although Ivor Lucas paints a damning portrait of Saddam Hussein, for example, he denies the effectiveness of sanctions in degrading Hussein’s power. George Joffé questions the con- ventional wisdom on the relation between British and Ameri- can policy in the Gulf and access to oil; Chris Doyle deconstructs the ambivalent relationship between Iraq, the Middle East, and the West; Hugh Macdonald disentangles the accusations and the facts of Iraq’s weapons programmes. Some of the speakers draw our attention to the silent costs of sanctions: Nadje Al-Ali sows some seeds of optimisim in the creativity and endurance of women, but surveys the moral and social impact of hardship on their families. Nikki van der Gaag recalls Iraq’s wasted artistic and archaeological treas- ures; Harriet Griffin reflects on the life of Iraqi refugees. Emad Salman and Felicity Arbuthnot provide compelling personal testimony to the dolorous conditions of life in Iraq. Most of the speakers undermine British and American gov- ernmental doctrine on the validity of sanctions, but perhaps none more powerfully than Richard Garfield. Garfield nego- tiates ambiguous public health data to substantiate the hu- man cost of sanctions: Iraq is the only instance of a sustained increase in mortality outside or war, famine or genocide in a population of more than 2 million in the past two hundred years. Doug Rokke, while not directly addressing the conse- quences of sanctions, unveiled an environmental and medi- cal catastrophe with a 4 billion year half-life – one for which Iraq, its hospitals and infrastructure evicerated by sanctions, is now completely unprepared. The shocking consequences of the use of Depleted Uranium munitions are matched only by the chilling and continued indifference of the US and Brit- 8 INTRODUCTION ish governments to their effect on civilian populations. The courageous work of activists and humanitarians is also profiled here. Representatives of Save the Children (UK) Rita Bhatia and Andrea Ledward outline the operational con- straints, challenges and potential victories of humanitarian groups working on the ground in Iraq and in the halls of power. From another perspective, Milan Rai offers a brief history of activism on Iraq’s behalf, opening his session to audience participation with characteristic generosity. While we were glad to hear presentations from representa- tives of the governments of UK and France, (Jon Davies for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Anis Nacrour for the French Embassy) they were given off-the-record; and they have elected to prepare statements instead. Anthonius de Vries offered guidance to advocates of ‘smart sanctions’ on behalf of the European Union, similarly off-the-record. These re- marks are not included, though those of their charismatic re- spondent, Eric Herring, are (with slight emendation). The Proceedings are not intended to impose one particular conclusion on these varied presentations. However, a few cer- tainties can be said to have emerged over those two Novem- ber days: that the failure to incorporate an evaluation com- ponent into sanctions provisions has been exceptional and disastrous, preventing humanitarian agencies from obtaining vital data to shape their programmes; that mechanisms to trig- ger the end of sanctions are complex and political; that the logic of linking compliance in weapons inspections with sus- pension of sanctions is incomplete; and that the sanctions regime is largely dictated by the will of Washington. The texts presented here were edited with their authors’ help from transcribed recordings. They are arranged in the order in which they were given at the conference. Some speak- ers added notes as a consequence of the many and compli- cated developments since the conference; others elaborated 9 CAMPAIGN AGAINST SANCTIONS ON IRAQ on details within the body of their speech. We would like to express our gratitude to the speakers for their informed and eloquent contributions to the ongoing discussion of the challenge of Iraq. The generosity and spirit of the audience, combined with the expertise and courage of the speakers, made for a genuinely inspiring event. We thank those who made financial donations and all those involved in organisation and publicity. Since 1997 CASI has maintained the largest electronic dis- cussion list on sanctions in the UK and an informative