UN humanitarian official in Iraq resigns in protest to sanctions

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said yesterday that he had accepted the resignation of the UN humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, Hans von Sponeck.

A German diplomat who was critical of economic sanctions against Iraq, von Sponeck assumed his post after the 1998 resignation of Denis Halliday, who after seeing the effects of sanctions on Iraqis supported the lifting of the UN Security Council sanctions and spoke against the sanctions.

"The Council itself realizes that sanctions are a blunt instrument," Annan said, adding, "and that is the reason why they established the oil-for-food scheme to get assistance to the Iraqi people. I hope in time Iraq will cooperate with the Council, and implement its resolutions so that the sanctions will be lifted."

US State Department spokesman James Rubin expressed pleasure at his resignation saying "We are very pleased about his impending departure" because according to the US, von Sponeck has exceeded his mandate in purporting to comment on areas that are beyond the range of his authority with respect to the wisdom of sanctions.

Iraq has recently accused the US of wanting to control it, and it estimates the number of deaths under the sanctions at 1.2 million through December, 1999.