Dozens arrested during protest of Iraq sanctions

February 14, 2000

NEW YORK (AP) -- Eighty-six people protesting U.N. sanctions against Iraq were arrested Monday in a demonstration on the front steps of the U.S. mission to the United Nations.

"Wake up, the children are dying," the protesters chanted as they held color pictures of emaciated Iraqi children and placards reading "Lift the sanctions."

The demonstrators were charged with disorderly conduct.

Iraq has been barred from selling oil, its most precious commodity, on the open market since U.N. sanctions were imposed after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The sanctions cannot be lifted until Iraq has rid itself of its weapons of mass destruction.

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