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Hallo List Blair has recently twice made the claim that Saddam's "implementation" of sanctions costs the lives of thousands of Iraqis annually. eg. Paxman interview 6 Feb > One was the method of sanctions which, because of the way he implements > those sanctions is actually a pretty brutal policy against the Iraqi people... > > What the sanctions were supposed to do was to stop him selling oil except > for food and medicine. But we were finding, and I think in 2001 round about > $3 billion worth was being leached away through illicit sales of that oil. > So the sanctions weren't working that well. Prime Minister's Questions 12 Feb (I think) > the alternative [to war] is to carry on with a sanctions regime which, > because of the way Saddam Hussein implements it, leads to thousands of > people dying needlessly in Iraq every year. I'm sure there is plenty of material on the CASI site that can refute this. Before some of us start going through it all, is there someone (with the info in their head already) who can tell us what to look up first? And would someone who knows be able to tell us if Blair's opinion is the "official" UK line on sanctions -- e.g. if it's been put in writing by Foreign Office spokesmen or whatever... Also, has anyone in the British press disputed Blair's remarks yet (I haven't seen anything)? If not, would it be an idea to release a press statement (from CASI, or Voices, possibly?) Thanks Andrew Goreing _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk