Dear Friends,
From 3rd to the 8th of January 2003, a group ofNGO representatives and former UN officials was able to meet withcabinet ministers in Baghdad including Deputy Prime Minister TariqAziz, Foreign Minister Nagi Sabri and Oil Minister Amer MohammedRashid, as well as to talk with doctors, teachers and scientists. Wehad the opportunity to meet ordinary Iraqis and visit sites recentlyinspected for weapons of mass destruction. The aim was to contributeto efforts to prevent war and to gather information not available inthe western press, particularly with regard to the humansituation.
Attached is a brief summary of a very intenseseries of visits, as well as suggestions responding to the frequentquestion asked by citizens of western countries "What can we do tohelp prevent war?"
Please circulate these documents as widely aspossible, asking NGOs and individuals to act quickly on the practicalsuggestions offered.
Your help will be very valuable.
With warm wishes from,
Margarita Papandreou, former First Lady ofGreece
Scilla Elworthy, Director, Oxford Research Group,UK
Denis Halliday, former Assistant Secretary-Generalof the UN and UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Iraq
Christian Harleman, the Transnational Foundationfor Peace and Future Research, Sweden
Jan Oberg, Director, the Transnational Foundation,Sweden
Zeynep Oral, Winpeace and Peace Initiative,Turkey
Omaima Rawas, peace activist and Vice President ofthe Syrian Arabic League, Syria
Fotini Sianou, President, Women's Committee,European Trade Union Confederation
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a visit to Iraq 3rd - 8th January 2003 includingmeetings with Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, Foreign Minister NagiSabri and Oil Minister Amer Mohammed Rashid, as well as conversationswith ordinary Iraqis in the street and visits to sites.
1. Attitudes of Iraqis today.
We experienced an extraordinary mixture offatalism, faith and defiance in the El-zahrawi tearoom. WatchingSaddam Hussein's Army Day speech on television, we talked with peopleat random,many of whom spoke English. They said that twice now worldopinion has predicted that Iraq would collapse - after the Gulf Warin 1991, and in 1998 when 350 cruise missiles hit the country - andonce again they will survive. Yes, their children are afraid. Yes,the teenagers do not know if it is worth studying seriously or not.No, they will not go to the shelters.
They do not talk so much of US or UK aggressionbut rather of Bush and Blair: until now, they have not resented thepeople of the countries about to bomb them, nor the civilizations,but the leaders.
However that trend seems to be changing with theIraqis increasingly holding the people of the UK and the USresponsible for their countries' policies.
In the words of Dr. Hoda Ammash "People here bearevery respect for western people and western civilization. We respectyour technological advancement, and your values. We know thatwesterners are being given the opportunity to learn about Arabiccivilizations. Yet hatred is being manufactured, by some, to engineera clash of civilizations."
2. Food reserves.
Iraqi households have been given three months'(and now a further two months') food rations in order to get it outof the main storage sites to prevent warehouses being bombed. Thefood distribution programme, according to Denis Halliday (formerAssistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and UN HumanitarianCo-ordinator in Iraq (1997-98),is one of the most efficient inhistory, involving 49,000 food distribution agents and minimizingcorruption through a system whereby if 100 people complain about anagent, he or she is removed. Iraqis are also stock-piling water buthave no suitable large containers. People with gardens are beingasked to dig wells.
Under the UN Oil-for-Food Programme only abouthalf the oil revenues can be used for buying food and othernecessities for the population of the centre and South of thecountry; the rest being used for compensation to Kuwait, food for theIraqi Kurds in the North, and the costs of the UN programme includingthe UNMOVIC weapons inspections.
Halliday concludes: "The twelve year sanctionsregime has become a weapon of mass destruction, built on the massivedamage to civilian infrastructure by US bombing and resulting in thedeaths of over one million people since 1991, over half of whom arechildren."According to UNICEF 25% of Iraqi babies are born weighing 2kgs or less, a key indicator of famine. One million children under 5suffer acute or chronic malnutrition.
3. Shelters.
Everyone we spoke to said they would not use the34 shelters provided for civilians in Baghdad because of the 1991bombing of Al-Amarya shelter when 408 out of 422 women and childrenin the shelter were burned to death.
4. Weapons Inspectors.
Dr. Sami Al-Araji, a nuclear engineer and DirectorGeneral of Planning at the Ministry of Industry, is facilitating thework of the UNMOVIC inspectors. Everywhere we went there was aremarkable willingness to co-operate with the inspections, butpatience is being tested. During our visit there was a routineinspection near the University of Baghdad where there are 6 sciencecentres. The inspectors wanted to investigate one of these, but frozethe entire complex meaning that nearly 3,000 people could not movefor six hours, even though their place of work was not underinspection. This meant that toddlers were left uncollected at nurseryschools. Not even the Iraqi ambassador to the UN, there for a visit,was allowed to leave.
A professor of microbiology at the University ofBaghdad told us that during 1991-98 inspectors re-examined theuniversity every three weeks,searching minutely. "They enter examhalls where students are doing their finals and search under theirchairs." Iraqi people thought the inspections would last 2-3 years,and then they could go back to normal life. It is now 12 years sincethe inspections started, they are more intense than ever, and thereis no end in sight.We visited the al-Dawrah Foot and Mouth VaccineInstitute which was high on the list in the UK Government dossier(published September 2002) of biological weapons sites. Since 1994the site has been inspected 60 times,it has been closed since 1995,when all the equipment was destroyed or removed and there werecameras everywhere connected to the former UNSCOM Monitoring Centrein Baghdad. The place was wrecked.
5. Civil and political rights.
Since Oct 2002, laws and regulations have been orare being revised as follows:
* Amendments to the constitution to allow for amulti-party system.
* Abolition of special 'security violations'courts which had no rights of appeal
* Abolition of laws requiring cutting off hands ofthieves
* Amnesty for political prisoners
* Exiles not linked to intelligence services maynow return to Iraq with the right to criticise thegovernment
* Reduction of fee for exit visa from Iraq from$200 to $10.
6. Oil.
Current Iraqi production is approx 3 millionbarrels per day (current world production approx 77 million) but ithas the second largest reserves in the world. If controls werelifted, and with infrastructure investment, with its immense reservesof easily extractable oil Iraq has the potential to supply 10% of theworld's oil needs, and to continue to do so for at least a century(since less than 1% of reserves are being used up each year). Iraqisare very conscious of the energy needs of the western economies - theUS has to import 60% of its oil needs - and know that the main reasonfor military invasion is to gain control of its vast reserves ofoil.
Iraqi ministers fear that if the US were tocontrol Iraq's oil production, it would manipulate the economies notonly of the Far East, but also of Europe. Iraq takes a long-termview, wants a stable oil price, and would like to adopt normaltrading relations rather than be subject to crises, threats andmanipulation.
7. Depleted Uranium (DU).
Water-borne and air-borne dust from DU shells,used by the US and the UK in the 1991 Gulf war, is spreading overvast areas of Iraq but the government has no way of detecting thedirection of the spread because airborne radiation sensing equipmentis prohibited.
People are developing cancers by consuming meatand milk from animals grazing in polluted areas. Cancers of all kindsare increasing dramatically in Iraq particularly amongst women withbreast cancer and leukaemia. Members of our delegation have visitedhospitals in Iraq since 1991 and observed that current conditions inthe hospitals have worsened.
Equipment needed for treatment lies idle becausethe computerized controls have been removed due to sanctions. Thereis one nurse for every 16 beds where previously there was one forevery two beds. Every child has a mother or grandmother giving fulltime care. Omar, three years old has a plastino plastoma*, whichattacks kidneys and then destroys the brain and nervous system: hishead is enlarged to twice normal size, his face swollenunrecognizably out of shape and his eyes blind. His mother sits withhim like a madonna, waiting for her child to die. Tiny Aia('Miracle') was born with a second head, a brain sack attached to theback of her own head, a condition known as meningoceal* and not seenin Iraq before the mid-1990s.
Dr. Ahmed Fadeh of the Baghdad Children's Hospitaltold me there are unlimited cases he simply can't treat because hisequipment is worn out or lacks spares, and he has not got the drugsor even the suture thread that he needs because of sanctions.*thiswas told to us phonetically in a hurry, we are not sure of thecorrect spelling.
8. Implications for the future.
This visit was a shock treatment in learning whatit feels like to be an Iraqi. This is an ancient people with acivilization 7000 years old (Iraqis point out that the United Statesis barely 300 years old), an economy that until the 1980s was a modelfor the entire Middle East, and with a free health service that wasahead of the National Health Service in the UK.
The streets are now rubble-strewn, most of themiddle class have left, and people are selling their household goodson street corners in order to survive. The currency has devalued 6000(six thousand) % in 20 years; in 1981 one dinar bought three USdollars, today one US dollar buys about 2000 dinars. To pay a modesthotel bill for 6 days, you need a pile of dinar notes two metershigh.
Twelve years of sanctions, which were intended tomake the Iraqi people revolt against their leadership, have had theopposite effect giving Saddam Hussein total control over his peoplethrough food rationing. Sanctions have simply disabled Iraqi peoplethrough hunger and the wholesale disintegration of theirinfrastructure.
Rather than rebel against Saddam Hussein, theyfeel defiance towards Bush and Blair which their leader canconstantly reinforce, since their sense of honour is continuouslyprovoked. The humiliation is very deep and very dangerous. In thesecircumstances a war and subsequent occupation of Iraq will no doubtfuel the fires of hatred and terror, and consequently the risk ofattacks on the West.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Time is short. The UNMOVIC inspectors are due toreport on 27th January 2003. Military preparations indicate that anattack may begin in early February.
A pre-emptive attack will be a clear-cut violationof the UN Charter and international law.
Medical and public health experts in the UKestimate that between 48,000 and 260,000 civilians could be killed inthe first 3 months of conflict, and that if WMD are used, there couldbe up to 4 million dead.
What can be done to move towards a genuinesolution of this conflict other than war andoccupation:
1.The free press and NGOs must speedily step uptheir analysis and reporting to challenge disinformation about therealities in Iraq. Please distribute this report to all your mediacontacts.
2. Whenever you hear a news broadcast on Iraqwhich does not mention something about ordinary people, call them toask for some human interest stories. Iraq is not one man, it is 26million fellow citizens. They have points of views, hopes, fears anddreams like all of us.
3. The European Union has a substantial potentialrole to play. A consistent well-structured mediation process could beoffered, either through key Arab states, or in the form of a meetingbetween the most senior representatives of the United States and ofIraq to 'explore whether all avenues short of war have beenexhausted'. This meeting would need to be announced before 27thJanuary, perhaps to take place mid-February. It would need to takeplace in a very safe environment and employ state-of-the-art conflictresolution techniques. These moves could be supported by France andby Germany in their chairmanship of the UN Security Council inJanuary and February 2003 respectively.
Urge your EU government to support such aninitiative, and copy your letter to Prime Minister Costas Simitis ofGreece, 15 Vassilissis Sofias Avenue, 10674 Athens, which has thecurrent presidency of the European Union.
5. Call your foreign office to ask it you have anembassy in Baghdad.Many governments do not have any representationand thus cannot collect first hand facts and impressions on which tobase an independent analysis. Neither Britain nor the US has anembassy in Baghdad, and communications have to go through the Polishembassy.
6. Ask your parliamentary committee for foreignaffairs whether they have visited Iraq to see for themselves and ifnot, why not. Ask them to talk to Iraqi people at alllevels.
7. Make it known that the 12-year sanctions regimehas had the opposite effect to that intended; it has put SaddamHussein in total control of the Iraqi people, through the rationingprogramme.
8. Prime ministers and presidents worldwide needto understand the strength and urgency of public opposition to thisproposed attack, so that they will actively support mediation ratherthan allowing themselves to be bribed or bullied into supporting anattack.
9. Urge your government to support the developmentof a new security regime for the whole region, honouring UN SCResolution 687 requiring that the Middle East shall become a zonefree of weapons of mass destruction.
may all be withoutdisease
may all be without misery ofany kind
Copyright 2003 West Art, Prometheus86/2003