Voices in the wilderness

Since the end of the Cold War, the United States which has assumed for itself the role of the global policeman has been often accused of using the United Nations as an extension of its foreign policy department. Now there is fresh proof. On January 6, the Washington Post reported the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan has gathered evidence to show that U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq had been evesdropping, collecting sensitive information that the U.S. needs to get rid of President Saddam Hussein. “The secretary-general has become aware of the fact that UNSCOM directly facilitated the creation of an intelligence collection system for the U.S. in violation of its mandate, said an Annan advisor. “The UN cannot be party to an operation to overthrow one of its member states. In the most fundamental way, that’s what’s wrong with the UNSCOM (UN Special Commission) operation”.

Tim Weiner, reported in the January 9 edition of the Calcutta–based, The Telegraph: “In March, in a last-ditch attempt to uncover Saddam Hussein’s covert weapons and intelligence networks, the United States used the UN inspection team to send a US spy into Baghdad to install a highly sophisticated electronic evesdropping system. The spy entered Iraq in the guise of a U.S. weapons inspector and left the evesdropping system behind. For 10 months, the device let the US and a select elite within the UN inspection team monitor the cell phones, walkie-talkies and other communications instruments used by the military and intelligence officers who protect Saddam and conceal Iraq’s weapons”. 

This exposing of the illicit affair between US intelligence agents and inspectors of UNSCOM, which is meant to be an independent UN body, is as glaring an instance as any of how the US administration treats the UN as an apparatus in its foreign policy. Responding to the furore that this shocking revelation created, the US claimed its intelligence agents merely “helped UN hunt for Iraqi weapons”. Admitting that in the process they gained information that “assisted US military planners”, they denied that the Americans who sneaked into Iraq on false identity were acting as spies for their country.

The unilateral decision of the US and the UK to bomb Iraq last month becomes all the more questionable in the light of the latest revelations. In view of this, we are reproducing for the benefit of our readers, some documents and appeals put out on the Internet by some conscientious objectors in the US and in Canada.

Statement on the bombing of Iraq by the International Action Center (IAC), USA
Wed, 16, Dec. 1998: 
Why We Are Demonstrating Against a New Bombing War on Iraq:
A US bombing of Iraq is a violation of international law and of the UN charter.The Clinton administration and Pentagon assert that Iraq is not providing unfettered access to UN weapons inspectors. This is a carefully constructed pretext to carry out murderous new aggression against a basically defenseless Third World country.
A new bombing now of Iraq must be seen in the context of the US government’s destabilization plans to overthrow the Iraqi government. What does the US seek? A government in Iraq that ‘respects human rights?’ Hardly! The US wants to install a puppet regime in Iraq that will serve as a client for US corporate and military interests in the strategic and lucrative oil–rich region. 

The US motives in overthrowing the Iraqi government are about the same as they were when the US CIA ousted the Chilean government of Salvador Allende in 1973, replacing it with the fascist puppet government of Augusto Pinochet. It is about the same as the US CIA subversion of the Arbenz government in Guatemala in 1954 after that government had nationalized US–owned United Fruit Company plantations. The US government had pursued a similar strategy and used similar tactics to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Dr. Mohammed Mossedegh in Iran in 1953 after Mossedegh nationalized Western oil interests. In that case, the CIA brought the Shah of Iran to power and used that bloody monarch as its proxy in the Persian Gulf region. 

The US govern-ment always seeks to demonize the targets of its aggression. In the case of the Middle East, this has meant a large dose of anti-Arab racism. 

People in the US were mortified when a single bomb was detonated by a right–wing terrorist in Oklahoma City. Today, the same politicians and media personalities who tearfully reported the Oklahoma City bombing story on April 19, 1995, blandly support the bombing of Iraqi cities where millions of human beings live.

When does the bombing of civilians and cities cease to be considered a terrorist act? Is it when Iraqis die? Is it really legal or justifiable in any sense, for the Pentagon to arrogate to itself the right to bomb people in the Third World?
Clinton would much rather have the nightly news focus on the bombing of Iraqis rather than on his own impeachment hearing. But the attack on Iraq should not be considered a partisan maneuver designed simply to divert attention from his domestic crisis. The bombing of Iraq has bipartisan support from the Democrats and Republicans, and of course the joint chiefs of staff. The imperialist establishment is united on the need to dominate and control the Persian Gulf region and to install a puppet government.

Instead of spending $50 billion each year on the US military domination of the Persian Gulf region, funds should be spent to provide health care for the 43 million people who are without benefits for education, housing, healthcare, and jobs. 

International Action Center
December 20, 1998
(The message below addressed to the UN General Assembly was drafted by former US attorney general Ramsey Clark, the founder of the International Action Center. This letter can be the basis of an important international campaign urging a resolution in the UN General Assembly. We urge you to help to circulate this letter and to encourage many countries to take this up in the General Assembly)

To the General Assembly of the United Nations:
The United Nations General Assembly must seize this moment to condemn the US missile attack and bombardment of Iraq, to prohibit any further attacks, to compel compensation for deaths, injuries and damages inflicted, to end the genocidal economic sanctions against Iraq and to prohibit any future use of such sanctions.

Each nation has a duty in law and to common decency to aid Iraq with food, medicines and the means to rebuild its cities and society by condemning and ignoring the sanctions and aiding its victims.

No nation on earth will be sovereign while the United States with its overwhelming military capacity for destruction and its enormous economic power to control the flow of foods, medicines, capital and material necessities of life remains unrestrained from assaulting chosen enemies and impoverishing their people.

Act now to stop the United States directly and to prevent the US from making NATO its private enforcer, by–passing the United Nations and using rich and powerful Caucasian, Christian North Atlantic, high–tech military power against the masses of the poor in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America.
Sincerely,

Ramsey Clark
International Action Center 
39 West 14 Street, Room 206
New York, NY 10011
email: [email protected]
http://www.iacenter.org
http://www.iacenter.org /iraqchallenge/
phone: (212) 633-6646
fax: (212) 633-2889
Statement issued by the US group, Voices in the Wilderness

 

The International Action Center and the Voices in the Wilderness group have compiled a list of facts pertaining to Iraq — the effect of sanctions, the gulf war and the motivation for the recent bombings: n More than 1.6 million innocent human beings have died, 567,000 of them children, as a direct consequence of the sanctions in the last eight years. 6,000 Iraqis, over 4,500 of which are children under the age of five, die each month. n The food rationing system provides less than 60% of the required daily calorie intake, the water and sanitation systems are in a state of collapse, and there is a critical shortage of life–saving drugs. n As many as 12 per cent of the children surveyed in Baghdad are handicapped for life, 28 per cent stunted in growth. n There are more than 1.5 million orphans in Iraq. Up to 95 per cent of all pregnant women in Iraq suffer from anemia, and thus will give birth to weak, malnutritioned infants. Most of these infants will either die before reaching the age of 5 due to the lack of food and basic medicines, or will be permanently scarred. n Environmental Impacts: more than 500 tons of highly toxic and radioactive depleted uranium (DU) were fired into the environment. Upon impact, more than 70per cent of the uranium oxidizes into a fine aerosol mist which can be readily inhaled into the lungs contaminating the food and water supply and potentially resulting in numerous immune system related diseases, cancers, congenital deformities, leukemia and renal and hepatic dysfunction which are occurring throughout Iraq and among US, UK and other Allied soldiers. n No "non–compliance" by Iraq provides legal justification for this unilateral strike. But was Iraq in noncompliance? Since November 17, 1998, when Iraq allowed weapons inspections to resume, there have been 427 inspections, 128 of them at new sites, and UNSCOM has cited only five so-called obstructions. One was a 45–minute delay before allowing access. Another was a rebuff to an outrageous demand that inspectors be allowed to interview all of the undergraduate students in Baghdad University’s science department. Another, on December 9, was the inspection of a small headquarters of the Baathist political party. Inspectors left those premises after they were asked what the relation was between the small headquarters of a party and the disarmament mission. The last two cases: UNSCOM asked to inspect two establishments on Fridays—the Muslim holy day. The Iraqis told UNSCOM that since these establishments were not open on Friday, the inspectors could visit the establishments, but they would need to be accompanied by Iraqi officials. This is in accordance with the agreement between Iraq and UNSCOM about Friday inspections. These five incidents are the supposed legal basis for raining thousands of powerful missiles into Iraq. n Sanctions on Iraq have been maintained for eight long years, based exclusively on the reports of UNSCOM that their work is not yet done. That after 9,000 weapons inspections UNSCOM "still has reason to believe that Iraq is hiding its weapons of mass destruction". This whole effort has now been exposed. It is really a spy operation and the real goal is to replace the current government with a puppet government in a country that contains 10 percent of the world’s known oil reserves. n Casualties in the Gulf War: 100,000 soldiers and up to 150,000 civilians. n The overall US war plan was described by Gellman in the June 23, 1991 Washington Post in which one Pentagon planner was quoted as saying: "What we were doing with the attacks on the infrastructure was to accelerate the effect of sanctions." The US will only relent when mass pressure in the Middle East and inside the United States make the continuations of sanctions politically undesirable for the political establishment. It is the obligation of all people of conscience, of all anti–racist and anti–imperialist fighters to intensify the solidarity actions with the Iraqi people. This struggle is far from over. (Sources: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization–FAO, UNICEF).

International Laws to which the USA and UK are signatory: CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS, Article 23. All members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice are not endangered. PROTOCOL TO THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS, 1977 Chapter III. Civilian Objects Article 54. Protection of Objects Indispensable to the Survival of the Civilian Population 1. Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited. 2. It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies, and irrigation works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population, or to the adverse Party, whatever the motive, whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or for any other motive.

December 20, 1998
Members of the 19th Voices in the Wilderness delegation welcome the news that President Clinton has ceased the bombing of Iraq. Yet we know that the silent warfare will continue through economic sanctions.
Our itinerary will be as follows:

December 22: Ministry of trade building. We will hold a press conference at the ministry of trade to announce that we continue to publicly defy US laws regarding the embargo as we have in 18 previous delegations travelling to Iraq and bringing medicines to children and families. On December 3, Voices in the Wilderness received a letter from the US treasury department proposing a $163,000 fine for delivering “medicines and toys” to children in Iraq. We will explain our refusal to pay any penalties, as all donations to our campaign are intended for the purchase of medicines and to assist with efforts to end the embargo against Iraq. We will invite members of the US government and other governments to join us in our effort to alleviate the suffering by ending the embargo. 

The time has come for people throughout the world and governments of the world to act in spite of the US veto in the UN Security Council, and to begin free trade and travel with Iraq and to resume buying Iraq’s oil so that Iraqi families can feed themselves and care for their urgent physical and medical needs.

We will symbolically declare an end to the embargo by purchasing a small amount of Iraqi oil, which will be used to light a small lamp. This act will demonstrate our determination to “shed light” on the suffering caused by the embargo, and our continued commitment to work with others worldwide to avoid further destruction and to reinstate free trade and travel with Iraq. 

23 December: We will display a large banner bearing our logo of a woman crouching over her child to protect the infant from a weapon labeled “sanctions” at a primary and secondary school in Baghdad asking the students to help us understand what they have experienced this past week.

24 December: Christmas Eve Vigil. At 12 noon, we will hold a press conference in the maternity ward of a hospital damaged by the recent bombing. In the US, people will be preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus, revered as the Prince of Peace. We will erect a nativity scene by setting up a tent and a Star of Bethlehem at the site where children were born into the world under bombardment.

Voices in the Wilderness
1460 West Carmen Ave. Chicago, 
IL 60640. Ph:773-784-8065; fax: 773-784-8837. email: [email protected] 
website: 
http://www.nonviolence.org/vitw