We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned at the humanitarian
crisis being caused in Iraq by economic sanctions.
According to the United Nation's own figures sanctions
have caused the deaths of around one million children, the vast majority
of whom were not even born at the time of the Gulf War.
These children, the innocent victims of Iraq, have already
paid the price of an international dispute with their lives and many more
will perish unless the embargo is lifted.
Sanctions have plunged ordinary people into misery. A
humanitarian panel of experts commissioned by the UN Security Council to
assess the situation in Iraq reported in March 1999 that "the country
has experienced a shift from relative affluence to massive poverty"
during sanctions. The humanitarian panel found that child mortality had
more than tripled and that "infant mortality rates in Iraq are among
the highest in the world". UNICEF reports that a quarter of Iraqi
children under five are chronically malnourished. The experts concluded
that the "oil-for-food" relief programme alone could never meet
the humanitarian needs of the people of Iraq.
All wars have to end sometime. Kuwait
was returned to its owners in 1991. Why are we still killing Iraqi children
as we enter the new millennium? No more war. No more sanctions. Let the
Iraqi people live!