Protesters Decry U.S. Sanctions Against Iraq

A crowd of nearly 300 people gathered Thursday at UCLA to hear students and faculty speakers decry the continuation of U.S. sanctions against Iraq, which they said have caused the deaths of more than 1 million Iraqis from starvation and poor medical treatment.

Ahmed Shama, a leader of Students Against Genocide in Iraq, which organized the rally in the center of campus, said his group advocates an end to the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq at the end of the Gulf War in 1991 and the removal of U.S. military forces from the Middle East.

“Let’s think of what a sanction does to a little child,” said speaker Yasser Aman, 22. “The only emotion the sanction causes is hunger and pain.”

Carrying fake coffins and signs with slogans such as “No Bombs, No Sanctions, U.S. Out of the Middle East,” a group of about 80 students marched through campus after the rally chanting, “Clinton, Albright, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.”