Sir, – Sanctions imposed by the United States, the United Nations and the European Union have been causing the deaths of millions of people in the most impoverished countries of the world.
Various humanitarian agencies within the UN have been highlighting the hundreds of thousands of children who have died as a result of such sanctions for many years. Just one example were the sanctions on Iraq during the 1990s imposed by the UN Security Council and implemented by the US and its European allies. A very credible Unicef report in 1999 estimated that these sanctions caused the deaths of up to 1.5 million Iraqi people, including over 500,000 children.
At present, the US is imposing sanctions on up to 30 countries, or on individuals or organisations within these countries, while the EU (which includes Ireland) is likewise imposing sanctions on up to 32 countries and the UN (which also includes Ireland) imposes sanctions on at least 15 countries.
The peoples of some of the most impoverished countries in the world are victims of these sanctions, imposed by or enforced by all three of the US, UN and the EU, especially the impoverished peoples of Yemen, Libya, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, all of which have been left in ruins by wars of aggression by the US and its Nato and Middle Eastern allies.
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Children especially are dying in huge numbers due to these sanctions. Ireland is sitting silently on the UN Security Council that is helping to impose these murderous sanctions. By our silence we are complicit.
– Yours, etc,
EDWARD HORGAN,
Castletroy,
Limerick.