January 28, 2002

Contact:

Sarah Ray

802-443-5794

sray@middlebury.edu

Posted: January 28, 2002

MIDDLEBURY,

VT -Denis

Halliday, the former United

Nations assistant secretary-general and humanitarian coordinator in

Iraq, will give a lecture titled “Finishing Unfinished Business?

Iraq, a Decade After Desert Storm” on Friday, Feb. 15, at 4:30

p.m. at Middlebury College. Halliday will address the consequences

of present policies toward Iraq, and suggest alternative strategies.

The lecture is free and open to the public, and will take place in

Dana Auditorium in Sunderland Language Center on College Street (Route

125).

A

career U.N. diplomat for 34 years, Halliday was appointed by Secretary-General

Kofi Annan to the post of humanitarian coordinator for Iraq in 1997. After

one year of overseeing the “oil for food” program, he resigned

in protest of the suffering he witnessed as a result of the sanctions.

He subsequently spoke out against what he calls a devastating policy at

congressional hearings, to national and international media, and at speaking

events around the world.

At

the time of his resignation in 1998, he discussed the sanctions policy,

telling Reuters news agency, “It probably strengthens the leadership

and further weakens the people of the country.” In an interview with

the BBC on Sept. 30, 1998, he cited a number of misfortunes the Iraqis

endured as a result of sanctions, including: breakdown of water supply

and sanitation, inadequate diet, poor healthcare, increase in number of

divorces, higher death rate among children, escalating crime, and isolation

from the international community. He also noted that the development of

more fundamentalist Islamic thinking similar to that of the Taliban movement

was a real possibility in Iraq.

Halliday

has many years of experience working on U.N. economic development and

humanitarian assistance programs. In 1987, he was appointed chef de cabinet

of the organization’s development program, and later served as the assistant

secretary-general for human resources management.

For

more information, contact Charlotte Tate at the Center for International

Affairs at Middlebury College at 802-443-5795.