LONDON�Leading British charity organizations and Christian leaders led a march to the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office August 7 to demand an end to humanitarian suffering in Iraq caused by the United Nations sanctions.

The match was attended by leading figures in the charity organizations and as well as church leaders. It has the backing of Dr. Rowan Williams, Anglican Archbishop of Wales, one of the four countries in the United Kingdom, and Rev. Thomas McMahon, Roman Catholic Bishop of Brent-wood, in southeast England. They condemned the government�s policy on Iraq, a policy of sanctions that has caused untold hardship and suffering to the Iraqi people�particularly to women and children.

Rev. McMahon in a statement, said: �The (UN) sanctions policy has devastated Iraqi society. For 10 years the ordinary members of society have paid an appalling heavy penalty for decisions and actions over which they had no control. The impact on the Iraqi health service and upon availability of basic necessities have cost the lives of many people, and particularly the lives of children.�

The London protest was called to bring public attention to the effects of sanctions on Iraq imposed by the UN after Iraq�s invasion of Kuwait in 1990. And it came two weeks after Save the Children, an international charity organization, released a report on the state of health of the Iraqi children. The report tells of a generation of children wracked by disease and other social ills.

But on August 7, the UK government defended its policy on Iraq by claiming that sanctions are achieving �desired� results. �It is too easy for critics of our policy to point to the suffering of the Iraqi people and blame the sanctions imposed by the United Nations,� declared Peter Hain, Deputy Foreign Secretary. �What we have achieved over the last 10 years is to prevent President Saddam Hussein from threatening his neighbors and dragging them into war.�

Mr. Hain noted that the UK worked very hard in the UN Security Council to approve Resolution 1284 in 1999�a resolution that provides for �unlimited� food and medical supplies through the sale of oil; he insisted that Resolution 1284 offers Iraq a way out of sanctions.

�If Saddam Hussein were to allow a new disarmament body into Iraq, he could quickly move toward suspension (of sanctions) if he cooperated with the weapons� inspectors,�  he said.

�James Ogunleye