It's Saddam's fault From Peter Hain, MP Sir: I have
corrected the nonsense that the
Foreign Office 'blocked' George Gal- loway's flight to Iraq so many times that I am amazed to see John Casey repeating it in The Spectator (`They kept me off the plane', 25 March). I had agreed with George Galloway that there would be 29 passengers on the flight, and on that basis submitted the application to the UN Sanc- tions Committee. I told him that the com- mittee's approval would be routine. It was.
The committee approved the flight on 8 March. To my surprise, Galloway had announced the cancellation of the flight a few hours earlier on the spurious pretext that some routine questions from the com- mittee to identify the aircraft and the pas- sengers were 'illegal'. John Casey com- plains that he was turfed off the flight by the reduction in numbers I agreed with Galloway. He is in good company. Gal- loway dropped all the doctors and humani- tarian experts, too, in favour of journalists and anti-sanctions campaigners.
Casey also repeats all the usual propagan- da about the impact of sanctions. The fact is that it is Saddam Hussein who is responsible for the suffering. There is a massive and entirely unconditional humanitarian pro- gramme. UN secretary-general Kofi Annan's recent report states that the 'pro- gramme has provided substantial assistance to address pressing humanitarian needs' and that 'the Security Council has respond- ed to concerns that weaknesses in the "oil- for-food" programme had not been addressed'. There is no limit on Iraqi oil sales; Iraq is one of the world's biggest oil exporters. No one starves in countries with- out Iraq's oil resources, such as Egypt, Syria and Ukraine. No one starves in northern Iraq where Saddam's writ does not run but the same sanctions apply. No one need starve in that part of Iraq that he controls.
Peter Hain Minister of State, Foreign Office, London SW1
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