Approximately 3.3 million Iraqis, including 750,000 children, were killed as a result of economic sanctions and/or illegal wars conducted by the U.S. and Great Britain between 1990 and 2012, according to Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois, Champaign. Boyle has filed a class-action complaint with the UN against President George H.W. Bush, claiming that the sanctions and wars fit the classic definition of Genocide Convention Article II, “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
The U.S. and U.K. refused to lift the sanctions until after the “illegal” Gulf War II aggression perpetrated by President George W. Bush and UK’s Tony Blair in March, 2003, “not with a view to easing the over decade-long suffering of the Iraqi people and children” but “to better facilitate the U.S./U.K. unsupervised looting and plundering of the Iraqi economy and oil fields in violation of the international laws of war as well as to the grave detriment of the Iraqi people,” Boyle said.
At an address last Nov. 22 to The International Conference on War-affected Children in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Boyle tallied the death toll on Iraq by U.S.-U.K. actions as follows: 200,000 Iraqis killed by President Bush in his illegal 1991 Gulf War I; 1.4 million Iraqis killed as a result of the illegal 2003 war of aggression ordered by President Bush Jr. and Prime Minister Blair; and 1.7 million Iraqis “as a direct result” of the genocidal sanctions.
According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization’s Report, the sanctions had killed 560,000 Iraqi children during the previous five years. U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright was interviewed on CBS-TV on May 12, 1996, in response to a question by Leslie Stahl if the price of half a million dead children was worth it, and replied, “we (the U.S. government) think the price is worth it.” This response, according to Boyle, provides “proof positive of the genocidal intent by the U.S. government against Iraq” under the Genocide Convention.
Boyle’s class-action complaint demands an end to all economic sanctions against Iraq; criminal proceedings for genocide against President George H.W. Bush; monetary compensation to the children of Iraq and their families for deaths, physical and mental injury; and for shipping massive humanitarian relief supplies to that country.
According to Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois, Champaign, approximately 3.3 million Iraqis, including 750,000 children, were killed between 1990 and 2012 as a result of economic sanctions and/or illegal wars conducted by the U.S. and Great Britain. Boyle has filed a class-action complaint with the UN against President George H.W. Bush, claiming that the sanctions and wars fit the classic definition of Genocide Convention Article II.
At an address last Nov. 22 to The International Conference on War-affected Children in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Boyle tallied the death toll on Iraq by U.S.-U.K. actions as follows: 200,000 Iraqis killed by President Bush in his illegal 1991 Gulf War I; 1.4 million Iraqis killed as a result of the illegal 2003 war of aggression ordered by President Bush Jr. and Prime Minister Blair; and 1.7 million Iraqis “as a direct result” of the genocidal sanctions. According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization’s Report, the sanctions had killed 560,000 Iraqi children during the previous five years.
U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright was interviewed on CBS-TV on May 12, 1996, in response to a question by Leslie Stahl if the price of half a million dead children was worth it, and replied, “we (the U.S. government) think the price is worth it.” Boyle claims that this response provides “proof positive of the genocidal intent by the U.S. government against Iraq” under the Genocide Convention. Boyle’s class-action complaint demands an end to all economic sanctions against Iraq; criminal proceedings for genocide against President George H.W. Bush; and monetary compensation to the children of Iraq and their families for deaths, physical and mental injury.
