Letter: Military action against Iraq strengthens Saddam

Sir: On 5 April 1991, the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding that Iraq 'take steps to ensure that the human and political rights of all Iraqi citizens be respected'. The oppressed Iraqis, who are suffering under the barbaric regime of Saddam, have been impatiently waiting for the implementation of this resolution. Yet the US has continued to impose measures that have neither provided protection for Iraqi citizens, nor led to the destruction of Saddam.

Such measures as the US has imposed have caused widespread resentment and confusion among Iraqis and raised questions about the legitimacy of military action against Iraq. In fact, the US engagement in dangerous brinkmanship games with Saddam has given him a lease of life that he would not otherwise have enjoyed and, also, undermined the efforts of the Iraqi people for national and religious unity, prosperity, stability and democracy. The US power-politics approach can only prolong the misery of the war's innocent victims.

The only way to prevent Saddam's continuing atrocities against the Iraqi people is to give the UN the means to enforce Resolution 688. The international community must make all parts of Iraq a safe haven for all Iraqis, irrespective of their creed or religion, no matter which part of the country they live in. Bombing strikes, no-fly zones and action that leads to the starving of innocent people do Saddam no harm, and give him more support from his military and Arab countries.

The real solution is to give moral and material support to the Iraqi democratic forces, so that they can bring about democracy and human rights in their own country.

Yours faithfully,

MOHAMED AL-RUBEAI

Woodford Green, Essex

14 January