Green MEPs’ protest against Iraq sanctions bears fruit

Date: 24/01/02

By David Cronin

TWO Green MEPs this week defied the economic embargo on Iraq by selling fruit from the country to their colleagues in Brussels.

France's Didier Rod and England's Caroline Lucas both sold Iraqi dates - the country's second biggest export prior to the 1990 invasion of Kuwait - in a 'symbolic action' taken before the meeting of the European Parliament's development committee on Tuesday (22 January).

The action was taken, said Lucas, to highlight how civilians are bearing the brunt of the trade restrictions imposed on Baghdad.

The UN children's agency UNICEF has estimated that sanctions have contributed to the deaths of more than 500,000 children since the Gulf War.

'These sanctions were imposed to force Saddam Hussein to allow UN inspectors to check on potential weapons-making plants. They have not worked and have hit the ordinary people of Iraq hard.

'The country's infrastructure, health service and water supplies, are in tatters,' she said.

• Liberal MEP Emma Nicholson, a leading campaigner against the Iraq sanctions, is the new envoy on health, peace and development with the World Health Organization (WHO). Her post will pay particular attention to the rebuilding of Afghanistan.

Two Green MEPs defied the economic embargo on Iraq by selling fruit from the country to their colleagues in Brussels, in a 'symbolic action' taken before the meeting of the European Parliament's development committee on 22 January 2002.