This week, two top U.N. humanitarian officers resigned in protest over the terrible toll that U.N. sanctions are taking in Iraq.

On Sunday, Hans von Sponeck resigned his post as head of the U.N.'s Oil for Food program in Iraq.

"The real victims are those who walk the streets of Baghdad, Basra, and Mosul," he said.

On Tuesday, Jutta Burghardt, head of the U.N. World Food Program, also resigned, citing the suffering of Iraqi civilians caused by the sanctions.

There is a precedent for these resignations: Eighteen months ago, Denis Halliday, von Sponeck's predecessor, resigned as well.

Halliday later told me: "I don't believe the Security Council has the right to punish the people of Iraq simply because it is unhappy with the president of the country."

Halliday, von Sponeck, and Burghardt did the principled thing.

They resigned in protest when they saw that, despite their own best efforts, Iraqi civilians are still paying an awful price--as many as 5,000 children are dying unnecessarily every month due to sanctions.

How many more resignations will it take before the U.N. Security Council, dominated by the U.S. government, faces up to its responsibilities?

And what will it take to press this issue into the conscience of America?

The media aren't doing their job on this.

The New York Times gave only a tiny mention of von Sponeck's resignation. (I didn't see anything on Burghardt's).

And Bill Clinton gets a free ride: At his press conference this week, no reporter asked him about Iraq.

It's not a frequently asked question of the Presidential candidates (note: Bush, McCain, Gore, and Bradley all favor sanctions--Bradley even wants to make them tougher!).

Reporters need to raise this issue and cover this story.

And those of us around the country who are properly outraged at the Iraq sanctions need to make our voices heard.

Otherwise, more Iraqi children will die by the thousands, and the noble resignations of the U.N. officials would be for naught.

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Copyright © 2000 by The Progressive, Madison, WI.