ON August 6, 1990, the UN imposed economic sanctions on Iraq, including a full trade embargo barring all imports from and exports to Iraq, except medical supplies, foodstuffs, and other items of humanitarian need.

Presumably the sanctions were imposed to prevent the development and proliferation of chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction.

In September 1998, Denis Halliday head of the UN humanitarian programme in Iraq, resigned claiming he could no longer administer 'an immoral and illegal' policy.

In 1999 a Unicef report calculated that more than half a million Iraqi children had died as a direct result of sanctions. On average 200 Iraqi children are dying every day.

In February 2000, the new head of the UN humanitarian programme in Iraq resigned claiming he 'could not tolerate ...seeing with his own eyes a genocide crime being committed against the Iraqi people and remain idle toward it'.

This week, the Iraq Dossier claims: 'Iraq is between one and two years from building a nuclear weapon...chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction can be ready within 45 minutes... Iraq is still holding stock of chemical and biological weapons. Iraq put £1.9 bn into its weapons programme last year from illicit earnings generated outside UN control."

Have these sanctions worked?

Mark Harris

Manor Close, Cirencester