Issue of
June 14, 2000
 
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28 faculty sign letter protesting sanctions
against Iraq
Twenty-eight Stanford
faculty or academic staff members recently signed an open
letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urging an end
to U.N. economic sanctions against Iraq.
The letter, which notes
that U.N. agencies estimate the sanctions have cost as
many as a million Iraqi lives, was part of the material
that was handed out outside the gates of Stanford Stadium
preceding Annan's commencement address on June 11.
The letter contends that
the 9-year-old sanctions policy has led to a
"humanitarian catastrophe." It points out that
two previous U.N. humanitarian coordinators for Iraq have
spoken out against sanctions and resigned their posts.
"UNICEF has reported
that some 4,500 children die every month from disease or
malnutrition [in Iraq]. The ban on 'dual use' goods --
items that might have a potential military use -- has
crippled Iraq's oil industry, agriculture, health care
and sewage and sanitation systems. . . . For the United
Nations to engage in and continue a policy that so
clearly victimizes a civilian population is a violation
of both the spirit and the letter of the United Nations
charter," the letter says.
At a campus press
conference on June 8 to announce the policy protest,
Middle Eastern history Professor Joel Beinin said that
"there are indications that . . . Kofi Annan himself
does not support the sanctions policy." The policy
of the U.N. Security Council is largely dictated by the
U.S. government with support from the United Kingdom,
Beinin said, but Annan is officially responsible for
implementing the sanctions and he has not spoken out
against them. The leafleting at commencement, he said,
was intended to "show him there is strong opposition
to this policy in the United States and hopefully soften
the hard hearts in Washington and London."
In a speech prepared for
June 9 delivery to the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination
Committee in Arlington, Va., Annan acknowledged that the
"sanctions regime has been accused of worsening a
humanitarian crisis as its unintended consequence. What
is certain, and tragic, is that it has held back Iraq's
development -- economic, social and probably politically
as well," the secretary-general said. "My
fervent hope is that Iraq will soon decide to comply
fully with Security Council resolutions, and thus open a
new chapter in its relations with the international
community."
On campus, Hubert
Marshall, professor emeritus of political science,
compared the political situation surrounding sanctions to
that of the Vietnam War at the point when "everybody
[in Washington] realized it was a mistake, but no
president wanted to be the one in office when we raised
the red flag." Citizens need to continue to press
the message, he said, that "this is infanticide
masquerading as policy."
In addition to Beinin and
Marshall, Stanford faculty or staff who signed the open
letter to Annan are:
Paul Seaver, history;
George Fredrickson, history; Rush Rehm, drama and
classics; Akhil Gupta, cultural and social anthropology;
John Manley, political science; Al Camarillo, history;
John Rickford,
linguistics; Lama Abu-Odeh, law; David Palumbo-Liu,
comparative literature; Hilton Obenzinger, writing and
critical thinking; Raymond Giraud, French; Charles
Drekmeier, political science; Dow Woodward, biological
sciences; Hans Samuelson, mathematics; Joseph Corn,
history; Sylvia Yanagisako, cultural and social
anthropology;
Timothy Stanton, Haas
Center for Public Service; Kelly Denton-Borhaug, interim
dean of religious life; Rabbi Patricia Karlin-Neumann;
Renato Rosaldo, cultural and social anthropology; Lucia
Sa, Spanish and Portuguese; Robert Kaufman, English; Doug
McAdam, sociology; Thomas Sheehan, religious studies;
Alice Miano, Spanish and Portuguese; and Michael
Predmore, Spanish and Portuguese. SR
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