Minute
on Humanitarian Aid to the People of Iraq
Approved
Meeting for Business September 17, 2000
We in Acadia
Friends Meeting believe in continuing and respectful negotiations
with all nations whether or not we agree with their policies.
We are deeply distressed to know that United States and UN efforts
to force Saddam Hussein to comply with cease fire and disarmament
resolutions are causing great suffering for the people of Iraq.
After more
than nine years, the economic sanctions imposed by the U.S.
and the UN have not only failed to move Saddam Hussein, they
have created a humanitarian disaster.
According
to UNICEF, the sanctions have resulted in the deaths of more
than half a million children under the age of five. An equal
or greater number of older children and adult civilians have
also died as a result of malnutrition and lack of medicines
and basic services such as clean water, waste disposal, electricity
and communications systems. Two United Nations Humanitarian
Coordinators in Iraq (one an Irish Quaker, Dennis Halliday)
and the head of the World Food Program in Iraq have resigned
in protest--a powerful repudiation of the UN sanctions and oil-for-food
program.
1.We
call on Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and Representative
John Baldacci
a)
to urge the U.S. Departments of Treasury and State and the
U.S. Mission to the UN to grant the application of the AFSC
for a license to send water purification equipment to Iraq,
and
b)
to support legislation to end U.S. comprehensive economic
sanctions against Iraq, as proposed in H.R. 3825. We also
support retraining sanctions that deny benefits to the privileged
elite and the embargo on all military equipment and supplies
to Iraq.
2. We
also endorse and support the Campaign of Conscience for the
Iraqi People sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee
and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. As one way to express
our support for alleviating the suffering of the Iraqi people,
we authorize Meeting funds in the amount of $500 from the
Peace and Social Justice account to be sent to the Campaign
of Conscience.
We understand
that this will be used to buy water purification equipment
and/or other materials to provide clean water, food and medicine
for the Iraqi people, such materials to be sent whether or
not the U.S. government issues the requested license for their
shipment. We also understand that sending this material without
government approval would be an act of conscience and civil
disobedience that we undertake in order to do what we can
to help alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi people.
Acadia
Friends Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
Box
21
Bar
Harbor, ME 04609
OTHER
QUAKER STATEMENTS & LETTERS
Reviewed:
09/06/2005
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