Nick Smith, April 27, 2003

Certain members of the U.N. Security Council, after having blocked the effort to secure a second resolution in support of disarming Iraq, are now maneuvering to maintain influence at the expense of the Iraqi people. Russia has proposed maintaining the sanctions that were placed on Saddam Hussein’s regime that prohibit the free export of oil and prevent the importation of most goods. France has suggested a "suspension" of the sanctions, which includes the implicit threat that they could be re-imposed.

For both nations, the cynical goal is to maintain some power and influence in Iraq and gain benefits for their companies from the rebuilding. Another goal is to protect contracts granted to Russian and French companies by Saddam Hussein. Maintaining these sanctions is inappropriate because they harm the people of Iraq. It also represents an about-face, since both France and Russia fought to remove sanctions during the late 1990s when Iraq was under Saddam Hussein’s control, supposedly to relieve the suffering of the Iraqi people.

I believe that the sanctions were imposed on Saddam Hussein’s outlaw regime when it refused to comply with the ceasefire conditions after the first Gulf War. Now that his regime has ended, and the coalition is in the process of creating a new democratic Iraq and disarming Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, the sanctions should be removed completely and without condition. I have introduced a resolution in Congress calling on the U.N. Security Council to end all sanctions and hope that the Administration will push to see that the sanctions are removed or simply start expanding trade.

Iraq is in poor shape after two-and-a-half decades of Hussein’s rule. There is some damage from the recent war, of course. But far more extensive is the damage from neglect, Hussein’s prior wars, and his continuous looting of the Iraqi treasury. Saddam Hussein, in fact, exercised complete personal control over Iraq’s oil revenues for most of his rule. Rather than fix the damage of his wars or maintain Iraq’s infrastructure and public services, he built dozens of lavish palaces, and spent untold sums on his military and secret police. Further, intelligence officials estimate that he has stashed away between $300 million and $1 billion for himself in foreign bank accounts. When you also consider that many regime cronies and Hussein relatives have their own palaces and fat foreign bank accounts, it is little wonder that the Iraqi people are in such bad shape.

Iraq’s resources belong to its people. There is no good reason -- now that Hussein has fallen -- for the U.N. to interfere with oil sales. Some in the U.N. support the sanctions because they provide work and authority for the bureaucracy. France and Russia are objecting to their removal only to pry political concessions from the U.S. and the coalition. We should not cave to them now after they have demonstrated their hostility to our goals and refused to participate in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The conflict in Iraq has already called the authority and integrity of the U.N. Security Council into question. If the Council fails to remove the sanctions promptly, it will suffer another serious blow to its prestige. The political games need to end and the Council should recognize how conditions in Iraq have changed.

Congressman Nick Smith represents the 7th District Congressional of Michigan in the U.S. House of Representatives.