Former UN official for lifting sanctions from Iraq

Former UN Assistant for Secretary General Denis Halliday, who is also a former head of the humanitarian program in Iraq on Monday in Canberra said that the West is carrying out the complete destruction of Iraqi society by keeping sanctions imposed on this country.

In a statement at the beginning of a tour he will carry out in various parts of Australia, which will last for one week in order to convince the UN to lift the UN sanctions imposed on Iraq, Halliday said that some 5,000 Iraqi children die every month as a result of these sanctions.

Halliday, who will meet with the Australian foreign minister during his current visit, added that UNICEF has estimated that between 4,000 and 7,000 Iraqi children under five year old die every month, and most of these deaths are because of the sanctions imposed on Iraq.

Halliday resigned his post in October 1999 in protest against the impact of the economic sanctions on the Iraqi citizens.