Iraq and Libya took advantage of a Security Council review of UN sanctions to press for the measures to be lifted and to condemn what they called US manipulation in imposing them, according to a report by the Associated Press.
Cuba - which has been under a US embargo for nearly 40 years - echoed the demand and condemnation, the agency added.
The three countries spoke at the end of an open council debate Monday on making UN sanctions more targeted and less harmful to civilians.
Countries indirectly affected also spoke out, saying their economies were hurt when sweeping embargoes were imposed on their trading partners.
Bulgaria and Macedonia, both affected by UN sanctions against Yugoslavia and other trade embargoes, urged the council to take their needs into account when deciding whether to sanction rogue nations.
The debate came as the council announced the creation of a working group to recommend ways of making sanctions "smarter" while taking the humanitarian costs into consideration.
Those recommendations were highlighted by an independent comparative analysis of UN embargoes, "The Sanctions Decade: Assessing UN Strategies in the 1990s," which was launched Monday. It is expected to be discussed further today when the council takes up improving sanctions on Angola's UNITA rebels.
"Sanctions lead to tragedy, to pain and suffering at all levels of society," said Issa Ayad Babaa, Libya's deputy UN ambassador. "Let the Security Council instead seek peaceful means to resolve disputes among states."
He called for the council to lift the air embargo and other sanctions it suspended last year after Libya turned over two men for trial who were wanted in the 1988 Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland.
Babaa accused the United States of having "ramrodded" the embargo through the Security Council seven years ago without any proof that Libya was involved in the deaths of 270 people, 189 of them Americans.
His accusations were echoed by the deputy Cuban ambassador, Rafael Dausa Cespedes, who said the United States had unilaterally maintained an embargo against his country that has been condemned for seven straight years by the General Assembly.
And Iraqi Ambassador Saeed Hasan, who condemned the "illegitimate" influence the United States wields in maintaining 10-year-old sanctions on Baghdad, repeated the accusations.
Alluding to the US dominance in the Iraq sanctions committee, France's UN Ambassador, Jean-David Levitte, proposed that such committees take decisions by majority rule, not the consensus that is currently required and allows Washington to block action.
Deputy US Ambassador James Cunningham didn't dwell on such suggestions but said it may be possible in some cases to link suspension or a relaxation of sanctions to changed behavior of the targeted state.
But he stressed that "once sanctions have been imposed, it is essential to place the burden of proof regarding their suspension or termination where it properly belongs: on the demonstrated behavior of the sanctioned entity." - Albawaba.com
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
