DEBATE ON IRAQ

Chris Patten

Chairman
European Union Commission for External Relations

Speech before European Union Parliament
Brussels, Belgium

1 March 2001

The Presidency has just explained the background to the recent air raids to you. I do not want to go over the same ground with you, so let me just say that I fully agree with the assessment of the situation and the events which led to renewed military intervention. I would like instead to say a few words about the wider picture, the sanctions and the efforts to improve the miserable lot of the Iraqi people.

We all agree that the stalemate over the Iraq sanctions and the suffering it causes is unsatisfactory and should not go on. But we must bear in mind that the sanctions were put into place for a purpose. As a result of the Gulf War, the UN Security Council established through a number of resolutions that Iraq should dispose of all weapons of mass destruction and this should be verified by UNSCOM, the UN special committee with the responsibility of dismantling Iraq's arsenal of weapons and maintaining a monitoring programme to ensure that it was never rebuilt. Until this was achieved, it was agreed that Iraq would be subject to various economic sanctions. Exceptions were allowed for essential humanitarian supplies.

Although they could have done it straight away, back 1991, the Iraqi Government did not take steps to set up an arrangement with UN before 1995, when Iraq agreed to the oil-for-food facility as set out in UN Security Resolution 986 of 1995. The oil-for-food facility has since then been extended every 6 months with improved conditions. In principle, the oil-for-food facility should provide basic humanitarian aid without recourse to outside assistance.

However, the management of the programme and co-operation with the Iraq Government in implementing it, is not effective. There is no shortage of funds available to the Iraqi authorities, through the Oil-for-Food facility, to buy food and medicine for their people. It is the Iraqi regime which has chosen not to do this, not to use the opportunity offered to them by the international community.

The issue of sanctions worsened when UNSCOM was expelled from Iraq in November 1998 and it took a year to agree to a common approach to deal with this problem. The UN Security Council adopted resolution no. 1284 in December 1999, which allowed for a suspension of the sanctions against Iraq following arms monitoring. However, Iraq did not accept the resolution and resisted any co-operation on verification of dismantling of weapons of mass destruction. Iraq has not, therefore, complied with the UN Security Council resolutions.

We have now reached an important point in our dealings with Iraq. The sanctions which have been in place for 10 years, have not achieved their desired objectives; they are perceived to be exacerbating the humanitarian condition of the Iraqi people. The recklessness of Saddam Hussein and his regime, has resulted in malnutrition, ill health and widespread degradation of the physical and social infrastructure of the country. This policy will have consequences beyond the present, which will be borne by future generations of Iraqis.

These dire circumstances have brought into focus the plight of the Iraqi people and the problem of dealing with a regime which is as ruthless as it is reckless. We all agree there is clearly a need to rethink the whole Iraqi issue and identify the best course of action to take. The new US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said as much. But we must not lose sight of the basic objective - we must make sure that we will never again give Saddam Hussein and his men the means to pursue aggression against their neighbours, or indeed their own people.

The sanctions remain in place, but we should look at how we can make them more effective in pursuit our basic objective. We want to focus on the Iraqi leadership and their weapons, not on the Iraqi people and society. So we should explore the possibility of replacing the present sanction regime by a "smart sanctions programme" and other appropriate measures, while ensuring that WMD are not manufactured.

The suffering of the Iraqi people is very much a EU concern. Since the Gulf war in 1991, the EC has been the major donor of humanitarian aid to Iraq with over 250 million Euro. For the last two of years, the EU has provided assistance for 8 10 million Euro on an annual basis. For 2001 the amount may be somewhat higher at around 12 million Euro. The assistance through ECHO focuses on provision of clean drinking water and health facilities with special emphasis on institutions for handicapped, orphans and street children. The ECHO assistance is provided through international NGOs and UN agencies.

The Commission welcomes the resumption on 26-27 February 2001 in New York of the dialogue between the UN and Iraq. Although no significant breakthrough has been reported form the two-day meeting between the UN Secretary General and the Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs, it is encouraging that there is an agreement for further talks. Signals should be sent to the Iraqi Government of the importance of continuing the talks and of reaching an agreement with UN that allows improvement of the economic and humanitarian situation in Iraq, while at the same time respecting the various UN resolutions on Iraq, particularly on WMD.