104 Protesters Arrested at White House

Police arrested 104 people Monday as they sat down in front of the White House to protest the crippling decade-old international sanctions against Iraq.

Many of the 250 demonstrators at the White House and Treasury Department chanted, “Stop the killing of Iraqi children.” Some held aloft loaves of bread and others held signs reading “Iraqi children Holocaust II” and “Remember Iraq.”

Those arrested were cited for demonstrating without a permit--which carries a $50 fine that can be mailed back--and were released, police said.

Protesters oppose sanctions imposed shortly after Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, provoking the Gulf War. The sanctions can’t be lifted until U.N. weapons inspectors certify that Iraq’s biological, chemical and nuclear weapons and the missiles used to deliver them have been destroyed--but Hussein has barred the inspectors from doing their job.

“We don’t agree with Saddam, but you can’t punish a whole nation for what one man has done,” said Michael Borkson of Boston.

Critics blame the sanctions for Iraq’s economic decline and an increase in malnutrition, disease and deaths, especially among children.

Concerned by the deteriorating situation, the U.N. Security Council opened a loophole to its embargo in 1996 called the oil-for-food program. It has allowed Iraq to sell oil as long as about half of the proceeds buy essentials for its people. Most of the rest goes to pay war reparations and U.N. administrative costs.

The United States government, a major proponent of the sanctions, says Hussein is enriching himself and his friends with the oil revenue while his people suffer.

“I feel as if I’m living in Germany before the Holocaust and I need to stand up and say this is wrong,” said protester Grace C. Sims of Arlington, Va. “If I don’t, I am complicit.”

Monday’s nonviolent protest on Pennsylvania Avenue was the final event in three days of activities promoted by a national coalition of about 90 U.S. organizations, including church and peace groups from across the U.S. On Sunday more than 300 people, including folk singer Pete Seeger and Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader, marched and rallied.