I. Address of U.S. Mission, & letter receipt

Please mail letters to:
Ambassador Richard Holbrooke
Permanent Mission of the United States to the United Nations
799 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY, USA 10017-3505

If you are able to write a letter, please help us track how many letters we generate by sending a blank e-mail with the words “Sent Letter” in the subject line to: wishstar@mailandnews.com

If you are working on a letter writing campaign, please try and track how many letters you send, and then send us a blank e-mail with the words “Sent Letter” in the subject line, followed by the number of letters (e.g. Sent Letter 25, if you send 25 letters)

II. Purpose

The hope of this action alert is to put pressure on the United States by generating as many letters as possible, from individuals in as many different countries as possible, demanding that the U.S. end Sanctions. While the British government’s support for Sanctions has been helpful to the United States, it seems clear that Sanctions will end as soon as, and not before, the U.S. changes its vote on the Security Council.

On March 24th, Secretary General Kofi Annan addressed the Security Council, saying, in part, “The United Nations has always been on the side of the vulnerable and the weak, and has always sought to relieve suffering, yet here we are accused of causing suffering to an entire population. We are in danger of losing the argument, or the propaganda war - if we haven't already lost it - about who is responsible for this situation - President Saddam Hussein or the United Nations.”

Mr. Annan is wrong when he implies that this is a “propaganda war.” This war is all too real. We need to make it clear to Ambassador Holbrooke that we are paying attention to this war, and that we strongly oppose it. The United States government will relent and allow Sanctions to be lifted only when the pressure to lift Sanctions outweighs any possible interests they have in maintaining them. It’s *our* job to provide that pressure.

III. List of Organizations Endorsing this Action Alert:

American Muslims for Global Peace & Justice, USA
http://www.global-peace.org

Campaign to End the Sanctions Against the People of Iraq, Canada
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/CommunitySupport/NSCEIS/

Disarmament and Security Centre, New Zealand
contact: Kate Dewes

EPIC – the Education for Peace in Iraq Center, USA
http://www.saveageneration.org

Green Earth Organization, Ghana
contact: George Ahadzie

International Action Center, USA
http://www.iacenter.org

Iraq Action Coalition, USA
http://www.iraqaction.org

New Zealand Foundation For Peace Studies, Auckland NZ
http://www.peace.net.nz

Peace Action, USA
http://www.peace-action.org

Voices in the Wilderness, USA

http://nonviolence.org/vitw

IV. Sample Letter
(you can print this out, add your signature & mail it, or write your own letter – whichever you prefer)

Ambassador Richard Holbrooke
Permanent Mission of the United States to the United Nations
799 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY, USA 10017-3505

Dear Ambassador Holbrooke,

I am writing to you out of deep concern over the on- going humanitarian crisis in Iraq - now approaching its 10th year without resolution. According to the United Nations own agency reports, hundreds of thousands of children have died as a direct result of critical shortages in nutritious food, safe drinking water, and medicines. This is intolerable. It is not a status quo any of us should be willing to accept for any reason. In its April 8th issue, The Economist writes:

"Slowly, inexorably, a generation is being crushed in Iraq. Thousands are dying, thousands more are leading stunted lives, and storing up biter hatreds for the future...If, year in, year out, the UN were systematically killing Iraqi children by air strikes, western governments would declare it intolerable, no matter how noble the intention. They should find their existing policy just as unacceptable. In democracies, the end does not justify the means."

To date, at least three senior UN administrators have resigned in protest over this crisis, and in opposition to the U.S.-led, UN sanctions: Denis Halliday, Hans von Sponek, and Jutta Burghardt. The response to these resignations by U.S. State Department spokesperson James Rubin, "good," was not helpful. Mr. Rubin’s further implication that these officials are "pro-Saddam" was also troublesome; as is your Mission’s persistent refusal to consider the growing opposition to your position among your partners on the Security Council and among the international community in general. The continuing excess deaths of some 5,000 Iraqi children every month due to your intransigence is not simply a humanitarian crisis - it is a strategic crisis to the interests of peace in the region and around the world, and, overwhelmingly, this is a moral crisis. Given the immensity of this catastrophe, the power of your veto over the Security Council, and the incredible financial and military resources of the United States in general, this intransigence is truly frightening.

The United States has accused Saddam Hussein of "cynically manipulating" the humanitarian catastrophe for his own political ends. With all due respect, U.S. manipulations seem no less cynical. Addressing the Security Council on Feb. 7th, Benon Sevan, Executive Director of the Iraq Programme, expressed his "serious concern at the persistent high level of holds placed on applications for humanitarian supplies and especially on oil sector equipment." The United States is holding up 98% of these contracts, totaling more than $1.7 billion dollars. This is inexcusable. I welcome your recent initiative to increase the amount of Iraqi oil revenues that Iraq is allowed to spend for repairs to its own oil industry. I welcome your recent initiative to release a few of the hundreds of contracts your Mission is holding up in the Sanctions Committee. However, I’m afraid that I question whether these changes are more cosmetic than substantive: an attempt to hold off the growing isolation of the United States on this issue, and the mounting political opposition to your siege of Iraq.

Sir, this blockade is being enforced by your veto on the Security Council, and by an active U.S. military presence in the Gulf. Hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps well over one million people, are dead as a result of this blockade. As former Assistant Secretary General Denis Halliday has said, "We are destroying an entire society. It is as simple and as terrifying as that." Whatever concerns the United States has about Saddam Hussein cannot in any way justify the collective punishment of an entire people. Furthermore, Security Council Resolution 687, adopted in early 1991, calls for the establishment of a WMD-free zone throughout the Middle East. It is not clear how the United States hopes to achieve this by destroying Iraqi civil society through sanctions, engaging in extra-legal bombings in its self-declared "no-fly- zones," while at the same time pursuing record arms sales to Turkey, Israel, and Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, as well as other Gulf states.

Ambassador Holbrooke, stop this madness. End the sanctions. End this war. All anyone is asking for is that the children of Iraq be allowed to live. That is not too much to ask, nor is it so much to give.

Sincerely,