- WASHINGTON (AP) - A group of U.S. Catholic bishops, including three on a hunger
strike, are urging President Bill Clinton to work to end the UN embargo
against Iraq, claiming it has killed more than a million Iraqis.
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- Fifty-four bishops sent a letter to Clinton
on Tuesday outlining their "profound moral concerns" about the
U.S.-led sanctions. "We are killing people and it has to stop,"
said Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit, on whose letterhead
the letter was written. Gumbleton said he and two other bishops began a
fast Tuesday to show their solidarity with the people of Iraq. They will
take only liquids or eat the meagre daily rations that Iraqis receive.
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- In the letter, the bishops - representing
about one-fifth of U.S. bishops - said that whatever the purpose of the
UN sanctions, they "are not only in violation of the teachings of
the Catholic Church, but they violate the human rights of the Iraqi people
because they deprive innocent people from food and medicine."
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- The National Conference of Catholic Bishops
refused at its meeting in November to take a position on actions against
Iraq. Its president, Bishop Anthony Pilla of Cleveland, said bishops respond
to the humanitarian issues involved but the majority "recognize on
the political side this is a highly complex issue." The United Nations
imposed the sanctions in 1990, after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. The Security
Council and Clinton administration say the sanctions will remain in place
as long as Iraq continues to defy an obligation to destroy all chemical,
biological and other weapons of mass destruction.
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- Baghdad says it has complied fully with
the UN demands and that Washington is using the threat of indefinite sanctions
to force the ouster of President Saddam Hussein.
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