http://www.nonviolence.org/vitw/mythsand%20realities3.html
Myth 5: The Iraqi government is deliberately withholding and stockpiling food and medicine to exacerbate the human suffering for political sympathy and to draw attention to the need to lift sanctions.
The US State Department alleges in its September 1999 report Saddam Hussein’s Iraq that Iraq appears to be warehousing and stockpiling medicines, with malicious intent. (16)
The warehousing of medicines is heavily monitored by the United Nations and is acknowledged by local UN administration and staff to be caused by logistical problems stemming from nine years of sanctions and lingering Gulf War damage. Periodic UN reports on the humanitarian programs in Iraq list many technical issues that complicate providing medicine to a country of 22 million people. Obstacles to efficient distribution include low wages of Iraqi warehouses workers, insufficient transport, and the poor condition of Iraqi warehouses in the provinces.
The United Nations conducts frequent inventories of the food and medicine stored in Iraq. Former humanitarian coordinator Hans von Sponeck and his deputy, Farid Zarif, have repeatedly called for the "depoliticization" of distribution, arguing that stockpiling is the result of Iraq’s damaged infrastructure, rather than malice on the part of the Iraqi government. (17)
There is a serious problem, which von Sponeck has referred to as "uncomplimentarity." In many cases, Iraq must purchase goods from foreign suppliers. Items come in pieces; for example, dental chairs arrive but compressors must be ordered from another company, or syringes arrive but needles take longer. Thus, some shipments must be held in Baghdad until they are complete. This happens, von Sponeck explained, with about one-half of the orders. (18) Moreover, the UN sanctions committee takes longer to approve some orders than others, thus forcing Iraq to keep medicine in storage until the complements are approved.
Temperatures in Iraq during summer often reach 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Air-conditioned trucks are therefore essential for shipping perishable goods, including cancer medication, surgical gloves, and foodstuffs. Yet air-conditioned trucks are practically nonexistent in Iraq, since the sanctions committee has barred them under "dual use" considerations. (19) While it is certainly true that air- conditioned trucks could be used for military purposes, they are also necessary to ship medication.
The infrastructure is so degraded throughout Iraq that medicine and even spare parts are "Band-Aids to a huge problem," according to von Sponeck. (20) There are electrical shortages in every city, including Baghdad. Water and sanitation facilities have collapsed. Oxygen plants have fallen apart. Denis Halliday stated that Iraq would need at least $50 billion to rebuild its agricultural, medical, and social infrastructure. (21)
After allocations are taken out of Iraq’s oil revenues to finance Gulf War reparations, and UN administrative costs, and other mandated expenses, the amount of money which trickles down to the average person in Iraq is completely insufficient. Iraq cannot afford to rebuild its infrastructure under
the oil-for-food program. Water sanitation facilities, electrical grids, communication lines, and educational resources will remain permanently degraded until the sanctions are lifted.
Myth 6: The Iraqi leadership uses money intended for humanitarian purposes to build palaces and enrich itself.
The New York Times claims that "with oil sales blocked, [Saddam Hussein] chose to spend what money was available on lavish palaces and construction projects." (22) In the years before oil-for- food, it’s important to recall that the Iraqi government was distributing food to its civilian population. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization said in 1995 of the rationing system that began in September 1990: "The food basket supplied through the rationing system is a life-saving nutritional benefit which also represents a very substantial income subsidy to Iraqi households." (23)
Iraq is pumping as much oil today as it did before the Gulf War, but is making less money because of the change in oil prices and the dramatic rise of inflation since 1990. When one considers that three Iraqi dinars could buy $1 in 1990, and today it takes more than 2,000, the difference in oil sales between 1990 and today is significant. While Iraq is permitted to sell more than $5.26 billion of oil every six months, these funds are not at the discretion of Saddam Hussein, but are kept in a UN escrow account with the Bank of Paris in New York City.
The sanctions, though intended to weaken Iraq’s elite ruling class, only strengthen its political hegemony. With Iraq’s population decimated by hunger, disease, and fear of US and UK bombs, the development of civil society is hampered, as are hopes for pluralism. Iraq’s elite is empowered by a lucrative black market. With sanctions taking thousands of lives each month, the Iraqi government can better rally popular support and bitterness against the US government.
--- Luke Weiger <lweiger at umich.edu> wrote:
> Brett,
>
> I think the former interpretation is closer to
> reality, although if the US
> suspended sanctions the bad consequences would
> disappear independent
> Hussein's tendency to spend wads of cash on building
> new palaces and buying
> new military trinkets.
>
> -- Luke
>
>
===== Kevin Dean Buffalo, NY ICQ: 8616001 http://www.yaysoft.com
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