Lift The Sanctions Against Iraq Now
by John Nichol
The Observer, Sunday November 19, 2000

My hands were visibly trembling when I handed my passport to the border
guard. Standing close by was an armed Iraqi soldier. The last time I
had
seen Iraqi guns they were pointed directly at me; some of them had even
been
fired.

When I told my friends I was returning to Baghdad after 10 years they
all
said I was mad. Why would I want to return to the place where I was
abused,
humiliated and nearly died? As I waited at the Iraqi border, I asked
myself
the same questions. My journey had begun a few months before with an
idea to
make a film for the BBC as the tenth anniversary of the Gulf War
approached.
It had been an exciting proposition.

I knew from colleagues in the RAF patrolling the no-fly zone that
Britain
and America were still bombing Iraq on a regular basis. This undeclared
war
goes largely unreported by the media, something which I find truly
disturbing. More importantly, I wanted to meet real Iraqis and see how
the
war and subsequent years of sanctions had affected the 'man in the
street'.

Sanctions meant that I could not fly into Baghdad; the only way in is
via
Jordan and a 15 hour car journey. Sanctions also control the sale of
Iraqi
oil, a fact which seems to have escaped the Iraqis themselves as the
only
other vehicles on the road were oil tankers. Completely ignoring the
restrictions, thousands of them plied the route between the Iraqi
oilfields
and ports in Syria and Jordan.

Sanctions were imposed on Iraq after the Gulf War in an effort to force
the
regime into surrendering its weapons of mass destruction (WMD). United
Nations inspectors were also put in place with a brief to find and
destroy
any undeclared weapons. As I entered Baghdad, I drove past the UN
compound -
it was deserted. The inspectors were evicted from Iraq during Operation
Desert Fox, the three-day bombing campaign in December 1998. At the end
of
that operation, we were told that 'Saddam had been put back in his
cage'.
That may have been so, but he was in his cage with his people and his
weapons and we had drawn curtains tightly around the bars. Despite our
overwhelming technological superiority, without UN weapons inspectors
on the
ground, we have no real idea what is going on in the darkest corners of
Iraq.

In many ways, Britain and America have painted themselves into a
corner,
which really is the nub of the Iraqi problem. Sanctions, weapons
inspectors
and the no-fly zones are all inexorably linked. Until the UN is allowed
to
return and verify that all WMD have been destroyed, sanctions must stay
in
place, argue Britain and America. Iraq denies that it has any WMD and
refuses to accept inspectors. But sanctions are having little effect on
the
regime; the only people suffering are the poorest. In a truly ludicrous
state of affairs, even pencils come under the items banned by the
sanctions.

And the no-fly zones are in disarray. They were set up to protect from
Iraqi
repression the marsh Arabs in southern Iraq and the Kurds in the north.
But,
in an obscene piece of hypocrisy, we allow one of our Nato allies to
bomb
the very group we claim to protect.

Aircraft patrolling the northern no-fly zone are based in Turkey and
our
pilots put their lives in danger on a daily basis to fly into Iraq and
ensure that the Iraqi military is prevented from attacking the Kurds.
However, Turkey itself is also fighting a war with the Kurds, who want
an
independent homeland. On a regular basis, the Turkish authorities
ground our
aircraft so that their own air force can attack the very Kurds that the
RAF
was protecting a few hours before. After the Turkish jets land, our own
pilots get airborne to resume their mission over the still smoking
craters.

British and American policy is a shambles. And it is only Britain and
America that maintain the current position. Over the last few months,
an
increasing number of countries have flouted the ban on air travel and
have
made symbolic flights to Baghdad. At the recent Baghdad trade fair,
European
nations were falling over themselves to ensure they would profit if
sanctions are lifted. None of our old allies takes part in the regular
attacks launched into the no-fly zone. Indeed, even Iraq has decided to
ignore the restrictions and has recently begun internal domestic
flights
around the country.

After 10 years, the time has come to admit that the current state of
affairs
is not working and to review the situation. The great problem is that
there
appears to be no means of ending the dispute.

What conditions must be met for the no-fly zones to be removed? No one
seems
to know any more. How long can sanctions remain in place? Again, no
answer.

No one can deny that parts of the Iraqi regime are repressive and evil.
But
we manage to deal with other similar regimes on a daily basis. After 10
years, sanctions have failed to produce the required result. It is time
they
were lifted. Perhaps the removal of sanctions can be linked to a return
of
some sort of independent weapons inspection team. Whatever the options
are,
they have to be better than the current stalemate.

As I travelled around Iraq, I was struck by how friendly and personable
the
people were. At an Iraqi airbase, I was given lunch by an Iraqi air
force
colonel who might have tried to shoot me out of the sky 10 years ago.
It
seemed strange to sit with my former enemy and to talk about the
realities
of war. But we both agreed on one thing - there was little that the
military
could do to solve the current situation. Only our respective leaders
could
do that. It must be an unpalatable thought for our politicians, but
perhaps
the time has come for them to talk to their former adversaries.

€ John Nichol and John Peters were captured when their RAF Tornado was
hit
by a missile over Iraq during the Gulf war early in 1991. Both men were
tortured and forced to appear on Iraqi TV to denounce the war. John
Nichol's
latest book, Decisive Measures , is published by Hodder & Stoughton at
£16.99.