Students rally against sanctions on Iraq

More than 20 Penn students gathered on College Green yesterday for two emergency protest rallies intended to respond to President Clinton's recent threat to begin air strikes against Iraq. The rallies, one at noon and the other at 5 p.m., lasted about an hour each. Sociology graduate student Linda Mamoun, who organized the events and served as the main speaker, questioned America's actions toward Iraq before a crowd carrying protest signs and chanting "U.S. hands off Iraq." "I can't sit in silence anymore," said Mamoun, president of the University's Lebanese Club, which was among the rally's sponsors. "I just want people to know the basic facts [about the situation in Iraq]." The United Nations and Iraq have hit an impasse over weapons inspections in late december when Iraq refused U.N. inspectors access to presidential palaces and other sites. Iraq says inspections at those sites would violate its sovereignty. In order for the U.N. to lift tough economic sanctions imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, inspectors must certify that Iraq has eliminated all weapons of mass destruction. Iraq says it has complied, but inspectors say it is still hiding information and material for biological and chemical weapons. Calling the United Nations sanctions against Iraq "a weapon of destruction," Mamoun stressed that the sanctions should be lifted, citing a 1995 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization study which reported that more than 1.5 million Iraqis have died since the sanctions were implemented in 1990. 1997 College graduate Nijimie Dzurinko, who organized events at the University dealing with Iraqi and Middle East issues for the past two years, stated that "the vast majority of those casualties occurred due to the sanctions." According to United Nations Childrens' Fund statistics, more than 4,500 Iraqi children under the age of five are dying every month from starvation and preventable diseases, she added. "The situation in Iraq is of great urgency," Mamoun said. "The people there are suffering. It's just incomprehensible that these people can withstand more bombing and further destruction." Protesters pointed out that the sanctions often harm American interests in the region and handed out flyers to people passing by the rally. "U.N. sanctions prevent? basic medicine from getting into the country," Mamoun noted. "Almost all Iraqi society now is weak." After Mamoun finished speaking, she asked listeners to "resist blind patriotism." She also took questions from onlookers and then let other protesters have their turn to speak. The rallies were co-sponsored by the Lebanese Club and the Penn Arab Student Society, in addition to city and nation-wide groups -- such as the International Action Center, which also works to end U.S./U.N. sanctions on Iraq.