Sticking to its guns

Iraqis demonstrate outside UN buildings in Baghdad

Within 12 hours of the start of the New Year, British planes were in action against Iraqi radar positions in the Northern no-fly zone.

Such actions, in the north and south of the country, are carried out by the RAF and the US Airforce whenever the pilots believe they have come under threat from the ground - and that happens with depressing regularity.

Usually it's hard for outsiders to judge what the effect on the ground has been, but once - in January 1999 - Iraq hastened to tell the world what had happened: the NATO bombs missed their targets and slammed into a residential area of the southern city of Basra. Kareen Hassan Abbas lost three daughters in the raid.

Despite such mishaps, Britain and America have insisted on rigorous policing of the exclusion zones - the first of which was established by the United Nations in 1992 in the aftermath of the Gulf War.

The aim is to protect the Kurds, Shi-ite Moslems, Marsh Arabs and others threatened by Saddam Hussein's regime.

But the patrols - and the frequent air-raids - have aroused considerable controversy here and elsewhere.

Sanctions stay

Saddam Hussein: Appearing 31 December, 2000, in Baghdad

The Government, predictable, takes issue with its critics, such as Liberal Democrats foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell.

It argues that sanctions, including a ban on everything except humanitarian supplies, must be kept in place: in particular, they insist that no further concessions can be made until the Iraqi leader allows UN weapons inspectors back into the country.

But unfortunately, not everyone IS uniting on this policy. Critics argue that sanctions are simply not working: Saddam Hussein's regime shows little sign of debilitating weakness.

They believe that the real victims of sanctions are ordinary Iraqis, struggling to survive without the basic necessities of life. Andrea Needham, speaks for a group called 'Voices in the Wilderness'.

Iraqis mourn deaths they blame on UN sanctions

The policing of Iraq by British and American air forces reached its climax in December 1998, with punitive raids against Iraq in retaliation for the expulsion of UN arms inspectors.

But the four days of bombing, codenamed Desert Fox, brought no obvious rewards.

French disapproval

If criticism were confined to analysts and humanitarian groups, then Britain might be less concerned.

But many foreign Governments are equally unhappy. France was an important member of the Gulf War alliance, but has refused to take part in the policing of the no-fly zones.

The Government in Paris made no effort to conceal its distaste for Operation Desert Fox. What's more, a large French trade delegation visited Baghdad last year - a move reportedly condemned by Peter Hain as 'contemptible.'

So is Britain right to stick - literally - to its guns?

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