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1 Proceedings of the International Seminar on US-imposed sanctions and blockades on third world countries called by THIRD WORLD SOLIDARITY Chairperson: Mushtaq Lasharie Address: 160, Katherine Rd., London E6 1ER. Tel: 081-552-7666. Fax: 081-552-0966. in association with International Commission of Inquiry on Economic Sanctions Spain: Jaime Ballesteros, Valverde 28, 28004 Madrid. Tel/fax: (010)-34-1-523-1829. Britain: Hugh Stephens, BM 2966, London WC1N 3XX. Tel/fax: 071-436-4636. and Institute for Independence Studies. BM 2966, London WC1N 3XX. Tel/fax: 071-436-4636.

2 Foreword by Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Advocate, Supreme Court of Pakistan; Senior Vice-Chairman, Pakistan People's Party; former Deputy Prime Minister of Pakistan. I have had the privilege of glancing through the Proceedings of the International Seminar on US-imposed sanctions and blockades on third world countries, held under the auspices of the Third World Solidarity organisation, with Mr. Mushtaq Lasharie as its Chairman, in association with the International Commission of Inquiry on Economic Sanctions which has been called for by Mr. Jaime Ballesteros and others, and the Institute for Independence Studies, whose Secretary is Mr. Hugh Stephens. This seminar is a healthy and constructive step, however small a beginning. It will constitute a guideline for the oppressed people the world over, especially those of the third world countries. A radical feature of the function was that it was sponsored and addressed by true representatives of the working people. The speakers, while vehemently condemning the sanctions which constitute a continuing crime against humanity against the victim countries, gave various suggestions on how to force the US imperialists and the West to refrain from these criminal acts. The paper contributed by a revolutionary activist, Mr. Hugh Stephens, is thought-provoking. In his scholarly exposition of the situation, the details of the high-handedness of the US imperialists, the indifferent attitude of the West and the miseries with which the victim countries are confronted, are vividly explained. May I, however, add that the masses of the people of the non-aligned countries should persuade their respective governments to convene a special meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement to discuss this vital question, causing starvation, sickness and killings and other untold sufferings on innocent people in tens of thousands daily. The call for the formation of an International Commission of Inquiry on Economic Sanctions by Mr. Jaime Ballesteros is indeed laudable. I will, however, with respect to Mr. Jaime, suggest that if this Commission is linked with the International Commission of Inquiry led by Mr. Ramsey Clark, former Attorney General of the USA, it will elicit an extensive response, as Mr Ramsey Clark enjoys worldwide recognition as an established champion of peace and exponent of the cause of the oppressed. Sheikh Mohammad Rashid London August 1st 1994

3 Summary of Proceedings The International Seminar on US-imposed sanctions and blockades on third world countries, called by Third World Solidarity in association with the International Commission of Inquiry on Economic Sanctions and the Institute for Independence Studies, was held in London at the St. Clement and St. James Community Centre on 23rd July 1994. Among the participants were solidarity activists, journalists, politicians, lawyers, diplomats, teachers, academics, businessmen, former parliamentarians, religious people, college and school students, religious people and working and progressive people of many other walks of life. The participants included people of many nationalities living in or visiting Britain, including people from Pakistan, India, Ireland, Iraq, Egypt, Spain, Quebec, the USA, and elsewhere. In all, the participants numbered 57, and at a reception following the Seminar, this number grew to around 80. Guests of honour included H.E. Mr. Zuhair Ibrahim, Representative of the Iraqi Interests Section of the Jordanian Embassy, who attended the Seminar, and H.E. Mr Shamsul Hasan, High Commissioner of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, who attended the Reception following the Seminar. A message of greetings to the Seminar was received from Stan Newens, Labour Member of the European Parliament and President of the solidarity organisation Liberation. Messages of greetings were also received from the Delegation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the International Maritime Organisation and from H.E. Mr. Khalifa Bazelya, Representative of the Libyan Interests Section of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia. Further messages of greetings were received from Natasha Sivanandan, Coordinator of the Defend Cuba Campaign, and from Sulayman Bilal, representative of the Secretariat of Pan-Africanist Students in Britain. A condolences book for the late President Kim Il Sung of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, who had passed away two weeks earlier on July 8th, was signed by participants. The Seminar was chaired by Mushtaq Lasharie, Labour Councillor of Kensington and Chelsea, who is Chairperson of the Seminar's host organisation, Third World Solidarity. In greeting the Representative of Iraq, he remarked to loud applause from the participants that while the British government may refuse diplomatic relations with Iraq, here among friends of the Iraqi people he is fully recognised as Ambassador. He also welcomed the fact that so many young people were present, since they represent the

4 future of our work as well as an inspiration to us to endeavour to bequeath a freer world to them so that they will not be confronted with the same bitter struggles as us. Mushtaq Lasharie then gave a brief outline of the history and objectives of Third World Solidarity. Formed in 1986 following the attack on Libya by US bombers based in Britain, the organisation, is, he explained, dedicated first of all to the cause of peace, something the people of the third world need more than any others. Secondly, the organisation is dedicated to the cause of the human rights of third world peoples, including their right to peaceful development in conditions of independence. Thirdly, it is dedicated to the cause of promoting unity among third world peoples, including the various communities of third world origin living in Britain. He explained how the issue of the US-imposed economic sanctions had come to the centre of the concerns of the organisation, particularly following the Gulf crisis and war of 1990-1991, following which sanctions and the threat of sanctions had become a major arm of the policy of the US and its allies. A paper was presented to the Seminar by Hugh Stephens, Secretary of the Institute for Independence Studies, and Coordinator of the British Commission of Inquiry of the International War Crimes Tribunal called by Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General. He recalled that the emergence of the 'new world order' was announced by the US-led attack on Iraq, and he gave an account of the work of the British Commission of Inquiry which had aimed to give a voice to those who had not been heard in the media, those who considered that war to have been a crime. He paid tribute to the courage and determination with which communities of third world origin living in Britain had worked to expose the truth of this war, and the continuation of this war by the use of that new and terrible weapon of mass destruction, the weapon of deliberately-imposed hunger. He said that the participation of so many different nationalities in this Seminar was itself a demonstration of who the real friends of a threatened country such as Iraq or People's Korea are, to whom such a country can most confidently turn for solidarity in its hour of need. He called for cooperation and unity among all peace and solidarity organisations in the common task of ridding the world of the scourge of the US-imposed economic sanctions and other threats against Iraq, Libya, Cuba, People's Korea and any other country that dares to stand up for its independence. Jaime Ballesteros, former Member of Parliament of Spain, and President of the Spanish Organisation of Solidarity with the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America (OSPAAAL), called upon the meeting to endorse the call for the proposed International Commission of Inquiry on Economic Sanctions. He said that such a Commission could work to ensure that the use or threat of use of economic sanctions against third world countries should evoke the same revulsion in international public opinion as does the idea of the use of nuclear weapons. Taj Mohammad Khan Langah, Chairman of the Pakistan Saraiki Party, who is also a lawyer, condemned the US-imposed sanctions as contrary to international law and norms and against the UN Charter. He added that besides their open use in the case of countries such as Libya, Iraq, People's Korea and Cuba, there are many other countries in which, under the supervision of the IMF and World Bank, aid and the provision of capital generally are used indirectly or even directly as a means of economic domination in the interests of the rich countries. He cited the case of the state budget of Pakistan, where even such details as water rates, electricity charges, and so on, are effectively stipulated by the IMF/WB rather than in accordance with the sovereign interests of the people of Pakistan.

5 Amanullah Khan, a progressive journalist and writer from Pakistan, made a powerful plea for solidarity against US-imposed sanctions and domination. While expressing fellow feeling for the sufferings of the oppressed within the US, many of whom even there sleep rough, he denounced the ruling imperialists who have made the A in America stand for aggression, its M for militarism, its E for exploitation, its R for racism, its I for imperialism, its C for capitalism, and its A for autocracy, armaments and absolutism. He said that anyone who claims to stand for democracy but who does not fight imperialism is no true democrat. Bashir Dar, President of the Pakistani Workers' Association of Britain, said: "We are totally against the economic sanctions, which are being imposed in violation of the principle of fair and equal treatment of all countries. We are opposed to the domination of any one country or nation by another. We stand against sanctions and for social justice in the world." Sheikh Jawid-ur-Rahman, a representative of the Bonded Labour Liberation Front of Pakistan, pointed out that sanctions are imposed on countries according to whether or not they act as puppets of the US. Mian Mohammad Iqbal, former Senator of Pakistan and Political Advisor to Begum Nusrat Bhutto, said that it is particularly reprehensible that sanctions should be imposed in a discriminatory way to serve one particular big power. He said that People's Korea and Pakistan have the right to pursue any policy, including the development of nuclear power, that is necessary to their economic development, and that the infringement of their sovereignty over this question is an infringement of the UN Charter. As former President of the Pakistan-Korea Friendship Association of Faisalabad, he paid tribute to the late President Kim Il Sung and expressed solidarity with the Korean people in their struggle to continue to pursue their late President's policies for the reunification of their divided country. Barrister Syed Saeed Hasan called for unity against the sanctions policy. He said that these sanctions are imposed quite simply on those countries which follow policies which the US does not want them to follow, and that their implementation is in complete contradiction with all principles of international law and justice, and is an affront to humanitarianism. He called on all those who have any means of influencing public opinion to unite together as one, so as to build a united and effective campaign that can make a real impact on those responsible for implementing the sanctions, and cause them to desist. Khalaf al-Sabaawe from Iraq said that the sanctions have been imposed on Iraq because it does not obey the West, and that this is the same with Cuba, People's Korea, and Libya. Laura O'Sullivan, of the Irish in Britain Representation Group, said: "Sanctions imposed by Western imperialist powers aim to destroy the independence of third world countries by the weapon of causing hardship to the peoples of those countries. The struggle for peace and justice in my own country, Ireland, which causes suffering to Irish people both in Ireland and in England, continues for the same reason, which is Britain's role there." Balwant Kapoor, President of Indian Overseas Congress (London), said: "Our feelings of sentiment and solidarity for Korea and other threatened countries at this time

6 go far beyond words. We must let the Korean people know that they are not alone in their struggle. Iraq must get food, and medical and other humanitarian supplies." Dermot Hudson, Chairperson of the Juche Study Group of Britain, voiced his opposition to US-imposed economic sanctions, particularly on Cuba, Libya, People's Korea and Iraq. "Opposing these sanctions is in accordance with the call issued by the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung for global independence." Hafeez Shaikh, representative of the Labour Wing of the Pakistan People's Party (Britain) said: "After events in recent years in Russia, there is more than ever a need for organising against imperialism. It is most important that all peoples of the third world unite. Unity among peoples is absolutely essential for justice, and without justice it is the poor, the hungry and the homeless who suffer." Saundra Satterlee, a trades union activist who is also Treasurer of Third World Solidarity, expressed indignation at the human suffering brought about by the sanctions - the victimisation of the poor and of the weakest in society. Countless numbers of women are having to see their children die in their arms while starved of medicine because of the sanctions imposed by the West. K.B Khan Mayo, barrister, said: "It is a basic principle of justice that one cannot be a judge in one's own cause. And yet we now see a situation in which the Security Council of the United Nations is precisely setting itself up in this way under pressure from the big powers which have always played the dominant role in world affairs. There is thus an urgent need to press for independent tribunals and other bodies that can adjudicate in cases such as the sanctions issue, and even have powers to stop aggression against small countries, such as that now threatened by the US against Haiti. There must be campaigning pressures if we are ever to achieve such a goal -- above all battles in the media and in world public opinion." Gundi Nabi called for an end to the sanctions on Iraq, pointing out that that country had already fulfilled the conditions imposed on it by the UN Security Council. Benazir Sadaf Lasharie, of the Anti-Imperialist Youth Organisation, speaking on behalf of the young people in attendance at the Seminar, promised their support in the struggle against sanctions and all other injustice and oppression in the world. Others in attendance at the Seminar included Mazhar Ali Khan, former Member of Parliament of Lahore. The participants included a high proportion of women of various nationalities, including, besides those already mentioned, members of the Women's Wing of the Pakistan People's Party (UK), namely Raisa Ali, Secretary, Ishrat Nazir Khan, Vice- President, and Seema Jamal-Aldeen Ali, member; other women participants included Anne Cook, Labour Party; Nukhbah Langah, university student; Mrs Shaikh Jawid-ur- Rahman; Sister Tracey, who addressed the Seminar on recent events in South Africa; and Yvette McLean, school student. Representatives of the Muslim League included Barrister Yoosuf Akhtar; Anwar Khan Niro; M.I. Fiaz; and Javed Khan. Representatives of the Tahrik-i-Istiqlal Party included Akhtar Quraishi; Nazeer Bhutt; and Mazroob Khan.

7 Journalists included Tahir Chaudhry, Editor of the daily newspaper Jang; Iftikhar Qaisar, Editor of Sunday Jang Magazine; Faizan Arif, journalist and poet; and Jang journalists Ali Kiani, Liaqat Doltana and Shahid Ahmed. Also in attendance were members of the League of Arab Nationalists in Europe; Eric Levy, solidarity activist; a member of the Jammu and Kashmir People's National Party; Chaudhry Abdul Majid; Nisar Bhatti; Ashraf Chugtai; Agha M. Iqbal, convenor of the Murtaza Bhutto Release Committee; Mujahid Tirmizey, General Secretary of the Pakistan Institute for International Affairs (London Bureau); Barrister Mirza Rashid; Tariq Ghiyas; Maqbul Javed; Abdul Razzaq Lasharie; and Ghulam Abbas Lasharie. All the participants in the Seminar expressed great satisfaction with its proceedings, and resolved to continue to campaign against sanctions in various ways, so as to continue to forge unity of all people of good will in the common cause. For unity in the common cause of solidarity against US-imposed economic sanctions and blockades on third world countries. Paper presented to the Seminar by Hugh Stephens, Coordinator of the British Commission of Inquiry for the International War Crimes Tribunal, and Secretary of the Institute for Independence Studies. Your Excellency Ambassador Zuhair, sisters, brothers, friends, It is a great privilege for me to address this Seminar today, and I warmly applaud Third World Solidarity and its Chairperson Mushtaq Lasharie for hosting it at this timely moment. The so-called 'new world order' was announced to the people of the world in the form of the criminal US-led attack on Iraq, and so it is particularly gratifying to see that there are among us here today so many who selflessly, tirelessly and actively campaigned against that attack, and who subsequently worked so to hard to alert public opinion to the lessons of that Gulf crisis and war, and to bring to justice the criminals who caused that war, waged that war, and to this day continue that war with the cruel weapon of starvation. I am indeed proud that today's Seminar is a gathering of activists - people whom I have seen at work in London, in Manchester, in Birmingham, in Bradford, in Nottingham, in Oldham - people who have been out in sun and rain and snow to defend Iraq and all other third world countries suffering from war and sanctions or threatened with war and sanctions. Let us briefly recall that the International War Crimes Tribunal was initiated by Ramsey Clark, former Attorney General of the US, in response to whose appeal

8 Commissions of Inquiry were established in over 20 countries. The British Commission of Inquiry, of which I had the honour to be Coordinator, aimed to take the opportunity the Tribunal provided to give a voice to the many people in Britain who considered the war against Iraq to have been a crime - to give a voice to those whose voices are not normally heard. From small beginnings, based on the work of the Hands Off Iraq Committee which was active during the crisis and war period, we were gradually able to attract the support of growing sections of the peace and solidarity movements, particularly from among the communities in Britain most directly affected by the war, including the Arab, Pakistani, Turkish and other communities, so that we were eventually able to assemble over a thousand participants for our London Public Hearing at the end of 1991, which was presided over by Sheikh Mohammed Rashid, former Deputy Prime Minister of Pakistan, and addressed by Ramsey Clark and Tony Benn MP, and which heard over twenty testimonies on the criminality of the war. During the following months further successful Public Hearings were held in Manchester, Birmingham and Bradford, and follow-up events and activities were conducted in Nottingham, East London, Oldham and elsewhere. Everywhere we propagated our basic conception that if a government embarks on a criminal course of action, then according to the Nuremberg Principles it is the responsibility of the citizens of that country to take all possible action to prevent those crimes, being themselves ultimately responsible for crimes being committed by a government acting in their name. It became clear to us in the course of our work that the struggle to expose the truth of the Gulf war was far from being a soft option or academic exercise. Some of Ramsey Clark's hearings in Turkey took place under conditions of military siege, and indeed our hearings soon became integrated with the bitter struggle against racism and prejudice in Britain. Having made every effort to hear the voices not normally heard in the media, we heard testimony such as the following: We heard of Asian children intimidated at school, or taunted if their name was Hussein. We heard of households in outlying council estates in the Manchester area who had to lay in stocks of food because the racism they faced during the crisis period prevented them from shopping for days on end. We heard a whole catalogue of attacks on mosques, gurudwaras and other holy places. We met Asian taxi-drivers whose car-windows were smashed by racist passengers, and restaurant workers who had been harassed. We met sixth-form pupils who were intimidated and whose views were suppressed in school debates We met Arabs snatched from their families and taken off to be interned for weeks on end. This full force of racism faced by the Muslim and other minority communities during the crisis period was clearly a result of the policy of the British government which, as our Commission of Inquiry came to see, was intentionally set on a path of war.

9 The British government, which, as one young witness in Birmingham remarked, has done so much to protect Salman Rushdie, did nothing to protect exposed and threatened communities then. Our Commission showed that the British government, like that of the US, actually wanted an atmosphere of hostility and prejudice. It did not want peace or an atmosphere of calm and rational negotiation to settle the Gulf crisis. We hold that this demonstrates a deliberate intent on the part of the British government to go to war, and that it was thus guilty of a Crime Against Peace as defined in the Nuremberg Principles. Currently the war against Iraq continues in the form of the economic sanctions against that country, just as it is in effect waged in similar ways against Libya, against Cuba, against People's Korea, and is threatened against any other third world country that stands up against Western domination. That is why I solemnly call upon you the participants in this Seminar today to endorse the proposal which we shall tonight here from our friend Jaime Ballesteros for the work of the Commission of Inquiry on the aggression on Iraq to be carried forward and continued in the form of the work of a new body, the International Commission of Inquiry on Economic Sanctions. This new Commission of Inquiry would aim to campaign for a prohibition of the imposition of economic sanctions on third world countries, in accordance with the Appeal launched by Ramsey Clark on our return from Iraq in February this year. Just as it is established that the international community reacts with horror and outrage at the very idea of the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, so also we aim to awaken public opinion to the effects of this new and terrible form of criminal weapon - the creation of new zones of poverty and destitution in the third world - so that world public opinion may learn to react with the same horror and outrage at the use or threatened use of these killer sanctions by the US and its allies. A provisional statement of the aims of this proposed International Commission of Inquiry is now before you. It suggests in broad outline a conception of the campaigning tasks which lie before us, and we are sure that each and every one of you will have creative and useful ideas on how to reach all reachable sections of public opinion. To give just one example, in Iraq we saw a medicine factory unable to function because import of spare parts and raw materials is impossible under the sanctions, yet the US and its allies who are responsible for this situation are members of the World Health Organisation. Those of us in medical or health fields could campaign to bring shame on them for this outrageous criminal violation of every principle of public health and humanitarianism, let alone the founding charter of the World Health Organisation. I am sure I do not need to contribute ideas on use of the media and tactics for puncturing the media blockade to such seasoned journalistic campaigners as Felicity Arbuthnot, whose stalwart and indomitable single-mindedness in this field is an example to us all. The emergence onto the world scene of this new sanctions threat is closely associated with the high-jacking by the US of the United Nations and other international organisations, which now, under US pressure and domination, have become pitted against precisely those most deserving of international support - the oppressed peoples and nations of Asia, Africa and Latin America who insist on their right to independence and diginity and to build a new society of their own choosing. This situation is epitomised by

10 the meddling, interfering and mischievous actions of the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) on the pretext of preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Today it is Iraq and People's Korea who face these violations of their sovereignty by the IAEA. Tomorrow it could be Pakistan or indeed India or whatever country at any given time incurs the enmity of the US. Yet all the world knows that it is precisely the US which stations nuclear weapons around the world, for long making south Korea the most densely concentrated area of nuclear weapons in the world, while, again, it the US nuclear-armed fleet which threatens, often with explicit and reckless military manoeuvres and so-called 'exercises', the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and the Pacific. So how have the US and its allies the effrontery to target third world countries such as People's Korea and Iraq on the nuclear issue? We all know, of course, that it is because it is those countries which have bravely stood up against outside domination, and have carried the message to the whole world that a nation, no matter how poor, small or oppressed, which has a strong sense of national dignity and patriotic pride is unconquerable. It is our elementary duty as internationalists to give our whole-hearted solidarity to such countries in defending their independence and integrity, particularly when they face the divide-and-rule tactics of imperialism, as in the recent tragic events in Yemen, a country which the US and its allies have long sought to revenge ever since it courageously stood by principle and refused to support the anti-Iraq coalition. In building solidarity for the threatened countries of the third world, we can indeed take pride in the fact that the activities of those participating in the activities of our Commission have included people of so many different national communities living in Britain - for example this Seminar is attended by many people from Pakistan, along with Arab and other friends, whilst last week we addressed a meeting attended by many Turks and Africans, and the week before that we addressed a meeting attended by many from the Indian community, and on other occasions we have worked with people from Ireland and so many other countries. This fact demonstrates that solidarity and defence of their countries of origin by these communities is related not only to specific countries alone, but is infused with the noble internationalist outlook of standing together with all throughout the world who face imperialist pressure, economic sanctions and threats. Here, then, we see people who inevitably and closely identify with the third world, and who indeed often see their primary struggle as the struggle for the independence, democracy and development of their countries of origin, while many of them turn for their inspiration to such leaders as James Connolly, Che Guevara, Kwame Nkrumah, Zulfikhar Ali Bhutto, Ayatollah Khomeini, Bhagat Singh, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Michel Aflaq, Moammar Qadhafy, and the great leaders of East Asian Socialism - Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, Kim Il Sung. In this connection, it is very gratifying to note that a condolence book is open at this meeting for the late President Kim Il Sung of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, who sadly passed away from us earlier this month. There are a number of people present here today who have visited People's Korea, and they will all have witnessed the unparalleled love and devotion felt by the people of Korea for their President, father of the nation and universally respected as their great leader. The past weeks have been a period of many tributes to this great hero of Asian and world liberation. To quote only one example, Pakistan's Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was his long-standing friend,