Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, June 2000, pages 97-100

Human Rights

U.N. Official Discusses His Resignation Over Cruel Sanctions Against Iraq

Hans von Sponeck, former U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, told a Washington, DC audience on May 3 why he had recently resigned from his position in Baghdad. Introduced by National Association of Arab-Americans/American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee vice president Khalil Jahsan, Von Sponeck explained that the U.N.’s sanctions against Iraq were so onerous that he could not in good conscience lend his name any longer to the suffering being inflicted on the Iraqi people.

Von Sponeck explained that Iraq’s annual per capita income in 1989 was something over $3,000. The amount of food coming through to the Iraqi people under the U.N. sanctions comes to $2.9 billion for a population of 23 million. So, on average, the amount per person was $252 a year. From being a fairly affluent society, Iraq is now in desperate poverty comparable to that of Haiti or Sierra Leone.

The retired United Nations career official refuted press charges, especially in the American media, that the Iraqi government (read Saddam Hussain) was hoarding food and medicine for profit on the black market. In fact, he said, on average 91.7 percent of food and related items approved by the U.N. and received in Iraq are distributed, while 72 percent of medicines are distributed. The figures on both food and medicine are reckoned to be “absolutely adequate” by persons familiar with the goods involved and the local circumstances. He said the United Nations in Baghdad had “no evidence” that items were being held back by Saddam Hussain.

Dr. Von Sponeck, a German national with 30 years’ experience in the United Nations Development Program, described Iraqi schools as pathetically underfinanced. In 1989 the government’s budget for schools was the equivalent of about $3 billion a year. Now it is barely one-tenth of that. Some schoolgirls are actually engaged in prostitution to help with school expenses and to help at home, Von Sponeck said. Iraqi teachers now make $1 to $4 a month, reflecting the general poverty and disastrous decline in the value of the Iraqi dinar.

No computers can come into Iraq, the former U.N. officer declared. Lead pencils can’t come in, either, because of the “dual use” rule being enforced by the U.N., which is used to prohibit any imports that might be used in making weapons of mass destruction. In a discussion of who is responsible for maintaining for so long the cruel sanctions regime, several in the audience, made up in good part of representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and humanitarian groups, pointed mainly at the United States.

Von Sponeck believes that an end of sanctions would revive the spirit and self-esteem of the Iraqi people. Thus President Saddam Hussain feels more secure with sanctions maintained. Lifting the sanctions, which Von Sponeck and the audience overwhelmingly favored, would endanger Saddam’s rule.

The former U.N. humanitarian aid coordinator revealed that when his U.N. contract expired in October 1999, he had paid a farewell courtesy call on U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Annan told him, “Two countries [unnamed by Von Sponeck] have asked me for your removal. I therefore reappoint you immediately.” It was a vote of confidence that Von Sponeck reluctantly declined.

Von Sponeck’s predecessor as U.N. humanitarian coordinator, Denis Halliday, also resigned his position because he no longer could stomach the cruelty and actual starvation he saw being inflicted on the Iraqis.

—Andrew I. Killgore

Great Expectations—Bitter Realities

The Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) held an informative day-long conference in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on April 14. A similar conference was held at Columbia University in New York City, on April 18 (see p. 50 for a complete report). At the two conferences CESR released the results of three years of research on economic and human rights conditions in the West Bank and Gaza.

The organization has documented the dramatic decline in Palestinian living standards and ongoing human rights abuses against Palestinians during more than six years of the “peace process” between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. The CESR report shows that “peace” has brought the Palestinians a higher rate of unemployment, a greater incidence of poverty and a significant decline in gross national product.

Key research findings from the West Bank and Gaza include:

• Palestinian real per capita gross national product (GNP) has declined 21 percent since the beginning of the Oslo process, despite over $3 billion in foreign aid.

• The number of unemployed Palestinians has increased 139 percent, from an average of 33,900 during 1990-93 to an average of 81,300 in 1994-98. Taking into account population growth, this represents a tripling of the core unemployment rate.

• Per capita consumption has declined by some 14.5 percent since 1992.

CESR’s human rights report implicates Israel, the Palestinian Authority and international donors for the decline in living standards and ongoing human rights abuses.

The Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine (CPAP) and American Muslims for Jerusalem (AMJ) co-sponsored the New York and Washington conferences, the first of a series of public events in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East. Funding was provided by the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation and the Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation.

—Delinda C. Hanley

Former Chief Palestinian Negotiator Warns Israel About Right of Return of Palestinian Refugees

As the framework for final negotiation talks is hammered out, it is becoming increasingly clear that Israel has no intentions of allowing Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland under any peace agreement. The Council for Palestinian Restitution and Repatriation (CPRR) held a press conferences to address the Palestinian refugee issue on April 21 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

Elder statesman Dr. Haidar Abdel Shafi, a widely respected Palestinian leader who led the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid and Washington talks, came from Gaza especially for the news conference. He said that Palestinians “evicted by terrorism and force” should be allowed back to their homes. “This is a matter that should go to the conscience of the world—and the democratic world especially,” he maintained.

With regard to CPRR’s recent activities, Dr. Abdel Shafi said, “We have received tens of thousands of signatures from Palestinian refugees all over the Middle East and in the occupied territories affirming their right to repatriation and restitution. The refugee issue is the heart and the core of the problem.”

Dr. Abdel Shafi called upon the Palestinian Authority (PA) to negotiate for the refugees on the basis of U.N. Resolution 194 with all seriousness and sincerity. He warned the PA to withstand pressure from Israel and the U.S. to relegate the refugee issue to the future. The Israelis will try to avoid even putting the refugee issue on the agenda of the final status negotiations, he cautioned, but if the refugee issue is postponed, “it would deal the death blow to the peace negotiations.”

The second speaker was Dr. Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois, who served as the legal adviser for the Palestinian delegation to the Middle East negotiations from 1991 to 1993. He also cited U.N. Security Council Resolution 194, passed in 1948, which “Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the governments or authorities responsible.

“Israel was allowed membership in the United Nations on condition that it fulfill Resolution 194 and General Assembly Resolution 181 of 1947, demanding the partition of the Palestine Mandate into two states—a Jewish state and an Arab state; and an international trusteeship for Jerusalem,” Dr. Boyle warned. “If Israel refuses to implement Resolution 194 and Resolution 181 it will jeopardize its membership in the United Nations and risk various sanctions.”

There would be legal precedents for suspension of Israel from the United Nations if it continues to refuse to recognize Resolution 194, Dr. Boyle said. “This is exactly what has been done to what at that point in time was a criminal apartheid regime in South Africa, and also to the government of the rump Yugoslavia, that still today does not participate in the activities of the United Nations organization.”

Buttressing the case for the right of Palestinians to return to their homes, Boyle cited U.S. policy favoring family reunification of Soviet Jews and precedents set in the compensation for losses resulting from the Nazi Holocaust. He also noted that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts “everyone has the right to return to his country.”

Boyle, who provided legal assistance to the Bosnians and to the Kosovar Albanians, also cited the precedent of the right of “Bosnian refugees to return to their homes in the aftermath of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. The Palestinians should have the same right to go back to their homes.”

Dr. Boyle concluded, “There is a remarkable opportunity here for peace in the Middle East, but this is going to require that the United States government and the Israeli government adhere to these basic principles of international law…If Israel and the United States do not adhere to these principles, I regret to say I don’t believe there will be a durable peace in the Middle East.”

In answer to a question regarding current Palestinian efforts to accommodate returning refugees, Dr. Abdel Shafi said, “Nobody is repatriated to the Palestinian territory except by Israeli permission. So the returnees are very limited, and this is altogether under the discretion of Israel.”

Another questioner asked if there is room for repatriation of Palestinian refugees. Dr. Abdel Shafi answered that a Palestinian researcher, Salman Abu Sitta, recently studied this question and his findings make it very clear that there is plenty of room for repatriation. “And anyhow,” Dr. Abdel Shafi said, “Israel cannot claim the land for itself alone and deprive indigenous people of their right to self-determination.”

Asked by the Washington Report for a prediction of what would happen in the refugee camps if President Arafat did sign away the right of return, or settled for the return of just a token number of Palestinians, Dr. Abdel Shafi replied: “I dare say that if our Authority yields on pressures about this issue, it will disqualify itself. I’m sorry to say so. The matter is so serious that it cannot pass by very easily.”

—Delinda C. Hanley

First DC Rally in Support of Women in Afghanistan

The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) held its first U.S. rally and press conference in Washington, DC’s Lafayette Square, facing the White House, on April 28, to mark and condemn the eight years since the takeover of Afghanistan by the fundamentalist Taliban regime. The Feminist Majority and the National Committee of Women for a Democratic Iran (NCWDI) co-sponsored the rally, attended by more than 100 people.

Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority, listed examples of repression by the Taliban rulers against the Afghan people, especially women. She said women are banished from the workforce, girls are forbidden to attend schools and universities, and women are denied even the most basic health services and allowed in public only in the company of a close male relative and wearing head-to-toe burqa covering. She said many women have been beaten or killed for violating these decrees. She concluded by discussing ways in which Americans can help.

RAWA speakers asked the U.S. to try to bring the Taliban leaders to the international court to be tried as war criminals against women. They also asked the U.S. to initiate an effort in the U.N. to deploy peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan. This would give hope to the Afghan people and allow them security, access to health and education, as well as other basic needs.

NCWDI president Ramesh Sepehrrad welcomed the crowd and praised RAWA members for their relentless effort to promote and monitor women’s rights in Afghanistan.

A representative from Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-NV) office delivered a message to the crowd condemning Taliban actions: “The United States must take a more active role in resolving the crisis in Afghanistan,” the senator said. “The people in Afghanistan, especially its women and girls who have suffered so much, deserve freedom and democracy.”

A statement by Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) declared, “We should support RAWA and recognize the importance of its work for Afghan women….To the women of Afghanistan, I say: We remember you. We will not forget you, we will fight for you.” For more information call (703) 585-9127 or e-mail: rawa_us@yahoo.com.

—Delinda C. Hanley

SIDEBAR

The Council for Palestinian Repatriation and Restitution (CPRR) is circulating a petition world-wide calling for observance of the right of Palestinians to repatriation or restitution. As of mid-May some 40,000 individuals and 200 institutions had signed the petition. CPRR is collecting signatures both from Palestinians and non-Palestinians for insertion on two separate petitions bearing the same text:”I affirm that every Palestinian has a legitimate, individual right to return to his or her original home and to absolute restitution of his or her property.”

The petition and information on how Washington Report readers can add their signatures, or play a role in gathering signatures, can be found at <http://rightof return.org/be-active/petition/>. Or inquiries may be sent to CPRR, P.O. Box 21520, Washington, DC 20009, USA or fax 1 (775) 418- 5980.