March 13 Demo against UN Sanctions against Iraq

From the International Action Center <iac@nyxfer.blythe.org>, 8 March 1995

On Monday, March 13th, from 4:30 to 5:30pm there will be a demonstration in front of the United Nations at Ralph Bunche Park (43rd St and 1st Ave) to demand an end to U.N. sanctions against Iraq.

The demonstration is timed to coincide with the bi-monthly UN security Council vote on whether to continue economic sanctions against Iraq.

The sanctions have produced widespread malnutrition and illness. In December, UNICEF representative in Baghdad, Thomas Ekfal estimated that 500,000 children under five have died since sanctions were imposed in August 1990 and warned that 1.5 million children are at risk if sanctions continue.

International opposition to U.S. efforts to continue punishing Iraq has been gaining momentum. Two weeks ago in Athens, over 400 delegates from 20 counties met at the Second Annual Conference Against the Embargo on Iraq. The conference resolution declared that Sanctions are a new and terrible weapon of mass destruction, collective punishment and genocide that affects most severely women, children, the elderly, the sick. All international law is based on protecting the defenseless from the consequences of hostility, yet sanctions make them the first target.

The demonstration in front of the UN is being sponsored by the International Action Center, Women for Mutual Security, the Iraqi Babylon Committee, and the Iraqi- American Cultural Society.

The demonstration will be followed by a meeting at 6:30pm at the International Center (39 West 14th St.) where former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark and Rev. Lucius Walker of Pastors for Peace, a well known opponent of the U.S. blockade of Cuba will speak. Margarita Papandreou of Women for Mutual Security will also be a featured speaker.

Mrs. Papandreou is in New York from Athens for a meeting of U.N. NGOs, non-governmental organizations. She was instrumental in organizing the International Conference Against the Blockade of Iraq and has traveled to Iraq with a human rights delegation to see the consequences of the UN sanctions, especially on women and children. The video film Blockade: The Silent War Against Iraq will also be shown. More than 150 cable access programs in the U.S. have agreed to air this expose on the impact of U.S. imposed sanctions.