Organisations supporting Iraq against the sanctions

A talk by Dr Ismail Jalili 
at the the Annual Conference of the Iraqi Medical Association in the UK, 1999

I should like firstly like to thank the Committee (Walid) for asking me to give a ten-minute talk on the current position regarding organizations who are working against the Sanctions on Iraq as it seems that many members of the Iraqi community are unaware of the work being done by various groups.

There are currently a large number of groups who are dealing with the dropping of sanctions and these can in the main be divided into three groups:

 1.      The non-governmental organizations (NGOs):   I am sure all of you will know of these groups which comprise the larger international organizations who have a watching brief but are not allowed by their constitutions or remit to take any political stand on the subject.  These include organizations such as The International Red Cross/Red Crescent, Save the Children etc.   There are also individual groups and epidemiologists who are undertaking ongoing work to document the health and social consequences of the sanctions.

 2.      Political Organisations:    These are either existing groups who have included the cause of sanctions within their general remit such as the Internationalist Socialist groups etc, or are organizations who have been set up specifically to lobby against the Sanctions.

 3.      Organisations dealing specifically with the topic of depleted uranium:  There are several organizations and individuals who are bringing this subject to the fore and include those who have been involved with the work in Iraq, members of the Gulf Veterans Associations (both here and in the USA) and epidemiologists.

 The work of all of these organizations and groups obviously overlap and given the number involved, and the comments I have often heard that many people are unaware of the individual groups and meetings that are being organized on a regular basis, I have prepared a list of the ones with whom I am in contact with, or have been told about and anybody who is interested in these is welcome to take a copy of that list.  I am aware that there are probably many more and so I apologise in advance for any that I have missed.

 I attended the meeting organized by CASI this last weekend and was enormously impressed by the speakers and the meeting which brought together experts on

Depleted Uranium

Anthropological Studies

Speakers from the Foreign Office, the French Embassy, the EU

Epidemiologists

 The main areas of concern are:

1.            Child health

2.            Increased incidence of cancers, genetic mutations etc.   There is a serious lack of academic/medical research studies on this and it is difficult to get accurate figures.  Much more work is needed from health professionals for accurate, scientific work particularly in the field of neurology, oncology, ophthalmology and genetics etc.

3.            Decline in the standard of social development in Iraq , for example literacy has now dropped from 95% to 45% and the obvious consequences of this.

4.            The terrible consequences of the use of depleted uranium and the reluctance on the parts of the Western governments to accept the known effects of its use (despite the fact that a report was originally published in 1943 on its results).

One of the messages that came across repeatedly was that politicians are afraid of public opinion and repeated public pressure will help.

Two stories which illustrate this point and that people are attempting to get across the message come from the Voices in the Wilderness group who have an ongoing campaign against all aspects of the sanctions and deliberately break sanctions by informing the British and US governments prior to each trip they make to Baghdad to take medical supplies.  The penalties for breaking sanctions are up to five years imprisonment in the UK and up to 12 years and a $1 million fine in the USA .

The American branch of Voices in the Wilderness last year held a fast and vigil at the Northwestern University in America in opposition to the decision to grant Madeline Albright an honorary doctorate.  Members demonstrated by knocking  on all the offices every 10 minutes and telling the employees that in the past 10 minutes another Iraqi child had died because of economic sanctions in Iraq .  Those involved are now awaiting trial but the University has since dropped its decision to award a doctorate to Madeline Albright.

Two British members of the Group recently returned from Iraq and were arrested and fined £1300.  They appeared at Horseferry Road Court for non-payment and on a second charge of throwing paint at the Foreign Office for which she was sentenced to 28 days in prison and to a second sentence of 45 days.  The magistrate who was originally hostile but relented after a passionate speech by the members on the horrors they had seen in Iraqi hospitals.  The magistrate then changed his mind and sentenced her to 1 day which was counted as her 1-day appearance in court.