BAGHDAD Iraqi mothers and children have related the hardships of life under UN sanctions in more than one million messages to be delivered to France. The Information Ministry on Tuesday handed over the messages, in several white sacks, to the French humanitarian organization Equilibre, which has repeatedly called for the sanctions to be lifted. Alain Michel, president of Equilibre, told reporters that these letters will give French public opinion an insight into the scope of Iraqi suffering because of the sanctions being kept in place.

They will be translated into several languages and passed on to international organizations such as the World Court, while Equilibre will try to collect a million letters in France itself against the sanctions. The sanctions have been in force since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz was in Paris on Tuesday for talks with the French leadership and UN chief Kofi Annan, who has called for Baghdad to be given a light at the end of the tunnel over an end to sanctions.

(AFP)