DENIS HALLIDAY worked for the United Nations for 34 years as a specialist in Third World development. In August 1997 he was appointed the UN's chief relief coordinator in Iraq where he supervised the "oil-for-food" program until his very public resignation in September 1998. During his April visit to Australia, he spoke to Green Left Weekly's JENNIFER THOMPSON about the UN-sponsored war on that country.
Halliday's Australian visit, to agitate for an end to the sanctions on Iraq, coincided with more revelations of what was really going on in the devastated Middle Eastern country.
Veteran conscience stirrer John Pilger had just made a film about the 500,000 children who have died since the official end of the Gulf War in 1991 and about the still-daily bombing raids; an article by him had just appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Weekend magazine.
Halliday's successor, Hans von Sponeck, resigned in February in protest at the collective punishment of Iraq's people. He was followed two days later by Jutta Burghardt, who headed the World Food Program in Iraq.
Despite the facts being out, Halliday was reportedly given short shrift by Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer when they met in Canberra in the days following this interview.
Children dying
The UN's children's fund, UNICEF, has estimated that each month the sanctions cause the death of 5000 children under five years old — half a million children in eight years, or roughly 200 per day. This was even during the period of the oil-for-food program, claimed by Britain and the US to be a humanitarian safety net.
The oil-for-food program allows Iraq to sell a limited amount of its oil to buy humanitarian supplies. It operates under the dictatorial control of the Washington-based Sanctions Committee and a large chunk of oil proceeds are given directly to the UN and Kuwait.
Halliday points out that the program's problems go back to the beginning, when it was first proposed by the Security Council's members. "They realised that the economic sanctions were responsible for the nightmare of mortality rates and malnutrition in Iraq", he told Green Left Weekly.
The Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein refused to participate for a long time, he points out, protesting against the repeated violations of national sovereignty, the program's total inadequacy (worth just 20 cents per person per day) and the likely loss of control of its national currency to the UN. It succumbed in 1995-96 under the weight of massive levels of malnutrition.
According to Halliday, the root of the program's problems was that it was never designed to resolve Iraq's problems, merely to ameliorate them in a situation where there was already massive deterioration, high mortality and chronic malnutrition.
Vicious
As the man who ran it, Halliday said, "One of the first things that hit me was that we failed repeatedly to deliver the minimum so-called basket of goods, foods we used to talk about", because the design didn't include buffer stock and the program only had what came in that month.
When ships were late, Halliday approached the Iraqi government for a loan of food the government had bought from the Kurds or from domestic production, but it was low level and low quality. "They worked with us", he said. "After all, it's their program, their people and their money. There is no charity, no aid here, it's all Iraqi oil revenue."
Another hurdle was the variety of constraints on what could be bought, for whom and under what terms. "This dual concept came into play", said Halliday, "that lead pencils or paper, or sheets could all have a dual purpose, they could be used for the military. Tyres for trucks needed to ship food would be questioned. They asked for 500 ambulances, for example, with the support of the World Health Organisation. That was held up, and never provided in full, only 200 or 300."
Dealing with the Sanctions Committee was an endless battle, a political game, he said. The medical and oil sectors were dealt with particularly viciously.
"In medicine, Washington and London would look at a list of seven interlinked medical items, they'd approve six and withhold the seventh item. The other six would be contracted, delivered, stored, but couldn't be used because the seventh was missing", he revealed.
Britain and the US would then criticise the Iraqis for having warehouses full of cough syrup or medical equipment which they were not using.
Just as damaging in the oil sector were US decisions to withhold almost US$1 billion worth of spare parts, something which brought criticism from Russia and France in the Security Council on March 24. As a result, Iraq is increasingly incapable of producing oil; existing wells are being damaged by over-pumping because lack of equipment prevents access to new wells.
Duplicity
The food shipments themselves are an exercise in duplicity, Halliday said. A shipment which the US claims allows for 2300 calories per person per day will be hailed by the State Department but may well allow for only 2000 calories. What's missing will be animal proteins, minerals and vitamins.
The quantity is also insufficient. "We know from interviewing recipients that it normally lasts about three weeks out of four", Halliday said.
As most Iraqis have no other source of income, food has become a medium of exchange; it gets sold for other necessities, further lowering people's calorie intake.
"Teachers are now making the equivalent of $7 or $8 a month", he said. "A kilo of bananas would cost $2. A dozen eggs is going to cost probably $1.50. You also have to get clothes and shoes for your kids to go school."
That, Halliday says, undoubtedly accounts for the very high level of malnutrition for both adults and children. The most vulnerable are the infants who succumb very quickly.
"You've got malnourished mothers who are not or cannot breastfeed, and they pick up bad water. The rural health care system has collapsed", he revealed.
The death rate for children under five is now 150 to 200 per 1000 — one in seven. The rate in Australia is about five or six per 1000.
The great bulk of the program is going into food and medicines and drugs but, according to Halliday, what is needed is investment in water treatment and distribution; electric power production for food processing, storage and refrigeration, and hospitals; education and the agricultural sector.
"It's never enough", he said. "Most of it is going into food, and the rest is going to medicines. We're dribbling money into the other sectors. Every time they put less money into food, they're told, 'You see, I told you, [Hussein]'s starving his people'. They can't win."
Collective punishment
Repeated reports to the Security Council that there is no deliberate diversion of foodstuffs and that a balance of investment is needed have gone nowhere, said Halliday. "It is either not understood or they don't want to understand it."
The gross collective punishment, sanctioned by a UN Security Council resolution, is fundamentally illegal, says Halliday. The operative resolution, 661, was designed to get Iraq out of Kuwait yet even though Iraq withdrew nine years ago, the resolution is still being applied. The continued operation violates the UN's charter and many of its declarations and conventions, Halliday asserts.
In the absence of any institutional check on the power of the Security Council, or of a Soviet Union prepared to play the counterweight, Halliday argued, "we have the superpower running amok and corrupting totally the UN and the council".
"There's only one law that counts", Halliday said, "and that's American needs and vested interests. Now we have the British and Americans bombing Iraq at will, outside any resolution of the UN."
"We are punishing a people for the decisions of a government, a government they don't participate in", Halliday declares. "Certainly, the children who are dying weren't even born when Iraq invaded Kuwait."
Outside the UN's corridors, the US and Britain have been honest about their intentions, repeatedly refusing to lift economic sanctions for so long as Hussein remains in power.
Their aim, Halliday believes, is to suppress a country that has great potential, including oil wealth and intellectual and scientific capacity, as well as to keep the region stable and to ensure the US controls oil supplies for Europe, Japan and itself.
The campaign has also proved a boon for British and US arms manufacturers, Halliday alleges. "In a sense, Saddam Hussein has become the salesman of the US arms industry. Thanks to him, they've sold well over US$100 billion worth of military junk to the Arab world and the Turks and Israelis."
"Over time, sanctions have become a form of warfare, a very insidious, silent model", he said. "An everyday killing device with no publicity."
Campaign
Halliday now puts his energies into assisting the national campaigns — in Italy, France, Britain, Ireland, US, Canada, and Australia — to lift the sanctions. He's not optimistic about changing Australian government policy. The present government "has sold itself to the US", Halliday reckons, "and is possibly a lost cause".
But he believes that if enough Australians are informed of what's happening in their name, they will be outraged. "They pay these politicians in Canberra. These guys should listen if enough Australians get on the phone or go to the offices of the people they put there and demand that this program change."
What the people of Iraq need, according to Halliday, is "not charity. Sending secondhand clothes and drugs to Iraq is not what is needed. This is a rich country. They just need freedom to manage their country and rebuild it."
The campaign in Australia has responded to Halliday's call. The Iraqi Sanctions Action Coalition has sprung up in a number of cities.
The Sydney group is working on a program of lobbying federal politicians for a change to Australian government policy, as well as petitions, a push for Australian Catholic bishops to follow their US counterparts in opposing the embargo, a July protest at Garden Island against an Australian warship involved in the embargo, an August protest at the US Consulate and a special speaker on sanctions at the August 5 Hiroshima Day rally.
To get in touch with the Sydney group, write to PO Box A899, Sydney South 1235, and for other cities phone the local Green Left office.