Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq

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Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq
PayingthePrice.jpg
Screenshot of title card
Written by John Pilger
Directed byAlan Lowery
StarringJohn Pilger
Dennis Halliday
Robert Gates
Hans von Sponeck
Peter van Walsum
Karol Sikora
James Rubin
Scott Ritter
Said Aburish
Doug Rokke
Music byNick Russell-Pavier
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
Production
ProducersJohn Pilger
Alan Lowery
CinematographyPreston Clothier
EditorJoe Frost
Running time74 minutes
Production company Carlton Television
Original release
Release2000 (2000)

Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq is a 2000 Carlton Television documentary written and presented by John Pilger which was directed by Alan Lowery. In this documentary Pilger argues that UN sanctions had a devastating effect on the children of Iraq during the 1990s. [1] [2]

Contents

Synopsis

John Pilger and Alan Lowery traveled to Iraq with Denis Halliday, a former assistant secretary-general of the United Nations who resigned over what he called the "immoral policy" of economic sanctions. There they expected to find a suffering nation held hostage to the compliance of a dictator, Saddam Hussein. What they found was a country being slowly strangled by a draconian U.S./U.K. blockade.

Interviewees

Awards and festival screenings

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saddam Hussein</span> President of Iraq from 1979 to 2003

Saddam Hussein was an Iraqi politician, revolutionary and dictator who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 to 2003. He also served as prime minister of Iraq from 1979 to 1991 and later from 1994 to 2003. He was a leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and later its Iraqi regional branch. Ideologically, he espoused Ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism, while the policies and political ideas he championed are collectively known as Saddamism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iraq and weapons of mass destruction</span>

Iraq actively researched and later employed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) from 1962 to 1991, when it destroyed its chemical weapons stockpile and halted its biological and nuclear weapon programs as required by the United Nations Security Council. The fifth president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, was internationally condemned for his use of chemical weapons against Iranian and Kurdish civilians during the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s. Saddam pursued an extensive biological weapons program and a nuclear weapons program, though no nuclear bomb was built. After the Gulf War, the United Nations located and destroyed large quantities of Iraqi chemical weapons and related equipment and materials; Iraq ceased its chemical, biological and nuclear programs.

United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) was an inspection regime created by the United Nations to ensure Iraq's compliance with policies concerning Iraqi production and use of weapons of mass destruction after the Gulf War. Between 1991 and 1997 its director was Rolf Ekéus; from 1997 to 1999 its director was Richard Butler.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International reactions to the prelude to the Iraq War</span> Pre-war responses

This article describes the positions of world governments before the actual initiation of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and not their current positions as they may have changed since then.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oil-for-Food Programme</span> Programme headed by the United Nations

The Oil-for-Food Programme (OIP) was established by the United Nations in 1995 to allow Iraq to sell oil on the world market in exchange for food, medicine, and other humanitarian needs for ordinary Iraqi citizens without allowing Iraq to boost its military capabilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human rights in Ba'athist Iraq</span> Human rights issues from 1979 to 2003

Iraq under the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party saw severe violations of human rights. Secret police, state terrorism, torture, mass murder, genocide, ethnic cleansing, rape, deportations, extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, assassinations, chemical warfare, and the destruction of the Mesopotamian marshes were some of the methods Saddam Hussein and the country's Ba'athist government used to maintain control. Saddam committed crimes of aggression during the Iran–Iraq War and the Gulf War, which violated the Charter of the United Nations. The total number of deaths and disappearances related to repression during this period is unknown, but is estimated to be at least 250,000 to 290,000 according to Human Rights Watch, with the great majority of those occurring as a result of the Anfal genocide in 1988 and the suppression of the uprisings in Iraq in 1991. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International issued regular reports of widespread imprisonment and torture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iraqi no-fly zones conflict</span> No-fly zones in Iraq proclaimed by the USA, UK and France between 1991–2003

The Iraqi no-fly zones conflict was a low-level conflict in the two no-fly zones (NFZs) in Iraq that were proclaimed by the United States, United Kingdom, and France after the Gulf War of 1991. The United States stated that the NFZs were intended to protect the ethnic Kurdish minority in northern Iraq and Shiite Muslims in the south. Iraqi aircraft were forbidden from flying inside the zones. The policy was enforced by the United States and the United Kingdom until 2003, when it was rendered obsolete by the 2003 invasion of Iraq. French aircraft patrols also participated until France withdrew in 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti</span> Iraqi Mukhabarat leader (1951–2007)

Barzan Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, also known as Barazan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Barasan Ibrahem Alhassen and Barzan Hassan, was one of three half-brothers of Saddam Hussein, and a leader of the Mukhabarat, the Iraqi intelligence service. Despite falling out of favour with Saddam at one time, he was believed to have been a close presidential adviser at the time of his capture by U.S. forces in 2003. On 15 January 2007, Barzan was hanged for crimes against humanity. He was decapitated by the hangman's rope after errors were made calculating his body weight and length of drop from the platform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iraq Survey Group</span>

The Iraq Survey Group (ISG) was a fact-finding mission sent by the multinational force in Iraq to find the weapons of mass destruction alleged to be possessed by Iraq that had been the main ostensible reason for the invasion in 2003. Its final report, Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the Director of Central Intelligence on Iraq WMD, was submitted to Congress and the president in 2004. It consisted of a 1,400-member international team organized by the Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency to hunt for the alleged stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, including chemical and biological agents, and any supporting research programs and infrastructure that could be used to develop WMD. The report acknowledged that only small stockpiles of chemical WMDs were found, the numbers being inadequate to pose a militarily significant threat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capture of Saddam Hussein</span> 2003 U.S. military operation in the Iraq War

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Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash is an Iraqi scientist and academic. Ammash was often referred to as "Mrs. Anthrax" due to her alleged association with an Iraqi biological weapons program.

The following lists events in the year 2003 in Iraq.

On 6 August 1990, four days after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) placed a comprehensive embargo on Iraq. The sanctions stayed largely in force until 22 May 2003, and persisted in part, including reparations to Kuwait. The original stated purposes of the sanctions were to compel Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, to pay reparations, and to disclose and eliminate any weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rationale for the Iraq War</span> U.S. claims and arguments for invading Iraq

There are various rationales for the Iraq War that have been used to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq and subsequent hostilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denis Halliday</span>

Denis J. Halliday is an Irish diplomat. He was the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq from 1 September 1997 until 1998, and earlier the Deputy Resident Representative to Singapore of the United Nations Development Programme.

The Oil-for-Food Program Hearings were held by the U.S Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations beginning in 2004 to investigate abuses of the United Nations (UN) Oil-for-Food Programme in which the economically sanctioned country of Iraq was intended to be able to sell limited amounts of oil in exchange for vital food and medicine for its population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ba'athist Iraq</span> Period of Iraqi history from 1968 to 2003

Ba'athist Iraq, officially the Iraqi Republic (1968–1992) and later the Republic of Iraq (1992–2003), was the Iraqi state between 1968 and 2003 under the rule of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. This period began with high economic growth, but ended with the country facing severe levels of socio-political isolation and economic stagnation. By the late 1990s, the average annual income had decreased drastically due to a combination of external and internal factors. UNSC sanctions against Iraq, in particular, were widely criticized for negatively impacting the country's quality of life, prompting the establishment of the Oil-for-Food Programme. The Ba'athist period formally came to an end with the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and the Ba'ath Party has since been indefinitely banned across the country.

The AWB oil-for-wheat scandal refers to the payment of kickbacks to the regime of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in contravention of the United Nations Oil-for-Food Humanitarian Programme. AWB Limited is a major grain marketing organisation based in Australia. For much of the 20th and early 21st century, it was an Australian Government entity operating a single desk regime over Australian wheat, meaning it had the sole ability to export Australian wheat, which it paid a single, fixed price for. In the mid-2000s, it was found to have been, through middlemen, paying kickbacks to the regime of Saddam Hussein, in exchange for lucrative wheat contracts. This was in direct contradiction of United Nations Sanctions, and of Australian law.

<i>The War You Dont See</i> 2010 film by John Pilger

The War You Don't See is a 2010 British documentary film written, produced and directed by John Pilger with Alan Lowery, which challenges the media for the role they played in the Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel/Palestine conflicts. The film, which went on nationwide general release on 13 December 2010, had its premiere at the Barbican and was aired through Britain's ITV1 on 14 December 2010 and later through Australia's SBS One on 10 April 2011.

<i>Utopia</i> (2013 film) 2013 Australian TV series or program

Utopia is a 2013 documentary film written, produced and presented by John Pilger and directed by Pilger and Alan Lowery, that explores the experiences of Aboriginal Australians in modern Australia. The title is derived from the Aboriginal homeland community of Utopia, Northern Territory, one of the poorest and most desolate areas in Australia.

References

  1. "Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq". Bullfrog Films. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
  2. "John Pilger Filmography 1970-2008". johnpilger.com. Archived from the original on 3 June 2009. Retrieved 11 June 2010.