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Breaking News from America's Progressive Community... 1999
Releases
The press releases posted here have been provided to NewsCenter by the one of the many progressive organizations we have selected to participate. If you would like more information about this press release, you should contact the organization directly. |
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| MARCH
17, 1999 10:39 AM FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: War Resisters League Chris Ney, 212-228-0450 |
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| Speaking Tour on Plight of Iraqi People under UN Sanctions Arrives in New York City | ||||
| NEW
YORK - March 17 - Calling economic sanctions the "Abandonment of Civilized Values," the
former UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq and a noted Middle East analyst
launched a 21- City tour. Denis Halliday, the former UN Assistant Secretary-General and Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq and Phyllis
Bennis, Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies began a nation-wide speaking
tour of the United States on Feb 15. The 21-city tour, "Iraq: Economic Sanctions, Disarmament and U.S. Policy," begins in Seattle and concludes in
New York City on March 21. For Halliday, this follows recent tours in France, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
The tour will focus on the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, and examine the impact of the sanctions, which Halliday calls a "totally bankrupt concept." The speakers will also address the need for regional disarmament and for a change in US policy towards the UN. Bennis calls the US/UK bombing campaign against Iraq an "arrogant, unilateral appropriation of UN decision-making." In spite of the Oil-For-Food program launched by the UN in 1996, "the once prosperous and technologically sophisticated nation of Iraq has become a country where malnutrition, disease and appalling living conditions are causing severe physical and psychological damage to future generations," says Kara Newll, Executive Director of AFSC, who traveled to Iraq in April of 1998. Mr. Halliday, who was in charge of the "Oil-for-Food" program in Iraq, resigned from the UN in September, saying, "we are in the process of destroying an entire society. It is as simple and terrifying as that. It is illegal and immoral." Ms. Bennis, a respected analyst of Middle East and United Nations affairs, often appears on radio and television to discuss the US - Iraq crisis. She writes for the Baltimore sun, Christian Monitor, Washington Post, New York Times and other outlets. She is an editor of the Middle East Report. Her books include "Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today's UN," and "Beyond the Storm: A Gulf Crisis Reader." In support of lifting the economic sanctions, Halliday has observed that "It is time, after years of humanitarian tragedy, for us to acknowledge that this conflict has brutalized the resolutions of The UN Security Council. It has sustained economic sanctions in the full knowledge of their catastrophic impact on the people of Iraq, and represents the effective abandonment of civilized values." ### |
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