Music for change

Iraq Sanctions
Pacific Yearly Meeting

Minute to End the Economic Sanctions against Iraq

We, the North Pacific Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) are united in the spirit of peace and justice. Our Quaker Testimony of over 350 years stands: there is that of God in every person. We are therefore led to oppose the devastating economic and military sanctions against Iraq and the unrelenting bombing of that nation, which have been led by the government of the USA.

The sanctions have already caused the deaths of up to a million Iraqis, many of them children, and continue to cause extreme hardship. The two most recent UN Coordinators of Humanitarian Relief Operations in Iraq, Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck — those most knowledgeable about the humanitarian crisis — resigned to protest the inadequacy of the relief effort and to call for the lifting of economic sanctions. The words of Máiread Corrigan Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate, challenge us: “The next generation will ask us, ‘What were you doing when the children of Iraq were dying?’”

We urge our government and the United Nations to end bombing and economic sanctions and to take alternative courses of action. These could include reopening a U.S. dialogue with the Iraqi government, encouraging citizen diplomacy, and helping rebuild the civilian infrastructure.

We are convinced this situation merits civil disobedience. We endorse the Campaign of Conscience for the Iraqi People led by the American Friends Service Committee and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. This Campaign will send water purification equipment to the Iraqi people without without US government approval in a nonviolent, humanitarian effort to relieve suffering.

We look forward to a new day of peace and reconciliation between the people of Iraq and the USA.

Corvallis, Oregon, 7/20 - 23, 2000