Sanctions bring unintended result, observers say

Inspectors with high-tech gear and a United Nations mandate charge around this southern seaport, on this day examining ships loaded with beans and rice to make sure they are not concealing electronics, or chemicals or even weapons, banned under the strict sanctions imposed on Iraq a decade ago.

But at a nearby pier docks the Jabal Ali, a passenger liner that cruises between this impoverished city and the oil-rich United Arab Emirates. The inspectors never so much as glance at its cargo -- even though it frequently holds smuggled goods, according to merchants and local officials.

The sanctions imposed on Iraq are supposed to allow delivery of humanitarian goods under a United Nations-administered “oil-for-food” program and keep out anything with a possible military application. But inspectors have no authority to check ships or trucks transporting anything that is not designated as part of the program. So essential items such as food, medicine and parts to rebuild the country’s water and electricity systems get caught up in red tape, while computers, DVD players, microwave ovens and other banned wares glide right in.

“You can buy anything you want here if you have the money,” said George Sommerwill, a spokesman for the UN program in Iraq. “A lot of stuff available is clearly outside the oil-for-food program.”

The selective nature of the sanctions has helped change Iraq’s image from dangerous aggressor to hapless victim, particularly among the millions of Muslims who blame the West for their own grinding poverty. It is hardly an accident that Islamic extremists such as Osama bin Laden frequently cite Iraq to justify their terrorist campaign against the United States, which they say has terrorized the Iraqi people.

Push for renewal expected

With U.N. Security Council authorization for the sanctions set to expire next month, many Iraqi and non-Iraqi officials believe the Bush administration plans to use its war on terrorism to push for renewal.

The United States has lobbied for tough sanctions against Baghdad since the Persian Gulf war but it has also recognized difficulties with the program. This summer, it pushed to create “smart sanctions,” designed to clamp down on smuggling while bringing humanitarian goods in more quickly. Iraq strongly opposed the plan, arguing that it would effectively make sanctions permanent, and blocked its implementation with the help of Russia.

Sanctions have succeeded in stopping Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from rebuilding his military machine wholesale. But nongovernment workers and foreign diplomats in Iraq point to mounting evidence that the program has empowered the regime it was meant to bring down, harmed civilians and failed to stop the import of materials useful to the military.

“Sanctions are hitting the population, generations of people, having a devastating effect on society,” said one diplomat based in Baghdad.

Once a prosperous oil town, Basra today is a crumbling Third World dustbin. Raw sewage runs into the streets and contaminates tap water. Electricity is intermittent. Refrigeration is achieved with huge blocks of ice sold on roadsides. Sheep graze in piles of trash, and barefoot children run around dusty streets.

At one of the local ports, at least 20 huge cargo ships are lining up to bring products into Iraq. This is not the Umm al Qasr port, where purchases made under the oil-for-food program undergo daily inspections -- and may become subject to delays that can last years. This is a “private” port, where goods are received outside the sanctions regime.

Iraq considers these legal imports, and charges the appropriate duties; the United Nations views them as illegal but has no authority to intervene. Officially, it is the duty of exporting countries to control smuggling into Iraq.

These deliveries have brought luxury items such as high-end electronics and late-model Jaguars and BMWs into the country. They also have allowed Iraq to rebuild its air defense system in the south, U.S. officials say. U.S. and British planes patrolling the southern “no-fly” zone established after the Persian Gulf war have recently stepped up strikes in the Basra region, citing hostile actions by the Iraqis.

Protracted feud

Even before Iraqi occupiers were driven from Kuwait by a U.S.-led coalition, the U.N. Security Council put a noose around the Iraqi regime in the form of sanctions. Security Council Resolution 661 prohibited any imports or exports except food or medicine. That meant Iraq could not sell any of its oil.

After the war, the United Nations reported “an imminent catastrophe ... if minimum life support needs are not met rapidly.” The Security Council in August 1991 offered Iraq the chance to sell oil as long as the proceeds would be controlled by the United Nations.

Hussein rejected the proposal and tried to go it alone. But conditions grew so bad that, five years later, he agreed to the oil-for-food formula. Eventually, a spending cap was lifted and Iraq was allowed to use the program to rebuild its devastated infrastructure, including water, electric and sewage systems.

Since 1996, the program has sold more than $35 billion in oil. But only $11 billion in goods were actually distributed in the country, according to the United Nations. About $14 billion worth of goods has been approved, some of it as long as three years ago, and is slowly working its way through the system.

Some U.S. officials say Iraq is undermining the program to use the suffering of its people as a public relations tool. Humanitarian supplies are stockpiled instead of distributed, they charge, and Iraq has not used all the money available to buy more. But Sommerwill, the U.N. spokesman, said the “government of Iraq is cooperating.”

The problem is more one of structure and bureaucracy, he said. Under the oil-for-food program, one-third of the cash raised goes to pay war reparation claims. About 2 percent goes to cover U.N.-related expenses. The remaining money is to be spent on Iraq. But it must wind its way through a tangled bureaucracy, including a committee that must certify that all commodities purchased with the money do not have a dual military use.

Since most items needed to rebuild the infrastructure -- or in many cases to provide health care -- can have some dual use, about $4 billion in contracts, some going back to 1998, have been put on hold by the committee.

Delays cause alarm

The delays in getting goods where they are needed has alarmed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who in a recent report said he is “gravely concerned.” The UN reports chronic problems in every sector of society. In agriculture, for example, the failure to release 850 tons of pesticides for fruit and vegetable production resulted in a “grave outbreak of whitefly,” affecting thousands of acres.

At the same time, there is frustration among many in Iraq who witness the disparities. It is widely believed that Baghdad smuggles oil to Jordan and Turkey, bringing in $1 billion to $3 billion annually, while the United States looks the other way. One nongovernment official estimated that for every truck that comes across the border from Turkey under the sanctions program, 200 more cross with smuggled goods.

Wamidh Nadhimi, an Iraqi political science professor, believes that, at least for the short term, sanctions have empowered the government by making all of Iraq’s people dependent on it to survive. He would have his country seek a compromise -- one that allows weapons inspectors in Iraq for a finite period in exchange for dropping the sanctions.

But given the recent tensions, he is not optimistic that a compromise can be found.

“If there is no compromise and if Americans achieve success in Afghanistan, I think in November and December they will deal with Iraq with a very heavy hand,” he said. “Psychologically, America is not prepared to accept losing the war on sanctions.”