How many sanctions are there on Iraq?
what are these sanctions?
were all these sanctions imposed with the authority of the UN?
Thanks.
Re: Questions regarding the sanctions on Iraq
Ums, i thought i would give an opportunity to others to reply to your thread as my biases and rantings are well known. If you don't mind, i will respond but try my best to be as brief, non-biased and accurate as possible.
How many sanctions are there on Iraq?
The sanctions are "comprehensive" in nature. That means aspirins to paper to chlorine to insulin to food, have all been prevented from the country, under the sanctions, at one time or another.
what are these sanctions?
Think of it this way.... Before the sanctions were imposed (in 1990), Iraq exported and imported just as any other country does. Their main export was oil. After the sanctions, Iraq was prevented from legally exporting and importing anything - and when i mean anything, i mean anything. Restrictions were imposed upon all commodities that Iraq used to previously import/export for revenues. It should not take a rocket scientist to figure out that this caused severe repercussions upon Iraq's socio-economic indicators. Whereas Iraqi parents were jailed, before 1990, for not sending their children to school, after the sanctions were imposed thousands of children dropped out of school in order to supplement their family's income. In 1996, Iraq was permitted to sell its oil; some of the revenues from these oil transactions go towards purchasing humanitarian supplies. This system is known as the 'oil-for-food' programme and it is supervised by the United Nations Security Council. (It's been temporarily halted since the US invasion).
Iraq is not allowed to legally do any trade, except of oil. So this is their exclusive source of income to feed 24 million civilians.
were all these sanctions imposed with the authority of the UN?
No.
The UN is made up of six, unique organs: i won't bother you with four of them, but two of them that are relevant to your question are the General Assembly and the Security Council. The General Assembly is made up of ALL the member countries of the United Nations, so it is considered one of the more democratic organs in the UN. The Security Council is made up of five permanent members (US, UK, France, Russia, China) and ten non-permanent, rotating members.
In August 1990, one or two days after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the sanctions were imposed by the UN Security Council.
Please let me know if you have any other questions, and i will try my best to answer them.
Many in the west and Europe claim that Saddam is the one to be blamed for Iraqi civilians having less to eat and in parts of Iraq even have hardly any water.
But be honest to yourself and lets not forget all this are the result of the most stupid political methods ever invented by the US/UN: the sanctions!
But then who would have fought a war against SADDAM directly if there wouldn't have been any sanctions causing major damage to his army and his people. The right time for the wrong step. Perfect timing.
Thanks a lot guys, Nadia i'll let you know if there's anything else, thanks.