Tell the UN: Remove the Sanctions Now!

Don't Hold the Iraqi People Down

Dear Colleague:

The UN sanctions were intended to contain a murderous dictator, not the
economic freedom of the Iraqi people. Now Saddam Hussein is gone, but
the sanctions remain.

The sanctions prevent them from selling their oil and other products to
the rest of the world. The sanctions prevent the Iraqi people from
buying what they need to rebuild their lives, their businesses, and
their country. And the sanctions prevent others from investing in Iraq,
one of the most highly educated and entrepreneurial countries in the
Arab world.

First, the UN did not want the Iraqi people to be free from tyranny. Now
the UN is stopping the Iraqi people from helping themselves. Join me by
cosponsoring a resolution calling on the UN to remove these sanctions.
To learn more or to cosponsor, please contact Soren Dayton at 5-6276.

Sincerely,

Nick Smith

Member of Congress

**[TEXT OF RESOLUTION:]{.underline}**

Expressing the sense of Congress that the United Nations should remove
the sanctions against Iraq completely and without condition.

Whereas United Nations Security Council Resolution 661 established
sanctions to be ended when the government of Saddam Hussein withdrew
Iraqi troops from Kuwait;

Whereas United Nations Security Council Resolution 687 extended the
sanctions, intended to deprive the government of Saddam Hussein from
acquiring the means to threaten other states or peoples, or to oppress
his own people, until that government unconditionally accepted the
destruction, removal, or rendering harmless of its chemical weapons,
biological weapons, and ballistic missiles with a range of more than 150
kilometers and;

Whereas United Nations Security Council Resolution 687 further required
the government of Saddam Hussein to end any research programs aimed at
developing such weapons, to destroy any material associated with such
programs, and to change its behavior toward its own people;

Whereas United Nations Security Council Resolution 687 further modified
the sanctions to allow for humanitarian relief under the oil-for-food
program;

Whereas the Coalition that liberated Iraq poses no risk to other states
or peoples, and there is no reason to believe that the people of Iraq,
liberated from the tyrant Saddam Hussein, pose such a risk;

Whereas the people of Iraq are now ready to rebuild their nation after
over 30 years of tyranny;

Whereas the sanctions established by United Nations Security Council
Resolutions 661 and 687 prohibit the importation of goods necessary for
the Iraqi people to rebuild their country;

Whereas these sanctions restrict the trade of Iraqi goods, by and on
behalf of the Iraqi people, necessary to allow expeditious rebuilding of
Iraq and recovery from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein;

Whereas continuing the sanctions imposed on the government of Saddam
Hussein punishes the people of Iraq for the actions of a brutal tyrant
who no longer rules them: Now, therefore, be it:

Resolved. That it is the sense of Congress that\-\--

1)  the United Nations should completely remove the sanctions imposed by
    Resolutions 661 and 687, and

2)  member states should allow and encourage their nationals to trade
    with Iraq.