20^th January: Iraq and the UN commence discussions regarding the implementing of SCR 986.

29^th January: The Iraqi Permanent Mission at the UN office in Geneva issues a note verbale to the 52^nd Session of the Commission on Human Rights. It notes that sanctions continue to ‘….affect all fields and aspects of daily life…’ with ‘….a direct impact on all…’ the human rights of the Iraqi people.

John English of the British Red Cross comments: ‘The level of malnutrition is on a par with famine ravaged countries like Sudan.’ UN officials now estimated that four million people faced starvation.

25^th March 1996: The WHO reports: ‘Health conditions are deteriorating at an alarming rate under the sanctions regime…..the vast majority of Iraqis continue to survive on a semi-starvation diet. The damaging effects of poor nutrition are being compounded by epidemics….and by a precipitous decline in healthy care. The most visible impact of these problems is seen in the dramatic rise of mortality rates among infants and children.’

(This mortality rate was now six times higher than the pre-war level. Observers noted that the sanctions represented as much, if not more, of a violation of the rights of Iraqi people as the repression practised by Saddam Hussein. Iraqi people had, of course, to contend with both. The report concluded:

‘The quality of health care in Iraq, due to the six week war in 1991 and the subsequent sanctions imposed on the country, has been literally put back at least fifty years. Diseases once almost under control have rebounded since 1991 to epidemic levels, with the health service as a helpless witness.’)

April: Medical Aid For Iraq undertake another visit to the country. Their subsequent report noted all the horrors of their previous visits had in fact worsened once again. The impact on people was becoming profound. Some hospitals hadn’t had any bed sheets for years. Mothers often tore them up to wrap their babies in as they could not afford baby clothes. One family tried to buy oxygen for their child’s respiratory problems at five different hospitals. Unable to find any the child died. A 61 year old man, who had lost his wife and four children in the bombing of the El Ameriyah shelter, described to the team how people now live in a daze, not thinking about anything ‘….except where to get food.’

MAI noted particularly that the prospect of the upcoming implementation of the 986 / Oil For Food programme had prompted some aid agencies to pull out of Iraq. No supplies had even arrived in the country under the programme, and people in some areas were now even worse off.

British and US negotiators insist on 20 new conditions before SCR 986 can be agreed upon. Other member states’ representatives respond angrily. Maggie O’Kane’s article in ‘The Guardian’ quotes a member of the Sanctions Committee: ‘The only people who are told what is going on are the Americans and the British. We have asked them for a copy of the draft agreement and a copy of the 20 conditions they have set, but we have not been given anything.’

12^th May: A milestone in US mainstream media reporting of the crisis takes place when CBS television broadcasts Leslie Stahl’s investigation for the ’60 Minutes’ news programme. Stahl had visited Iraq and confirmed that at least 500,000 children had been killed by sanctions. Her report showed the misery in the hospitals and the appalling state of the sewage and water systems. Stahl challenges US Ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright on the programme, citing that sanctions are not affecting Saddam Hussein. Albright states that ‘…Saddam Hussein’s priorities are wrong…’ and shows Stahl a photograph of an alleged Presidential yacht. Stahl asks whether Saddam had bought it during the time frame of sanctions. Albright declares: ‘He has used it….it takes upkeep.’ Stahl does not press her on this question. Albright goes on to accuse Saddam of inflicting suffering on his people by misappropriating aid funds, and by not complying with UN resolutions.

(The next question and answer sent shock waves around the world, no more so than in Iraq.)

Stahl: "The question is, are they [sanctions] missing the mark? ….We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, this is more children than died in Hiroshima. Is the price worth it?’

Albright: "This is a very hard choice, but the price….we think the price is worth it."

(Albright did not challenge Stahl’s figure of half a million child deaths due to sanctions, and agreed on the same programme that sanctions were not affecting Saddam Hussein.)

20^th May: In regard to SCR 986 a Memorandum of Understanding is signed by Iraq and the UN to implement the resolution. The same day a briefing by the UN Legal Counsel emphasises that it would be wrong ‘…to indicate any time-frame before oil would begin to flow…’

21^st May: British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind tells ‘The Guardian’: ‘It would be hard to imagine sanctions being lifted whilst Saddam Hussein is still in power.’

Anticipation of a re-introduced oil source causes world prices to drop by $1 a barrel.

June: A technical reconnaissance mission, comprising senior UN members, petroleum experts and customs officers, is dispatched to Iraq.

July: Early in the month the US scrutinises the Iraqi distribution plans and declares them unacceptable, putting the plan back by weeks, possibly even months. US spokesman at the UN James Rubin accuses Iraq of trying: ‘…to turn this humanitarian exception into a partial lifting of sanctions.’

(Children under twelve were dying at a rate of between 4500 and 6000 a month at the time of his statement.)

7^th July: the British government, in anticipation of available funds from SCR 986, persuades twelve lenders, including the Midland, Barclays and National Westminster banks to issue 25 writs claiming more than £400 million from Iraq. A spokesman from the Export Credit Guarantee Department, the very same office that underwrote arms sales to Iraq with tax payers money, states: ‘We are putting down a marker that legal action has started to recover the money and the banks have issued the writs on our behalf.’

18^th July: The UN Secretary General accepts the purchase and distribution plan for SCR 986 submitted by the Iraqi government.

At the end of the month 2000 Iranian troops invade Northern Iraq and converge on the town of Koisinjak. A pro-Western Iraqi politician is quoted in ‘The Guardian’ saying: ‘Idiotic result of US policies toward Saddam…’ allow the Iranian Mullahs ‘…to do as they please.’ No Security Council resolution is introduced to curtail Iran’s invasion.

9^th August: Four independent overseers with expertise in the international oil trade are appointed to assist UN headquarters.

20^th August: Gualtiero Fulcheri is appointed to head the 986 programme under the title Humanitarian Aid Co-ordinator for Iraq.

1^st September: The UN Secretary General decides to delay implementing SCR 986 due to security concerns in the North of the country.

His decision is prompted by reports of skirmishes between Iraqi and Kurdish forces of the PUK and KDP. In a rare exception, no SCR is tabled to condemn Iraq. Instead……..

3^rd September: The US launches 27 cruise missiles, costing $1.2 million each, against targets South of Baghdad to accomplish what Clinton calls ‘…limited but clear…’ objectives: "To make Saddam pay a price for the latest act of brutality, reducing his ability to threaten his neighbours and America’s interests."

Acting unilaterally the US extends the ‘No-Fly’ zone in Southern Iraq and declares that the UN’s 986 plan will not be allowed to proceed.

4^th September: The US launches a further 17 cruise missiles against Iraq.

A commentary on state run Tehran radio in Iran reflects the condemnation of all the world for the US actions, and outlines the underlying agenda: ‘By continuing its’ attacks against Iraq, America is pursuing objectives far beyond stopping the Iraqi military operations in the city of Erbil. Clinton not only takes personal advantage of developments in Iraq, he also paves the way for the advancement of the long-term strategy for maintaining a permanent presence in the Persian Gulf region.’

Even Syria, Iraq’s traditional foe, declares that the US has violated the laws against ‘…interference in the internal affairs of other countries…’

Russian Foreign Minister Yevgenny Primakov denounces them as ‘…very dangerous…’ and that they could lead to ‘…anarchy…’ on the world scene. In the Security Council, Ambassador Sergei Lavrov makes clear Russia will veto any attempt by the US to table a resolution condemning Iraq, and urges the Secretary General to continue with progress on SCR 986: "We believe that the response to these events was disproportionate and we don’t think that it is acceptable."

(For the very first time the international coalition that formed to undertake SCR 678 was breached when France declared it would not take part in aerial patrols over the extended ‘No Fly’ zones. Even some British officials expressed disquiet.)

A 22 country Arab league issues a statement noting that US actions have no UN or international legitimacy.

(The events kept Iraqi oil of the markets, and prices and share values climbed. Irene Himona, an oil analyst with Societe Generale Strauss Turnbull was quoted in an article in ‘The Independent’ on September 3^rd: ‘It’s all very helpful for oil prices, and with the winter coming and low stocks, the price strength will remain.’)

29^th September: Iraqi Ambassador to the UN Nizar Hamdoon addresses the Security Council, and quotes the UN Secretary General’s observation made in 1995: ‘Sanctions, as is generally recognised, are a blunt instrument. They raise the ethical question of whether suffering inflicted on vulnerable groups in the target country is a legitimate means of exerting pressure on political leaders whose behaviour is unlikely to be affected by the plight of their subjects.’

He goes on to specifically address the 986 program’s delay as being caused by ‘….constant interference…..procrastination and deliberate and unwarranted delay motivated by political intentions and plans to inflict more harm on the life of Iraqi people.’

Importantly he notes the many accusations that the US has made that the suffering of the Iraqi people is the fault of Saddam are false: ‘By so grudgingly acquiescing in it [implementing 986] the US in effect concedes what others have long proclaimed: prolonged sanctions do not punish President Saddam, only his people…..The US has floundered about without any discernible plan for the future of Iraq. As long as that is so, sanctions will come under the increasing assault of moral imperatives.’

Citing fears for their security, the US withdraws aid workers from Northern Iraq. 2130 are evacuated by the end of the month.

20^th October: The London based UN Information Centre reports: ‘The majority of the population are living below the poverty line and malnutrition is rampant with over 50% of women and children receiving half their calorific needs.’

22^nd October: A technical team from Dutch company Saybolt arrives in Iraq to test the metering equipment at Zakho and Mina al-Bakr.

24^th October: After the UN declares it will soon be ready to implement SCR 986, French President Jacques Chirac, speaking to the Jordanian Parliament, urges the UN to hurry. ‘France is alarmed at the humanitarian situation in Iraq, and calls solemnly on the international community to apply at long last resolution 986.’

17^th November: An official of the WFP notes that the condition of some Iraqi children is now comparable to that of children in Somalia. (The WFP’s food stores had reportedly run out in October.)

25^th November: The UN Secretary General releases his interim report on the implementation of 986. (The resolution requires him to review the process of oil sales/purchasing every 90 days.)

27^th November: The Security Council Committee established by SCR 661 concerning the Iraq/Kuwait situation approves a pricing mechanism for the sale of Iraqi oil.

On the same day the UN General Assembly meets and adopts Resolution 51/22 to encourage ‘The elimination of coercive economic measures as a means of political and economic compulsion.’

The resolution reaffirms the rights of states to choose their own political and economic system, calls for the immediate repeal of unilateral laws that enable sanctions to be imposed on companies and nationals of other states, and calls upon all states ‘…not to recognise unilateral extraterritorial coercive measures or legislative acts imposed by any state.’

(This resolution failed to influence US policy on Iraq in any way whatsoever, despite the US’ repeated insistence that all it’s authority is condoned and supported by the UN.)

9^th December: The Department of Humanitarian Affairs sends an assessment mission to Iraq to investigate the UN Inter-Agency programme and its’ logistical arrangements.

10^th December: For the first time since the invasion of Kuwait, Iraqi oil for export begins to flow, but doubts about the efficiency of how supplies will be distributed are growing.

(By the end of the month an additional 4500 aid personnel had been withdrawn. Bronwen Lewis of the Save The Children Fund commented: ‘I don’t know how, without reliable NGO partners, the aid will be distributed. We’ve been trying to get an answer from the UN on just how they expect to implement the oil-for-food deal without large numbers of NGO’s on the ground.’)

15^th December: Loading of oil starts at Mina al-Bakr.

27^th December: France announces that it has completely withdrawn its’ planes from aerial patrols of any ‘No-Fly’ zones over Iraq.

Tensions between Iraq and UNSCOM are beginning to increase as Iraq accuses certain team members of working directly for British and US intelligence services.

By the end of the year, according to Iraqi / UNICEF figures, the cumulative death toll of children under 12 has reached 782,638.