6^th February: Even a shipment of ping-pong balls from Vietnam is blocked on the grounds ‘….we do not believe that this is an essential civilian need.’

29^th February: Ramsey Clark’s independent commission of inquiry into the conduct of the war holds its’ final meeting and passes judgement. After thirty hearings in 16 countries, 19 charges of war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity are levelled at George Bush and key members of his administration, and at General Norman Swhwarzkopf and key members of his military staff. The tribunal jury, made up of 22 international lawyers and former politicians, finds them guilty on all 19 counts.

The findings are front page news in the Middle East and Asia. Not a single word is reported by mainstream Western press or television broadcasters.

March: The Sanctions Committee blocks a request from a Dutch supplier to ship computers to Iraq which the supplying company insist can only be used in medical applications relating to blood analysis. A Turkish request to supply an Iraqi pharmaceutical firm with rubber tube and PVC sheeting is blocked on the grounds that it would enhance Iraqi industry.

12^th March: Tariq Aziz makes a lengthy statement to the UN Security Council, answering US non-compliance charges point by point. He is thanked publicly for his ‘…goodwill…’.

(The US continued to fuel anxieties about nuclear capability, and the rumour of a secret underground nuclear facility continued to circulate. They cited that UN measures were only delaying capability and not destroying it, despite the fact that UN and IAEA inspectors were identifying and destroying key components. At the end of April, one thousand Iraqi workers, under UN supervision, reluctantly took part in the destruction of the Al-Atheer nuclear weapons establishment.

Iraq deliberately impeded other inspections, claiming that the UN team was being infiltrated by US intelligence agents. In one incident, access was denied to the Baghdad Ministry of Agriculture where it was suspected weapons documents were concealed. New US strikes were threatened when Iraq insisted that a new UN team be appointed to carry out the inspection. Ekeus promptly did so, and access was granted. He commented later: "What has been destroyed is through the peaceful means of inspection. It is that way to destroy weapons, and not through bombing and attacks.")

April 3^rd: A consignment of tennis balls, children’s and adult’s clothes, pencils, sharpeners, erasers and school notebooks from Pakistan is blocked by the US, Britain, France and Japan.

April: The UN commission charged with setting the demarcation of the Iraq/Kuwait border rules in Kuwait’s favour.

(The commission was chaired by Indonesia, whose invasion of East Timor and subsequent UN resolutions tabled against it have been flagrantly ignored by the US and Britain. Kuwait received much of the land covering the disputed Rumaila oil fields, and the islands of Warba and Bubiyan, the initial sparks for the crisis in the first place. Independent observers commented that the decision was lighting a slow burning fuse for future conflicts.

Iraq was now engaged in a massive internal effort to re-construct the country. US intelligence reports state that this effort is being shored up in part by illegal imports from Jordan, but that the condition of the civilian population was continuing to worsen. A Bush administration spokesman confirms that sanctions are not eroding Saddam’s position: "He is clearly stronger than he was a year ago….his chances of staying in power are pretty good.….it doesn’t look as if he’s going to fall any time soon.")

26^th April: A consignment of water purification chemicals is blocked by the US.

May: The true cost of the environmental devastation wrought during Desert Storm becomes apparent when Ross B. Mirkarimi of The Arms Control Research Centre publishes his report: ‘The Environmental and Human Health Impacts of the Gulf Region with Special Reference to Iraq.’ He concludes that the combined biological, chemical, and hydro carbon emissions, and radioactive substances released from both attacks on nuclear power stations and the allied use of Depleted Uranium ammunition may result in ‘…unborn children of the region being asked to pay the highest price, the integrity of their DNA.’

Mirkarimi’s investigation also found that two thirds of all people, in the seven out of nine governorates surveyed, had lost their access to tap water.

Sewage was accumulating in the streets and contaminating rivers and adjacent water pipes. Most of Iraq’s entire population had been directly exposed to waterborne diseases in their potable water supply.

Medical Aid For Iraq again travel through the country delivering medicine and making assessments. They conclude the situation is still worsening.

June: On the 1^st of the month, an application by a Spanish consortium to help rebuild a medical syringe factory bombed during the war is blocked by the US and Britain. The US also blocks a request from Denmark to supply heaters to children’s hospitals on the grounds that they might be useful elsewhere. Even the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation is blocked by the British representative on the committee with their request to export insecticide on the grounds that the chemicals may be used for other purposes.

Abdual Jabbar Abdul Abbas, a senior Iraqi health official reports that in the first four months of 1992 41,000 people, including a further 14,000 children have died as a direct result of sanctions, and that deaths were now occurring in hospitals that no longer had access to basic provisions. His claims are independently confirmed, among others, by Dr. Eric Hoskins, a Harvard University health specialist. His report ‘Children, war and Sanctions’ also cites the 46,900 excess deaths among children under five during the first eight months of 1991. This constituted a three-fold increase in child mortality compared to pre-war average level. The report concludes: ‘[Severe epidemics are made worse] by the reduced accessibility of health services and decreased ability to treat severely ill children. [The pattern of mortality now resembles] that observed in the less developed countries. The results of our study contradict this claim [that use of precision weapons had produced limited damage to the civilian population] and confirm that the casualties of war extend far beyond those caused directly by warfare.’

July: The Iraqi UN Ambassador Abd al-Amir al-Anbari submits a report to the UN Secretary General of a study prepared by the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the workings of the sanctions Committee. ‘The situation which the Iraqi people is suffering is extremely tragic…..all the medical contributions of humanitarian organisations and bodies meet only a small proportion of the actual needs of drugs and medical services.’

The report concludes: ‘It appears that the work of the Sanctions Committee and the way it performs the tasks entrusted to it under the provision of SCR 661 are orientated towards the obstruction or rejection of any request by Iraq that enters into the area of essential civilian needs of a humanitarian nature, which has led to the increasing danger faced by vulnerable categories.’

The report also criticises the ‘…political motives…’ of those states controlling the committee, how the voting system hinders the making of rapid decisions, how the exclusion of Iraq from the Committee obstructs informed requests for humanitarian supplies, how the blocking of Iraqi funds prevents the purchase of goods, and how humanitarian requests are denied on the grounds that they constitute a contribution to industrial structure.

The report concludes that for what little help humanitarian assistance provides, the Committee must address: ‘….a cohesive chain of humanitarian services, plus materials and equipment which extends from the sectors of electricity, agriculture, water, sanitation, medicines and health and medical requirements, food, clothes and other educational and living requirements.’

August 2^nd: A consignment of children’s bicycles is blocked by the US and Britain.

August: New Iraqi stalling tactics in regard to access to the Ministry of Agriculture brings more threats of US attacks. They respond by modifying their prohibition and allowing certain inspectors in.

There are now UN officials prepared to assert that Iraq’s nuclear threat ‘…remains at zero…’

September: Early in the month UN inspector Maurizio Zifferero, Deputy Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, declares that Iraq is now in compliance with the UN requirement that it end all nuclear weapon programmes. He stresses that given his confidence in UN inspection teams and not taking Iraq’s word at face value: ‘There is no longer any nuclear activity in Iraq. They have no facilities where they can carry out this activity.’

David Kay brands the judgement as ‘…naïve and imprudent…’

Britain makes a statement denouncing the imprisonment of two Britons, Michael Wainwright and Paul Ride who had illegally entered Iraq.

(Again this had nothing to do with any UN resolution. Both men, as well as other foreign prisoners, were later released long before their sentences had expired.

Simons makes the point that Iraq was caught in a Catch-22. Any compliance with UN demands was being rubbished and other factors unrelated to resolutions were being discussed. And even if Iraq seemed to be complying, this was taken as evidence of Saddam’s devious machinations. Simons quotes a Western diplomat who said in March 1994: "The Iraqi government complies with UN resolutions not because they have seen the error of their ways, but because they are in such desperate straits.")

16^th October: A 50 strong UN team arrives in Iraq to determine whether any ballistic missiles are still concealed. The maintenance of sanctions policy begins to move away from the nuclear emphasis to aspects of Iraq’s missile capabilities.

22^nd October: Iraq and the UN sign a humanitarian accord that paves the way for $200 million’s worth of supplies, but half of this is to be diverted solely to the Northern Kurdish region.

November: The Security Council again blocks any easing of sanctions, citing that Iraq has failed to recognise the border demarcation, to provide information on long range missiles, and to permit verification of industrial plants that may have potential military applications. Iraq’s Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz states: ‘No matter what Iraq does in fulfilment of obligations imposed upon it, the unjust sentence passed by the Council to starve the people of Iraq will remain in place because this is the will of certain influential governments.’

16^th November: In an extraordinary display of double standards, the US signs SCR 787 regarding the developing crisis in Yugoslavia. Paragraph 7 states:

‘….Condemns all violations of international law, including the deliberate impeding of the delivery of food and medical supplies to the population.’

(Simons also points out that sanctions on Iraq constitute a breach of the US’ own legal code, specifically Title 18, 2331 on the definition of terrorism: ‘…Acts dangerous to human life…that appear intended to coerce a civilian population or to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion.’ Author Noam Chomsky summed up the US attitude on law in his 1991 book ‘Deterring Democracy’: ‘The US has always regarded international laws as an annoying encumbrance, unless they can be used to advantage against an enemy.’)

December: The US frees $50 million of frozen Iraqi assets to assist in funding UN operations in Iraq.

By the end of the year the incidences of kwashiorkor and marasmus had increased 27 and 20 fold respectively from 1990 levels

Beth Osborne Daponte, a US Census Bureau staff member estimates that average Iraqi life expectancy at birth has been reduced from the pre-war figure of 68 years to a post war figure of 47 years. She also estimates that thirty times as many civilians have died since the war than during. In response to the political embarrassment of her findings, the Census Bureau tries to remove her from her post. She is saved by the intervention of the American Civil Liberties Union who threaten legal action. Daponte comments: "I find it extremely disturbing that the US Census Bureau tried to suppress and delay the release of information."

By the end of the year, according to Iraqi / UNICEF figures, the cumulative death toll for children under 12 had reached 241,869.