As Long as Iraq Plays Games Its Masses Will Suffer

There was a funeral procession in Baghdad the other day, a line of cars bearing small coffins that purportedly held the remains of children who had died of disease or malnutrition brought on by U.N. sanctions. The showpiece parade was another bid to drum up sympathy in the Arab world and elsewhere for Iraq’s plight. What was in the coffins can’t be known. But there’s no doubt that Iraqis are suffering, in many cases grievously, from the embargo imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait seven years ago. In an allegation impossible to verify, Baghdad claims that 1 million Iraqis have died because of the sanctions.

It was to ease the suffering of the innocent that the U.N. Security Council agreed a year ago to let Iraq resume limited oil sales, with most of the revenues to go into a U.N.-managed fund to pay for imported food and medicine. On Thursday the council renewed that accord for 180 days. Next month Secretary-General Kofi Annan is expected to present to the Security Council a plan to increase allowable sales--now limited to $2 billion every six months--and so open the way to larger humanitarian imports.

This clearly seems the decent thing to do. The trouble is that Iraq has been less than diligent in meeting its responsibilities under the deal. According to U.N. officials, Baghdad was asked three months ago to propose a distribution plan for the third phase of the imports, which begins today. Only now has it begun working on a plan, meaning there will inevitably be delays in getting food and medicine to those most in need. Furthermore, U.N. officials say, only about 5% of the goods that Baghdad was allowed to import during the last six months has so far arrived in Iraq. This hardly bespeaks a burning sense of humanitarian urgency in the minds of Iraq’s leaders.

What is Baghdad’s game? Certainly not empathy with the suffering masses. By its foot-dragging Iraq perpetuates that suffering, which it then parades before the world as evidence of U.N. and, especially, American iniquity. Iraq, supported by Russia and France on the Security Council, continues to demand a time limit for certifying that it has complied with the U.N. resolutions calling for elimination of its weapons of mass destruction, thus allowing sanctions to be lifted or greatly relaxed. Washington insists, rightly, that only when U.N. inspectors are given full access to see for themselves if Iraq is meeting its commitments can that be considered. On this point there can be no wavering, no expedient compromise.