04 June 2001
Under the guise of extending the Oil for Food Programme, recent actions of the United States of America and Britain in the Security Council of the United Nations are aimed to impose increased sanctions on Iraq.
The South African Communist Party (SACP) condemns the US and British governments for these attempts to increase sanctions on Iraq. The already existing sanctions are hurting ordinary Iraqi people. The SACP calls on the UN Security Council to ensure that these sanctions are lifted as a matter of urgency. The South African government must play an appropriate role in this regard.
These sanctions are not imposed in the interests of democracy, human rights and development of Iraqi people and the Middle East as a whole. They are rather tied up to the imperialist interests of the US and Britain in the Middle East. These moves by the US and Britain are attempts to suffocate the Iraqi economy further and to infringe on the sovereignty of Iraqi and other countries which have economic relations with Iraq.
The same US government which pleads democracy in Iraq is fully behind apartheid and Zionist Israel which is continuing with its aggression against Palestinians and denying the Palestinians their freedom. And the British government has not taken any steps to condemn either Israel or the US in this regard.
The SACP will continue to work for Palestinian self-determination, democracy and socio-economic development in Iraq and the Middle East as a whole.
CONTACT
Mazibuko K. Jara (surname Jara)
Dept. of Media, Information and Publicity - South African Communist Party
Tel: 011 339 3621
Fax: 011 339 4244
Email: sacp1@wn.apc.org
Cell: 083 651 0271