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Al-Ahram Weekly 11 - 17 November 1999 Issue No. 455 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 11 - 17 November 1999 Issue No. 455
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Books Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters UN quarrel over Iraq
By Salah HemeidHans von Sponek, head of the UN Commission overseeing the distribution of humanitarian supplies in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, has accused the United States and Britain of delaying contracts that Iraq badly needs under its oil-for-food deal with the United Nations, prompting the US to ask UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, to dismiss the German UN staff member.
Sponek took over the post a year ago following the resignation of his predecessor, Denis Halliday, who had himself left the post after criticising the two Western countries for insisting on maintaining sanctions against Iraq's 23 million people, arguing that the sanctions were responsible for the deaths of 5,000 Iraqi children each month.
US State Department Spokesman James Rubin said the Clinton Administration had no confidence in Sponek, whom he accused of supporting softer economic sanctions against Iraq and of acquiescing in Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's stockpiling of massive quantities of humanitarian supplies. Sponek had "refused to confront Baghdad on the failure to meet the needs of their own people," Rubin said in a statement.
At a meeting with Annan last week, US deputy ambassador to the UN, Peter Burleigh, and British ambassador, Jeremy Greenstoke, asked the secretary-general to replace Sponek, accusing him of exceeding his mandate by calling for an end to the UN sanctions and of mishandling the humanitarian programme in Iraq. But it would seem that the German official's only misdeed is not seeing eye to eye with the United States and with Britain on the continuation of the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq following its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Sponek, who has been working at the Baghdad UN mission for three years, said that the oil-for-food programme "does not deal with Iraq as a nation", and that it hampered the country's future development. He said that while money made available under the programme now provided a per capita income of US$550, before the 1991 Gulf War this figure had stood at around US$2000, and that the fall in revenue was doing serious damage to the Iraqi population.
Despite US and British demands Annan has, however, stood by the UN official and has resisted pressures to remove him from his post. The secretary-general renewed Sponek's contract for a further year, angering Washington and London, which were already unhappy with Annan's own statements about the worsening humanitarian situation in Iraq. "There were complaints about his predecessor, and I think there will be complaints about his successor," said Annan's spokesman Fred Eckhard, referring to Sponek and Halliday.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohamed Said Al-Sahaf came to the defence of Sponek, describing him as "an objective, completely professional and very efficient UN civil servant."
The dispute comes amid efforts within the Security Council to agree on a new policy towards Iraq. A joint draft resolution put forward by the Netherlands and Britain and supported by Washington includes proposals for easing the sanctions against Baghdad if Iraq accepts the return to the country of the UN weapons inspectors responsible for the dismantling and monitoring of its weapons programmes.
US envoy to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke said that the five permanent members of the Security Council were very close to an agreement on a resolution that would suspend sanctions if Iraq met the disarmament requirements. France, Russia and China, which have previously opposed such a resolution, have reportedly softened their positions and may be ready for a compromise that would ask Iraq to co-operate with a new UN weapons commission in return for the suspension of sanctions. Baghdad, however, has once again indicated that it would reject any such deal, insisting that the sanctions, which are now over nine years old, should be completely and unconditionally lifted.
As wrangling over sanctions and weapons inspections continued, a UN special investigator issued another appalling report about civil and political rights in Iraq. Max van Stoel's annual report to the UN General Assembly drew a grim picture of life in Iraq, accusing the Iraqi government of arbitrary killings, mass arrests and detention of its opponents and the bulldozing of their homes and villages.
"The prevailing regime in Iraq has effectively eliminated the civil rights to life, liberty and physical integrity and the freedom of thought, expression, association and assembly," Stoel, a former Dutch foreign minister, wrote in his report, which is now to be debated by the UN Human Rights Committee. Iraq has rejected the report, saying it is "biased and misleading" and accusing Stoel of being "an American and Zionist stooge".
The result of such endless debates over the future of sanctions against Iraq, and squabbles among the leading players, however, is that while more Iraqis are falling victim to internal repression, foreign strategies are only increasing Iraq's isolation, and any solution to the crisis seems as far off as ever.
Also see:
- Inept US policy keeps Iraq pot boiling by David Hirst
