This month, two extraordinary men came to London and spoke about a silent holocaust, and not a word of what they said was reported.
Denis Halliday was the assistant secretary general of the United Nations who set up the so-called oil-for-food programme in Iraq, then resigned in protest against the devastating effects of the American and British-led embargo. Hans von Sponeck succeeded him as the senior UN official in Iraq, and he, too, resigned rather than “punish millions of innocent people”.
Thirty-four years with the UN and, like Halliday, respected in the many countries he has served, Von Sponeck spoke to 700 people at Kensington Town Hall, at times shaking his head in disbelief. “Half a million children are dead,” he said. “One out of five children go hungry, needlessly. The international community allows just $252 for every man, woman and child to survive for one year . . .”
In reply to the British government’s charge that critics of sanctions offer no alternative to
— source johnpilger.com | john pilger | 15 May 2000