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International Commission of Inquiry on Economic Sanctions Honorary Presidency: Ahmed Ben Bella Tony Benn Ramsey Clark Morad Ghaleb Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Daniel Ortega Clodomiro Almeyda British Commission of Inquiry President: John Platts-Mills QC Coordinator: Hugh Stephens, Dr. Safia Safwat Report on participation by the British Commission of Inquiry in the Second International Athens Conference Against the Embargo on Iraq. February 18th to 19th 1995. 1. The Second International Athens Conference Against the Embargo on Iraq. 2. Statement by the British Commission of Inquiry on the successful conclusion of the Conference. 3. Speech of Co-ordinator of the British Commission of Inquiry. 4. Call to Action adopted by the Conference. 5. Aims and objectives of the International Commission of Inquiry on Economic Sanctions. For further information, contact: British Commission of Inquiry, BM 2966, London WC1N 3XX Phone/fax: 071-436-4636

The Second International Athens Conference Against the Embargo on Iraq The Second International Athens Conference Against the Embargo on Iraq was held at Panteion University, Athens, on 18th to 19th February 1995, attended by over 400 participants from more than 20 countries, including politicians, lawyers, journalists, artists and actors, academics, peace activists, religious activists, health and social workers, and others from many walks of life, representing a broad cross section of concerned and humanitarian public opinion in Europe, the Middle East and America. The Conference was addressed by over 70 speakers, many of them eye- witnesses to the current conditions in Iraq. As our Commission's statement makes clear, a spirit of constructive cooperation prevailed at the Conference, which was of great encouragement to all who participated. It provided an impulse to all concerned to end the embargo, leaving them determined to step up their efforts in the coming period, particularly in the remaining weeks before the UN Security Council's meeting of March 14th 1995. It is notable that the Conference received widespread media coverage in the press in Greece and in the Middle East. The Conference received messages of greetings from many international personalities, showing the importance attached to its proceedings in many countries. A message was received from Iraq's President Saddam Hussein. Messages were also received from Mme Mitterand, wife of the President of France, from Jesse Jackson of the US, from Claude Cheysson, former Minister for Foreign Affairs of France, from Glenys Kinnock MEP of Britain, from Ramsay Clark, former US Attorney General, and a great many other internationally-known personalities. Among those addressing the Conference were veteran Greek socialist Michel Raptis ('Pablo'); French philosopher Professor Georges Labica; Margarita Papandreou, International co-ordinator of Women for Mutual Security; representatives of PASOK of Greece, including parliamentarians and a representative of its foreign affairs department; parliamentarians from Russia and Ukraine; Dr. Morad Ghaleb, former Foreign Minister of Egypt and President of the Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organisation; Goran Hans Franck MP of Spain; veteran French socialist Marcel Beibtreu; Angeles Maestro Martin MP of United Left of Spain; Greek peace activist Michel Peristerakis; Libyan peace activist Dr. Ali Ghadban; Reverend Dr. James Moon, President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of the US and other preachers from the US; and speakers

from the Iraqi delegation including Dr. Abdul Razzaq Hashemi, Saad Qassim Hammudi, Salah Mukhtar and Dr Muna Jiburi. Both Co-ordinators of the British Commission of Inquiry were present and actively participated in the proceedings. Dr. Safia Safwat presided over the opening Session, and delivered a speech, while Hugh Stephens presided over the Second Session, delivered a speech, and, along with Michel Raptis and Margarita Papandreou, drafted the Call to Action which was adopted by the Conference. Also in attendance was co-initiator of the International Commission, Jaime Ballesteros, and Sarah Flounders of the International Action Centre of New York which was founded by Ramsay Clark, and who in her speech called for support for the Commission. Our participation in this important international event, the kind hospitality provided by its organisers, the interest and support expressed for the Commission project by people from many countries and many walks of life, were extremely encouraging to us. We call on all our friends and supporters in Britain to redouble their efforts in the coming period to work, whether with us or through other initiatives, to help bring the embargo issue into the light of public opinion, the goal towards which the Athens Conference contributed so much. February 22nd 1995.

International Commission of Inquiry on Economic Sanctions Honorary Presidency: Ahmed Ben Bella Tony Benn Ramsey Clark Morad Ghaleb Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici Daniel Ortega Sheikh Mohammad Rashid British Commission of Inquiry President: John Platts-Mills QC Coordinators: Hugh Stephens, Dr. Safia Safwat. Address: BM 2966 London WC1N 3XX Phone/fax: 071-436-4636 Statement on the successful conclusion of the Second International Athens Conference Against the Embargo on Iraq, 18th to 19th February 1995. The Second International Athens Conference Against the Embargo on Iraq was successfully held on 18th to 19th February 1995, attended by 400 participants from more than 20 countries. Both Co-ordinators of the British Commission of Inquiry were present and actively participated in the proceedings. Dr.Safia Safwat presided over the opening Session, and delivered an address, while Hugh Stephens presided over the Second Session, delivered an address, and, along with Michel Raptis and Margarita Papandreou, drafted the Call to Action which was adopted by the Conference. Also in attendance was co-initiator of the Commission, Jaime Ballesteros, whose two-day conference in Madrid in September 1994, presided over by Ahmad Ben Bella, former President of Algeria, helped launch our Commission's work internationally. Numerous delegations expressed interest in the International Commission and declared their intention to conduct activities in collaboration with it in their own countries. The Iraqi and other Arab delegations expressed high appreciation for the concept and activities of the Commission, and made clear that they will be following its progress with great interest. A meeting was held with a representative of the International Department of the ruling party of Greece, PASOK, who heard a report on the work of the Commission so far. A notable feature of the Second Athens Conference was the great harmony and constructive agreement among people of many different ways of life and opinions, all of whom were able to lay aside secondary points of difference and focus on the tasks of working together in the common cause of urgent action to end the blockade on Iraq, beginning with activities in the coming days in connection with the March 14th UN Security Council meeting. This unity was symbolised at the conclusion of the Conference by the audience rising to its feet to applaud the unanimous adoption of its Call to Action. We urgently appeal to all our supporters and friends to sustain contact with us in the coming days to conduct activities, in accordance with the sentiments expressed in this Call. Hugh Stephens Dr. Safia Safwat, Member of the Permanent Bureau of the Union of Arab Jurists. Co-ordinators of the British Commission of Inquiry.

Speech of Hugh Stephens, Co-ordinator of the British Commission of the International Commission of Inquiry on Economic Sanctions, to the Second International Athens Conference Against the Embargo on Iraq. One hundred and fifty years ago, beautiful fields of corn and barley waved in the wind in one of the most fertile lands in the world, yet the industrious and creative people who cultivated those fields, with their ancient culture, never even saw any bread. They had to live off a few potatoes cultivated in their back gardens. The gardens became overworked, the potatoes became diseased, and though corn continued to be exported to the great profit of the dominant power, a million people died, millions more emigrated, and the population which was at one time eight million has now declined to around three million today. In history books we read of this as the 'Irish famine'. In fact it was no famine, in the sense of being a natural disaster; it was, on the contrary, the deliberate inflicting of hunger and death on a people to secure colonial objectives. My friend the Reverend James Moon yesterday very forcefully recalled that the British created the ideology of racism, the British originated the Transatlantic slave trade, and the British drew the divisive and mischievous frontiers in the Middle East. We can in fact add another crime to this list: the British invented the weapon of hunger. Though I have recalled past history, we in this Conference have heard powerful, detailed testimony on the effects on the effects of the embargo on Iraq today which mirror exactly the same terrible effects of this, the cruellest weapon of mass destruction — a weapon which is worse than indiscriminate, since it discriminates against the weakest in society. Listening to the speakers here, particularly the women speakers who feel the strongest sympathy with their Iraqi sisters who suffer first and deepest, I have been sharply reminded of the terrible scenes I witnessed in the hospitals of Iraq last year during my tour with Ramsay Clark, former US Attorney General, together with Sarah and Anne who are here with us today. And once again, the country suffering is overflowing with natural and human resources, yet a country where the weak are dying from deprivation and untreated disease deliberately inflicted by policies imposed in our name.

I feel we at this Conference are all left asking the same question — how to develop means of building effective action in a practical way that can rise to the urgent task of exercising pressure on the UN Security Council, the US Congress, the British Parliament, and other bodies responsible for the embargo. Our International Commission of Inquiry on Economic Sanctions is proposed as just one example of how to build means of influencing public opinion. It continues the work of the International War Crimes Tribunal initiated by Ramsay Clark following the Gulf crisis and war of 1990-1991. In form, the Commission is quasi-judicial, but in essence it aims to develop means of by-passing the media blockade on the embargo question. We aim to provide a popular platform for lawyers, journalists, religious and peace activists along with all others from the community who can express what so many people feel, that the embargo on Iraq is a crime. This way we can at least reach local newspapers and radio, and exercise pressure on local parliamentarians and in other ways advance ordinary decent people's capacity to exercise that influence for justice which they have the desire and right to exercise. We are proud that our efforts have received the sponsorship of the distinguished members of our Honorary Presidency, which consists of Ramsay Clark himself, and Ahmad Ben Bella, former President of Algeria, along with Dr Morad Ghaleb, former Foreign Minister of Egypt, Tony Benn MP of Britain, Daniel Ortega, former President of Nicaragua, Shaikh Mohammad Rashid, former Deputy Prime Minister of Pakistan, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, former Prime Minister of Malta, and Clodomiro Almeyda, former Vice-President of Chile. All these personalities have expressed great interest and concern for the success of our project. It is encouraging to us that Dr Ghaleb is present with us at this Conference, and I can assure you that all the others are following our proceedings with equal concern. Having organised Public Hearings of our Commission and its predecessor organisation in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bradford and Nottingham, and having attended such events also in Madrid, Lahore and Delhi, I should like to propose that this Athens Conference, in view of the testimonies it has heard, be considered to have the status of a Public Hearing of the International Commission of Inquiry on Economic Sanctions. If you accept, I believe it will be a concrete way in which we can support each other's work. In pressing forward this work, we can popularise the founding documents of modern international law, such as the Geneva Convention and the Nuremberg Principles, under which there can be no doubt that the actions of Thatcher, Major and Hurd are plainly and simply illegal, and I am prepared to accuse them here in Athens of the exercise of criminal means for unjustified political and economic aims — means that are inflicting

unimaginable human suffering in the form of a collective punishment on a whole people, a practice explicitly outlawed in international law. I accuse them here in Athens, just as I accused them in Baghdad, and in Karachi, Delhi, Tripoli, France, Spain — over 12 countries in all, and of course Ramsay Clark and others with much greater authority and force than me have advanced this accusation in many other countries as well. We must work hard to become more than just an irritation; we must become a real embarrassment to those who continue to impose the embargo on Iraq; we must grow to a stage where we can exercise an actual influence on our governments' policies. Our Commission opposes all blockades, whether unilateral by the US or the European Community or under the banner of the UN, which are intended to impose greater poverty on the poorer countries of the world. The case of Iraq, where the result of this policy has been to generate a new zone of poverty and destitution where prosperity previously prevailed, is the most extreme and graphic case. But we also oppose this weapon of hunger as such, whether the target be People's Korea, Cuba, Libya, Serbia, Haiti or anywhere else. In the message which he sent to this Conference, Iraq's President Saddam Hussein expressed in a nutshell what I believe lies at the heart of the Middle Eastern situation today — that Iraq's development is in conflict with imperialist objectives. It is consequently encouraging to note that in recent days the situation in the Middle East shows signs of a tendency towards greater independence from Western-imposed policies, with a senior Omani official and other Gulf public figures making important statements against the embargo on Iraq, with a successful visit by Iraq's Foreign Minister to Turkey, and indeed with Egypt beginning to stand up to US and Israeli pressure on the nuclear non- proliferation issue. Surely now even those who have till now acquiesced in the policies of the Al Saud and the Al Sabah must be asking themselves whether or not they wish to resign themselves to joining a Middle Eastern economy united under US-Israeli domination — a new Middle Eastern order whose corner-stone is the embargo on Iraq. I hope that these potential political developments in the Middle East might encourage the Arab community in Britain, perhaps a quarter of a million strong, to support more actively our work to defend Iraq, and to join their Pakistani, Irish and other sisters and brothers of the communities of many nationalities who have till now been our Commission's most active supporters. Finally, I hope my remarks on what we have learnt in practice may make a contribution to implementing the urgent Appeal for Action being discussed by this Conference, and we in Britain will be supporting that

Appeal, with representations to Parliamentarians, petitions and protests to the UN Secretary General, and a demonstration outside the International Maritime Organisation, a UN body whose Headquarters is in London. I hope such actions will provide an opportunity for us to bring the message of the Athens Conference to anti-embargo activists in Britain with urgency during the days leading up to the March 14th Security Council meeting. May our cause win victory soon — there is no more time to lose.

UN Security Council must lift sanctions on Iraq now! Call to Action from the Second International Athens Conference Against the Embargo on Iraq. The Second International Athens Conference Against the Embargo on Iraq calls upon the international community to take urgent measures to influence the UN Security Council meeting of 14th March, 1995 to immediately lift the embargo on Iraq. The Conference, which was attended by 400 participants from more than 20 countries, was appalled to hear of the catastrophic consequences of the embargo, which worsen day by day. After four and a half years of the blockade, the conditions faced by the Iraqi people have become an unprecedented international outrage. The Conference denounced sanctions as a new and terrible weapon of mass destruction that affects most severely women, children, the elderly, the sick. All international law is based on protecting the defenceless from the consequences of hostility, yet sanctions makes them the first target. It is particularly shameful that sanctions have become a weapon in the hands of the rich and powerful countries, which they use against developing nations. We hold those responsible for the continuation of the sanctions on Iraq to be fully liable, legally and morally, for the consequences of their actions. We therefore call on all human rights, peace, labour, women's, religious, youth and other organisations to take urgent action to ensure that this crime against humanity is terminated immediately. Solidarity should be shown in a practical way by taking urgent actions in the coming days, and in particular by conducting an intense campaign to influence public opinion, for example: Present letters and petitions to the Secretary General of the UN and to the governments of the member states of the UN Security Council, focusing particularly on the US Congress and the British Parliament, demanding the lifting of the sanctions. Conduct publicity activities around these actions. Hold demonstrations or present petitions at the UN offices located in various countries, for example UNESCO (Paris), FAO (Rome), WHO, UNICEF, IMO (London). Raise the demand for the release of frozen assets, that is Iraqi money held in various countries, which can now be released under the terms of UN resolutions to buy medicine and other humanitarian supplies. Take the opportunity of this period of campaigning to intensify other longer-term goals, such as arranging to send medicines to Iraq, along with political work to highlight the issue in the European Parliament and other appropriate forums. * Focus continuing political pressure on each bi-monthly vote of the UN Security Council until all sanctions are lifted.

4 International Commission of Inquiry on Economic Sanctions Honorary Presidency: Ahmed Ben Bella Ramsey Clark Tony Benn Murad Ghaleb Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Daniel Ortega Clodomiro Almeyda Aims and objectives Economic sanctions and blockades, as now applied as the weapon of choice by the United States and by the Security Council of the United Naions at the urging of the United States and its allies, are a weapon of mass destruction directed at a whole people. These blockades have been used only against poor countries, and while the entire people is punished by their economic impact, the greatest harm is overwhelmingly on the poorest and weakest — infants, children, the chronically ill and the elderly. There is no crueller violation of fundamental human rights than this sanctions policy. The case of Iraq has demonstrated that the US and its allies do not stop short of the deliberate creation of a new zone of death and destitution, with thousands of deaths monthly, widespread hunger, malnutrition, kwashiorkor, dehydration, organ failure, and pain without relief, permanent physical or mental disability, and generalised shortening of life. Meanwhile Cuba has been subjected to an embargo by the US for over 30 years, with cruel consequences for its people, Libya has been condemned by the UN Security Council to sanctions whose consequences are beginning to be felt by its people, while North Korea has in effect been subjected to an undeclared blockade since the end of the Korean war in 1953 and has recently been threatened with the declaration of an embargo by the UN Security Council. Any other state may at any time be added to this list should it incur the wrath of the US government. All humanitarian law from its inception has endeavoured to limit violence to combatants, to prevent use of cruel and unfocused weapons, to protect civilians from the scourge of war, and to outlaw the principle of collective punishment. The sanctions policy is clearly a Crime Against Humanity as defined under the terms of the Nuremberg Principles. It also clearly violates the Charter of the United Nations, the Geneva Convention and other fundamental documents of contemporary international law. We must bring all the power of public opinion to bear on the UN Security Council, the Secretariat, the General Assembly, the governments of member nations, the World Health Organisation and the Food and Agriculture Organisation. Concentrated effort on the President of the United States and the heads of state and government of the other permanent members of the Security Council is imperative, because it is through its coercion on this body that the United States is responsible for the present use and threats of blockade. The media must do its duty and inform the planet that desperately needs to know of widespread death, starvation, malnutrition, illness, epidemic artificially created and imposed on whole populations by these death-dealing sanctions. Every private organisation and institution committed to social justice — religion, labour, indigenous peoples, students, culture, education, the environment, peace, anti-nuclear campaigning, human rights, civil rights, civil liberties, food, health, social work — all should use their resources, skills, energy and imagination to persuade political leaderships, national governments, foreign governments, and the United Nations to ratify and enforce an International Convention Prohibiting Blockades and Penalising Violations, as called for in the Appeal for Action to Prohibit All Embargoes Against a Whole Nation issued in February 1994 by Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General. For further information, contact: Britain: Hugh Stephens, British Commission of Inquiry, BM 2966, London WC1N 3XX. Phone/fax: 071-436-4636. Spain: Jaime Ballesteros, OSPAAAL, Valverde 28, Madrid 28004. Phone/fax: (010)-34-1-523-1829. USA: Sarah Flounders, Teresa Gutierrez, International Action Centre, 39 West 14th Street, Suite 206, New York, NY 10011. Phone: (0101)-212-633-6646. Fax: (0101)-212-633-2889. Luxembourg: Gilbert Grosbusch, BP 219, 2012 Luxembourg. Contacts are also being arranged in Holland, Italy, and a number of other countries..