Embargoes place heavy burden on world's poor

BY ARCHBISHOP CHARLES CHAPUT

Pope John Paul II's visit to Cuba gave Americans the opportunity to see beyond ideological agendas and economic embargoes. The Holy Father showed us the people who endure daily the burden of government decisions.

We haven't seen these faces often. For nearly 40 years, the United States has imposed a crippling economic squeeze against Cuba, and we've identified the country through the lasting image of its communist leader. Fidel Castro, with his bristling beard and military fatigues, has served as a convenient, made-for-media buffer between us and millions of suffering Cubans.

Even if the embargo were justified initially, it's time to stop hurting people—hurting children—for the injustices of their government. This is exactly what we're doing, both in Cuba and in Iraq.

In the closing remarks of his trip, Pope John Paul II said, "The Cuban people . . . cannot be denied the contacts with other peoples necessary for economic, social and cultural development, especially when the imposed isolation strikes the population indiscriminately, making it ever more difficult for the weakest to enjoy the bare essentials of decent living, things such as food, health and education."

I'm excited that Havana Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino intends to visit Denver this March for "The New Technologies and the Human Person," a conference on the opportunities and implications of the new communications technologies. It's my hope that the tools of the information age will enable countries like Cuba to emerge from economic and cultural isolation.

While sanctions and embargoes are perceived by many as humane alternatives to military action, too often we do not see—and we do not seek out —the human cost of these tactics. And the cost is appalling.

For an example of this, I want to draw your attention to another embargo. Since 1990, the United Nations Security Council has enforced severe economic sanctions against Iraq. Like Cuba, Iraq has an iconic leader in Saddam Hussein, a face many people equate with evil in its most basic sense. And as in Cuba, millions of people are suffering for the transgressions of their government.

I was among 54 U.S. Catholic bishops who signed a letter last month urging President Clinton to lift the sanctions against Iraq and to refrain from military action in the current weapons inspection dispute. This letter is likely to be unpopular with many Americans. But let me tell you why it is necessary:

In Iraq, the sanctions quietly have killed more than 1 million people over the past seven years, most of whom are children under the age of five. In 1996, UNICEF reported that 4,500 children were dying each month.

How could sanctions kill so many people? They do it less conspicuously than bombing campaigns, but no less effectively. Food shortages lead to starvation and malnutrition. Treatable diseases become killers because adequate medicine is unavailable. Damaged infrastructures go unrepaired for lack of parts, encouraging the spread of diseases.

We are waging an invisible war against civilian population of Iraq.

In 1993, the same year people from throughout the world celebrated Christ's peace at World Youth Day in Denver, the U.S. Catholic Bishops issued "The Harvest is Sown in Peace." The document offered four criteria by which the morality of economic sanctions should be evaluated:

Concerns about the limited effectiveness of sanctions and the harms caused to civilian populations require that comprehensive sanctions be considered only in response to aggression or grave and ongoing injustice after less coercive measures have been tried and with clear and reasonable conditions set for their removal.

The harm caused by sanctions should be proportionate to the good likely to be achieved; sanctions should avoid grave and irreversible harm to the civilian population. Therefore, sanctions should be targeted as much as possible against those directly responsible for the injustice, distinguishing between the government and the people . . . Embargoes, when employed, must make provisions for the fundamental human needs of the civilian population. The denial of basic needs may not be used as a weapon.

The consent to sanctions by substantial portions of the affected population is morally relevant.

Sanctions should always be part of a broader process of diplomacy aimed at finding an effective solution to the injustice.

These criteria are not being met in Cuba or Iraq. Please join with me in praying for the repeal of these embargoes, and for new hope and dignity among the millions of people they harm.