wfn.org | Defy sanctions, help Iraqi people, Armenian church leader tells

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Note #6796 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

PC(USA)
16-August-2001
01279

Defy sanctions, help Iraqi people, Armenian church leader tells PC(USA)

'Immoral' restrictions should be rejected by 'good Samaritans,' he says

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The leader of Iraq's Armenian Christians has called on the
Presbyterian Church (USA) to defy U.S. government-led sanctions against Iraq
and resume humanitarian assistance to the people of that country.

	"I encourage the PC(USA) to defy the sanctions because they are immoral,"
Archbishop Avak Asadourian, Armenian Apostolic Church Prelate of Baghdad,
told a small gathering at the Presbyterian Center here Aug. 10. "The
elderly, the sick and the children are dying."

	Worldwide Ministries Division officials have been unsuccessful in attempts
to secure a license from the U.S. Treasury Department to reestablish relief
and development activities in Iraq through the Jinishian Memorial Program
(JMP), a 35-year-old endowed program that provides assistance to Armenians
throughout the world.

	JMP efforts in Iraq were suspended when the Gulf War broke out in 1991. "We
are working on a license," said JMP coordinator David Nelson. "Jinishian is
poised and ready. All is in place except the license."

	Asadourian said the PC(USA)'s concern "gives us in Iraq a sense of
solidarity." But concern without action is not sufficient, he added. "People
of good will should not just pray," he told the Presbyterian News Service in
an exclusive interview after his public meeting. "The church must do
something, to have that fiery spirit of the early church and say, 'Enough is
enough. The sanctions don't make sense to us, and we're not going to sit by
any more while people suffer. We're going to be good Samaritans.'"

	The 2000 General Assembly called for the lifting of the U.S.-backed United
Nations sanctions against Iraq. But the PC(USA) is not ready to defy them,
said the Rev. Victor Makari, coordinator for the Middle East and interfaith
relations in the Worldwide Ministries Division. "If the license effort
fails, there are those who believe 'civil disobedience' should be
undertaken," he said. "We are not at that point yet."

	The sanctions are counter-productive in a variety of ways, Asadourian said.
"The sanctions were promulgated for a certain specific reason (to topple the
Saddam Hussein regime) that apparently didn't work," he explained. "Now they
are just hurting the people and, ironically, strengthened the support for
Saddam."

	The sanctions are also weakening the influence of the Christian church in
Iraq, Asadourian said. "As the situation for the people worsens, activity
among the Islamic fundamentalists increases, which necessitates greater
activity by the churches to retain adherents. This too, is ironic, because
Christians - which comprise just 5 percent of the Iraqi population - have
always been able to function alongside Muslims without rancor in Iraq," he
said.

	Moreover, the sanctions contributed to "the introduction of social ills" in
Iraq that Asadourian called "a loss of innocence." Sitting on vast oil
reserves, Iraq before the Gulf War was an affluent country with social
services such as health care and education completely free to Iraqis.

	All that is gone, Asadourian said, "and now, for the first time, we have
begging in the streets, street urchins who hustle for their families'
livelihood, homelessness, corruption and opportunism - none of this existed
before."

	International relief efforts are also being adversely affected, Asadourian
said, calling the economic devastation of formerly-affluent Iraq "a triple
tragedy." Prior to the Gulf War, he explained, Iraq was a "humanitarian
aid-donating country." Now, he continued, "the sanctions are hurting Iraq's
people, U.S. aid that could go elsewhere is instead going to Iraq, and Iraq
is not allowed to donate to others."

	Resumption of JMP assistance could make a big difference, Asadourian said,
though it will take "generations" to recover from the effects of the
sanctions, even if they are lifted tomorrow. "There's an immorality in
deliberately hurting 23 million people in pursuit of a political and
economic goal," he sighed, "and this physically stunted, emotionally
crippled and spiritually damaged generation feels they have been let down,
primarily by the sanctions."
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