Changing a morally intolerable policy

Since the end of the conflict, the ecumenical community has continued to address the issue of appropriate US policy. Although the imposition of sanctions against Iraq was supported initially as a means to secure the removal of Iraq’s military forces from Kuwait, the ecumenical community immediately raised concerns about the impact that ongoing sanctions had, and continue to have, on the Iraqi people. In early resolutions on this situation, the National Council of the Churches of Christ, Executive Board noted that, although it was supportive of the UN Security Council’s call for the application of economic sanctions against Iraq, ‘we believe that essential foodstuffs and medical supplies should not be included in the embargo against Iraq.’ By 1992, US church leaders were calling for the substantive modification or removal of -the economic sanctions because of the impact the sanctions were having on the most vulnerable members of Iraqi society.

From the outset, the humanitarian dimensions of the situation have been of paramount concern to the ecumenical community. Responding to hundreds of thousands of refugees - mostly expatriate workers who fled Kuwait and Iraq - was one of our initial concerns. Since that time, through our humanitarian relief work with the Middle East Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Relief Service, through ecumenical delegations to the region, and from ecumenical staff who continue to serve programs based in Iraq, we have remained acutely aware of the impact of the economic sanctions, and of the severe deterioration they have wrought on the social and economic conditions of the civilian population of Iraq.

Over the last decade, Church World Service and Witness has responded directly to that need by providing millions of dollars worth of food, bedding, medical, supplies and medicine. This assistance has helped to mitigate some of the damage caused, but the statistics are still startling - in its 1998 statement, the World Council of Churches estimated that in the previous seven years over a million persons, 60% of them children under five years of age, had died. Under United Nations control, an ‘Oil for Food’ programme has been established, but only half the proceeds are designated to meet humanitarian needs of Iraqi people, while the rest is designated for war reparations and to pay for UN work.

But this knowledge that we have is not generally known. The average citizen probably hears about violence in US schools, or even about the global AIDS crisis on a daily basis, but may not hear mention of Iraq for months. And if it is discussed in the media, nine times out of ten I would guess that the coverage is regarding continued concerns about Iraqi compliance with UN resolutions demanding the termination of its programs to develop weapons of mass destruction.

One wouldn’t know it from the US media, but the US government stands virtually alone now in maintaining a policy that most other countries have long since realised no long serves a clear purpose and is too costly in human lives and suffering. That this situation exists is due, at least in part, to the lack of access to complete information on the part of the US public. If they were given complete information, a goodly portion of the US populace would recognise that the present policy is morally intolerable and politically short-sighted and demand immediate change.

From the welcome statement by The Rev. John L McCullough Executive Director Church World Service, The Interchurch Center, NYC, USA