Men Ignore Sanctions, Deliver Medicine To Iraq

Three men have returned to Washington after delivering $40,000 in medicine and supplies to Iraq in defiance of United Nations sanctions against the country.

The men are part of the Seattle-based Citizens Concerned for the People of Iraq. Members oppose the U.N. embargo - stemming from the invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent Gulf War - contending it has claimed thousands of innocent lives.

“Economic pressure sounds so clean and sterile,” said Bert Sacks, a Seattle engineer and member of the humanitarian mission. “But economic pressure is people starving to death.”

Supporters of the mission crowded the gate at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Wednesday waiting for the trio to arrive. They carried signs calling for an end to the sanctions and sang a welcoming song as the men entered the terminal.

A fourth member of the mission, Joe Zito of Tacoma, returned to the United States earlier and is visiting family in Georgia.

Almost 1 million Iraqi children suffer from malnutrition, according to a U.N. Children’s Fund report. Starvation is rampant. Most families are only allotted sugar, rice, flour, peas and cooking oil. Fruits, vegetables and cheeses are luxuries.

The Rev. Randall Mullins of Keystone Congregational Church in Seattle described visits to hospitals where the men saw bed after bed holding skeletal children, their stomachs distended by malnutrition.

So far, however, the men could only describe what they saw. U.S. Customs agents seized their film and videotape as soon as they re-entered the United States, said Dan Handelman, a Portland videographer and mission member.

“They told me the videos contained evidence of a crime,” he said. “I say they are right - the crime against humanity.

“But the customs agents could not take from us what we have up here and here,” he said, pointing to his head, then to his heart.

The group left Nov. 17, in defiance of U.N. sanctions, to deliver the medicine and toys to hospitals in Baghdad. They risked 12 years in prison and about $2 million in fines by breaking the sanctions against delivering medicine and other supplies to Iraq.

Customs agents who took the film and tape said they checked with the U.S. attorney’s office and were told no prosecution is planned.

The men delivered antibiotics, ibuprofen, aspirin, cough syrup, vitamins, syringes, crayons and stuffed animals. All of these were illegal exports because they were not officially registered through the United Nations.

Mullins urged others to protest the sanctions against Iraq.

When they left Seattle last month, they estimated that 600,000 Iraqi children had died since the sanctions began in August 1990.