Sanctions finally to be lifted from Iraq

11.45am - By DAVID USBORNE

NEW YORK - When the United Nations imposed economic sanctions against Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the purpose was clear: to create the necessary leverage to force Saddam Hussein to disarm. With the policy, which failed, came a side effect more commonly associated with a war: severe civilian co-lateral damage.

With today's vote in New York, the sanctions are finally being lifted from Iraq after more than 12 years. Defenders of the sanctions argue that the primary responsibility for the economic ruin that has overtaken Iraq is the fault mostly of Saddam Hussein himself. However, their impact was devastating.

The most often cited indictment of the embargo has been the ravaging of Iraq's healthcare system and the surge in its child mortality rate. According to UN and other sources, between 500,000 to one million children have died in Iraq since 1991. The death rate of children under 5 is reported as 2.5 times greater than in 1990.

This week, the World Health Organisation said it would cost up to $180 million to rebuild the country's health services, noting that only 20 per cent of its medical system is still functioning.

Beyond health, ordinary Iraqis have gone without all but the most basic needs for all the period the sanctions were in place.

Yale University economist William Nordhaus wrote in a recent study that Iraq under Saddam "has experienced one of the most catastrophic economic declines in modern history," with living standards falling by 90 per cent in 23 years.

Yet the target of the sanctions - Saddam and his acolytes - escaped hardship altogether as they exploited smuggling and widespread leaks in the system.

Responding to a growing chorus of criticism, the US agreed to the launch in early 1997 of the oil-for-food programme that allowed Iraq to resume some oil exports. The revenues, controlled by the UN, were used to buy basic humanitarian needs.

A year ago, an attempt was made at "smart sanctions", with the UN establishing a list of goods that Iraq was theoretically free to import. However, it was an arrangement hampered by bureaucracy and the US frequently blocked contracts it considered inappropriate.

"The US has shown a terrible disregard for Iraq's humanitarian situation over the last decade, as we have seen the US veto essential goods ranging from child vaccines to water purification equipment," Joy Gordon, a professor at Fairfield University, said yesterday.

Ms Gordon is the author of 'Cool War: Economic Sanctions as Weapons of Mass Destruction', published recently in Harper's Magazine.

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Herald Feature: Iraq