Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 7 Mar 1996

Vol. 462 No. 7

Written Answers. - Sanctions Against Iraq.

Mary Wallace

Question:

25 Miss M. Wallace asked the asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs the most recent United Nations estimates of infant mortality rates in Iraq; and his assessment of the likelihood of sanctions against this country being lifted in the near future for the benefit of its long-suffering people. [

Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Spring)

A report on the food and nutrition situation in Iraq, which was published by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations last September, estimated that the rate of child mortality had risen fivefold in the past five years. It reckoned that 52,905 children under five years died in Iraq in 1994. The figure given for the period January-July 1995 was 31,327.

While UN Security Council Resolutions have prohibited oil sales by Iraq, the import of food, medicines and other items for essential civilian use is not prohibited by UN sanctions. Various Security Council Resolutions have set out the conditions which must be fulfilled before action can be taken to ease the sanctions, including the establishment of an effective control system to verify that Iraq meets its obligations in relation to the elimination of weapons of mass destruction. It is a matter for the Security Council to decide when the conditions have been fully met and when the sanctions can be suspended or lifted. In light of continuing non-cooperation by Iraq with UN efforts to establish an effective means of verifying that country's elimination of weapons of mass destruction, it does not appear that sanctions against Iraq will be lifted in the near future.

The Security Council has adopted a number of resolutions allowing Iraq to export substantial quantities of oil in order to fund the purchase of food, medicines and other items for such essential civilian use. The most recent such resolution was Security Council Resolution 986 which was adopted in April last and which considerably expanded the terms under which Iraq could sell oil for this purpose. Like its predecessors this resolution is intended to help relieve the suffering of the Iraqi people. There have been encouraging indications following recent negotiations between Iraq and the UN that Iraq may be moving towards acceptance of this resolution. I very much welcome this development. I have recently written to the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, urging the Iraqi authorities to reach an early settlement on this issue in a way that would enable them to relieve the suffering of Iraq's citizens.

It also remains a matter of great concern to me that it is not possible for the UN and for other humanitarian agencies to operate throughout Iraq and provide food and other forms of assistance because they are denied access by the Iraqi authorities. Similarly, the Security Council had to set aside a recent plan to send a special mission to Iraq to investigate the economic and social conditions there and the impact of the deteriorating conditions on the Iraqi people because the Iraqi authorities indicated that it would not permit the mission to enter the country.