The *FREE ARAB VOICE*
August 2, 1997

On the seventh anniversary of the fall of the sanctity of the
artificial borders that separate Arab states, we dedicate this
entire special issue of the Free Arab Voice to IRAQ and its tormented
people.  Topics include:

1) The Continuing War against Iraq: The Point of View of the Free Arab  
   Voice.

2) Action Alert: Eight Specific Ways *YOU* Can Make a Difference, by 
   Rania Masri of Iraq Action Coalition.

3) An Open Letter to Mr. Richard Butler, from Ibrahim Ebeid of the   
   Arab-American Democratic Committee.

4) 'The Killing Fields', by Ghazi Assali of ADC (New Orleans).

5) Meaningful News about Iraq from the Media.

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Dear Friends, 

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	Thank you for your understanding- FAV editors.

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1) The Continuing War Against Iraq: Our View

The Arab nation is a life force that sprang forth from the 
confluence of a common history, a common language, a common cultural 
heritage molded by the Islamic religion, a common destiny, and a common 
geographical area that extends from Mauritania to Iraq, and from Syria 
to Sudan.

But unlike other nations on this planet, this Arab nation was 
not able to express itself politically in the form of the institutions 
of a nation-state, one centralized nation-state.

Instead, our nation has been divided into scattered fragments of 
mini-states, twenty to be exact, and some of its land has been under 
direct foreign occupation as is the case of Palestine.

Thus the borders that separate Arab states should be regarded as 
virtually artificial. And consequently the regimes that exist within 
these artificial borders should be regarded as completely illegitimate, 
except to the extent that they try to overcome these artificial borders.

The creation of the Zionist entity of "Israel" was meant to thwart the
unity of the Asian and African wings of the Arab nation, as much as the
persistence of Arab disunity perpetuates the existence of "Israel".

To prove this point on the presence of a historical linkage between
the Arab-Zionist conflict, on one hand, and the struggle to achieve
Arab unity on the other, Viscount Palmerstone, a former minister of
Britain, wrote to his ambassador in Istanbul, Turkey, upon the failure
to reunite the Arab nation by Muhammad Ali Pasha, a ruler of Egypt
from the first half of the 19th century, due to colonial and 
British intervention:

"The return of the Jewish people to Palestine, represents a 
bulwark against any evil designs prepared by Muhammad Ali or whoever 
succeeds him".  (British Foreign Ministry document dated 8/11/1940, JB 
78-380 No.134).

Upon the division of the Arab Homeland in 1916 by Syckes and Picot,
the British and French foreign ministers then, oil had not been 
discovered yet in Arab lands.  Thus the division ensured that any
single Arab state on its own would not be able to pose a serious threat
to the interests of colonial powers in the region. Each Arab state taken
by itself is left lacking either in manpower, capital, water,
agricultural land, or some combination of these.

The discovery and nationalization of oil in Iraq made it possible,
upon the availability of a determined leadership, to combine several
elements of power, and hence pose a strategic threat to colonial 
arrangements; an option that wasn't available to Nassir, the late 
president of Egypt, inspite of his unitarian intentions and plans.

Therefore we believe what's taking place now is an attempt to destroy
any potential base of Arab unity regardless of the identity of 
the rulers. 
 

The purpose of the massive bombardment as well as the genocidal 
sanctions has been to destroy Iraq, its scientific and economic 
installations, its mosques and churches, its bridges and highways,
its tankers and oil installations, its factories, its people, its
civil society, its state, and its ancient and modern civilization.

What's taking place now is an attempt to rectify and update the 
infamous Syckes-Picot agreement, and possibly an attempt to break up 
Iraq into smaller pieces, as was suggested by the former National 
Security Advisor Zbignew Brizenski in a forum moderated by former 
president Jimmy Carter towards the onset of the aerial campaign.  This 
is why the allied warplanes kept attacking mainly non-military targets 
in Iraq, and why the governments of the U.S., Britain, and "Israel", 
keep on attacking these very same targets nowadays with murderous 
sanctions.

	But Iraq will live on.

And whether the criminals like it or not, Arab unity IS 
coming... 

But in the meantime let's all do all that we can to lift and 
violate the unjust sanctions against the people of Iraq. It's the 
least we CAN do.  Please read on below about how you can help.

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2) Break the Silence! ...  by Rania Masri (rmasri@leb.net)

During the First World War, the Turkish army imposed a blockade on
Lebanon.  Lebanon was not self-sufficient, and was deprived of the
importation of food.  Then the locusts came for two years, and ate
everything from the smallest blade of grass to the old oaks.

The people died of starvation on the roads and sidewalks and inside
their houses. Had the war lasted longer, the extermination may have
been complete ... leaving no one to tell the story. 

Many decades later, in the same region, another war is being imposed ... 
and has lasted, so far, for seven years.  Once again, people are dying 
of starvation. Thousands of children are dying out of lack of food 
every month. Throughout this country, more than 4 million people -- 
more than the population of Lebanon -- are suffering from severe 
malnutrition.  

Over the past seven years, between one to two million people 
have died ... died from insufficient food and easily treatable
diseases.

The horror is not merely that such immense suffering is taking place,
but that this suffering is being forcefully imposed. Their country is
rich, yet they are prevented from utilizing its wealth to feed
themselves. Their land is fertile, yet they are prevented from 
maintaining their agricultural supplies and irrigation systems to feed
themselves. The locusts that attacked their fields were military planes
that burned the lands with nuclear weapons. (Yes! Nuclear weapons -- 
specifically 300 tons of depleted uranium!)

Iraq has been suffering.  Iraq continues to suffer.  The children of
Iraq cry out in pain. 

History does not merely repeat itself; it intensifies its horrors, it
deepens the suffering. We must not allow it!  The children of Iraq do 
not cry out in silence -- they cry out to us!  We hear their pain, and 
we must give strength to their voices so that the whole world will hear 
their pain, so that the conscience of the world will awaken to their 
cries. 

What can we do?  What can you do?  Here are some brief suggestions...

1. First of all, we must educate ourselves about the impact of the 
blockade on the people of Iraq, and about the international movements 
struggling to lift the blockade.  How?  Simple -- join the Iraq Action 
Coalition Mailing List (E-mail: IAC@leb.net), and you will receive news 
and action alerts directly to your e-mail account.  Also, refer to the 
Iraq Action Coalition website (http://leb.net/IAC/) for detailed 
information on the effects of the illegal blockade.

2. Gather signatures for the latest petition-campaign, sponsored by the
ADC-Task Force for Iraq (E-mail: IAC@leb.net or adc@adc.org for a copy 
of petition).  The goal is to raise 100,000 signatures to demand the 
immediate end to the blockade on the people of Iraq.

3. Write letters to the media (as letters to the editor or guest 
columns) and to your representative and senator in government. (Sample 
letters and addresses are available on the IAC website - 
http://leb.net/IAC/)

4. Organize a fund-raiser to send relief to Iraq.  Send the money via 
the International Relief Association, the largest relief organization 
working for Iraq.  (Call: 1-800 827-3543, or E-mail: reliefusa@aol.com)

5. Support organizations opposing the blockade, such as the 
International Action Center and Voices in the Wilderness.  A detailed 
listing of active organizations is available at: 
http://leb.net/IAC/organizations.html

6. Organize an educational event about the impact of the blockade on the
people of Iraq, and raise awareness and activism locally.  Potential and
experienced speakers include:

** Voices in the Wilderness (Kathy Kelly & other delegates)
E-mail: kkelly@igc.apc.org; Tel: 1-312 784-8065; Fax: 1-312 784-8837
** International Action Center (Ramsey Clark, Sara Flounders & other
representatives)
E-mail: iacenter@iacenter.org; Tel: 1-212 633-6646; Fax: 1-212 633-2889
** International Relief Association (numerous representatives throughout
North America)
E-mail: reliefusa@aol.com; Tel: 1-800 827-3543; Fax: 1-810 772-3159
** Iraq Action Coalition (Rania Masri)
E-mail:  IAC@leb.net; Tel: 1-919 848-4738; Fax: 1-919 846-7422

For a more detailed list of additional speakers, please contact one of 
the four organizations listed above. 

7.  Show documentaries that vividly portray the effects of the blockade 
on Iraq.  Two excellent documentaries are:  The Children Are Dying, and 
The Children of the Cradle.  To order "The Children Are Dying," contact 
the International Action Center at (212) 633-6646; to order "The 
Children of the Cradle," contact the International Relief Association at 
1-800 827-3543.  

8.  Contact local churches, mosques, human-rights organizations, local 
peace movements, and the media.  Invite them to your educational event, 
or send them a copy of a video-documentary or a powerful, informative 
book on the blockade, such as "The Children Are Dying" book.  (To order 
this book, which is the accompaniment of "The Children Are Dying" video, 
contact the International Action Center at (212) 633-6646.)

Throughout your activism, remember the words of Gibran Khalil Gibran 
when he lamented the starvation in Lebanon.  He wrote, "My people died 
with their arms stretched toward both East and West and their eyes 
seeking in the darkness of the skies.  They died in silence because the 
ears of humanity had become deaf to their cry." 

It is our obligation, our obligation to the pursuit of humanity and
justice, our obligation to our people, to break the silence.  Together, 
we can ...  and we will. 
 

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	A Message from Canada: from sister Noor Grant

	I am launching a network in Canada to lobby against the 
sanctions against Iraq.  You can visit my new web site at  
http://www.web.net/~gccwat/iraq I would like to hear from you.

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3) A Open Letter to Mr. Richard Butler, by Ibrahim Ebeid of    
Arab-American Democratic Committee 

               Ekeus and the Iraqi Children
               ============================
Dear Mr.Richard Butler,

The embargo was unjustly imposed upon Iraq by the U.N.(U.S.) and Mr. 
Ekeus was responsible for prolonging the suffering of the Iraqi people.
Iraq has met all the requirements for lifting the sanctions, but he 
created more and more problems by fabricating more lies to prolong the
embargo,and the war of genocide against the Iraqi people.

Mr.Ekeus  became the operator of the death machine that starves the
entire nation and kills more than five thousand children, a month,
under the age of five years old.

Iraq was not obstructing his work, the Iraqi officials were
cooperating with him and with his committee, they were doing their
utmost to facilitate his mission, and many times he has admitted
so, but as soon as he was leaving, he started creating problems on
mere suspicions, and doubts.

Ekeus had stated in his last report, that little remained unknown about
Baghdad's nuclear, biological, chemical and ballistic missile potential,
but what was unknown could still cause devastating damage and casualties.

Also he added that if a single missile warhead were filled with
antrax, an infectious animal disease that can spread to humans,
"millions of lethal doses could be spread in an attack on any city
of the region,".

He cannot build facts on assumptions on ifs and ifs.

The facts Mr.Butler, that he was ignoring are:

The entire nation is being punished and put to starve by him and his
likes.

More than 700,000 children have died ,in the last six years at the
average of 5000 a month.

The medical facility in Iraq, which was the best in the Middle East, is
now on the verge of collapsing.

The lethal disease that is spreading in Iraq is not caused by gas, it
is caused by the lethal embargo that hewas prolonging to satisfy his
friends in Washington and in London.

Now we have a new man in charge. We hope that he stands for his words
and be free of any pressure to deviate him from his path. We hope that
he will convey the truth to help eliminate the genocide imposed on Iraq
by the United Nations ( United States )

Mr. Butler, the embargo has killed more than a million people, let your
conscience be the judge, and put humanity and facts above all interests
Mr. Butler we will hold you responsible for your words ' 

 ``The spirit has been good, the tasks have been
                         set and the proof will be in those outcomes,''
                         

Ibrahim Ebeid
Arab American Democratic Committee
P.O.Box 3053
Guttenberg N.J.07093
U.S.A.

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4)"The Killing Fields", by Ghazi Assali of ADC (New Orleans)

It is not Cambodia, Rwanda, or Bosnia, but it is and has been Iraq
since the end of the Gulf war in 1991.

As a result of that war, economic sanctions have been imposed on 
Iraq with the purpose of punishing the entire country's population for 
the deeds of their leadership.  

Does it sound like collective punishment?  I believe it is, with 
the effect of causing the death of over 700,000 children since the
END of hostilities!

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) 
reported a last year that more than one million Iraqis have died- 
567,000 of them children- as a direct consequence of economic 
sanctions...as many as 12% of children surveyed in Baghdad are wasted, 
28% stunted, and 29% underweight.  

Each ten minutes, a child under five dies in Iraq, totaling 4,500 
every month from hunger and disease according to UNICEF.  

Up to 95% of all pregnant women in Iraq suffer from anemia, and 
thus will give birth to weak, malnourished infants.  Most of these 
infants will either die before reaching the age of five due to the lack 
of food and basic medicines or will be permanently scarred.

When asked by Leslie Stahl on 60 minutes (after Leslie's trip to 
Iraq) on May 12, 1996 about the devastation she had seen among the 
children of Iraq, Madeleine Albright, then United Nations Ambassador 
answered: "It is a hard decision, Leslie, but we think the price ... is 
worth it".  An answer worthy of a tyrant or a bloody dictator!!!

Economic sanctions are a weapon of mass destruction with its 
victims being the weakest sections of society: the poor, the elderly,
and especially children.

When we destroy the water purification, sewage treatment and 
medical care systems of a country, and then deny it the technical and 
economic means to restore these systems, we are basically allowing 
biological disease organisms in untreated water and sewage to kill the 
civilian population.

Moreover, the U.N. permission to sell $4 billion worth of oil (in
a year) to buy food to stop the genocide is nowhere sufficient to
solve the problem since it only trickles down to $7.50 a month per
person after paying for war reparations and repairing pipelines.

As for the environmental impact of firing more than 500 tons of 
highly toxic and radioactive depleted uranium (DU) during the war by
allied forces, more than 70% of the uranium oxidizes into a fine aerosol
mist which is inhaled into the lungs contaminating the food and water
supply, and resulting in numerous immune system related diseases,
cancers, congenital deformities, leukemia, and renal and hepatic 
dysfunction which are occurring all over Iraq and among US, UK, and 
other allied soldiers.

Isn't it about time to stop the massacre?

The Geneva conventions stated that the "..starvation of civilians 
as a method of warfare is prohibited".  The Iraqi people are forced to 
live in poverty, watch their malnourished children die, live in sewage 
flooded areas, and receive inadequate medical services due to the 
sanctions.

Antibiotics, graphite for pencils, tires, chlorine to purify the 
water, school textbooks, etc... are not military supplies, so why in 
God's name are we preventing such items to enter Iraq?

It is time to end the genocide and stop killing the children of 
Iraq.

It is time for human decency and sympathy for those kids who are 
dying just because they're born in what used to be known as the
cradle of civilization.

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5) News from Iraq:

	A Move in the Right Direction:
	Syria allows citizens to go to Iraq

DAMASCUS, July 27 (UPI) _ An official source says Syrian citizens are
now free to travel to Iraq in a move to ease tensions between the two 
countries. 

Syria and Iraq reopened the border nearly two months ago, allowing
reciprocal visits by businessmen promoting renewed trade between the
two countries, which severed diplomatic ties in 1980.

        Genocide in Legal Disguise: 
        Associated Press (July 24,1997)

Iraq has repeatedly complained of delays in the arrival of food and 
medicine and has blamed the United States for holding up contracts that 
must be approved by a special U.N. committee. 

**** Iraq to date has received 1.1 million tons of food -- half of what 
it issued contracts for.  *****

The Health Ministry, meanwhile, says that just $7 million worth of drugs
and medical equipment have arrived out of more than $210 million that 
were ordered.

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