MIM Notes 175, December 1, 1998

HALLIDAY SPEAKS ON U.$. GENOCIDE IN IRAQ

In early November, Dennis Halliday made his first 
public appearance since resigning his post as the UN 
Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq. He spoke at Harvard 
University about his resignation and the devastating 
results of sanctions on Iraq. After his resignation, 
Halliday said, "We are in the process of destroying an 
entire society. It is as simple and terrifying as 
that. It is illegal and immoral."(1)

Halliday is far from a revolutionary, he is a strong 
believer in Amerika as a great country (though he is 
not american). He firmly believes in working within 
the system to attempt change. MIM reports on his 
speech because of the important first hand information 
exposed and because of the strong statement made when 
one of the capitalists' own speaks out against u.$. 
and UN-sponsored genocide.

Those of us opposed to imperialism are well aware of 
the death and suffering that takes place around the 
world at the hands of the united snakes. However, 
imperialist supporters often refuse to see what is 
right in front of their eyes. Halliday could not 
ignore the evidence he faced daily in Iraq. He 
resigned his Iraq post in September and then resigned 
from the UN in October in protest to the UN policy of 
sanctions against Iraq.

Halliday spoke about his experiences in Iraq from 
September 1997 to October 1998 as well as his first 
hand knowledge of the conditions prior to that period. 
Halliday joined the UN in 1964 and was assistant 
Secretary-General before taking up his post in Iraq. 
Halliday oversaw the distribution of food and other 
humanitarian goods that Iraq purchased from money 
earned through the U.N.-approved sale of oil which 
started in 1996.

Halliday provided evidence that the continued UN 
sanctions can be called nothing less than genocide. 
The current sanctions deny Iraq access to profits from 
oil sales which form a mainstay of its economy.

Eight years of sanctions have had disastrous effects 
on the country. Halliday said the sanctions "kill, 
destroy and bring ruin to 23 and a half million 
people."

Every ten minutes an Iraqi child dies from 
malnutrition, preventable disease or other effects of 
the sanctions. According to the World Health 
Organization (WHO), in Iraq 6000-7000 children under 
five years of age die every month as a direct result 
of the sanctions. And the WHO considers these numbers 
an underestimate due to the difficulty in collecting 
information on some parts of the country.

The sanctions have hit children particularly hard 
because the economic devastation has led to poor 
health of their mothers, poor nutrition, high 
incidence of water borne disease, and use of baby 
formula mixed with water that is not safe to drink. 
The malnutrition among children under five years old 
remains at approximately 30% in spite of the oil for 
food program the UN initiated supposedly to alleviate 
the suffering in Iraq.

In addition to the direct effects on the health of the 
population, Halliday outlined some of the economic 
consequences of the sanctions. The effect on the 
economy can be seen in the inflation rate. In 1990, 1 
dinar was worth $3 (US) while today 300 dinars are 
worth $1 (US). The financial ruin has led to 
homelessness, prostitution, begging, corruption and 
children being forced to work. All of these things, 
Halliday pointed out, were virtually unknown in Iraqi 
society before the sanctions. In addition to the 
inflation rate, in 1996, the Iraqi government 
legalized secondary market monetary exchange in an 
effort to restrain the exchange rate. This means the 
dinar is worth even less in that sphere.(2)

The dropout rate in the schools is now 20-30%. In 
addition to the problem of children needing to earn 
money to help support their families, there is no 
money for resources in the schools and thousands of 
teachers have quit, unable to support themselves and 
unable to work in the horrible conditions. Even those 
children who do not drop out of school all together do 
not have a high attendance rate.

On the higher end of the education scale, the 
sanctions are leading to a widespread "brain drain" as 
an estimated 2 million Iraqi professionals are now 
working outside of the country. Even when 
intellectuals do not flee the country, there is an 
internal brain drain going on. Because a country 
without money for food and exponentially expanding 
inflation cannot continue to pay its intellectuals to 
perform services it needs. In Iraq, this is seen in 
the government offering stock in its national 
operations to educated workers so that a petty-
bourgeois base of civil employees will remain even 
while many, like lawyers and scientists, are becoming 
small merchants, taxi drivers and other service 
workers because these jobs offer better pay than their 
trained professions.(2)

Halliday believes that the impression widespread by 
the media that Iraq is run by a one-man-show (Saddam 
Hussein) is incorrect. He sees the political system 
there as strongly influenced by the public and 
particularly by other members of the government. And 
he reports that the current government is seen as too 
moderate by youth who have grown up under the harsh 
effects of imperialist sanctions and who are pushing 
the government to take stronger action against the 
imperialists.

Halliday agreed with one audience member that it is 
reasonable to view the sanctions as genocide against 
the Iraqi people but when asked what we should do 
about this, his strongest statement was that we should 
lobby congress to change. Halliday's position is not 
radical at all. In fact, his view is that sanctions 
are never effective and only lead to suffering of the 
people. Instead he advocated other forms of persuasion 
which he did not detail except to mention that this is 
a very difficult issue.

MIM agrees with Halliday that sanctions on the Iraqi 
people must end. But we disagree with his view that 
member states in an international organization have 
the inviolable right to change the actions of "erring 
states" through force. MIM would only support such 
international pressure in the name of socialism, and 
for the purpose of liberating masses of people from 
oppression while providing them with the basic 
necessities of life.

In the UN today, the strongest member states are 
imperialists and fierce enemies of the majority of the 
world's people. MIM recognizes no moral authority in 
imperialism and we categorically reject the 
imperialists' claims to the right to decide who eats 
or starves. When there is anti-imperialist 
international debate, this dialog can righteously lead 
to improving national policies. But today while 
imperialists call the shots on the international 
governmental scene, all peace-loving people must 
reject any claims of supposed neutral international 
organizations to impose their will on any oppressed 
nation.

Even if the sanctions are ended tomorrow, the Iraq 
people will not regain their sovereignty. The 
imperialists will not give up control of any country 
in the world without a fight. The sanctions are one, 
particularly devastating, way that the imperialists 
control their colonies. In fact, back when Hussein was 
a good u.s. lackey, the US government was supplying 
him with material to produce chemical and biological 
weapons.

Just as they have in countries throughout the world, 
the United Snakes demands loyalty and obedience from 
the government. And when any colony resists, they are 
met with harsh reprisals. Only through revolutionary 
struggle will the people of Iraq and the people of the 
world throw off imperialist domination and be free to 
establish a system of government truly by and for the 
people:  a socialist system.

Notes:
1. The Independent 14 October, 1998.
2. MIM Notes no. 153 1 January 1998.