The people of Iraq are suffering continuous tragedy at the hands of sanctions imposed by the United Nations, said Rania Masri, founder and coordinator of the Iraq Action Coalition and a 1995 graduate of the School of the Environment, at a presentation Tuesday night.
The hardship gripping Iraq is "artificial because Iraq is a rich nation," she said. Because the international community had deemed the Iraqi people unfit to trade with the rest of the world, she explained, they are experiencing terrible suffering despite possessing the means to improve their situation.
Speaking before an audience of about 20 people in the Sociology-Psychology Building, Masri blamed the suffering of millions of Iraqis on what she deemed unfair sanctions imposed by the United Nations. According to U.N. statistics, Masri said, over 1.2 million Iraqis-including 750,000 children-have died since sanctions were first imposed Aug. 6, 1990.
Masri said that every month 4,500 children die due to malnutrition caused by strict U.N. food rationing. This rationing allots each Iraqi five pounds of flour and a nominal amount of lentils and rice each week. The poor diet that results from these rations is a major killer of Iraq's children and elderly, Masri said.
In addition, sanctions have caused massive inflation which has rendered many Iraqis powerless to buy food or medical services, Masri explained. The sanctions also prohibit the shipment of basic medical supplies as well as pens and paper.
Masri alleged that the sanctions violate seven major international agreements, including the Geneva Conventions, the Constitution of the World Health Organization and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
She went on to contrast Iraq's violations of U.N. resolutions with similar breaches by Israel. Iraq has violated two U.N. resolutions, Masri said, and as a result must suffer what she called "the most comprehensive economic sanctions in history." Israel has allegedly violated 17 U.N. resolutions by occupying certain territories in the Middle East yet it suffers no consequences.
After the speech, Masri's coalition distributed literature which accused the U.S. government of demonizing Saddam Hussein in order to make the sanctions more acceptable. Masri also maintains that Iraq did not use chemical weapons in the Gulf War, but that the "Gulf War Syndrome" is a result of the U.S. army's use of radioactive depleted uranium.
The event is part of Iraqi Sanctions Awareness Week, which culminates on Friday with a march from West Campus to East Campus in the hopes of raising University awareness of the problems of the Iraqi people.
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