Ireland should "set the tone" for Europe in a humanitarian drive to relax the United Nations' sanctions against Iraq, a former UN assistant secretary general has said.
Mr Hans von Sponeck, who last year resigned in protest from his post as head of the UN Oil for Food Programme in Iraq because of what he described as the "failed" sanctions, said: "Ireland shouldn't underestimate the importance of raising a voice, and a strong voice" against the embargo.
He was speaking in Dublin where yesterday he met the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, and addressed the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs.
He said recent comments on the need for reforming the sanctions by Ireland's Ambassador to the UN, Mr Richard Ryan, and the Minister of State, Ms Liz O'Donnell, were "the right kind of calls" to make. However, he said, "they now need to be translated into action".
Using its temporary seat on the UN Security Council, Ireland has sought to loosen restrictions on the flow of goods to Iraq by trying to limit the number of contracts that can be blocked under proposed new "smart sanctions". The US/UK led proposal, which also aims at clamping down on oil smuggling, has been held up by Russian objections.
Mr von Sponeck said Ireland should oppose further attempts to introduce smart sanctions whose "smartness relates merely to blocking the income Saddam Hussein is getting".
He said he was "not an apologist for a ruthless government" but added "you can't pay for teachers and doctors unless you allow the money flow in. Some of it is directed into things it shouldn't be used for, but the overwhelming amount of money goes to running a nation to the pathetic extent it is allowed to run. The British and US are aware of that. So when they talk about stopping the inflow they are talking about strangling the nation of Iraq.
"The whole thing is dishonest in its approach because the concern is not about the people. It's about the removal of a government. It's purely vindictive."
He cites the recent UN decision to release 850 ambulances to the government on the condition that all radios were first removed. "Everything is punishment-oriented."
As well as highlighting the humanitarian impact of the sanctions - according to UNICEF, they are causing 5,000 children to die each month - Mr von Sponeck said he wished to focus Irish attention on the "organised lying" surrounding the issue. "I reached a point where I realised we were simply being used as pawns in someone else's agenda," he said of his resignation decision.
With him on the visit was Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, the founding president of the peace group Pax Christi USA, who said he began campaigning against the sanctions after hearing the former US secretary of state, Ms Madeleine Albright, defend their impact on civilians as a price worth paying.
