Fast for Ecomic Justice in Iraq

We fasted to show support for the activists who went without food for two weeks to draw attention to the plight of the Iraqi people, who have not only suffered from the imposition by the CIA of the reime of Saddam Hussein, his cruelty, multiple wars, the destruction of their infrastructure, the deaths over a million people for lack of clean water, food, medical care, an invasion... but the imposition of odious debts and war reparations they can little afford by the UN in Geneva. We fasted in solidarity with Irish activist, Caomihe Butterly who said:

"We traveled to Geneva to fast, to go without food for 16 days, in the hopes that our small sacrifice would in some manner awaken the conscience of the international community to the economic warfare being waged against the Iraqi people. Our sacrifice is indeed minimal compared to the suffering of the Iraqi people. Child malnutrition has nearly doubled since the occupation of Iraq began. Hospitals remain in disrepair and shortages of medicine are rampant. Electricity is sporadic at best. Security is virtually non-existent. And yet at this moment of crisis in the lives of Iraqis, the United Nations stands poised to impose up to another 65 billion dollars in war reparations claims against Iraq. The Iraqi people had no choice when Saddam Hussein’s regime invaded Kuwait. He was wrong to do so. It is equally wrong to continue to punish the Iraqi people for the crimes of Saddam Hussein."

And with Kathy Kelly, also fasting, from Voices in the Wilderness wrote:

Kathy writes: "In the years between 1996–2003, the UNCC approved $52.1 billion in payment to individuals, companies and countries. As one of the most secretive of all UN organizational structures, the UNCC forbade the Iraqi negotiators to see many of the claims made against them, refused to allow Iraq to contest claims it did see, and forced the Iraqis to underwrite expenses for translation of all documents as it insisted that no discussions be held in Arabic. The UNCC could have chosen to pay the individual claimants but then ask the countries and companies, many of them quite wealthy, to wait until Iraq was first able to meet the needs of starving and diseased children. It could still choose to give priority to alleviating suffering in Iraq. Instead, after all of the decisions are recorded, after the lawyers, accountants, claims analysts, secretaries, translators, and negotiators sign off on their part in the procedures, Iraq will very likely face demands to continue using its desperately needed oil revenue to pay reparations to claimants."

Geneva faster Cathy Breen said:

"Seventy per cent of Baghdad has been without water for ten days, a major health issue is developing, and yet the UN continues to punish ordinary people for an invasion they were not responsible for, extracting multi-billion dollar compensation payments. If anyone should be paying compensation, it should by the US paying money to the Iraqi people for immorally and illegal invading their country and destroying it on a massive scale. But what is truly sad is the lack of interest among Western media to take up this issue. We must stop this crime of making the poor and defenceless pay for someone else's crimes."

Mojtaba Kazazi, secretary of the UNCC Governing Council secretary, told a final news briefing that the awards made today: "is a very small fraction, 0.5% of the amount claimed." Independent arbitrators, backed by 50 technical experts, evaluated the complex claims and concluded that few proved quantifiable damage directly caused by Iraq. In a speech council Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed Hamud Bidan said: "The [0.5%] outcome would serve as an excellent example of the degree of overstatement adopted by those states." Bidan had earlier called for a halt in the reparation payments but the Iraq proposal was ignored by the UNCC. Joe Sills, UNCC spokesman, told reporters there had been "no discussion" of Iraq's proposal, adding: "Our process is done and on the books. Whatever is done bilaterally is up to them."

On June 30th the UNCC imposed a $367mllion award against Iraq, the large part being $252m of claims to Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. Jordan received the bulk of this ($162m).

This marks the completion of 12 years of claims processing at the UNCC and brings to an end the work of the panels of Commissioners, as a whole. Since the appointment of the first panels in 1993, over 2.68 million claims, seeking approximately $354bn in compensation, have been resolved by the various panels of Commissioners. Awards of approximately $52.5 billion have been approved in respect of approximately 1.5 million of these claims, representing roughly 14.8% of the amount claimed. To date, approximately $19.2 billion has paid to governments and international organizations. Up to $200 million will be made available for distribution to successful claimants in July 2005. The Commission will continue its work, with a small secretariat, on payments of awards to claimants and a number of residual tasks.

The Governing Council of the UNCC will hold its next regular meeting on 27-29 September, and the protesters plan to challenge them again.

Geneva faster Jeff Leys said (according to AFP): "What we see is a continued attempt by the international community to punish the Iraqi people for the crimes of Saddam Hussein in 1990 and 1991. But the people need to have the foot of war reparations removed from their neck. As long as these payments continue, we see no possibility for the Iraqi people to rebuild their country."

It's difficult to say which causes more death and suffering, the direct violence of war or the more indirect impoverishment which causes malnutrition, starvation, disease, grinding poverty, loss of hope, and economic slavery to survive.

The UN's actions in stealing, robbing the Iraqi people of their oil revenues, as well as their support for the murderous regime in Haiti should give all activists pause to support it as a force for peace and justice.