Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May/June 1998, Page 113

Tri-State Talk

Iraq Sanctions Challenge

By Jane Adas

A large delegation of Americans will travel to Iraq with $20,000 worth of medical supplies from May 6 to 13 in open defiance of U.S. laws and U.N. resolutions in a campaign entitled “The Iraq Sanctions Challenge.” They intend to fly directly to Baghdad. Since the U.S. has given permission for humanitarian aid planes from Qatar and Cairo to fly in with medicine, the planners expect the same right to be extended to an American delegation. Those participating will represent thousands of people from many different constituencies, including Pastors for Peace, Voices in the Wilderness, the Middle East Children’s Alliance, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), and American Muslims for Global Peace and Justice.

As former Attorney General Ramsey Clark pointed out at the national planning conference for this event that took place March 21 in New York, it would actually take $5 billion worth of medicine each year for five years just for Iraq to catch up. Therefore the larger purpose of the delegation is symbolic.

The ultimate aim is to bring back first-hand information and awareness to build a movement to end the sanctions, which have killed 15 times as many Iraqis as did the bombs of Desert Storm.

Sam Husseini, the ADC media director, pointed out that the American media have cooperated with the U.S. policy of isolating Iraq. It has ignored the effects of the sanctions on the Iraqi population. The result is that one and a half million humans have perished silently without U.S. media comment or mass public protest. Because of the media’s neglect, many people mistakenly view sanctions as a humane alternative to war.

According to the International Action Center’s Brian Becker, the objection of people and governments all over the world to the U.S.’s recent threat to rebomb Iraq indicates that it is now American policy that is isolated. If the May humanitarian delegation is prevented from flying into Baghdad, it will have support from the rest of the world and, with enough publicity, perhaps at home as well.

Unexpected publicity was provided during the administration’s “Town Hall Meeting” in Columbus, Ohio. Riad Bahhur and John Strange, two of the activists who were able to take advantage of the administration’s and CNN’s mistakes, described what happened behind the scenes at that now famous event broadcast live over the whole world.

The administration chose a sports arena for the site of the town meeting, probably with a view to simulating a pep rally in support of its bombing plan. But this worked to the advantage of the protesters. Knowing they would not have access to a microphone, they resorted to heckling, which soon spread over much of the arena.

The TV crew hastily cut to ads and a CNN representative offered to allow one person to ask a question if the rest would behave. John Strange was chosen. He so flustered Secretary of State Madeline Albright that she tried to wriggle out of their on-air encounter by promising to meet him afterward for 50 minutes. However, she stood him up.

When Eric Gustafson, a Gulf war veteran who joined a Voices in the Wilderness delegation to Iraq, was asked by an Iraqi doctor how, after saturation bombing and the most sustained and comprehensive sanctions in history, could Americans possibly not know about the horrible conditions Iraqis are enduring, he realized that the issue is not just about the dehumanization of the Iraqi people, but also of the American people.

Many of the speakers who had been to Iraq said that the real heroes are the Iraqi doctors and nurses who continue to work under hopeless conditions. Barbara Nimri Aziz of Pacifica radio proposed nominating them for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Bishop Thomas Gumbleton will be a participant in the May delegation. He told the gathering that he was filled with anger, an anger that began nearly eight years ago and that is a God-given emotion to move to action. Remembering Madeline Albright’s answer in a 1995 interview to Leslie Stahl’s question of whether a half-million dead Iraqi children was worth it (she said yes), Bishop Gumbleton asked what is the IT that justifies killing children?

Anyone wishing to participate in the Iraq Sanctions Challenge should contact them at 39 W. 14th St., Suite 206, New York, NY 10011; telephone (212) 633-6646; e-mail iacenter@iacenter.org.