Sanctioned slow death of a country

As we have just been reminded of 9/11 in New York, and the Twin Towers and Ground Zero are spoken of in hallowed terms, those who are concerned with humanity rather than oil politics and Islamic fundamentalism should also take some time off to remember the Amariyah Shelter in Baghdad in which around 1,100 women and children were incinerated by American rockets with British support during the Gulf War in 1991. The water in the water storage tanks had heated upto 4,000 degrees and literally boiled those sheltered there.

The British had justified the attack calling it a military base and then a command and control centre. They finally said that Iraqi leaders had been hiding there. When CNN and others exposed the lies, the US Government finally intervened to apologise. Even today, a large number of grieving family members go to place flowers before photographs of those who died there, as is being done for the victims of 9/11. The real humanitarian gesture would be for each also to grieve for the other, but we have an increasingly frustrated and macho Bush turning the world8217;s attention to Iraq because he cannot find Osama bin Laden.

The world must look at Iraq and take note that the ruling Baath Party has thousands of women as members who have the freedom to make speeches, sing, raise slogans and protest with great fervour and confidence in support of the sovereignty of their nation and the need to end the cruel embargo that has seen over a million children dying of leukemia, congenital defects, diahorrea, and lack of medicines to treat routine diseases. They see schools where young children receive free education and sing patriotic songs amidst the slush and garbage that piles up on the streets as the city slowly dies.

Mothers grieve as their children grow up intellectually barren with no access to computers, the internet or educational journals to keep them up to date with scientific, medical, and other technological developments worldwide. Television beams only speeches by Saddam Hussain and other local dignitaries apart from some old films because there are no international satellites. Ph.D holders work as motor mechanics trying to keep the collapsing fleet of local taxis going.

Those who obtain admission to Western universities are usually denied visas by the concerned embassies on some pretext. Doctors work in overcrowded hospitals for wages equal to the price of an egg. United Nations representatives who speak out about rising infant and child mortality are soon recalled while international agencies which had earlier funded major energy and environment projects find their hands tied by the embargo. Britain goes deaf whenever lone voices like Labour Party MP George Galloway speak about the suffering of Iraq8217;s women and children.

At a women8217;s conference in 1999 that was attended by delegates from 30 countries, one woman had said, 8216;8216;Sanctions are the way of abusing nations by pushing it behind the closed doors of homes.8221; Women had to cover their heads with pink scarves only after a local fundamentalist group demanded it, but otherwise, the Baath Party encourages them to be creative, innovative and politically active in a manner not seen in many regimes. They discussed esoteric subjects from the use of the Cuniform script by Arab women a thousand years ago to modern problems of sanitation because of the destruction of the sewage system.

The political question most avidly discussed at this conference was, to what extent could a people be made to give up their sovereignty. They condemned the manner in which UN weapon inspectors had visited 400 sites and found problems in only four but ruled out lifting sanctions 8216;8216;just like failing a student who had got 90 marks8217;8217;.

The women approved of the Iraqi government8217;s position that the terms for inspections must be reasonable, time-bound and fair, even if stringent. But sanctions stayed in place even if any one person in the Monitoring Committee stated that Iraq had not fully co-operated, thereby 8216;8216;allowing one persons whims to dictate the fate of three million people8217;8217;, said one delegate. They felt deceived by the rules of the game being constantly changed by those who bullied the United Nations into following a certain line.

Many asked who would compensate for the loss of their children8217;s lives and the loss of a culture, crafts, architecture, music and other such traditions that were withering away because the people felt embattled. 8216;8216;How can an entire culture and its development be throttled as a punishment?8217;8217; they argued. 8216;8216;Every war lasts a limited time but the regime of sanctions was a one-sided and endless war.8217;8217;

Echoes of this conference can be heard even today. If the world listened to them, the era of sanctions can end and a time-bound and fair method of inspection be put in place peacefully. Then the tenacious bid by women like Amal Al-Khedairy to preserve the great civilisational and cultural features of Iraq will have been worthwhile.

The writer is a Samata Party leader