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Russia makes spirited attack on U.S.-British patrol of Iraq no-fly zones |
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June 10, 2000
UNITED NATIONS, JUNE 9 (AP) - What should have been a perfunctory extension by the Security Council of the U.N. humanitarian program in Iraq erupted into an acrimonious debate early Friday over the impact of sanctions and American and British air strikes in Iraq's no-fly zones.
Russian Ambassador Sergey Lavrov took the floor of the council chamber three times, delivering a bristling critique of the sanctions, the U.S. and British air patrols and the council's overall failure to solve the Iraq crisis after 10 years.
"We're trying to deal with the symptoms - to ease the symptoms of the disease - but we're not dealing with the crux of the problem," Lavrov said in a rambling, off-the-cuff speech.
He was joined in his criticism by the deputy Chinese ambassador Shen Guofang, who decried the impact of the U.S. and British air strikes but expressed some optimism that a study authorized by the council Thursday night would assess the humanitarian impact that the air strikes have caused.
"These bombings have caused suffering," Shen said.
The debate came in a meeting to pass a British-French resolution to keep the U.N. relief program running for another six months before it expired at midnight. The program, launched in 1996, allows Iraq to use proceeds from U.N.-supervised oil sales to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian goods for its people suffering from sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The resolution also allows Iraq to spend dlrs 600 million from its oil sales on spare parts for its oil industry and allows it to buy water and sanitation equipment without approval by the council's sanctions committee.
The sticking point in negotiations this week revolved around calls by countries sympathetic to Iraq's plight, led by France, to commission a study on the impact that sanctions have had on the Iraqi people.
Thursday afternoon, France agreed to a more general study of the humanitarian situation after Britain and the United States argued that the effects of two wars and government policies also had bearing on the state of ordinary Iraqis.
The final text of the resolution calls for a panel of experts to prepare a "comprehensive report and analysis of the humanitarian situation in Iraq" by November 26. Russia, China and Tunisia all said they voted for the resolution despite their conviction that a more specific focus of the study would have been preferable.
In statements during the debate, both U.S. and British officials ended up having to defend their policies against the Russian and Chinese assault.
British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said the no-fly zone patrols were authorized under resolutions calling for the protection of Iraqi minorities. And the deputy American ambassador, James Cunningham, said it was "disingenuous" to suggest that the limited air strikes impact the overall humanitarian situation in Iraq.
The Dutch ambassador Peter van Walsum, meanwhile, said he hoped the new humanitarian analysis would shed light on the "inexplicable actions" of the Iraqi government, which has complained about the impact of sanctions while recently turning away a 72-ton shipment of dried milk from a Dutch aid organization.
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