Paris - The former co-ordinator of the UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq said yesterday UN sanctions amounted to genocide and ending them would do more to weaken the Iraqi leadership than maintaining them.
Mr Denis Halliday, an Irishman and pacifist who resigned in protest at UN policies in Iraq last September after more than 30 years at the agency, praised a French plan to ease international sanctions on Baghdad. But, in an appearance before the French National Assembly's Franco-Iraq Study Group, he said UN members must do even more to assist Baghdad and urged them to help finance Iraq's reconstruction, which he said would cost $50-$60 billion.