Letter: Victims of sanctions

Sir: John Spellar, Under-Secretary for Defence (letter, 29 August) is playing with words when he states that Security Council Resolutions exempt from sanctions against Iraq "supplies intended strictly for medical purposes" and "essential for civilian needs".

The British representative in the Security Council has constantly abused the words "strictly" and "essential" beyond their intended meaning and objected to the purchases of pencils, water filters, tractors, pesticides, sutures, anaesthetics, spare parts for cars and buses, sanitation equipment, and most recently oil installations equipment. We have had enough of political jargon from British officials trying to justify the harm being inflicted on the Iraqi people.