 June 2001
American Friends Service Committee Peacework Magazine Patrica Watson, Editor Sara Burke, Assistant Editor Pat Farren, Founding Editor 2161 Massachusetts Ave. Telephone number: Fax number:
pwork@igc.org Peacework has been published monthly since 1972, intended to serve as a source of dependable information to those who strive for peace and justice and are committed to furthering the nonviolent social change necessary to achieve them. Rooted in Quaker values and informed by AFSC experience and initiatives, Peacework offers a forum for organizers, fostering coalition-building and teaching the methods and strategies that work in the global and local community. Peacework seeks to serve as an incubator for social transformation, introducing a younger generation to a deeper analysis of problems and issues, reminding and re-inspiring long-term activists, encouraging the generations to listen to each other, and creating space for the voices of the disenfranchised. Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC. |
Smart Sanctions are Still Sanctions From information circulated by the Iraq Network; <www.endthewar.org> (The Iraq Network is composed of people with a great diversity of political views and strategies, not all of whom will agree with all suggested actions. This information is presented to you to help you make your own choices.) After a few months of relative silence on Iraq, the Bush Administration is ready to go forward in public with the "smart sanctions" agenda. Britain has introduced a draft resolution in the UN Security Council which it claims will radically re-configure the way sanctions are enforced. Until now, all contracts for goods were subject to individual approval by the UN Sanctions Committee, any member of which could indefinitely delay approval for any reason. That was slightly changed with UNSCR 1284, which mandated creation of "green lists" of fast-tracked, pre-approved items. Under this new proposal, contracts would automatically go through unless they contain items on a list of specifically banned or questionable items because of possible military use. Contracts could no longer be placed on hold, but simply approved or denied. Members of the Committee could also exercise a line-item veto, instead of denying entire contracts. Lifting of the sanctions would still be conditional, as in the past, on UN weapons inspectors' certification of Iraq as completely free from weapons of mass destruction or the means to make them. US officials hoped that the new resolution would be approved before June 4, when the Oil for Food program will be up for its six-month renewal, but that seems unlikely because of Chinese and Russian reservations over several issues, including the length of the list of banned items (30 pages). The proposal also contains measures to bring Iraq's oil trade with Jordan, Turkey, and Syria under the control of the 661 Committee (the UN committee originally established to oversee enforcement of the sanctions), and would increase from 25 to 30% the proportion of Iraq's oil revenues siphoned off to the UN Compensation Commission (UNCC).
The proposal is also, however, an attempt to salvage as much as is possible of the current policy. In addition to the above-mentioned concerns, that it increases the amount of Iraq's oil money deducted for the UNCC and that the new list of banned items is too comprehensive, there is the more fundamental fact that smart sanctions do not address the enforced impoverishment of Iraqi society. An emergency commodity assistance program like oil-for-food, no matter how well funded or well run, cannot reverse the devastating consequences of war and then ten years of virtual shut-down of Iraq's economy. Iraq needs control of its own resources, a massive reconstruction program, and stimulation of local enterprise in order to redevelop. The new proposal is simply an attempt to make the world shift the blame for the Iraqi people's suffering away from the US and Britain, while not substantially ameliorating that suffering.
For a summary of the British proposal, see www.endthewar.org/summary.htm.
For a fuller analysis, with detailed quotes and analysis, of the
problems with smart sanctions, see "Talking Points on Smart
Sanctions" at www.endthewar.org/smartsanctions.htm. Suggested actions: 1. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper, or an op-ed piece, addressing the problems with smart sanctions. 2. Call the White House (White House Comment Line, 202/456-1111) and the Secretary of State Colin Powell (202/647-5291). 3. Participate in Iraq Lobby Days, June 16-18, sponsored by the Education for Peace in Iraq Center-- or contribute so that someone else can go. Visit http://saveageneration.org/epicevents
4. Start planning for August 6. It will be the 11th anniversary
of the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 661, which initiated
the sanctions. This is a real chance to have an effect on policy,
with domestic and international opposition reaching a crescendo
at the same time. 
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