DENIS HALLIDAY, former head of the Oil-For-Food program in Iraq, on why he resigned:
"The sanctions were failing in the purposes they were set up for back in 1990-91. They weren't leading to disarmament and, second, the cost of sanctions was unacceptable, killing 6,000 - 7,000 children a month. Sustaining a level of malnutrition of about 30% for children under five leads to physical and mental problems. It's incompatible with the UN Charter, with the Convention on Human Rights, and probably with many other international agreements. I just i found that impossible to accept as the head of the UN in Iraq; if you've got a i leadership which you can't communicate or have a dialogue with and that doesn't seem to want to conform to the standards that the UN is trying to establish, i does that empower the Security Council to kill a refugee, or to sustain malnutrition? I don't think so. Killing 6,000 kids a month is like a declaration of war. I don't think the Security Council is empowered to do that just because they don't like Saddam; just because he is a son of a bitch does not mean that we have to be the same." [Middle East International, Nov 13, 1998]

"We are in the process of destroying an entire society. It is as simple and terrifying as that. It is illegal and immoral." [the Independent, Oct 15, 1998]

UN FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION on the effects of sanctions
"For Baghdad, a highly advanced urban society, the prevalence of underweight children (29%) has increased to a level comparable with children from Ghana (27%) and Mali (31%). For stunting, prevalence rates are similar to estimates from Sri Lanka (28%) and the Congo (27%). Furthermore, the prevalence of wasting in Baghdad is comparable with estimates from Madagascar (12%) and Myanmar [Burma] (11%). The prevalence of severe wasting is comparable to data from northern Sudan (2.3%). In contrast, 1991 estimates of malnutrition from Baghdad were comparable with estimates from Kuwait (12% for stunting, 6% for underweight, and 3% for wasting)."
"The nutritional status of children in southern and northern Iraq is likely to be even worse than reported in Baghdad." [Technical Cooperation Programme: Evaluation of Food and Nutrition Situation in Iraq, 1995]

MICHAEL STONE, former head of the United Nations Multidisciplinary Observer Unit in Iraq, on allegations that Oil-For-Food funds are being used to purchase "new palaces and weapons."
"I have recently returned from Baghdad, where for one-and-a-half years, it was my job to report the progress of the humanitarian Oil-For-Food programme. Ministers and senior members of the Opposition frequently state that the Iraqi leadership have diverted supplies under this programme. This is a serious error. Some 150 international observers, travelling throughout Iraq, reported to the United Nations Multidisciplinary Observer Unit, of which I was the head. At no time was any diversion recorded. I made this clear in our reports to the UN Secretary General, and he reported in writing to the Security Council accordingly. In the case of private donations outside the Oil-For-Food programme, those which arrived by air were observed by us, and no diversion was recorded. Humanitarian supplies arriving by road were not within our remit, although my contact with the Iraq Red Crescent, which has a coordination role, would suggest no diversion." [letter to the Independent, Dec 28, 1998]

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, former US ambassador to the United Nations, in an interview with Leslie Stahl on 60 Minutes
Stahl: "We have heard that a half a million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. Is the price worth it?"
Albright: "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price - we think the price is worth it."