DISSENTING VOICE.

AN INTERVIEW WITH DENIS HALLIDAY, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS

At the end of 1998 Denis Halliday resigned from the United Nations as Assistant Secretary-General, after a thirty-four year career. His departure was prompted by the Security Council's continued program of economic sanctions against Iraq; a program that Halliday describes as `a genocidal act'.

At the time of his resignation, Halliday was the UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Iraq. He takes care to get his former job title right, politely pointing out that he was not Co-ordinator for Humanitarian Relief. `Relief' is not a word we use, because relief implies assistance. And there was no assistance.

The combination of ten years of sanctions and the absence of humanitarian relief have ensured the devastation of Iraq.

The impact is horrendous. Today in Iraq you have a very high child mortality rate -- 131 over 1000 live births. The comparable figure in Australia is about 5 or 6 over 1000 live births. One in seven children die before the age of five due to other food or nutritional problems; or waterborne disease problems such as diarrhoea or dehydration; or lack of immunity to simple childhood diseases, because mothers are malnourished and unable to breastfeed. The healthcare system itself is badly damaged and doctors must make decisions about whether to treat three people or one, knowing that if three are treated they will all die, because they never have enough resources to deal with all the cases.

Halliday continues:

Then you've got huge malnutrition problems. There is acute malnutrition which often leads to death; and you have chronic malnutrition in young children, which if sustained for two or three years, leads to permanent physical and/or mental damage. We have created a whole generation of young Iraqis who are never going to be `complete'.

Such statistics were unheard of in Iraq prior to the imposition of sanctions. As a wealthy oil state it had high standards of public health and education, and a growing professional class. Yet its dependence on wealth derived from oil exports, in addition to the destruction wrought by eight years of war with Iran, made it extremely vulnerable to the effects of sanctions. As Halliday explains:

At the time of the first sanctions regime of 1990, Iraq imported some 70 per cent of its foodstuffs. The agricultural sector and health sector, likewise, imported all the basics: basic drugs, fertilisers, pesticides. All of this stopped overnight, so to speak. That's a condition for famine in a very short space of time.

In addition to a lack of infrastructure, food and basic medicines, the health crisis in Iraq has been compounded by the toxic fallout from the Gulf War; specifically, exposure to depleted uranium (DU) used by the United States and the British forces. Halliday estimates some 340 tonnes of DU were used during the slaughter in Iraq, in breach of the Geneva Convention and protocols on warfare.

The Iraqis who have been exposed to DU have paid a staggering price. There is a surgeon in a hospital in Basra, a member of the British Royal College of Physicians, who believes that over 40 per cent of the population living in the south -- in the Basra area -- will develop cancer in their lives.

The contamination of water supplies, earth and air by DU has also resulted in the birth of an increasing number of deformed Iraqi children. Halliday claims that similar health problems have been found in US, British and Australian service people exposed to DU during service in the Gulf. `I believe of 1400 Australian veterans, over 200 are ill today', he says. `And as in the United States, the government is not taking any responsibility for them. In the States, you have American kids born deformed because their fathers were exposed to DU.'

Beyond the destruction of infrastructure, acute and chronic malnutrition, and other health problems -- as catastrophic as these are -- Halliday draws attention to other, less immediately obvious consequences of the sanctions. Their social impact has been no less devastating, with massive increases in family breakdowns, and in the numbers of children taken out of school to beg, steal or prostitute themselves.

Rising inflation and the devaluation of the currency as a result of the sanctions have halted social and economic progress. Halliday highlights this point with the example of women, particularly women in professional employment, who under Ba'ath Party rule had begun to prosper, but now find their salaries worthless. `Young people who are educated are without expectations, without hope, without jobs.'

The frustration and disillusion of these people will have political consequences, not only for United Nations operations within Iraq, but more broadly. Halliday likens the present situation in Iraq to that of post-World War One Germany:

We are pushing Iraq into a fundamentalist, rightist political situation, rather as happened after the First World War through the Versailles Treaty with Germany, which led to the rise of fascism in Europe.

There are young, angry men and women -- members of the Ba'ath Party -- who are frustrated with a lack of future opportunities, frustrated with the United Nations and frustrated with their own government -- because they feel that the leadership has compromised too often. Saddam seems too moderate because he has backed down repeatedly at the request of the United Nations for [weapons] inspections and so on. They're ready for something a bit more dramatic. This is going to be a real problem for the future, because these people are the future of Iraq.

More immediately, there are consequences for peace in the Middle East. Halliday puts it bluntly: `To think of Middle East peace without Iraq is rubbish.'

The sanctions have had little or no impact in terms of weakening the Iraqi regime. Halliday argues that the United States and United Kingdom, through their manipulation of the UN Security Council have actually strengthened the Iraqi dictatorship, by diminishing the population's capacities to resist. The sanctions, moreover, have actually created a situation of dependence. As Halliday explains:

In Iraq, we have what's known as the Oil for Food program, which allows Iraq to sell a certain amount of oil. The revenue goes to the United Nations. Through a contracting process, the government is allowed to import certain foodstuffs, medicines and drugs, which are then paid for by the United Nations from this account. This of course makes for even more dependency of the people on the government, because this is what they live on.

The chronic shortage of resources in Iraq means that the little aid that does get through as a result of this program is used for currency. People use food either to get money or to barter for shoes or clothes for their children. So they are not even getting the calorific intake that this program is supposed to provide.

Given the obvious futility of sanctions, Halliday harbours no doubts regarding their political logic. He dismisses the suggestion of UK and US officials that they are part of continuing efforts to disarm Iraq. The Australian former UN Weapons Inspector Richard Butler, he claims, has conceded publicly that if the disarmament program `was a five-lap race, the Iraqis have actually run four and three quarters laps'. All that is left of Iraq's weapons program `are research papers, documentation, files -- and of course, Iraqi scientists. Unless you are going to take them out and shoot them all, what are you going to do?'

The sanctions are being continued because they [the US and the UK] want to suppress Iraq. They do not want reasonable leadership in Iraq -- they don't trust Iraq. They are afraid that Iraq will undermine their best interest -- i.e. access to oil. And they certainly don't trust Saddam Hussein, who off course, ironically, was their ally. He fought the Ayatollah Khomeini on their behalf. They gave him military intelligence, they gave him chemical weapons. The US sold him the biological capability. So, for the US to now say that they can't deal with this guy is unacceptable.

Keeping the regime of economic sanctions in place is also necessary justification for maintaining the highlevel US military presence in the region. Although formal hostilities against Iraq ceased in 1991 Halliday says that the bombing of Iraq continues on an `almost daily' basis, in the so-called no-fly zones which cover 75 per cent of the country. `Of course the Iraqis shoot back, which is their right as a sovereign state', he says. `The US lock Iraqi sites in on radar, and go in and blow the hell out of them. They bomb at will. Of course, they kill civilians -- they terrorise the population.'

The pettiness and vindictiveness that surround the application of the economic sanctions add weight to Halliday's assessment. He cites cases in which non-governmental organisations in the United States supplying medical aid and toys to Iraqi children have been indicted by the US Attorney General and threatened with twelve-year prison sentences and fines of over a million dollars, in addition to the $160,000 that they have already paid. In Australia, the Medical Association for the Prevention of War has broken the sanctions regime, illegally taking in medicines. They could be prosecuted for doing so, although thus far the Australian Government has chosen not to.

Whilst in Australia, Halliday met with Federal Members of Parliament, including the Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. Although a number of MPs expressed a concern to see Australia adopt a different stance to that of Washington, which, in Halliday's view, it `follows slavishly to the point of embarrassment', it was not backed up by political will. Meanwhile, he says, `the Howard Government as represented by Mr Downer is perfectly happy with the Washington position'.

The continued use of sanctions against Iraq will inevitably have implications for the future legitimacy of United Nations operations. At present, the United Kingdom and the United States are the only members of the Security Council to support the continuation of sanctions against Iraq. The other members abstain, thereby allowing the sanctions and their genocidal consequences to continue.

Not surprisingly, Halliday is concerned about the US domination of the Security Council, the damage that is being done to the UN's credibility and its capacity to realise in practice the principles upon which it was formed.

The US use the UN for their own ends. If it suits, they use it, if it doesn't suit, they use something else, like they did NATO. They have manipulated and corrupted the Security Council, putting tremendous pressure on other countries to go along, or at least, at worst, abstain [from actively opposing sanctions]. And they get away with this kind of abuse of their position within the Security Council.

Such action undermines and threatens the [UN] Charter itself, which calls for high standards of behaviour.... Article 25 was very specific on the fundamental human rights. These human rights have been demolished by the economic and social sanctions regime by the Security Council. Likewise the Geneva Conventions, the Rights of the Child, the Rights of Women, Economic and Social Rights -- destroyed, undermined, diminshed by the Security Council itself.

In the long term, Halliday argues that the United Nations needs to be reformed to make it more democratic, and to get involved in crises instead of waiting for a war and then sending in peace-keepers. `Even the invasion of Kuwait could have been anticipated', he says.

More immediately, Halliday proposes a carrot and stick approach to address the situation in Iraq: an end to economic sanctions and the resumption of oil exports, along with a continued program of inspections and military sanctions. In addition, he calls for massive capital investment in Iraq -- around $100 billion -- to rebuild the economy. He concedes that it is a messy solution and `probably illegal', but believes it is the best option in the current circumstances.

Background information
http://dfg-vk.de/english/book60.htm
http://oneworld.org/ni/issue316/contents.htm

Updates
http://fullcoverage.yahoo.com/fc/world/iraq
http://www.geocities.com/iraqinfo/

`Report of the Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility Delegation to Iraq', March/April 1999 http://wpsr.org/mideast/

With thanks to Mark Zirnsak.

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