wfn.org | Religious Leaders Urge End to Iraq Embargo

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Email: news@ncccusa.org  Web: www.ncccusa.org
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227

107NCC9/28/99 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RELIGIOUS LEADERS URGE END TO EMBARGO OF IRAQ

 Sept. 28, 1999, NEW YORK ---- Today twenty-four leading 
American Christian religious leaders, including heads of 
major Christian denominations, joined in urging President 
Clinton to support lifting the nine-year-old economic 
embargo against Iraq.

 The religious leaders cited "clear evidence that the 
embargo against Iraq is contributing to falling living 
standards and life expectancy.  By almost every measure - - 
such as malnutrition, child mortality and overall morbidity 
- - the situation of most Iraqi civilians has deteriorated 
markedly over the past eight years."

 It is morally imperative, the religious leaders 
concluded, for the international community to ease the 
intolerable suffering of the Iraqi civilian population 
caused in part by the embargo's indiscriminate effects.

 "Since the end of the Gulf War, the U.S. Catholic 
bishops have repeatedly called for ending the economic 
embargo, but we are increasingly concerned and impatient 
with the morally intolerable suffering that continues in the 
absence of any change of policy," said Bishop Joseph A. 
Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston, President of the National 
Conference of Catholic Bishops.

 "The U.S. churches individually and together have 
consistently spoken out about the immoral level of suffering 
created by the sanctions against Iraq, but this is the first 
time that church leaders from the Catholic, Protestant and 
Orthodox traditions have raised our voices together," said 
Bishop Craig B. Anderson of the Episcopal Church USA, 
President of the National Council of Churches of Christ in 
the USA.  "We believe this will strengthen our common 
witness and impress upon our government the urgency of the 
situation."

 The religious leaders have expressed grave concern 
about the embargo's effects on a number of occasions over 
the past several years.  They appreciate the fact that there 
have been and now are discussions within the United Nations 
Security Council about the embargo's impact on Iraqi 
civilians.

Today, however, the religious leaders called attention 
to the failure of existing efforts adequately to address the 
humanitarian crisis.  The UN-sponsored oil-for-food program, 
they said, "was never intended to meet the overall needs of 
Iraq's people. . . and can not meet basic needs, much less 
fund the rebuilding of Iraq's infrastructure and civilian 
economy, which alone can ensure adequate nutrition and 
health standards."

The Iraqi government, the religious leaders pointed 
out, has contributed to the suffering of its own people by 
failing to comply with the Gulf War cease-fire resolutions 
and by failing to take full advantage of existing exemptions 
to feed and care for its people.  "The Iraqi government's 
actions, however, do not relieve the international community 
of its responsibility to end the dreadful suffering caused 
by the embargo.  The international community cannot pursue 
its legitimate goals of eliminating Iraq's weapons of mass 
destruction by threatening the lives and livelihood of 
innocent people."

 The religious leaders called for lifting restrictions 
on normal trade in ordinary civilian goods, "while 
maintaining appropriate political sanctions and a strict 
embargo on military-related items.  Taking these steps 
should not be seen as rewarding irresponsible conduct on the 
part of the Iraqi government, but as necessary to relieve a 
morally intolerable situation for which the international 
community bears a share of responsibility."

 "More focused and morally defensible means" of 
eliminating Iraq's weapons of mass destruction should be 
pursued within the context of regional disarmament called 
for by UN Security Council Resolution 687, they added.

 This appeal to President Clinton was signed by the 
following religious leaders:The Right Reverend Craig B. 
Anderson, President, NCCCUSA; The Reverend George H. 
Anderson, Presiding Bishop, The Evangelical Lutheran Church 
in America; Mathews Mar Barnabas, Metropolitan of the 
American Diocese of the Malankara Orthodox Church (India); 
Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate, Diocese of the 
Armenian Church of America; John A. Buehrens, President, 
Unitarian Universalist Association; The Rev. Joan Brown 
Campbell, General Secretary, The National Council of the 
Churches of Christ in the USA; Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza, 
President, National Conference of Catholic Bishops; Brother 
Stephen Glodek, SM, President, Catholic Conference of Major 
Superiors of Men's Institutes; Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, 
General Secretary, Reformed Church of America; The Most 
Reverend Frank T. Griswold, Presiding Bishop and Primate, 
Episcopal Church, USA; William Boyd Grove, Ecumenical 
Officer, United Methodist Council of Bishops; Richard L. 
Hamm, General Minister and President, The Christian Church 
Disciples of Christ in the U.S. and Canada; Archbishop Cyril 
Aphrem Karim, Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch; Clifton 
Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, 
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); Dr. Ronald J.R. Mathies, 
Executive Director, Mennonite Central Committee; Johan 
Maurer, General Secretary, Friends United Meeting; Kara 
Newell, Executive Director, American Friends Service 
Committee; Metropolitan Philip Saliba, Primate, Antiochian 
Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America; Paul H. 
Sherry, President United Church of Christ; Metropolitan 
Theodosius, Primate, Orthodox Church in America; The Right 
Reverend Dr. Zacharias Mar Theophilus, Bishop, Mar Thomas 
Church; Joe Volk, Executive Secretary, Friends Committee on 
National Legislation; Bishop Vsevolod, Ukrainian Orthodox 
Church of USA; The Rev. Dr. Daniel Weiss, General Secretary, 
American Baptist Churches

NOTE: A full text copy of the letter to President Clinton is 
available from NCC news at 212-870-2227.

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