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Introduction





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Appendix




The Role of the International Community

United Nations

Policy toward Iraq continued to cause divisions within the Security Council and the international community generally, exacerbated by mounting evidence that U.N. sanctions were having a devastating humanitarian impact in Iraq. As evidence of this, the Security Council was able to adopt Resolution 1284 on December 17, 1999, only after three permanent members, France, China, and Russia agreed to abstain. The resolution established, as a subsidiary body to the council, the U.N. Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) to carry out weapons inspections in Iraq authorized by Resolution 687 (1991). Its predecessor, UNSCOM, was disbanded following the withdrawal of its staff from Iraq in December 1998. The resolution proposed the suspension of sanctions for a 120-day period, renewable by the council, made contingent upon Iraq's cooperation with UNMOVIC. It also removed the dollar ceiling on Iraqi oil exports, allowing increased funding of the "oil-for-food" humanitarian relief program authorized under Resolution 986 (1995). However, it did not incorporate fully the March 1999 recommendations of the council's "humanitarian panel" addressing Iraq's urgent humanitarian needs, notably the infrastructure planning and investment required to meet basic civilian needs. Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, condemned the resolution and said that no weapons inspectors would be permitted into the country.

On February 14, the Secretary-General appointed Yuli Vorontsov as high-level coordinator for the return of missing property and missing persons from Iraq to Kuwait, as required by Resolution 1284. An estimated 605 Kuwaiti and third-country nationals remained unaccounted for since the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait in February 1991.

On June 8, the Security Council adopted Resolution 1302, extending the "oil-for-food" program for a further six months, introducing accelerated procedures for the approval of water and sanitation equipment, and instructing the secretary-general to appoint independent experts to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the humanitarian situation in Iraq. In his September 8 report to the Security Council on the operation of the "oil-for-food" program, the secretary-general reported that the Iraqi government had refused to issue visas to the experts he had appointed. It also refused to discuss how a "cash component" to the "oil-for-food" program could allow U.N.-controlled funds to be used to purchase locally produced goods and services. The report also cited serious problems stemming from protracted holds by the Security Council's sanctions committee on key infrastructure repair items affecting public health, emphasizing that humanitarian relief alone cannot address the overall impoverishment of ordinary people.

U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq Hans von Sponeck left Iraq on March 31 after resigning in protest at the effect of sanctions on the Iraqi population, and was succeeded by Tun Myat. On August 15, Benon Sevan, executive director of the U.N. Office of the Iraq Program (OIP), urged the Security Council to adopt a "fresh approach and more flexibility" following a 17-day visit to Iraq.

In a resolution adopted on December 17, 1999, the General Assembly strongly condemned Iraq's human rights record, including widespread and systematic torture, summary and arbitrary executions, widespread use of the death penalty, and "the suppression of freedom of thought, expression, information, association, assembly and movement." It called on the government to "cease its repressive practices" and to "bring the actions of its military and security forces into conformity with the standards of international law." It also urged cooperation with U.N. human rights mechanisms, "in particular by receiving a return visit by the Special Rapporteur to Iraq."

In November 1999, Max van der Stoel, special rapporteur on Iraq since 1991, resigned. He was succeeded by Andreas Mavrommatis, who said in a preliminary report to the Commission on Human Rights in March that he had received numerous communications alleging human rights violations by the Iraqi government, including arbitrary detentions, executions, torture, "disappearances," and discrimination against religious and other minorities. While expressing concern about the grave humanitarian situation in Iraq, the special rapporteur also noted that serious violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms could not be justified under any circumstances. He added that he had made a formal request to the government to visit Iraq to "study, in situ, the human rights situation." The special rapporteur's mandate was extended for a further year in a resolution passed on April 18, in which the commission strongly condemned the "systematic, widespread and extremely grave violations of human rights and of international humanitarian law" in Iraq. It urged the government to abide by its international legal obligations and to cooperate with the U.N. human rights mechanisms, including by granting the special rapporteur access to the country. In a report to the General Assembly, issued in August, the special rapporteur presented additional information he had received about human rights abuses in Iraq, including arbitrary arrests, torture, and the harrassment of political opponents. By October, the special rapporteur had not been invited to visit Iraq.

On August 18, the U.N. Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights adopted a resolution calling on the Security Council to lift the embargo provisions affecting the humanitarian situation of the population of Iraq. The resolution also appealed to all governments, including that of Iraq, to alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi population, in particular by facilitating the delivery of food and medical supplies to meet their basic needs.

On June 14, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women considered Iraq's combined second and third periodic reports submitted under article 18 of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. The committee noted that the advancement of women and their socio-economic well-being had been adversely affected by the ongoing sanctions, but stressed Iraq's obligations under the convention to implement the relevant anti-discriminatory measures. The committee criticized, among other things, discrimination against women under Iraq's nationality law and violence against women perpetrated through honor killings.

European Union

The E.U. remained the largest donor of humanitarian aid to Iraq, with 8.6 million euros allocated for the year through the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO). It was intended to fund operations in central and southern Iraq run by U.N. specialized agencies and NGOs related to health care, water and sanitation, food, and education

The European Parliament, in a January 20 resolution, criticized Iraq for failing to clarify the cases of 605 Kuwaiti and third-country nationals taken prisoner during Iraq's occupation of Kuwait, calling for their immediate release and for the names of those who may have died in captivity to be revealed; demanding a review of all cases submitted through the ICRC over the past six years; and urging Iraq to resume participation in meetings of the Tripartite Commission, which was set up in April 1991 under ICRC chairmanship to ascertain the fate of missing military personnel and civilians after the 1991 Gulf War. In an April 13 resolution, the parliament observed that "sanctions are penalizing the civilian population but, in nine years, have not succeeded in weakening the Iraqi regime," and called on the E.U. to take action to ensure that the Security Council "clarifies the terms of Resolution 1284 by specifying precisely what is expected of the Iraqi government." The resolution also called for the lifting of sanctions "as a matter of urgency" once Iraq agreed to cooperate in implementing relevant U.N. resolutions. In a further resolution on July 6, the European Parliament reiterated its call for the lifting of economic sanctions on Iraq "while maintaining a strict arms embargo," and proposed sending a fact-finding parliamentary delegation to Iraq to assess ways of extending the "oil-for food" program as a means of improving living conditions in Iraq. The resolution also proposed that the E.U. play a role in bringing about "a lifting of the no-fly zone, together with a formal renunciation by the Iraqi Government of the use of military force in dealing with the demands for autonomy of the Kurdish people."

The report of an all-party inquiry by the International Development Committee of the U.K. House of Commons entitled The Future of Sanctions concluded in January that the heavy responsibility of the Iraqi government for the humanitarian crisis in the country did not "entirely excuse the international community from a part in the suffering of Iraqis." "A sanctions regime which relies on the good faith of Saddam Hussain is fundamentally flawed," the report said.

British policy on Iraq remained closely aligned with that of the United States, although there were reports that U.K. officials were pushing their U.S. counterparts on some aspects of policy, especially Security Council "holds" on contracts under the "oil-for-food" program. In a July 17 letter to Church of England representatives following a mission to Iraq, Peter Hain, the minister of state with responsibility for the Middle East, wrote that "this is an area in which we continue to press the U.S. for greater flexibility." On the question of "smarter sanctions," Hain wrote that "the regime in place against Iraq is already targeted as far as it can be on the government."

United States

The U.S., together with the U.K., maintained its policing of the "no-fly zone" over northern Iraq from Incirlik base in Turkey, and that of southern Iraq from bases in Saudi Arabia. Scores of civilians were reportedly killed as a result of air strikes carried out by the coalition forces in these zones. In response to information released by Iraq on August 15 that since December 1998, U.S. and U.K. forces had flown over 18,500 sorties killing 311 Iraqis and wounding 967 others, a State Department spokesman said on August 28 that air strikes in the no-fly zones "are only taken in self-defense in response to Iraqi threats to our forces," and that "we make every effort to avoid civilian casualties and damage to civilian facilities."

The U.S. continued to insist on the maintenance of comprehensive sanctions on Iraq, including full compliance with Security Council resolution 1284, despite mounting evidence from U.N. specialized agencies and NGOs working in Iraq that the ongoing sanctions have caused a humanitarian crisis. In a statement before the Security Council on March 24, Deputy Permanent Representative to the U.N. James Cunningham noted that the sanctions " have never targeted the Iraqi people and have never limited the import of food and medicine." He placed full responsibility on the Iraqi government, "due to both its failure to meet its obligations under Security Council resolutions and its cynical manipulation of civilian suffering in an effort to obtain the lifting of sanctions without compliance."

On August 2, the tenth anniversary of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the State Department's Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes issues, David Scheffer, announced the administration's intention to declassify a number of Iraqi government documents captured by U.S. forces in Kuwait in 1991. He said this would contribute to efforts to bring Iraqi officials to justice for war crimes. The documents would be released through the Iraq Foundation, a U.S.-based NGO, providing evidence which "justifies an international tribunal like what exists for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda."

Ambassador Scheffer also confirmed that the Clinton administration was providing financial assistance to six NGOs to gather the necessary documentation for that purpose. On September 28, the State Department entered into a $4 million grant agreement with the opposition Iraqi National Congress (INC) for programs in the areas of information, advocacy, and humanitarian relief. The sum was the first part of a U.S. $8 million package allocated to the INC by Congress from the Economic Support Fund for fiscal year 2000 independently of the $97 million allocated to INC under the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act.

In its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1999, released on February 25, the State Department described Iraq's human rights record as "extremely poor." It said that the government was responsible for numerous summary executions of suspected opponents, "disappearances," arbitrary detention, torture, and the denial of the basic right of due process. In its Annual Report on International Religious Freedom for 2000, released on September 5, the State Department noted that the government "for decades has conducted a brutal campaign of murder, summary execution, and protracted arbitrary arrest against the religious leaders and followers of the majority Shi'a Muslim population, and has sought to undermine the identity of minority Christian (Assyrian and Chaldean) and Yazidi groups."

Human Rights Watch World Report 2000

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